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Andrew Valentine
Andrew Valentine

Virginia BeachCurrently building

AndrewValentine

I build systems for living, tools for thinking, and worlds for play.

The world is full of badly designed systems. I make better ones.

Building Homeostasis, finishing The Grammar of Grappling, and prototyping Longbarrow.

Explore my workWhat I'm doing now
Andrew Valentine with both arms raised behind his head, lit from above against a dark ground.

Project worlds

Four doors.

Each of these is a different part of the same problem. Pick one.

The thesis

What connects the work

I'm interested in the hidden systems underneath things: the rules that govern a day, a body, a business, a decision, or a battlefield. My work is an attempt to make those systems clearer, more beautiful, and more responsive to human intention.

Signal

Where things stand

Updated by hand, not by a feed.

Homeostasis

A personal operating system that turns ambitions into executable days.

In development

Longbarrow

A browser-native strategy world built around intent, terrain, and deterministic combat.

In development

The Grammar of Grappling

The Mechanical Principles Behind Every Technique

Manuscript in final revision

Latest writing · 2026-07-24

Why Longbarrow has no dice

Randomness in combat does not create tension, it teaches players that volume beats precision. Removing it moves the drama onto the decision.

The full pictureAll writing

Proof

Check the work, not the claims

Everything here is labelled by what it actually is today. Where something is not finished, it says so.

  • Playable builds

    When Longbarrow is worth your time, it will be a link, not a trailer.

    Not yet

  • Live demos

    Homeostasis opens up when it survives ordinary use.

    Not yet

  • Changelogs

    Dated, specific, and public — including the weeks nothing shipped.

    Not yet

  • Honest status

    Every project on this site is labelled by what it actually is today.

The rest of it

Off the screen

A bar at capacity, a training room, open water, and whatever is half-built on the desk.

Andrew Valentine behind the bar during service.
A full room is the most honest systems test I know.
Andrew Valentine at the bottom of a loaded back squat in a commercial gym.
The arithmetic is written down before I get under the bar. That is the whole method.
Andrew Valentine working on software, screen light on his face.
Most nights end with something half-built and a list of why.
Andrew Valentine crouched on a beach with a dog, low winter light.
The long-term plan involves considerably more of this and a lot fewer landlords.

Collaboration

Work with me

I work with people who are building something unusually ambitious, useful, or beautiful.

Product & systems strategy

Turning a large, vague ambition into a dependency chain someone can actually execute: what must exist first, what unlocks what, and what to cut.

Creative collaboration

Game design, world-building, visual direction, and the kind of systems design where the mechanics carry the meaning.

Brand partnerships

Long-form work with people making tools, equipment or software I would use anyway.

Media & interviews

Podcasts, interviews and written features on systems design, deterministic game design, grappling mechanics, or building in public.

See what I take on

Join the Valentine Dispatch

The Valentine Dispatch

Follow the whole project.

Development notes, new releases, essays, experiments and the occasional strange idea. One list, sent when there is something worth sending.

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Last updated 2026-08-02