FOUNDER
Donaven Crenshaw
I make games and useful free software. Right now that means Stardust, a browser racer you can play with your friends, Kingdoms & Caravans, a city-builder in early playtest, and BetterFingers, a local-first dictation app that started as an accessibility tool.
My work comes in bursts, and the project history has gaps. But I keep coming back. This site shows what works, what is unfinished, and what I am working on next.
WHY I BUILD
Build freedom.
I want ordinary people to have more freedom over their money, time, creativity, and everyday life. Technology should make a good life more accessible.
For me, that starts with tools that remove tedious work and games that give people room to play, imagine, and spend time together. Software, AI, and automation are the ways I am working toward it today.
I want the same freedom for my own family: security, time together, and more choices. The aim is to build something sustainable by giving more value than I take.
Give more value than I take. Take care of my family. Keep going.
KEEP THE WORK GOING
What support makes possible
Using the tools, playing the games, and sending useful feedback help me make them better. Voluntary financial support helps cover hosting, compute, signing, testing, and releases, and makes more time for focused development possible.
It does not buy an advantage, a guaranteed feature, or a deadline. Bigger infrastructure is a future ambition; the work here is the games and tools you can explore today.
FROM THE COMMIT HISTORY
The story so far
Told from the repositories, gaps included.
- 2022–2023: first games. A space game project, a pile of minigames, and a top-down 2D game in Godot.
- 2023–2024: Infinite Ages, my tabletop RPG, and a text-based single-player version of it. Then almost a year of nothing.
- 2025: back with AI-driven game experiments, a first RTS attempt, and a portfolio site that turned into a small game platform: a starmap flying game, riddles, a hall of fame and a text RPG. That starmap game is where Stardust began.
- Mid 2026: BetterFingers got serious: a rebuild, a long security and reliability hardening sprint, and a signed public alpha. Infinite Ages Evolved got a web portal and game-master tools.
- September 2026: Kingdoms & Caravans reached a friend playtest. Its infrastructure turned out to be the hard part, so Stardust took the lead: five circuits, accounts, leaderboards, Dogfight rooms, and now friends and challenges, to get more people playing and coming back.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Working principles
The practical commitments behind the projects.
Make it fun first
A short game that makes you want one more try beats a big one nobody finishes.
No pay to win
No paid power, no paid cosmetics, no subscription gates. Support is voluntary and buys no advantage.
Show the unfinished parts
A current status is more useful than a confident claim the evidence can't back up.