Do you like casual games? Do you like hearing about one woman's solo game development after 20+ years of making games at other companies? If so, you're in the right place.
I’ve spent 20+ years helping others make their dream games. Now I’m making mine.
I'm Caryn Vainio and I've been a game developer for over twenty years, primarily as a UI/UX designer but also as a game director and an interaction designer on augmented reality products. And before all of that, I was an astrophysicist.
In 2025 I decided it was time for me to take the games I was making in my own free time and work on them all the time. And that is Shadow Dog Games.
The first game is a tiny project that started as my "endorphin machine" project (the kind of thing where you get easy wins when you spend an hour working on it), and it'll be up on the Steam store very soon: Wordy Rain. For now, you can download the prototype on Itch.io.
Please check it out if you like casual word puzzle games! It's available for both Windows and MacOS.
Download the Wordy Rain prototype on Itch.io today! Subscribe to get updates on when the game is available on Steam!
There's more coming soon, so please sign up for my newsletter to hear about both new releases and my journey as a solo game developer.