Gartek Studios
A Father and Son collaborative multimedia endeavour.
Video Games
For a number of years now Ken and Stephen have been working together to create unique video games that help us to expand our knowledge and push our abilities.
Working at first in Scratch, Ken developed an understanding of sprites, objects and arrays. Once mastery of Scratch seemed complete, Stephen encouraged Ken to move on to more widely recognized engines, and two games in Construct 2 were collaborated on and completed over the cold winter months north of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
Ken focused on gaining an understanding of Python, and has released several experimental games entirely on his own, as well as a completed platformer.
With the advent of COVID-19, Ken was been able to dive right in to a combination puzzle/exploration game which was released in February of 2022 – while still pursuing paid side contracts organized by Stephen through his existing IT company (Garstin HE).
Ken hopes to expand his knowledge by continuing to learn Java, as well as an in-depth exploration of C.
Please enjoy your stay here and follow our development history! Click on either the text or graphics in the descriptions below to be taken to the game page (usually playable within browser, with a few exceptions).
The current musical selection is courtesy No Anglerfish – Ken’s most current released project. Please enjoy! If it doesn’t automatically play, please click the play button below. The current soundtrack is about fourteen minutes long!
Working at first in Scratch, Ken developed an understanding of sprites, objects and arrays. Once mastery of Scratch seemed complete, Stephen encouraged Ken to move on to more widely recognized engines, and two games in Construct 2 were collaborated on and completed over the cold winter months north of Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.
Ken focused on gaining an understanding of Python, and has released several experimental games entirely on his own, as well as a completed platformer.
With the advent of COVID-19, Ken was been able to dive right in to a combination puzzle/exploration game which was released in February of 2022 – while still pursuing paid side contracts organized by Stephen through his existing IT company (Garstin HE).
Ken hopes to expand his knowledge by continuing to learn Java, as well as an in-depth exploration of C.
Please enjoy your stay here and follow our development history! Click on either the text or graphics in the descriptions below to be taken to the game page (usually playable within browser, with a few exceptions).
The current musical selection is courtesy No Anglerfish – Ken’s most current released project. Please enjoy! If it doesn’t automatically play, please click the play button below. The current soundtrack is about fourteen minutes long!
Project Biclops
Ken (age 16) - 2023/4?? (Python)
Ken's next project - once again nearly solo, but currently slated to include at least one or two fan-supplied easter eggs! Rest assured, he's working full time on this and hopes to have it released as soon as he's satisfied it's ready for public consumption.
No Anglerfish
Ken (age 15) - 2022 (Python)
Another Ken solo project, this puzzle explorer is stretching his abilities even further – with an intricate story, loads of puzzles and dialogue, as well as an inventory system and save game ability, this game is currently Ken’s most ambitious undertaking yet!
There are several videos of people playing and discovering many of the secrets of No Angerfish available on Youtube - here is an auto generated channel containing most of them - as of this writing, there are STILL secrets that have not been discovered and posted!
Factory 512
Ken (age 13) - 2020 (Python)
As Stephen became more involved with his own projects, Ken taught himself Python in order to gain full control over his game development journey. He now enjoys coding his own physics and modules for use and reuse. In Factory 512, as a newly sentient robot, you must activate at least two of the seven generators before you can escape the subterranean factory. This game and all its assets were entirely realized by Ken alone. As it is in Python, we have bundled it as a self-extracting zip file that must be run on a Windows platform. We’re happy to provide the .py file and assets for anyone interested in viewing the code or running it on an alternate operating system.
Factory 512 is now being monitored on speedrun.com! Check it out, download it for yourself and see if you can beat the current best time!
Quantrapod
Ken (age 12) (Scratch)
Striking out on his own completely, Ken wanted to pay homage to old style Galaxian and Galaga top down games with this fun little blaster. Protect the earth from the alien horde and achieve fame and glory!
Soot
Ken (age 11) and Stephen 2018 (Construct 2)
Returning to the platforming genre, Ken was inspired by “The Unfinished Swan” and the concept of learning about your environment only while completely immersed in it. His musical composition here is a definite earworm and the hidden warp zones are especially favourite features. Similarly developed to Dark Skies, all assets are created by Ken, with Stephen assisting with the trickier aspects of the code base.
Soot is now being monitored on speedrun.com!
Check it out, download it for yourself and see if you can beat the current best time!
Dark Skies
Ken (age 10) and Stephen - 2017 (Construct 2)
A mystery puzzle/exploration game that represented our first large project. Music and artwork assets were entirely created by Ken, while Stephen assisted with much of the initial coding. Also our first attempt to create a mobile friendly game that is available in the Google Play Store!
We were lucky enough to get this game professionally reviewed on YouTube! Check out that video too!
Platformer
Ken (age 9) - 2017 (Scratch)
A devilish platformer where you simply have to run towards the right and to an out-of-sight end – all while avoiding the lava floors.
Elements
Ken (age 9) - 2016 (Scratch)
In this simple clicker game you try to combine different elements to create new ones. These can also be combined with one another to further create more and more complex items. You can flip back to a view of the globe to see how your evolving list of “elements” affect things on a planetary scale.
Other Related Links:
garstin.ca – Stephen’s on-site IT business.
ken.garstin.ca – Ken’s personal blog.
minecraft64 – Ken’s minecraft youtube channel (on hiatus).
norsar – Ken’s completed fantasy novel, self-published and available for online order in paperback.