Living Scroll Studios
About Living Scroll Studios
We're the Archambault family—or at least the creative side of us that keeps making things.
I'm Ben Archambault. By day, I work in medical-device data, cybersecurity, and software. On the side, I write independent books and build software and games for fun, and to keep learning skills that often find their way back into my professional work.
Much of the business and security software I build can't be shared publicly, but I love making tools that make other people's lives easier. Living Scroll Studios is where the stuff I can share lives.
My wife, Laura Archambault, is the other side of the studio. She reads, writes, designs, provides feedback, and has even done voice acting for older projects. She's not a coder, but she's highly creative and has a hand in shaping much of what makes it out the door.
Then there are our kids—the testing department. They play things, break things, find things I never expected anyone to try, and give remarkably good feedback about what's actually fun versus what only sounded fun when Dad designed it.
I tend to juggle several projects at once. Bouncing between writing, games, and software keeps the creative juices moving. When something gets close, I settle down and give it the dedicated time needed to finish it.
Published Books
Memoirs from Special Education — A novel about disability, friendship, and the divisions we create between people.
Lulu
The Darkest Wand — A full-length fantasy novel and, indirectly, one reason I eventually started building my own writing software.
Amazon
Father Pimp — A darker novel about a priest whose troubled past may be exactly what he needs to protect others.
Lulu
Books in Progress
I Am Fury — Early Drafting
A superhero story about a man with a biomechanical arm and a group of heroes. Based on old stories my brother and I would make when we were kids.
Persistent Dawn — Second Draft
Far-future science fiction. The world is at its end, but the last holdouts refuse to leave due to a religious conviction that they will be saved.
Ash and Anvil — Fourth Rewrite
Midway through the first draft of rewrite number four. This is an episodic fantasy close to my heart and I want it to be exactly right. It's not yet.
The Icy Hill — First Draft Complete
A rural-hospital story about a biomed, disaster, rescue, medical technology, failure, and its consequences. Currently letting it settle before draft two.
Software and Games in Development
Crazy Comic Constructor — Essentially feature-complete; currently squashing bugs and testing. I also keep finding more features to add. The feature creep is real.
IronPup: Trailbound — A fitness pet game where your virtual dog's progress is tied to your real-world exercise.
Chess Quest — The largest game I've ever worked on. The game is mostly functional, but not yet terribly fun—which is a somewhat important feature of a game. Planned for GPLv3. Want to try it? Let me know. Its 1+ GB of graphics and sound need some repackaging first.
One More Level — A quick-paced browser game using emojis to create platforming and environmental puzzles. Early development, but hopefully not a long development cycle. Cross fingers.
CouchParty — A virtual couch co-op console for small, shareable 2D "cartridges," eventually including a no-scripting game maker. Very early development and currently unplayable.
Why We Make This Stuff
Living Scroll Studios isn't our day job. That's part of what makes it fun.
We can build something because it solves a problem, write because there's a story worth exploring, or spend an unreasonable amount of time on an idea simply because we want to know if it'll work.
If something here catches your interest, try it. Break it. Tell us what worked and what didn't. We're usually interested in hearing how to make it better.
