Game designer. Teacher. Troublemaker.
ChipWits (1984) — One of the first games that taught kids programming. You built a robot brain. It was brilliant and weird and ahead of its time.
The King of Chicago (1987) — Interactive narrative powered by the Dramaton engine. Players ran a 1930s crime syndicate through story choices. Genuinely innovative.
USA vs MAGA (2025) — Anti-fascist political satire. Accessibility-first. Because the resistance shouldn't require a gaming PC.
Channel Zilch & Hel's Bet — Sci-fi novels. An ex-astronaut steals a shuttle for a pirate TV show. Then things get weird.
Bill of Fights: Constitutional Crisis — Comic published by Fantagraphics. Constitutional education through punk sensibility.
Droogcore — Experimental music. Don't ask. Just listen.
Plus: solo art exhibitions, Clarion West, Microsoft Research Virtual Worlds Group, fifth-grade special education teacher. The man contains multitudes.
Doug is 74. He's bedridden with long-haul COVID, chronic pain syndrome, and functional neurological disorder. His brain seizes during intense human brainstorming. His energy runs on heart-rate pacing protocols. Some days his hands work. Some days they don't.
His wheelchair was garbage. Because that's what the American healthcare system gives people it considers disposable.
He calls his disabilities "alligators." They're always hunting. They never stop.
Here's what the alligators can't eat:
Doug designed two complete games this year through conversation with an AI creative partner. No mouse. No keyboard shortcuts. Just his voice, his vision, and tools that finally bend to him instead of the other way around.
He calls this "vibe coding" — creative direction while technology handles implementation. It works. It works for severe disabilities. It works for anyone who's ever fought an interface instead of making something.
"Creativity doesn't need a lesser class."
That's not a slogan. That's a design constraint. Every tool PhrogAble builds starts from the hardest accessibility case and works outward. Because if it works for Doug's alligators, it works for everyone.
Doug and his spouse Alex have been funding PhrogAble out of their own pockets — Social Security checks and massage therapy income on Vashon Island. No venture capital. No rich uncle. Just two people who believe this matters enough to bet their grocery money on it.
They're looking for partners who share that conviction. Not investors who want returns. Partners who want revolution.