Mad Purple Hat Games | Indie Games, Development & Community

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MAD PURPLE HAT GAMES

Games. Weirdness. Community.

Independent games built with a little chaos, a lot of imagination, and absolutely no interest in making things boring.

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GAME + COMMUNITY PASS

$9.99

Get access to the Mad Purple Hat Games community pass and support independent game development.

$9.99 for the first month
Then $9.99 every 30 days.

Includes the three games listed below, subject to successful payment and the access terms. Recurring billing continues until cancelled.

🎮 THE GAMES

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Deadballs

$8.99

Enter the Deadballs universe and see where the madness begins. Simple. Strange. Deadly.

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DeadWeird

$8.99

Zombies. Killer clowns. UFOs. Cows. Disco. Explosions. Welcome to DeadWeird.

☠️

Apocalypse Deadzone

$8.99

Enter the deadzone. Fight through the apocalypse. Survival isn't supposed to be pretty.

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MAD PURPLE HAT GAMES COMMUNITY

$9.99 / MONTH

Support independent game development, follow the development process, discover behind-the-scenes weirdness, and become part of the community behind the games.

This membership is separate from the all-games pass. Check the membership benefits before purchasing.

EXPLORE CATFISH HEADS

MAD PURPLE HAT GAMES

Independent games. Independent development. Beautifully weird.

Part of the Catfish Heads universe.

Payments are processed securely through Stripe Checkout. Access is subject to payment confirmation and the applicable game terms.

Barabbas:The Man Who Walked Free While Jesus Went to the Cross

 Barabbas: The Man Who Walked Free There are stories in the Bible that don't just belong to the past. They stare back at us. The story of Barabbas is one of them. Most people remember him as the prisoner who was released while Jesus was condemned. But look closer, and something strange appears in the mud beneath the story. Barabbas was guilty. Jesus was innocent. And somehow, one man walked free while the other walked toward a cross. The Prisoner Barabbas was being held by the authorities. The Gospel accounts describe him as a man connected with rebellion, and in the Gospel of Mark he is associated with murder. He wasn't standing in the courtyard as an innocent man waiting for justice. He was a prisoner. A condemned man. Then Pilate brought the crowd a choice. Jesus—or Barabbas. The crowd chose Barabbas. Think about that for a moment. The guilty man gets released. The innocent man gets condemned. Barabbas walks out of prison while Jesus is taken away. And we never hear what Barabbas did afterward. That's where the silence becomes powerful. The Man Who Didn't Have to Pay His Debt Imagine Barabbas stepping outside that morning. The prison door closes behind him. He is free. But someone else is being led away. He knows why he was imprisoned. He knows what he deserves. Yet another man is carrying the consequences. Barabbas doesn't have to climb Golgotha. Jesus does. Barabbas doesn't carry the cross. Jesus does. Barabbas doesn't hear the nails being driven through his hands. Jesus does. And Barabbas simply disappears from the biblical record. Maybe that's the point. Because Barabbas isn't only a character. He's a mirror. The Ugly Truth We like to think we're nothing like Barabbas. But Christianity has never really been a story about good people proving how good they are. It's a story about mercy reaching people who couldn't save themselves. Barabbas represents the guilty man who receives freedom he didn't earn. And that should make us uncomfortable. Because if we're honest, we all understand something about owing a debt we cannot repay. Maybe not a criminal debt. Maybe it's anger. Pride. Lies. Hatred. Regret. The things we've done. The things we've failed to do. The people we've hurt. The people who hurt us. The scars we carry—and the scars we've left behind. The human instinct is to say, “I deserve better.” But Barabbas's story asks a harder question: What if mercy isn't about what you deserve? Son of the Father There is another strange detail. Barabbas's name is commonly understood as Bar-Abba, meaning something like “son of the father.” And standing in the same moment is another figure who carries a far deeper claim to that title: the true Son of the Father. One is guilty. One is innocent. One is released. One is condemned. The symbolism is almost impossible to miss. The crowd chooses the wrong man. And yet, through the Christian understanding of the crucifixion, that terrible choice becomes part of the story of redemption. The innocent takes the place of the guilty. The guilty walks free. The Man Who Vanished Then Barabbas disappears. No dramatic ending. No recorded conversion. No final speech. No chapter telling us whether he became a better man. Nothing. Just silence. And maybe that's where we should leave him. Standing outside that prison. Breathing free air. Listening to the crowd disappear into the distance. Knowing that someone else went to die in his place. Because sometimes the greatest question isn't “What did Barabbas do?” It's: “What did he do with his freedom?” And perhaps that's the question standing in front of every one of us. You have another day. Another breath. Another chance to choose. You cannot change yesterday. You cannot resurrect the people you've hurt. You cannot erase every mistake. But if you're still standing, the story isn't finished. Truth From the Mud Barabbas walked out of a prison he deserved to remain inside. Jesus walked toward a death He did not deserve. That's the uncomfortable beauty buried inside this ancient story. The guilty man walked free. The innocent man carried the cross. And somewhere between those two men is the question that follows humanity through the centuries: What are you going to do with the freedom you've been given? Maybe grace isn't permission to keep being the person you were. Maybe grace is the door opening behind you. Maybe it's the chance to walk out of the darkness— and finally become something different. Truth from the mud. Humanity. Spirit. Survival. That's Barabbas. And maybe, in ways we'd rather not admit, there's a little Barabbas in all of us.

Barabbas was guilty. Jesus was innocent. Yet one man walked free while the other walked toward the cross. The silence surrounding Barabbas leaves us with an uncomfortable question: What do we do with the freedom we've been given?

Truth from the mud. Humanity. Spirit. Survival.

The Second Move

 How I Took Everything Back (After They Left Me for Dead) — Part 4

The first move gave us a name.

The second gave us a pattern.

Ruth made me wait three days.

Three days of doing nothing.

At least, that's what it looked like.

“No calls,” she said.

“No messages.”

“No contact.”

“Why?”

“Because impatient people reveal themselves.”

She was right.

On the fourth morning, the burner phone rang.

I answered.

A man's voice said my name.

“Jack?”

I froze.

Nobody had called me Jack in days.

“Who's this?”

There was a pause.

Then he hung up.

I looked at Ruth.

She was already reaching for the legal pad.

“What did he say?”

“My name.”

“Exactly.”

She wrote down the time.

Then the number.

Then the location.

I stared at her.

“That could be anybody.”

“It could.”

“So what does it mean?”

Ruth looked at me.

“It means somebody is looking for you.”

My heart started pounding.

“Danny?”

“Maybe.”

“Sondra?”

“Maybe.”

“Then why call?”

“Because they don't know where you are.”

That was the second move.

We didn't answer the next call.

We waited.

And somebody got nervous.

Within forty-eight hours, three things happened.

A former employee suddenly resigned.

A company account moved money through a shell corporation.

And the man connected to the Florida deal disappeared from every record we could find.

Three events.

One week.

Same network.

Ruth circled them.

“People make mistakes when they believe they're cleaning up.”

I looked at the names on the page.

“So what's next?”

She closed the notebook.

“Now we make them think you're dead.”

I stared at her.

“They already think I'm dead.”

“No.”

She shook her head.

“They think you're gone.”

There was a difference.

Being gone meant you might come back.

Being dead meant nobody looked.

Nobody searched.

Nobody protected themselves.

Nobody watched the shadows.

Ruth leaned forward.

“Your enemies aren't afraid of Jack Acts.”

She paused.

“They're afraid of what Jack Acts knows.”

For the first time, I understood what she had been teaching me.

The money wasn't my power.

The company wasn't my power.

The penthouse wasn't my power.

My power had always been knowing how everything worked.

And Danny had spent years believing he was the only person who understood the machine.

He had forgotten who built it.

I looked at the names again.

Then I smiled.

“What's the next move?”

Ruth smiled back.

“Now we make them make a mistake.”

They had stolen my life.

They had erased my name.

They had convinced the world I was finished.

But they had made one mistake they couldn't undo.

They left me alive.

And now—

I was coming back.

The First Move

How I Took Everything Back (After They Left Me for Dead) — Part 3

They thought disappearing was the end of my story.

Ruth knew better.

We were sitting inside a small diner on the edge of Miami when she slid a yellow legal pad across the table.

“Write.”

I looked at her.

“Write what?”

“Everything you remember.”

I started with Danny.

Then Sondra.

Then the Florida deal.

The Escalade.

The men in black.

The blow from behind.

The things they took.

The things they said.

Ruth stopped me.

“Not just what happened to you.”

She tapped the paper.

“Tell me what they needed you to believe.”

That question changed everything.

Because suddenly I wasn't looking at the night I lost everything.

I was looking at the plan.

Danny hadn't simply betrayed me.

He had prepared for my disappearance.

My accounts hadn't been frozen by accident.

My company hadn't announced my resignation by accident.

Sondra hadn't appeared beside Danny the next morning because she was grieving.

Every piece had been arranged.

Every door had been waiting to close.

And somebody had been preparing long before Christmas Eve.

Ruth leaned back.

“Now we're getting somewhere.”

She pulled out a cheap burner phone and placed it on the table.

“No calls from your old phone. No accounts. No names you used before.”

I stared at it.

“You said I was invisible.”

“You are.”

“Then how do we find them?”

Ruth smiled.

“We don't.”

She pointed at the legal pad.

“We let them think they're safe.”

That was the first move.

Not revenge.

Not confrontation.

Information.

I began rebuilding the one thing Danny couldn't freeze.

The timeline.

Every transaction I could remember.

Every employee who had access.

Every meeting.

Every strange phone call.

Every change that had seemed meaningless at the time.

And then I found something.

A name.

A man I hadn't thought about in years.

Someone connected to the Florida deal.

Someone who had been in the room before Danny ever arrived.

I looked at Ruth.

She didn't look surprised.

“You know him?”

“No.”

She picked up the paper.

“But Danny does.”

For the first time since Christmas Eve, I felt something other than fear.

I felt possibility.

They thought they had erased me.

They hadn't.

They had simply removed my name from the board.

And now I was learning how to play without one.

They had no idea I was still moving.

📷 A quiet morning ritual — the simplest proof that happiness begins inside, not outside.

Self & Soul

How I Make Myself Happy —
No One But Me

June 27, 2026  ·  5 min read

About This Post

A personal guide to making yourself happy — no one else, just you. Discover the quiet rituals, honest habits, and small joys that fill your own cup from the inside out.

Alt Text Hero image: "A person sitting alone in peaceful morning light, eyes closed, holding a warm cup — the portrait of someone choosing their own happiness."

Nobody is coming to save you from a bad mood. No text, no compliment, no plan — only you can decide to climb back toward the light. That used to feel heavy. Now it feels like the most freeing thing I know.

This is not about self-care aesthetics or productivity routines. This is about the small, honest things I actually do when the world goes quiet and it is just me — and I choose to make that enough.

---

01

I Stop Waiting for Permission

The first thing I had to unlearn was that my happiness needed a reason. A good reason. A socially acceptable reason. I used to wait — for the weekend, for someone to notice, for circumstances to align perfectly. The shift happened the day I made coffee at 2 p.m. just because I wanted to, sat by the window with zero purpose, and felt something unlock in my chest. Nobody gave me that. I gave it to myself.

02

I Move My Body Without a Goal

Not to lose weight. Not to hit a target. I walk because the rhythm of my own footsteps is the most honest conversation I can have. I stretch in the living room at odd hours because my body is mine and it deserves attention that has nothing to do with performance. Motion is my clearest path back to feeling real.

"I stopped outsourcing my mood and started being the one who shows up for me — every single time."

Image Title Solitude as a practice — books, light, and the sound of your own breathing

Alt Text Open books and a steaming cup of tea on a wooden table bathed in warm afternoon light

Caption: My corner, my rules. Unscheduled hours spent with things that ask nothing of me and give everything back.

03

I Read Things That Have Nothing to Do with Work

A novel. An old magazine. A recipe I will never cook. Reading for pure pleasure reminds me that I am a whole person — not a task list with a heartbeat. When I disappear into someone else's story for an hour, I always come back to myself feeling larger, softer, more at home.

04

I Cook Something Just for Me

Not to impress anyone. Not a meal that photographs well. A bowl of something warm, made slowly, eaten at the table without a screen. The act of feeding yourself with intention is radical tenderness. It says: I matter enough to nourish.

05

I Let Myself Feel All of It

Happiness is not the absence of hard feelings. Some days, making myself happy means sitting with the ache, writing it down, crying if it needs to come out — and then deciding to still do one kind thing for myself anyway. The joy that comes after honest feeling is the most durable kind I know.

---

The Only Rule

You do not need anyone's schedule, approval, or company to begin. Open a window. Make the coffee. Take the walk. Read the page.

The happiness that you build inside yourself does not depend on anyone staying — and it does not leave when they go.

Start now. Just you. That's enough.

Christ Consciousness in Action

Christ Consciousness in Action The old man sat alone near the edge of the sidewalk, wrapped in a weathered blanket that had seen better days. People passed by without slowing down. Some looked away. Others stared for a moment and kept walking. To most, he was invisible. To one man, he wasn't. The younger man stopped. He wasn't rich. He wasn't famous. He didn't have all the answers. But something in his heart would not let him walk past. He sat down beside the old man. "How are you doing today?" he asked. The old man laughed softly. "Most people don't ask that." For a few moments they talked. No preaching. No judgment. No agenda. Just two human beings sharing a piece of life together. The younger man listened. Really listened. He learned that the old man had once owned a business. He had raised children. He had paid taxes, coached Little League games, and dreamed big dreams. Then life happened. Medical bills arrived. Relationships collapsed. Loss stacked upon loss until he found himself sleeping wherever he could find shelter. The younger man saw tears gathering in the old man's eyes. Not because of the hardship. Because someone finally saw him. This is Christ Consciousness in action. It is not merely attending church on Sunday and forgetting people on Monday. It is not arguing theology online. It is not proving who is right. Christ Consciousness is recognizing the divine value within every person. It is seeing beyond appearances. It is choosing compassion when indifference would be easier. It is serving when nobody is watching. It is loving when there is nothing to gain. The younger man reached into his backpack and shared the food he had. They ate together as the sun began to set. Before leaving, he shook the old man's hand. "Thank you," the old man said. "For what?" "For reminding me I'm still human." The younger man walked away carrying something far greater than he had given. He realized that every act of kindness changes two lives: the one receiving it and the one offering it. That day he understood something many spend a lifetime searching for. Christ Consciousness is not found in grand speeches. It is found in ordinary moments. A helping hand. A listening ear. A shared meal. A compassionate heart. Every day offers a choice.

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We can walk past each other. Or we can recognize that we are connected. The kingdom of God does not begin somewhere far away. It begins when love becomes action. And when love becomes action, Christ Consciousness comes alive in the world. 

  MoltBot

How I Took Everything Back (After They Left Me for Dead)

They thought I was finished.

That was their first mistake.

Ruth didn’t ask questions the way normal people do. She didn’t interrupt. She didn’t react. She just listened — like someone assembling a blueprint while you talked.

By the time I finished, the sun was coming up over Miami.

And my old life was officially gone.

The First Rule: You’re Already Dead

Ruth handed me a second coffee and said something that didn’t make sense at the time.

“Good,” she said. “This actually makes things easier.”

I stared at her.

“They took everything.”

She shook her head.

“No. They erased you.”

She leaned closer.

“That means you’re invisible now.”

Invisible.

The word settled in slowly — and then all at once.

No accounts. No ID. No digital footprint.

No one looking for me.

No one expecting me.

For the first time since the attack… I smiled.

Understanding the Enemy

“People like Danny don’t just betray you,” Ruth said. “They replace you.”

And that’s exactly what he had done.

Within 24 hours:

• My accounts were frozen
• My company issued a statement about my “resignation”
• My penthouse was no longer mine
• And Sondra…

She was already standing next to him.

Publicly.

Smiling.

Like I had never existed.

Clean. Surgical. Final.

Or so they thought.

The One Thing They Missed

“Tell me something,” Ruth said. “What did you build before all of this?”

I didn’t hesitate.

“Everything.”

She smiled slightly.

“No. Not the company. The system.”

That’s when it hit me.

Years ago — before the money, before the spotlight — I built something for myself.

A shadow system.

Off-books. Off-grid. Untouchable.

Not for crime.

For control.

A place where leverage lived.

Where information couldn’t be erased.

Where truth waited… quietly.

And only I knew how to access it.

The Comeback Begins

“We don’t fight them head-on,” Ruth said. “That’s what they expect.”

She stood, adjusting her coat.

“We dismantle them.”

Piece by piece.

Quietly.

Strategically.

Completely.

I looked down at my hands — still shaking, still dirty, still not quite mine again.

But something had changed.

The fear was gone.

In its place… was clarity.

What Comes Next

They had the money.

They had the power.

They had the world convinced I was gone.

Perfect.

Because the most dangerous man in the room…

Is the one no one sees coming.

---

➡️ Read Part 1: The Holiday They Stole Everything

➡️ Coming Next (Part 3): The First Move — And the First Mistake They Didn’t See Coming

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