james thomas

i work where art meets code

salt lake city, utah

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squint

2026 · design and code

Squint showing a portrait under a straw hat broken into seven value bands, beside its controls: value count, band boundaries, and the squint slider

see your reference the way painters squint at it. a free tool that blurs and posterizes photos into simple value shapes, so you can nail proportions before the details. it started on art subreddits, where i was breaking people's references into value shapes by hand. works on your phone or computer, and nothing gets uploaded.

flicker

2026 · design and code

Flicker's start screen: the FLICKER title with an orange cursor block, a short explanation, and two buttons to load image A, your piece, and image B, the reference

a flip test for artists. load your drawing and your reference, then pan, zoom, and rotate the reference to line it up. flip between them to spot what's off, and export a gif.

season

1st SL Animation Expo game jam · godot

SeaSon title screen: clay coral, clay lettering, and a small sea creature peeking over a yellow clay sea floor

a claymation underwater game: find the pearls, drag to aim, let go to swim. i did the programming, concept, and design, and photographed the clay art. made with a team of animators: CandyDagger, Donny Jennings, Joseph Jennings, and Nick Tanner.

maladraxous

spacestation game jam · scratch

Maladraxous title card: a hand-drawn sword over tangled black roots, with a dripping red title

a fast survival game where sentient food must be clicked, and it's different every time. i did the game design and programming. music and sound by TacoLord; art by canaan, lane, grin, Mr. Foot, and nickfrusso.