REFLECT89 Interview: Alejandro Clavijo on the Family Drawings That Became an Arcade Game

My name is Alejandro Clavijo. I’m from Seville, Spain, and I’m the solo developer behind REFLECT89.

I’m actually an industrial programmer, although I currently work in Human Resources. Programming had taken a back seat in my life, and I’d never seriously considered making a video game.

One day, my wife asked me if I missed programming. I told her, "Not much, really."

Then she said something that changed everything: "Why don’t you use what you know to make a video game with our children?"

And that’s how REFLECT89 began!

My children started contributing ideas and drawings. What began as a little family activity gradually turned into something much bigger than any of us had imagined.

Some of those original drawings are still very recognisable in the game. CORE and SQUARE, for example, came from my daughter’s sketches. She also drew AURA and several enemy designs. They’ve evolved visually, of course, but you can still see where they came from.

Originally, CORE was the only playable character. But my daughter wanted a girl in the game too, so AURA joined the adventure! Both characters have exactly the same abilities, without either having an advantage.

I still have a page of my daughter’s original drawings, and I’d be delighted to share it so readers can see where these characters began.

And to think that none of this was planned! It all started with a simple suggestion from my wife and a few drawings made by our children.

There’s a well-known saying in Spanish: "The best defence is a good offence."

Well, I decided to turn it upside down!

What if the best offence actually came from a good defence?

That simple question became the central mechanic of REFLECT89.

I wanted to make a fun arcade game where skill, reflexes and precision mattered more than conventional weapons or violence.

So I came up with the idea of using a shield as your main weapon. Instead of simply dodging incoming projectiles, you reflect them back at the enemies.

The enemies themselves provide the ammunition!

What makes the idea fun for me is that it changes your relationship with danger. Normally, when you see an enemy projectile heading towards you, your first instinct is to get out of the way.

But in REFLECT89, that same projectile can become your best opportunity to attack.

And when you manage to reflect several shots in succession, everything becomes a little more exciting.

I love that something so simple can change the way you play.

After all, in REFLECT89, the best offence really does come from a good defence!

I wanted the basic mechanic to be easy to understand, but difficult to master.

When an enemy fires a projectile, you use your shield to send it back. It’s something you can understand almost immediately, even if you’ve never played REFLECT89 before.

But then there’s the Perfect Reflection.

If you activate your shield at just the right moment, you achieve a Perfect Reflection, which rewards precise timing and helps you build combos and higher scores.

That’s where things become really interesting!

You don’t need to be an expert to start enjoying the game. You can learn how to reflect projectiles, understand enemy behaviour and gradually improve your timing.

But if you want to climb the World Ranking, you’ll need to become much more precise.

The game also includes upgrades that can change the way you approach each run, so there’s room to experiment and find combinations that work for you.

What I really wanted was for players to notice their own progress.

Maybe the first time they play, they struggle to get through an early stage. But after a few attempts, they begin recognising attack patterns, timing their reflections better and achieving scores they couldn’t reach before.

And that’s when I hope they’ll say, "Okay, just one more try!"

I’ve always loved that feeling in arcade games when you finish a run, look at your score and immediately think, "I can do better than that!"

I wanted REFLECT89 to have that same feeling.

The Steam World Ranking adds something extra because you’re no longer competing only against yourself. You’re also competing with real players from all around the world.

And I absolutely love that!

Recently, I added more information to the ranking system. Players can now see their current world position, their personal best and how many points they need to overtake the player immediately above them.

I think having a specific target makes the challenge much more exciting.

It’s not just about finishing a stage or defeating a boss. It’s also about improving your technique, discovering useful upgrade combinations and trying to earn a few more points.

And there’s something else that means a lot to me.

Every time a new name appears in the World Ranking, I know someone somewhere has taken the time to play REFLECT89.

I still find that incredible!

My dream is to see that ranking filled with players from all over the world.

And if one day my own name disappears from the top positions because everyone has beaten my score, I’ll be absolutely delighted!

Although I’ll probably have to resist the temptation to try to get it back!

My two children reacted very differently, and honestly, that makes me smile every time I think about it!

My little boy is seven. He contributed his own little (but wonderful!) ideas to REFLECT89, and once his mission was accomplished, he happily returned to his greatest passion: his football!

He lives in his own fantastic little world, and I absolutely love that about him.

My daughter, who is eleven, had a completely different reaction.

I still remember her face when she first saw CORE and SQUARE moving around on the screen.

She was absolutely amazed!

Those were her drawings! Characters that had started out as little sketches on paper were suddenly alive inside a real video game.

And the best part? She still plays REFLECT89 today, both the demo and the full game.

There’s another little detail that means a lot to me.

If you open the Credits section in the game’s menu, you’ll find both of my children’s names listed under Art.

I wanted their contribution to be part of the game forever. After all, none of this would have started without them.

Sometimes I think about how all of this began, with a simple suggestion from my wife and some drawings from our children.

And now my daughter can sit down, play a video game and recognise the characters she helped bring to life.

As a father, that’s something very special to me.

I think the biggest surprise has been discovering just how many different jobs are involved in making and releasing a video game!

When you’re working alone, you have to take care of almost everything. Programming, testing, fixing bugs, preparing the Steam pages, contacting people, answering messages…

Sometimes I think I spend almost as much time trying to get people to discover REFLECT89 as I do working on the game itself!

One of the biggest technical challenges has been supporting 13 languages.

I wanted players from different countries to enjoy REFLECT89 in their own language, but localisation is much more complicated than simply translating text.

Some languages require more space than others. You have to adjust menus, buttons and text layouts, make sure the fonts display correctly and check that every change works without affecting anything else.

And when everything seems to be working, you still have to test it again!

Releasing the free demo on October 21 was a particularly exciting moment.

But then came another challenge I hadn’t fully appreciated: getting people to actually play it.

You can spend countless hours making a game, but that doesn’t mean people will automatically discover it.

That’s why I’ve been contacting players and indie game enthusiasts from different countries. Not to ask for praise, but to invite them to play and tell me what they really think.

And something wonderful has happened along the way.

I’ve received incredibly kind messages from people in Japan, Korea and other parts of the world. Some have tried the demo, shared gameplay videos or offered valuable feedback. Others have simply taken a moment to encourage me.

When you’re working on something by yourself, those gestures mean a lot.

I’m still learning every day, both as a developer and as someone trying to introduce his game to the world.

The full game is already complete, and its Steam release is scheduled for April 2027.

Right now, my main priority is making sure everything works as well as possible, listening to the feedback from people who try the demo and improving anything that genuinely needs attention.

REFLECT89 will also be participating in Steam Next Fest in February 2027, which I’m really looking forward to!

Of course, I’d love more people to discover the game, enjoy its mechanics and compete in the World Ranking.

But there’s something I’d particularly like players to understand.

REFLECT89 didn’t begin with a business plan or the intention of becoming a professional game developer.

It began because my wife suggested doing something fun together with our children.

At the time, I was simply a father who knew how to program and had never really thought about making a video game.

Then came the drawings, the first characters, the shield mechanics, the enemies, the bosses…

And before I knew it, that little family idea had become a complete arcade game!

My biggest wish is actually quite simple.

I want people to have fun playing REFLECT89.

I want them to enjoy learning the mechanics, improving their skills and feeling that satisfaction when they finally beat a boss or achieve a new personal best.