Kamau Vassall Looks to the Stars as Gravity's Edge Nears Launch

Taylor Rioux
22 minutes ago
5 min read

Gravity’s Edge was a nice little surprise for me. Prior to this last week, it had not been on my radar whatsoever. I had not seen it on any release lists, nor did I come across any discussion of the title on any message boards or subreddits. Such is the life of an indie game in the bustling Steam release schedule.

Over 21,000 games were put out on Steam last year—a number that is growing in each consecutive trip around the sun. How is a small studio like Kassle Games LLC meant to find an audience? I’m not sure I could ever hope to answer that, but when the team behind the game reached out, the comic book-esque artstyle and interesting premise piqued my interest.

But what is Gravity’s Edge? Yes, it is an upcoming indie 2D action-adventure game, certainly, but what about the team behind it? What is Gravity’s Edge to them? To find out, I spoke with developer Kamau Vassall ahead of the game's release.

Game: Gravity's Edge Publisher: Kassle Games LLC

Developer: Kassle Games LLC

Availability: Released May 6, 2026 for Steam.

Like most people, Kamau got his start in games early, finding inspiration and purpose in the medium as a child.

“...I've been obsessed with videogames ever since I was a little kid,” he told us “I have fond memories of playing Mario upside down as an 8-year-old.” I’m sure many can relate to playing games, but not many have epiphanies this early on as Kamau did. “When I was 11 or so, after playing Command & Conquer, I decided that this was the medium that was going to change everything.”

Something about Command & Conquer spoke to him, inspired him. It made him feel like there could be more to games than running and jumping.

“It changed my perspective on what a game was. I had never played an RTS (Real Time Strategy) beforehand, nor had I seen a game with real actors, nor had I ever played a game with two factions on separate CDs, nor one with multiple branching paths of story. To be honest, I was absolutely mind-blown by even reading the game manual!”

Of course, 11 is a little early to get into game development, especially alone, but the seed was planted—one day, he would make games of his own.

Perhaps surprisingly, games weren’t Kamau’s first love—science was.

“I’ve always had [a love of science]. It could be the science museum as a kid. It could be that I watched way too much Star Trek with my Dad. But let's just say I’ve listened to every episode of Star Talk with Neil DeGrasse Tyson.”

And so combining these elements seemed natural. Taking inspiration from titles like Braid, Kamau worked to make games of his own, including Fight for Phoenix, a game where you are tasked to defend the planet from incoming ships. It was this game that further inspired Kamau to begin work on Gravity’s Edge.

“I kept wondering what a cool way to go to the next level would be. And then one night it dawned on me, ‘What if you could just jump to the next level?’”

Kamau worked to incorporate his love of physics and space into the work he did, but he also put some of himself in the game, as artists are wont to do. Being such a big science fiction fan offers examples to reference, and his Caribbean heritage was a great place to draw inspiration from—including the presence of Jamaican patois and Akan symbology within the full release.

“Shows like The Expanse have Caribbean accents. In the show Firefly, they drop Chinese from time to time,” he told us “I am of Caribbean descent. So basically, I’m just making what I know. I didn’t think too much about it. The same goes for the Akan symbology.”

To help realize his vision for this new title, Kamau would need some help, including enlisting artist Sam McCollum to develop the look for the game.

“About 6 months in, I wanted to partner up with a friend [with whom] I had previously jammed,” he continued, “I knew his line art style would be perfect as I tend to prefer that over pixel art styles. Additionally, he makes all his art with a tinge of retro! The stars aligned as they say!”

But even with some help, game development has its own unique challenges. Speaking about his decision to incorporate real-world physics into the game, he had this to say:

“Real-world physics is not fun,” noting the difficulties of implementation, “in early playtests of my game, the player might fly off-world and float forever!” As [Gravity’s Edge] is not a simulation game by any means, some compromises had to be made for the sake of the gameplay.

“Real physics has too much chaos, entropy, and randomness for you to design good experiences around.”

Of course, game development difficulties can often extend beyond the act of making the game itself—a fact that Kamau is all too familiar with. Marketing is often a massive part of a big title’s budget, with major releases vying for eyeballs the same as every other game on the market. While AAA companies can spend their way onto your screens, the fight for acknowledgement is much more difficult for indie developers.

“All my self-published games suffer from the same problem. I’ll meet someone in the elevator who perfectly fits the target audience of one of my games and I’ll ask them if they’ve heard of it. It's always no!”

It can be hard to know with any sort of certainty if the game you’ve made will reach people. Even if you’ve put something together that you’re proud of, what aspects of the design work or don't work can be hard to envision without third-party input. Without the funds to hire proper playtesting, small teams often rely on close relations and friends to give honest assessments, which can be difficult to navigate.

“Programming is easy; half the time, the compiler will just tell you exactly what you did wrong. But when it comes to design? Your friends will white lie in order to be nice to you and tell you that your game will sell a million copies.”

All my self-published games suffer from the same problem. I’ll meet someone in the elevator who perfectly fits the target audience of one of my games and I’ll ask them if they’ve heard of it. It's always no!

That’s the dream, right? To see your work enjoyed by millions of people, to make something you can be proud of, and that supports you financially. While you never know what the reception will be for a game, Kamau thinks they have something special.

“I would love everyone to know that I made this game to bring something new to the world that has never been seen before. This game admires physics, space, puzzles, exploration, and culture!”

Speaking on the game’s features, he notes, “This game has leaderboards, Twitch integration, split-screen couch co-op. This game has replay value, easter eggs, pets, achievements, 7 different endings in Story, and a secret ending in Survival!”

There’s a demo out for Gravity’s Edge, allowing players to take the game for a test spin before release. The full game releases on Steam on May 5, 2026.