"gunpoint" was developed by tom francis in his spare time while working as section editor for "pc gamer uk" magazine. francis had no formal background in programming, but having learned that "spelunky" was created by one person with the user-friendly software suite , he decided to experiment with game development. he started work on his first game, under the working title "private dick", in may 2010. within about a month francis had a working prototype which he released on his blog to gauge interest and garner feedback.