The Joy Of Creation

I think its fair to say that I make a looot of games. The picture above is from my itch.io profile and it doesn’t even contain everything I’ve made. There are games I made for Tabletop Gaming Magazine, there’s content I’ve made for other people, there’s stuff that’s still in the works, Patreon exclusives, small things I released straight to Discord, heck there’s even an alt account where I posted the text only version of my sexy-silly bondage game entry to the Effing Foundation’s anthology back in 2019.

But here’s the thing.

I love making things. Creating something out of nothing is such an exciting feeling and I love the process. It doesn’t even have to be games. I love cooking, baking, woodwork, sewing, making stuff out of clay.

Side Project

Whenever I chat with Fiona and Sadie from Sleepy Sparrow, there’s the running joke of asking what new side project I’ve started followed by some gentle ribbing. And it’s fair, to look back at the development cycle for For Small Creatures Such As We I started the following side projects:

• Shirefolk - About 150 pages done.

• Spirit Tea - About 3/4 done.

• Death Road Services - Completed and in Print

• A Conversation with Death - Completed and in Print

• Our Once Proud House - Completed and in Print

• Mistorical Museum - Completed and in Print

• Rad Rex’s Amazing Bases - Shelved

• Sexyback - Shelved

• Chef Saga - Shelved

• Songherd - Shelved but planning to start properly on it after Spirit Tea

• The Witch Market - Shelved

• Contain - Shelved

• Retronauts - Shelved

Of course, shelved doesn’t mean that it’s cancelled. There are some games in that list that I will definitely be working on in the future.

Some people might view this approach to game design as unfocused - and they’re probably right - but I find that having multiple projects on the go lets me work on whatever is most exciting to me at the time. Where the difficulty comes in is that final push. The editing, the layout tweaking, the print checking. When you’re designing something, you’re moulding it out of the wet clay and anything is possible. It’s exciting! There’s a sense of discovery there too as you find bits of the game you would never think about making until it’s staring you right in the face.

And then there’s the result. The reward of seeing the thing you worked on come to life. I just got the print copies of Apothecaria: Dragon’s Lair through the door and they are absolutely gorgeous.

And I’m as proud of that as I am of the pole bag I made last night or the planter I made out of a pallet - even if it is janky as hell - because it just feels good to make things.

And that’s what I want to put out into the world today. That unbridled excitement and enthusiasm for making things. If you’re reading this, I want you to make something. Anything. As long as it brings you joy. It could be a home-made meal, a bit of art, a game, a new gate, anything.

The Art of Just Doing It

There is a simple maxim:

If you don’t do it, it don’t get done

If I don’t make Apothecaria: Spider Canyon, then we don’t get an Apothecaria expansions about spider ranches and magical duels and wild west nonsense.

It’s simple and yet life has a way of confusing things. Fear, doubt, perfectionism all get in the way of creativity.

For the past year or so I’ve been trying to help a couple of friends make their own TTRPGS. Both of them had great ideas and showed some real motivation at the start but life threw some bumps and the projects got put to the side. Occassionaly they’ll pick it up and look at it but for one reason or another, they can’t bring themselves to actually finish them. They both want to make their games but no matter what I try, they just can’t face doing it.

And I get it. For years I was the same with writing fiction. I had received some bad feedback on an early draft of my first novel from someone I respected and I lost the spark. Overtime I built up this fear and self-doubt around writing to the point that I’d start crying whenever I sat down to write. It was actually the realisation that I’d been writing through solo RPGS that gave me the confidence I needed to sit down and start writing the first Wolf & Fang Detective Agency book. It wasn’t easy but I knew that if I wanted to write, I needed to write. I challenged myself with NaNoWriMo and sat down to write 1,500 words a day come rain or shine. Some days the words came easy. Other days I’d be sat at the computer for hours with barely a sentence to show for it. But in the end, I did it and I’m so glad I did.

My advice for those of you who might be in a similar situation is to K.I.S.S.

Keep It Simple Sweetie

Apothecaria is my favourite game to make expansions for because it is so simple. Everything revolves around the Ailment, the Timer, and the [TAGS] which gives me so much freedom to design Events.

If you’re setting out to make your first game, I highly recommend making a zine style game. Something that focuses on a small, focused experience just to let you get something made so that you can see how fun it is to make something and so that you’ve got that confidence boost from already having a completed project under your belt.

And don’t worry about it being good. Your first game is bound to have issues. No-one makes a best seller on their first try.

My first RPG - Those Who Play - was released in 2014 and was laid out in Microsoft Word. Most of the art was the wrong aspect ratio so I just stretched it to fit right. It was printed by a terrible printer, the cover was blurry and the rules were a mess.

But without those awkward, ugly baby steps, I wouldn’t be here writing this now.

Media of the Week

I got invited onto the Deadlock beta by a friend and I am weirdly into it. I hate MOBAs with a passion but this Hero-Shooter x MOBA seems to be working for me. Also, the character designs and the weird 1930s-ish urban fantasy setting are so up my alley that I’ve actually found myself wanting to write fan fiction about them. I don’t even write fan-fiction!

I hope the team behind Arcane step in to make a show set in this universe.

New Product Announcements

Apothecaria: Dragon’s Lair is now in print so it will be up on blackwellwriter.com and blackwellwriter.itch.io later today!

Sleepy Sparrow and I have put together a zine called FIEND with a bunch of cool RPG articles, comics, jokes, and more. It’s print only and will be available at UKGE from both of our stalls! We’ll also have it for sale afterwards… if there are any left ;)

Conventions

UKGE is in 3 weeks. Come find us at 4-T13. We’re just to the left of the Hall 4 entrance!