All Change Here
Moving Flat, Freelancing, Hidden Gems Sale, Terminal Progress, WIP: PSYCHODUNGEON, Physical Books
It feels like it has been three years since I did a newsletter. For me. It's not been. I've stuck to a monthly habit but a lot happened since August 12. The Terminal Kickstarter finished for one and also, well...
Moving
The agent tried to hike the rent massively so me and my housemate had to move. This was probably the most difficult move of my adult life; I massively overexerted myself and have kind of still not recovered (to be fair to myself this is also the first move I've done while physically disabled, which makes a difference).
This also ran up against the fact that I am now officially unemployed. My previous job wanted to only renew my contract if they could not pay for two months of the year, I'd rather have been paid for a whole year, we were at an impasse. That's over. I'm looking for another day job now (and ultimately considering myself to have quit teaching) and hopefully find one that is more physically manageable than what I've done before.
In the meantime that leads on to two items...
Freelancer Mode Engaged
Partially motivated by needing money to tide me over but also because I want to make more things and work with other people I've opened up freelance spots for writing and layout.
So hey if you're looking for an award winning designer to jazz up your next game keep me in mind.
Hidden Gems Sale
Also in the interest of tiding me over moneywise I've set up a Hidden Gems Sale on Itch.
These are six comparatively underappreciated Rat Wave Game House titles. I've done some Tumblr posts about different games available so far, one for Fear the Taste of Blood and one for Forecaster: The Body You Share.
You can get each game 20% off or bundle all six for $40. The other games in the sale are Wild Duelist, The Ballad of The Bastard and The Tinkerer, Save Our Souls and Plural Witchcraft Highland Rampage.
Terminal Progress
Terminal funded on the 20th of August and since then work has continued on developing the sickest digital pirate action game you can imagine.
I'm really excited by the different techno-fable ideas that guest writers have been throwing my way and the book has moved into the initial layout phase.
My current estimate for the digital release would be mid-October, slightly pushed back from the initial late September estimate because of moving troubles.
Here's some new art featuring a pirate pitching the crew of the Moon's Demise on an audacious operation. Plus some early layout sneak peaks (subject to change).
Work-in-progress: PSYCHODUNGEON
I've been writing a fun new game.
"Glyndain is a city in a world of mobile phones and magic spells, mass transit and malevolent demons, the supernatural intermingled with the everyday. It's a strange world but one all too familiar.
In Glyndain when peoples trauma hits a breaking point their troubles manifest physically as a psychodungeon full of monstrous nightmares. Plumbers are called in to clean out the dungeons and close them off. It’s difficult work. Dangerous. The kind that follows you home. Part adventurer, part handyman, part therapist. Still, it’s a living. You’ve got bills to pay and rent to make. It’s time to go down, down into the PSYCHODUNGEON.
PSYCHODUNGEON is a post-dungeon fantasy concerning a group of poor cityfolk acting as psychoplumbers. It’s a Belonging outside Belonging game for 2-6 players. All players share responsibility for setting the mood and tone of the game, sharing the spotlight and spotlighting your setting, building the dungeons, creating trouble and looking for solutions, and looking after each other, however you can."
The playbooks for the game are the Wizard, the Witch, the Werewolf, the Cyborg, the Swordfighter and the Rockstar.
I'm still refining the token economy outside of the playbooks. Initially I considered having a dungeon built up of Forces at Play (setting elements) with their own tokens. I'm now leaning more towards the dungeon as a whole having its own token economy.
Depending on how development goes and some other decisions around what I'd wanna do for art etc. I could see PSYCHODUNGEON being the next game I Kickstart. I don't know how feasible doing so would be before the end of the year (which would probably need to be October) is, though that does appeal for obvious reasons.
Regardless I'm excited by this idea, whatever it does eventually emerge in to.
Physical Books Available
Eight whole exciting Rat Wave titles are available in physical form on the SoulMuppet Store.
If you’ve ever wanted to caress your own copy of:
Transgender Deathmatch Legend
Old Gods and Young Guns
Thirty Foes OR Once again, we are defeated
The Man We Knew
Wild Duelist
The Ballad of the Bastard and the Tinkerer
Follow Me in the Night; a Cursed Radio
The Infinite Dancefloor
You have the chance to get your caressing hands on. Run, don’t walk, to your computer or phone to go to the store.
Until next time
I suspect next months newsletter will be less Meaty. Or maybe it’ll just feel less meaty.