Home Sweet Home is a cozy solo RPG where players must embroider (or draw) a dollhouse view of their new home by interpreting a set of story prompts about themselves and the home’s prior occupants.
Welcome to your new home! To commemorate the occasion, you’re breaking out your craft supplies to create a simple art piece, something traditional with a modern twist: an embroidered dollhouse map, embellished with colorful accents.
This project will take time, which is perfect. It will give you a chance to know your new home, to learn what it feels like to walk its halls and sleep under its roof. You’ll be spending the week unpacking your moving boxes and cleaning out the attic and the basement, both of which contain fascinating items the home’s prior inhabitants left behind.
Maybe, if you’re feeling brave, you’ll peel back the old wallpaper and see what’s underneath.
I’m starting without a solid plan and hoping for the best.
Alin Walker (known in the realms of law and order as Tina Alberino) is a speculative fiction editor and game designer whose editorial talents have shaped the eerie and existential world of The Dread Machine for four years. Under her stewardship, The Dread Machine has grown into a haven for dark speculative fiction aficionados. Now, Alin is channeling her solo-gaming prowess and passion for interactive storytelling into the realm of game design.
The Dread Machine, an indie publishing house, has been exploring the shadowy nexus of technology and the human psyche since 2020. Known for its quarterly dark speculative litmag, and anthologies such as Mixtape 1986 and Darkness Blooms, The Dread Machine has carved a niche for their unique brand of offbeat speculative fiction with narratives that explore themes of existential dread, human and non-human experiences, societal critiques, and the ever-thinning line between reality and the surreal. In 2024, The Dread Machine embarked on an exciting new journey, bringing its unique brand of storytelling to immersive gameplay experiences.