Today, I wrapped up my first draft of the setup prompts. Here are some screenshots from the current version.

There are a few other tables, but I’m not quite ready to share those. (And of course, I can’t make a game without dropping half a dozen Disco Elysium references, haha.)

As it stands, the setup section and the stitch glossary are done. I plan to make PDF and video tutorials for players who are new to embroidery. I’m well-prepared to do so now that I have a tripod for recording top-down video.

In my spare time, I’ve been sourcing kit materials. I’d love to sell a version that includes everything you need to play—embroidery floss, scrap fabric for appliqué, stick and stitch stabilizer with a few different rooms or houses printed on them, quality linen mounted to a slate frame, with the raw edges already finished…as usual, I have big plans. And before you say, “Hey, remember those hand-painted towers you wanted to make for Plane?” I will tell you SHHHH. Yes, I do. Shut up. I will forever maintain that that was a good idea, just not one I could figure out how to execute.

The hand-drawn art is going smoothly. Artists are real expensive, and the stuff I make is so niche (and poorly marketed—my fault entirely, lol) that I can’t justify the investment, so I’ve been making the art for Home Sweet Home myself. Every item found in the attic/basement will have three different style variations: antique (1920s), mid-century modern (1960s, but generally timeless), and retro (’80s). These will be organized onto PDFs, which players can then print onto water-soluble stabilizer. (If the kit idea pans out, they’ll ship with the game.)

Unfortunately, I can only budget about ten hours a week to work on the game right now, but that’s about to change soon! I’m not disciplined enough to manage a mailing list, so if you want to be updated when the page hits Kickstarter, follow me there!

I spent thirteen hours reformatting the paperback and hardcover to KDP’s specs, and I’m thrilled to report that new proofs are already on the way.

Every delay this project has experienced was due to Ingram, but choosing Ingram was my mistake. I should have given up on them a month ago, and I’m annoyed that I didn’t. 

This update is about why I ended up stuck in this toxic cycle with Ingram in the first place. It’s going to have a few sections, so scroll to the parts that interest you.

Why did I choose Ingram, which has notoriously terrible service and an archaic-to-the-point-of-uselessness system?

In ’22 and ’23, when writers, artists, and publishers were discovering how machine learning systems were trained, I did some investigating into whether or not Amazon (Kindle Direct Publishing’s parent company) was using our files to train their own bots. Over the course of several weeks, I went back and forth with various levels of KDP’s customer service. None gave me a straight answer. 

After evaluating their various legal agreements, which every user opts-in to without actually reading, I learned that Amazon/KDP does retain the right to use the content for training material. Unfortunately, this meant that I had to pull all 12 of The Dread Machine’s issues and both of our anthologies, because we were publishing the works of writers who overwhelmingly did not consent to their stories being used this way. As the publisher, I am not technically the copyright holder, and therefore didn’t have the legal right to consent on the writers’ behalf. (I wouldn’t even if I could, because I’m not going to help Bezos bury writers and booksellers any more than he already has.)

If you want to know more about that, here’s a publicly accessible file containing all the evidence I could gather, which I sent off to various news outlets, none of whom seemed to care that one of the two viable printing/distribution companies in the world was doing this.

I swore then that I was done with KDP forever. That’s how we got stuck with Ingram.

Why is Ingram so terrible, and how is KDP better?

Ingram, like KDP, is a book printing and distribution company. Unlike KDP, Ingram primarily serves the Big 5 publishing companies: Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster. They DGAF about indies, but they’re happy to take our money via IngramSpark, their division designed for micropublishers (like The Dread Machine).

After uploading a file to Ingram’s system, the title goes into “Processing” for a ridiculously long time (10-14 days). Then, you get an e-proof, which is supposed to reflect what the cover and interior will look like in the physical book. I have recently come to learn that the “e-proof” is the exact PDF uploaded, with a watermark stamped on top. It does not reflect what the final title looks like.

Because I don’t trust Ingram, I always order physical proofs, and if you read last week’s update, you can see why. These proofs take weeks to arrive, and they’re expensive AF to print and ship.

I’ve come to believe these delays are intentional, as Ingram charges $50 per revision upload after 60 days. They are incentivized to drag the process out as long as possible.

KDP, by comparison, is about ten thousand times more user-friendly. Title setup is fast and painless. They generate templates instantly, if you need them. Once your files are ready, you upload them and can immediately access their file previewer, which shows you exactly what the cover and interior will look like. 

If there are any errors, their system flags and links the page, so you can find the issue and resolve it. They won’t allow you to publish the title until the errors are resolved. Needless to say, revision uploads are free, because charging for them is ridiculous.

Of course, this means that my book is going to be used to train their bots, but as the author and copyright holder, I have the legal right to consent. 

Do I love the idea of my work being used this way? No. 
Do I have a choice? Also no.

So, what’s the fulfillment timeline looking like?

In a word: awesome. I submitted a proof request this morning. KDP generates a special purchase link and puts the books into your cart, so you aren’t paying retail prices. That process takes about an hour. 

Once they’re ordered, the titles enter the queue at the nearest printing facility (mine is in Delaware). I have enough experience with KDP to know that what I see on the preview is exactly what I’ll get, but KDP’s colors can be a bit wonky, so I’m going to run some proofs to make sure no color adjustments are necessary. If they aren’t, I’ll be able to make our order before the end of the month.

What do printing costs/profit margins look like?

Over the last few years, printing costs have exploded. Because Plane is 160 premium pages, full-color, printing it is not cheap.

What’s next?

Now, we wait until I get my hands on those proofs. Until then, I’m working on Home Sweet Home (an embroidery game) and The Welcome Wagon (a collection of games my friends and I have made). Kanishk is still working on the solo campaign for Plane, which is almost ready for playtesting. My contribution, Plane: The Office Party, is done. I’ll be releasing it in PDF once he’s done, which will likely be around fulfillment time. 

I’m so relieved about where Plane is right now, I feel like someone pulled a giant weight off my chest. So, as much as I resent Amazon/KDP, I’m very glad they exist today.

Through A Mending, I discovered a true passion for hand embroidery. Not a joke: I’m a literal card-carrying member of the Embroiderers’ Guild of America, currently working toward my Master Craftsman certifications in both color and design. I attend chapter meetings each month and everything. It’s pretty serious.

Anyway, when I started making solo games, I knew I had to make an embroidery game. I would love to introduce others to the hobby and give them an unforgettable experience.

This week, I began moving my draft from the Google Doc into Affinity Publisher. Unlike my other projects, I’m going to format Home Sweet Home while drafting it. Currently, the plan is for the game to have three phases each turn, tentatively titled Unpack, Explore, and Decorate.

During the unpacking phase, players will unpack one of their own belongings, describing the item, telling the story of how they acquired it, and what it means to them.

During the exploring phase, players will discover items the home’s prior inhabitants left behind in the attic or basement. Again, they will describe the item (for instance: an old love letter or a funky retro lamp) and what it insinuates about the inhabitant it belonged to.

During the decorating phase, players will place an item in their house, drawing or embroidering it onto their map. Items will include furniture, plants, rugs, blankets, pictures, lighting fixtures, and more household items. They may also change the room’s walls and flooring.

With Plane, I had a whole ass plan before I started seriously drafting, and long before I started formatting. This time, I’m going in with nothing more than the concept, the art style, and the phases.

Hopefully, this title will be much smaller than Plane. My oldest daughter and I will be doing all the art ourselves to keep costs and production time down. I’m hoping to have it on Kickstarter in October 2024 and fulfilled by December 2024. Once we’ve completed enough doodles, we’ll launch and link the Kickstarter preview page. Until then, you’re welcome to follow me here to be notified when the page goes live!

As our campaign dwindles down to the last 48 hours, I’ve been thinking about how we’ll do the next campaign (for Plane: Explorer) differently. Knowing what I do now, I’ll be making a number of changes:

1.) Launch the Kickstarter preview page way in advance. It’s really important to secure backers ahead of time to get that early momentum. Astroprisma (which, as I write this, is nearly at a mind-boggling $185,000 USD), had almost 800 followers before the campaign launched. (Yes, I was one of them, and yes, I went all-in…which brings me to my next point.)

2.) Set a higher goal and offer more expensive tiers. I considered doing this but ultimately decided against it because I needed this campaign to stay modest and manageable. I’m shouldering the majority of the workload, and I didn’t want to be overwhelmed. As I write this, we’re at 101 backers, a very cozy, manageable number. I’m thrilled with this…but next time, I want to go a tiny bit bigger, both with the game and the campaign.

3.) Show more. I knew this would bite me in the ass, but because I wanted to keep the campaign small, I didn’t worry too much about the lack of visuals and previews. Next time, I won’t be launching the campaign until the game is fully laid out, so we have spreads to show, advance copies to send out to reviewers, and trailers prepared.

4.) Don’t waste time seeking press coverage. Honestly, I’m surprised and disappointed with Dicebreaker and the other reviewers I contacted. None were interested in doing anything to help us, and I really wish I knew why. I spent a lot of time preparing press kids, agonizing over the wording of our initial contact emails, and refreshing my inbox, waiting for responses that never came while receiving email newsletters from the same outlets promoting projects that already went to retail or were massively overfunded (like Astroprisma). I won’t make that mistake next time. I suppose the press will happen if it happens.

5.) Set more reasonable stretch goals. When I designed the stretch goals for Plane, I knew I was doubling our prompt sets. For some reason, at the time, I didn’t think much of the work that would entail. I think the game needs the extra prompts, but I wish I had delayed the campaign a bit so we could have gotten a head start on them.

Today (and for the rest of the month), I’m doing layout work, so it’s back to the grids for me!

As of today, Plane: Teleporter Operator Simulator, is almost ready to go to Kickstarter.

The game has expanded considerably—in fact, finalizing these expansions is the reason the game isn’t ready to go to Kickstarter right now. Of course, now that it’s almost time, I’m terrified. I feel completely unprepared, even though I’m confident that we’ve made something that will bring a lot of joy to solo players.

Since I started this project, social media has cratered, except for TikTok, which I’m not outgoing enough for. I don’t know shit about marketing, and despite the fact that I’ve been a career blogger (or maybe because of it), I’m a tiny bit terrified of the internet, especially Twitter. So, I’m left feeling like I’m working in the vacuum of space—which is fine, until you realize you have a Kickstarter campaign approaching and absolutely no marketing runway.

So this week, I’m trying to establish some kind of hype. Plane‘s Itch page is up, and the Kickstarter page is going to be published on February 1st. You can follow me on Kickstarter here if you want to be notified when that happens. I also made my first promotional post on Tumblr today, but it feels a whole lot like screaming into the void. Once the game trailer is done, we’ll be reaching out to my favorite solo and tabletop bloggers, which I’m extremely excited about.

In other news, Plane‘s art style has matured a bit, so I’ll leave you with some pretty pictures!

Game of the Year

Baldur’s Gate 3

If there’s another serious contender, I don’t know of it.

Every person I know is neck-deep in a BG3 campaign, and I’m no exception. This game delivered so far beyond our expectations in so many ways. It’s an incredibly impressive achievement and, as a gamer who has seen too many consecutive Triple-A failures to get excited about anything, a refreshing departure from what I’ve come to accept as status quo.

Labor of Love Award

House Flipper

I will argue this to my death: the House Flipper team has worked–and continues to work–so hard on this game, and I’ve loved watching it develop into what it is today. I feel privileged to have been able to see it evolve from launch. As someone who takes a keen interest in game development and indie studios, it has been an absolute pleasure, and I really hope they take this one. They deserve it.

Best Game on Steam Deck

Dredge

Dredge is such a fun, weirdly cozy little game. I love the art and the gameplay loop. The game is so pleasant, I’m working on collecting every single achievement. I would also argue this is a strong contender for the Sit Back and Relax award, despite the mild horror element.

Better with Friends Award

We Were Here Expeditions: The Friendship

I have a deep love of Total Mayhem Games and the titles they’ve made. They deserve this award for making a fun, entertaining, and very satisfying co-op game for free. My bestie and I played this one together and had a total blast. I think the puzzles for The Friendship were among the best of all the titles Total Mayhem has released so far.

Outstanding Visual Style Award

Decarnation

Do I really need to explain this? Have you seen this game? The artwork is–and I almost never use this pretentious ass word–exquisite.

Most Innovative Gameplay Award

Dave the Diver

This was a tough one. I don’t think Dave the Diver does anything particularly innovative, other than throwing everything but the kitchen sink into a single title. However, none of the other 2023 releases I’ve played this year have been particularly innovative from a gameplay perspective either.

Best Game You Suck At Award

Darkest Dungeon 2

I love this game so much, but I also hate this game so much. I progressed much further on my Switch than I did on PC. It plays really well on a handheld. Darkest Dungeon 2 kept me occupied until I started playing Loop Hero, which scratched that itch for cyclic dungeon runs. I’ll likely pick it back up once I complete my first BG3 campaign.

Best Soundtrack Award

Decarnation

Up until Decarnation, I had never purchased a game’s OST. Now, I’m a Fleur et Bleue fan. I sing all the lyrics, despite not having a single clue what any of them actually mean.

Outstanding Story-Rich Game Award

Decarnation

I wouldn’t say Decarnation‘s story is as original or emotionally impactful as Firewatch, Gone Home, or any of the other indie narrative games I’ve played, but as far as 2023 releases go, it’s top of my list.

Sit Back and Relax Award

Terra Nil

This game has delighted and infuriated me, but it is one of my favorite chill games, right up there with Dorf Romantik. You ever get the urge for the kind of game where you spend a lot of time staring at the screen and thinking, Terra Nil is it.

Alright, those are my nominees. Congrats to everyone who released a game this year, especially the countless indie studios whose work disappeared when Tsunami BG3 hit the scene. Don’t worry. We’ll all find you soon! …we just have to deal with the Absolute first.

After a lot of experimentation with two different brands of gypsum-based eco resins, I have learned how to not make dice. Here’s what else I’ve been up to the last few weeks!

While I love the idea of dice that look and feel like stone, eco-resin may not be the best choice for these (or any) dice. The material seems too soft and fragile, too easy to chip. The first mold I bought wasn’t the greatest, so I purchased another mold that worked perfectly, but regardless of the mold used, the colorant doesn’t seem to settle correctly or come out even, no matter how well mixed, and even though I’m using an oscillator at such high speeds that it’s loosening the screws that hold my house together, I cannot get all the bubbles out of these chock-full-o-fucking-angles dice molds.

I’m going to research colorants and sealers before totally discarding the idea, though.

Plane‘s layout is getting major changes. Although I’ve been designing websites, logos, branding, and other materials for years, I’m self-taught and still have a lot to learn, especially when it comes to rulebook layouts. Plane doesn’t have a deadline or projected release date because I want to feel like I’ve done the best job I’m capable of doing. I’m spending a lot of time considering the game world and the game itself as an art piece, giving it time to evolve, and following my instincts. I pursue many ideas knowing few will be viable. Those few viable ones result in notable changes. For example:

• The prompts are getting lengthened. I want players to have a bit more to work with in their games, and that starts with prompts that help players feel more immersed in the world and reveal topics and themes to explore.
• Section headers and iconography now run along the right and left sides of the pages. One of the things I like least about solo RPGs is having to scroll or flip through the rules to find the corresponding prompts. Adding icons and section headers to the outer edges of the spreads should help players with the print edition navigate their books faster.
• Each section of the rulebook will be themed with designs featuring different biomes. To make the rulebook even easier to navigate, I’ve designed a few different biomes with different color schemes, all of which are compatible with the game’s core color palette.

It took hours of tinkering for me to settle on these three ideas and determine how to execute them, but the vast improvements to the rulebook made it all worth it.

The tumbling block towers have finally arrived from China! All intact. Zero damage. I am extremely pleased, and I know this is such a stupid, small, and straightforward thing because of the internet, but I have a direct relationship with a manufacturer. They make these towers in their own facility! It’s crazy. Anyway…

First, I prepped the boxes. The manufacturer’s logo was burned into the wood, so I started by lightly sanding and filling them with wood filler. Then I gave each and every surface a light pass with fine-grit sandpaper, wiped them down, applied two thin coats of white gesso, and sanded them again before applying three coats of acrylic paint, followed by two coats of silky matte Liquitex sealer. Here’s a peek at the prototypes.

The bricks will be tedious AF to paint, so I purchased an airbrush. (Pray for me.) We’ll tell you how that adventure goes next month. In the meantime, Kanishk and I are going to be working on a playable draft, which we’ll share on our Patreon with our Arcane Advisors. If you aren’t there yet, join us, and you’ll see longer versions of these updates long before they’re published here!

I’m still researching card manufacturing companies, and I’ve narrowed down to two options. Once the designs are finalized, I’ll reach out to both for quotes.

Speaking of research, I spent my entire weekend (not an exaggeration, we’re talking 7+ hours each day) researching dicemaking materials and techniques. After watching dozens of crafters pouring gallons and gallons of resin into molds, creating what I will generously refer to as “tacky, disposable garbage” with materials so destructive to the environment that I’m shocked they’re not priced to discourage wonton use, I decided the dice for Plane will be made from an eco resin. These products are marketed as “eco-friendly,” largely because they’re made with gypsum and water-based resin. Are eco resins actually eco-friendly? Not entirely. They’re made from renewable and biodegradable ingredients, but they still contain acrylic polymers. Overall, they’re less shitty for the environment and the artist’s health than the alternatives. Eco resins also hold up better over time, whereas traditional resins and the dyes used to color them can yellow and fade pretty fast when exposed to sunlight, so this decision, at least, was not difficult to make.

So, after all my research, I chose some eco resin and purchased some dyes and other supplies. We need new Christmas ornaments this year, so I bought a 4-pack of ornament molds to practice with. I also bought a larger mold to create some decorative wall plaques. Here’s the polyhedral mold I’m planning to use. Because I have concerns about air bubbles, I bought a vibration tray, too.

Hopefully, I’ll have some completed polyhedral sets to show off next Thursday!

Making a custom card deck also isn’t technically difficult if you have design experience, but you still have to make a bunch of design decisions…typically. In designing Plane, I’ve already done a lot of that foundational design work. Starting with that framework—an existing color palette, suit icons, and an overall look—makes the deck creation process go much faster.

Speaking of frameworks, the first thing I did was create a template by arranging some image and text placeholders. These basic elements make it simple to determine where design elements should go and ensures each card layout will be consistent, even though their designs will all differ.

Once that was done, I started playing around with the fun stuff—backgrounds, colors, and interior art. The font we’re using (Air Americana, only available in demo form until December) has a few stylistic quirks. Some numbers require a bit of manual repositioning to make them look truly centered. (This isn’t abnormal. A lot of fonts, particularly stylized ones, need to be bumped around a bit in situations like this.)

I created the card art in a separate Affinity Publisher file, saved it as a PNG, and placed it within each card template. The hearts cards are all done…for now. The art might change, because I’m not 100% sure I like the uniformity.

Most playing cards are invertable; the design looks the same regardless of how the player holds them. I haven’t decided whether I want to go that route or allow for some variation, as I have here, with the cloud on the lower half being behind the loop. I might establish sets of elements for each suit (for example: the loop, cloud, and planet pair for hearts cards) and make each card within the suit unique by arranging those elements differently.

The idea of an inverted design doesn’t appeal to me as much as the idea of designs that have invertable core elements (like the central loop in the card pictured) but totally different upper and lower halves. It seems more thematically appropriate for the upper and lower halves to differ in subtle ways, just as parallel universes do.

One thing I am certain of is that I’ll be obsessing over this for the next week.

What is a solo RPG?

Unlike a traditional, multiplayer RPG (like Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinder), solo RPGs are designed to be played by one player. Typically, the game book serves as the DM, providing text passages that establish scenarios and art that sets the scene and illustrates game elements. Solo RPGs, like Four Against Darkness (a dungeon-delving game sometimes abbreviated as 4AD) or Dead Belt, tend to include combat and have characters and items with stats.

What is a solo journaling game?

Solo journaling games are incredibly diverse, but their unifying elements are prompts and recording/documenting. Many solo journaling games allow the player to determine their journaling method. Some strongly recommend a specific method for thematic purposes (like voice recordings for Call Your Exes), but for the most part, players may use a journal, voice or video recordings, or even just their imagination to play.

Solo journaling games don’t require many materials and tend to be rules-lite. It’s rare for players to have to track stats or worry about combat. For most games (especially those that are built or adapted from the Wretched & Alone SRD, a ruleset based on the game The Wretched by Chris Bissette), players will only require their preferred journaling tool, a deck of tarot or standard playing cards, a tumbling block tower (which is almost always optional), and maybe a few dice.

Regardless of the rule complexity, players will respond to prompts the game provides. These prompts may require players to describe items, delve into their character’s past (To Keep Ghosts Alive), become a con artist (Fake Guru, Real Vice), explore a physical space (an imaginary one, like in You Can’t Go Home, or a real one, like in Roller Rink Redux), or find a home (Village Witch). You can even tend a lighthouse (Lighthouse at the Edge of the World).

Smaller games tend to contain roll tables instead of prompts. These games are often referred to as “one-pagers.” Sometimes, they come in pamphlet form. Because of the small format, designers lean heavy on tables with broad prompts or activities that are open enough to facilitate replayability. Find conspiracies in a Where’s Waldo book (This Person Should Not Exist), fight your best friend in a battle to the death in a snowy clearing in the woods (Red Snow), or save Goncharov (Saving Goncharov). (If you don’t know who/what Goncharov is, here’s a reference.)

The very best solo games (in my opinion) require players to make something. Solo games that incorporate mapmaking (Delve) or any similar artistic element tend to rank among my favorite experiences. A Mending by Shing Yin Khor resulted in one of the most fulfilling solo journeys I’ve ever taken and allowed me to embroider a beautiful keepsake, which I have framed and hung up in my office.

Where do I find solo RPGs and solo journaling games?

Start at itch.io. Do some exploring on Kickstarter, too. (DriveThruRPG is great also, and has a really robust community, but I personally prefer itch.io.)

Who should I follow for solo gaming news and reviews?

Follow Liz Davidson at Beyond Solitaire immediately. Liz has been my favorite for years. Seeing Beyond Solitaire grow brings me a ton of joy. The Soloist on Substack is also great!

It’s rare to find outlets dedicated exclusively to solo gaming, so Beyond Solitaire and The Soloist are both truly special things. Thankfully, solo gaming is having a bit of an extended moment. (I hesitate to call it a Renaissance for fear of jinxing it.) Popular board gaming sites, like Shut Up & Sit Down and DiceBreaker, are now routinely covering notable solo games, so follow them also…just be prepared for your wishlists to expand exponentially.

If you’d like to see a list of my favorite solos, you can find that on my itch.io profile, along with an ever-expanding list of what I’m planning to play next.