Aaron Goss

Hi, I'm Aaron (he/him). I'm passionate about accessible, inclusive, creative game development, and I teach about that, too. More info and my games at aarongoss.carrd.co

[raspilicious]

Hey, friends! Guess what?? Tiny Library: Modern Fantasy is now live on Gamefound!! It's a deck of 51 single-card RPG fragments from 51 creators, including me!

My fragment is Patchwork Memories—a pocket-sized memory keeper you can use to keep track of the things that happen in your game or your own life, and bring them with you wherever you go 😊💖

You can grab a physical copy of the deck, a digital version, and even mugs on the Gamefound page (at bit.ly/TL-MF) 🥰

[breathing-stories]

The lyric games itch bundle is live!

I'm a massive fan of lyric games and they ways they push the boundaries of what it means to be a game, in order to deliver unique, profound, touching experiences.

I'm excited to jump into this bundle and see what it holds!

Lyric Games!: 33 items for $20.00

[raspilicious]

[raspilicious]

Dynamic, Interactive Card Previews on itch.io

Soooooo I got some super duper mega fancy animations for some of my one-card microgames all working and polished on itchio! 😱 🤯 🤩 🥰 The cards now FLIP OVER when you hover your mouse on them on my itchio pages! I'm so proud and excited that I got them working, and to show you all here! 😊

I also think that it's the second or third instance of dynamic, interactive animated content I've ever seen on itchio other than embedded or linked videos or GIF images! It just doesn't seem to be very common at all on itchio, from what I've seen.

It took me DAYS to get the interaction working properly for the first card... 🫠 But then mere hours to do all of the other three together! And now that I have a pretty solid process working, it'll take me even less time to add this interactivity to my other games, too! So, I'll be adding similar previews to as many of my other games on itchio as I can. Stay tuned for that! 😎

In short, I manually wrote the HTML of the pages and used CSS to animate the card flips. I am more than happy to talk with people about how I got this working if you're keen to know. Just hit me up in a chat-worthy place! 😊

If you're keen to check them out yourselves, pop over to one of these pages of mine linked below, and simply hover your mouse over the card to flip it over! (Or, if you're using a touch-screen, tap on the card to flip it over, then tap somewhere off the card to flip it back.)

DESTRUCTO-BALL

Treasure Trader

Patchwork Memories

Yet It Feels Like Home

Please share any feedback you have with me as I am more than happy to receive it, and it'll surely help me improve the pages and animation further than I could by myself.

Thank you, and enjoy! 🥰

[raspilicious]

Hi, friends!

I’m sending out a little announcement that my games are made by me, a human. Not AI or similar generators or tools. And to signify this on my games, wholly inspired by HINOKONO and others’ similar messages, I have been adding “Human Made” imagery and notations to them. I’ve added these signifiers on some of my game pages already, and I will be adding them to my other game pages soon, too, when I get some time to do so.

So, you’ll see something like this on each of my games soon enough:

These works were made by a human (or, in some cases, multiple humans). No AI or machine-generated works are included in these projects. Supporting these projects means you are supporting real human beings who have dreams, passions, and bills.

Thank you.

The “Human Made” icons are used in good faith, made by HINOKODO, and distributed in their Human Made asset pack. If you’ve got any games or creative works that follow suit, I recommend you do the same!

The games and projects I have added these signifiers to so far are the following (each of which, and more, you can get from my page on itch.io):

Treasure Trader

Patchwork Memories

SIGNALS FROM THE DEEP

L.A.B. Crawler Mechnicians

Support your favourite developers. Stay safe. Keep on keeping on. 💖

Yours humanely, Aaron

[avalynramsaygames]

In July 2017 a group of friends and I played a stand alone session of Mobile Suit Zero: Firebrands.

In September 2023 I hold my first published and printed TTRPG, Beam Saber.

I feel... relieved to have it come this far. There's still some work to do to wrap up the Kickstarter but this is a major milestone.

There are SO many people who helped make this. Page 2 lists a lot of them, the biggest contributors, but there are more in the back!

6 years have passed since I started taking notes on my phone.

A lot has changed.

Two things that haven't are my love of mechs, and my love for Beam Saber.

I know I did a good job making it, and you should try playing it if you haven't.

I hope you'll watch what I do next.

[luckynewtgames]

Ever want to be a character in a game, or have your character illustrated in a game? We reopened art spots for Customer Cards in Whistling Wolf Café! All money paid for the art spots will go directly to the artist.

Lucky Newt's Customer Card Art Spots

Become a customer at the Whistling Wolf Café! Purchase an art spot and you (or your character) will be turned into a Customer Card!

[probablybadrpgideas]

DND but every action you take must be communicated via strings of emojis.

[hyphenartist]

Gen Con 2023: The Basics of Small Press Publishing in RPGs

Thanks to not knowing just how far the north and south ends of the con were, I got to this panel a bit late. Which is a pity, because Brian Colin, Tony Vasinda, Limithron LLC, Zac Goins, and Rugose Kohn were throwing out some really helpful advice. Here are the highlights from my notebook:

Community and Networking

Find folks at your level. It can be on Discord, at cons, through game jams -- the medium isn't important, the interaction is what's key. Find just a few groups of supportive people at about the same step in their game career as yourself. If there's a specific engine/system you like working in, a lot of them have their own play and design communities you can engage with.

Share your work, and know what sort of feedback you're looking for.

Don't worry about keeping up with any one site. No social media app is essential. Invest in the platforms you enjoy, and let the rest funnel folks to the accounts you're invested in.

That said, online networking itself is entirely optional, so long as you're willing/able to make it to in-person events -- or have a partner that's happy to handle it on their own.

When it comes to reaching out to others in the community, particularly folks that may be more established than you, don't be afraid to send out cold emails.

Always be on the lookout for other events in the field. Swap games with your friends. Unpub is a useful resource for playtesting and more.

Publishing

At Exalted Funeral, you bring a game to them, and, if they like it, they front the costs pf preparing it for publication. They also commission art: a bill which you and EF will ultimately share. Once things go through, you get 1/2 of all earnings and EF gets 18 months of exclusive publishing rights (this bullet is based on two-month-old handwritten notes; the information is likely incomplete/lacking certain nuance).

Regardless of what company you're approaching, you can't afford to be polite about the details. Get the numbers, ask every question that comes to mind, and be as direct as possible.

Don't stop with talking to the company. Talk to peers and friends that you trust. Talk to a lawyer!

If a publisher says their contract is under an NDA and you can't share it with anybody -- walk away!

While art can help establish aesthetics and tone, you don't need it when you're looking for publishers.

Design

Before you even work with a publishing company, consider putting out the minimum viable product on itch. It's a great way to get people playing (and talking) before the final release.

Modular design is a great way to boost engagement. It gets other designers tinkering and talking. Releasing an SRD is a great way to facilitate this.

Be cautious about overinvesting in design and art before the game is finished. You can't know for certain what's going to change or get cut by the time of publication.

As you're designing, think about digital and analog formats for your game. Why would a player use one over the other? Which setting is most beneficial for your design? What tools would help adapt your game to either format?

[raspilicious]

Just casually going to Japan for a month. See y'all on the other side 💖

[raspilicious]

50 posts!

[porblegames]

it's easy to look down on shanty town but look closer.

- walkable

- access to mass transit

- plenty of old spare tires

- lots of free art displays

[soulmuppet]

When your heart aches from trouble and trauma, that is the AFTERBURN.

Orbital Blues: Afterburn goes live on Kickstarter on the 17th October, two weeks today.

The original Orbital Blues cover is cool and dusty blues with a hot red spine, we inverted it here and made a book of vibrant oranges with a royal blue spine, perfect to sit alongside the original on your shelf.

This isn't dustbowl melancholia. It's a book about spaceships and fire and engines and heat and, most of all, love.

We're going to give you adventure, excitement and heartbreak.

This is the first hardcover expansion book for OB, and comes with an adventure, GM advice and dozen new spaceships to give to your crew and use as enemies.

Coming soon: Orbital Blues: Afterburn

A series of new books, adventures and merchandise for Orbital Blues, an RPG about sad space cowboys.

[luckynewtgames]

Did you know we made a fragment for Tiny Library Modern Fantasy?

Did you know we're crowdfunding now?

Did you know you can get your favorite card on a mug?

Help make our project a reality and support over 50 indie creators in the process!

bit.ly/TL-MF

[breathing-stories]

⚠️ And we’re liiiiiiive!! ⚠️

51 TTRPG fragments ready to slip into your modern fantasy game, or smashed together to create your own! 🤩

Who’s gonna be the first backer? 👀👀

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/long-tail-games/tiny-library-modern-fantasy

[valerielillis]

When it comes to creative writing, the best plan is whichever one that actually works. Individual habits, patterns, and needs of writers are mainly why there are so many plans to choose from in the first place.

[gee0man]

Forgot to post it here but I want to get the word out everywhere.

If you haven't already heard, mecha ttrpg Lancer is going to be back in print soon AND you can get a special version with cover art by yours truly. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say I've given everything I am as a mecha fan to this one, I hope you all dig it as much as I do.

I'm not up to date on the specifics but check in with Lancer's official accounts to get more info on when you can get your hands on it.