Welcome to the first series of this new blogging venture, all about how to write your own indie TTRPG game! This will mostly fall into a sort of advice column, where I talk about what has (and hasn’t) worked for me, when it comes to creating indie TTRPGs.
I feel that I should preface this all with the caveat that I am, by no means, an expert on writing or indie game design. However, it has been a few years since I wrote my first game and I have a fair few out there in the world. Please take my advice with a grain of salt, and be sure to do your own research. That’s what’s worked best for me.
Probably the first and most often asked question about my game design process has been, “Where do you get your ideas?” This question has so many possible answers, but the easiest one I can give is “everywhere!”
My first suggestion to you, ‘O Searcher of Inspiring Stuff, is to slow down and take in what’s going on around you. Inspiration can come from anywhere. Sometimes it’s the way sunlight glimmers off the water, or falling leaves, or the warm and cozy feeling that settles over you with a good mug of tea. Sometimes it comes from a conversation, or a book, or a particularly good song. And sometimes, it comes from absolutely no where at all.
Recently, game designer Paul Czege asked me where I came up with the idea for Foam & Fiction, which is somehow one of my most popular offerings on Itch.io. The story here is so boring and not at all glamorous - I remember waking up in the middle of the night and typing “Magical bookstore / café game” into the notes app on my phone.
You may be thinking, dear reader, did I have a dream that prompted this late night revelation that awoke me from a dead sleep? I cannot say. But regardless, when I woke up proper the next morning, I had so many ideas and I feel like Foam & Fiction came together very quickly. The part I really agonized over? The title. My brain could NOT come up with a name for a café / bookstore, and kept getting hung up on Foam Party… But I also really did not want to get sued by Marvel for copyright infringement, so here we are.
The initial cover concept for Threshold: Autumn covered by a bottle of gold ink, a leather notebook, a dip calligraphy pen, and a note that reads: "The story isn't possible without you."
So much of my inspiration comes from other games I play, as well. Other indie games, solo games, MMOs, resource management games, micro games. I love reading games others have built and picking apart the mechanics to create something of my own within their framework.
My whole indie game design journey started with a publication by Siren Song Games, designed by my friend Meghan Cross: The Silent Garden. This game opened so many doors for me, and helped me understand exactly what we, as designers, could push a game to be. My first two games, Threshold: Autumn and Winter, were created with The Silent Garden framework in mind: A narrative story with many branches, many paths, all of which ask the player to check in with how they feel and what they’re experiencing every step of the way.
The Threshold games were absolutely transformative for me, as both a writer and a designer. I pull inspiration from so many places: My love of rural town life, Studio Ghibli films, the Fatal Frame video game series, the concept of a night market, sirens who lure people into the water, growing up on the northeast coast of the United States near both the ocean and the forest, the movies The VVitch and The Village, videos of explorers in ice caves, and my deep love and respect (and fear) of the ocean. The list goes on.
As I am now realizing how long this post is becoming, I feel the need to draw it to a close with some simple advise, my dear reader: Take inspiration from everywhere. Everything. Everyone. And don’t be afraid to try new things and make mistakes. Everything you create will need revisions and changes and multiple versions… It will never be perfect on the first try. But keep going! You got this. I believe in you.