ONE MONTH, FIVE GAMES: WHAT I LEARNED MAKING TTRPG

Originally published on my Substack.

On July 25th, I published my first TTRPG on Itch.io: *LAST SOLO*. Since then, I’ve released four other games, for a total of five(one is hidden). In this first month, I dove headlong into the TTRPGs world. I participated in a jam and read different games, wrote ideas and systems, and above all, I learned a lot**.

Here’s a short recap: what I made, what I learned and where I want to go next.

Photo by Timothy Dykes on Unsplash

WHAT I RELEASED

• Last Solo — **for Eternal TTRPG jam A game about musical rebellion: you’re musicians trying to free music from AI censorship. It’s a one-page game**.
• Spice Odyssey — **for the 1100 Words TTRPG Kitchen jam You play a group that inherits a failing restaurant and the only way to save it is to find legendary spices. This one is currently hidden because I’m not fully happy with it**.
• Home — **inspired by Darren Aronofsky’s film “Mother!” A two-player game. One player is the Home, the other is the Guest,** a man who accepted the invitation but can’t remember anything about himself. He’ll find out by exploring the house.
• Last Words 2049 A two-player game. The ship is going down and there’s only one escape pod left. Two people on the ship but only one can get out alive. Or maybe not.
• The Nameless — for the Poetry Inspired TTRPG jam A story game with a rotating game master. One player is The Nameless, returning to their city after a war. The other is The Place, playing the city itself and everything that happens there. The goal is to accept or reject what The Nameless finds.

WHAT I LEARNED I learned several things:

1. Reading other games helped me grow This month I read many games (famous ones, unknown ones, etc.). Every game gave me something: a mechanic to adapt, an idea to develop or just a new way to think about games.
2. Community matters I joined several Discord groups with designers and players. Just reading their conversations made me realize how important it is to share ideas, doubts and prototypes. Being part of a community gives a huge boost. I want to be even more involved.
3. Write on paper I started using a notebook to sketch, draw and write. Writing on paper helps me to “see” the game better and makes it feel more real. Drawing “things” unlocks new ideas.
4. Jams It was really important to participate in the game jam. Deadlines and rules gave me clear boundaries to work within. They helped me to focus on a few key elements and finish something.
5. Simplicity I always try to set limits: one page, one main idea, few rules. This simplicity helps me understand what I want to say. Some ideas born this way might grow into bigger games later.

Of course, some of these games started as ideas I had in the past. This month I just decided to put them on paper.

What’s next? I’ll keep joining game jams, focusing on small game design and chatting with the TTRPG community whenever I can. At the same time, I’ve decided to take game design more seriously: I want to study and explore more resources to get better at it.

Slowly, I’ll also start focusing on a “bigger” (whatever that means) project I’ve been thinking about for a while.

If you want to keep up, follow me here or check out my games: https://alxlinear.itch.io

Thanks for reading See you in the next post!