Newsletter

New Year, Same Me

Time comes for us all

Ben Mansky

— 3 min read
New Year, Same Me

It’s been a while since my last update, and a lot has happened! I may not have accomplished most of my game-design goals for 2024, but I learned a lot. And there were a lot of highlights buried among the chaos.

So, what have I been up to?

  • My biggest project this year was Triangle Agency (layout & mission writing), which is just now landing in the hands of its last few Kickstarter backers. The reception this game has received is just unreal. I went with the team to PaxU in December and worked the booth, which was an inspiring experience! I love games, I love the people who make them, and I love the people who play them.

    A photo of the Triangle Agency Normal Briefcase box set sitting on a kitchen countertop. It is a box designed to look like a brown leather briefcase with gold corners, adorned with a variety of stickers and bearing a large scratch that extends from the top left to the center of the box.
    The Normal Briefcase box set in all its glory

  • I laid out Hooligans by Ty Oden! It’s the perfect micro-RPG for all you chaos goblins out there. This is my favorite part of the layout (look at Them):

    A scribbly drawing on a torn piece of paper labeled "The Crew!!." It includes a toothy red stick-goblin holding a bag of cash, a flying green goblin holding a wrench, a little yellow goblin hanging out of the front window of a purple van, and the words "honk honk," with the second "honk" cut off by the edge of the page.
    honk honk

  • I put some real actual thought into AGAIN, my time loop game that, in retrospect, I’ve been working on in some form since like 2012 (with a decade-long break in the middle). It’s not quite ready for playtesting, but I’m hoping to get it there “soon,” which is to say, sometime in the next 2-3 months. In the meantime, this is what the front of the character sheet looks like in its current form (it’s a one-page zine that you fold and cut in the center, like so):

    What could all these diagrams possibly mean ???

  • Speaking of time loops, do you (or does someone you know) run a game store? Want to stock The Cross Stitch, my award-winning folk-horror time loop adventure for MÖRK BORG? Let me know!

  • I also have made quite a bit of progress turning Hillbrook Glen into something more coherent as a single game, rather than a bunch of random little disconnected minigames. Still much to do on the actual mechanics of the thing (about 3/5 of the way there), but the vibes are feeling right. If you want a taste, here’s your Orientation to Hillbrook at Home. And you can still find a version of the first workshop, Manifest Your Dreams, on Itch.

    A blurry image of greenery with a thick, dark green border. At the top of the image in white serif text, "hillbrook glen." In the center is an illustration of a long stem with three leaves emerging from the top. Just below the leaves, a ring encircles the stem. At the bottom, in white lowercase serif font, the words: "a transformative wellness experience by foresight studio."
    Is it a TTRPG? Is it a skin care line? Who can say?

  • I left my day job at the beginning of this month! So, I have an unusual amount of time to do things like work on games and write this newsletter. I do, however, need to eat food and pay bills, so if you want to buy my games, now is a great time. Or if you’re interested in hiring me for layout, design, or writing, get in touch through my website!

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That’s it for the time being. I’m sincerely hoping that I can share some design diaries and playtest documents with you all more regularly in 2025, but I’m starting a part-time new day job soon, and who knows what that’ll look like. Hopefully good! All I can promise is, I’ll keep pushing forward my weird little projects as best I can. I hope you like them.

Looking to the future,

Ben // Foresight Studio

I’m mostly on bluesky now (& theoretically also tumblr), so while I do still have twitter, I wouldn’t expect updates there. Or come hang out on the Foresight Studio discord server!

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