Tomorrow is Today's Yesterday

Happy 2024, everyone!! Congratulations on surviving another year. I’m proud of us.

This month, I’m taking a quick look back over 2023 at Foresight Studio. Not by the numbers or anything useful like that, just general vibes. I’m also going to go through some goals for the year, and a short list of topics that are stuck in my brain that you can look forward to seeing more about in future newsletters. Plus, a small collection of things that are inspiring me right now.

First, though, what’s new this month?

• The Cross Stitch is sold out most places, but it’s just clawed its way out of the Kartellian Vaults! You can find it there for now (and perhaps also at your friendly local game store) until I decide I have the bandwith to organize a third print run.

• Work continues on Triangle Agency, and we’re deep in the layout mines. There’s some amazing stuff we’re digging up down here.

• I hit 3,000 downloads on itch a couple days ago, which isn’t the most meaningful milestone in the universe but I think it’s kind of cool!

• I have been full of ideas. Too many ideas. But more on that in a second.

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Hindsight // Foresight

I started making games in summer of 2022, which means 2023 was my first full year of being a part-time TTRPG professional. I set out with the goal of publishing a couple small games and doing a bit of freelance layout work. Although I didn’t finish all the games I had hoped to, I did end up publishing a couple of small ones (Hillbrook Glen: Manifest your Dreams and Decomposer), I playtested a third, and I did some freelance layout work (Public Access, The Silt Verses RPG, and now, Triangle Agency). In fact, I did more layout than I initially intended, because it turns out designing books is super fun and cool.

This year I also saw my first physical project (The Cross Stitch) in the wild, at real life brick-and-mortar game stores. Plus it won an award! And to round out the year, I went to PaxU, my first tabletop convention. All in all, I’d call the 2023 vibe: bog. Slow, gentle, dark, sometimes frustrating to slog through, maybe a witch lives there, but that’s good.

So, what’s next?

I’m keeping my goals for 2024 simple:

• Finish making Triangle Agency the most delightful, thrilling, [REDACTED] <employee handbook/TTRPG> you’ve ever read.
• Finally publish Hillbrook Glen: Follow your Bliss, my 80% finished post-it crawl/wellness workshop. (Spring 2024)
• Publish Ex Nihilo Ad Nihilum, an adventure for CY_BORG. (Summer 2024)
• Wrap up a playable prototype of [Time Loop Game title TBD]. (Fall 2024)

Most of these things will show up digital-only, but eventually I’ll think about what print projects are next for the studio. I’m very likely moving across the U.S. at some point this year, so physical stock is not in the immediate future.

What lies ahead

What can you expect to read more about here over the coming year? Here’s a look at the games, media, objects, and stories that got lodged in my brain this year, and that I’ll be writing about over the next few months:

• Pathologic, Deadly Premonition, Baroque (but specifically the less-good Wii remake), and the joy of broken, nonsensical games
• Why asymmetry in tabletop games makes your brain feel special and magic
• What graphic designers for TTRPGs can learn from skin care, cosmetics, and K-pop album packaging design
• Intuitive design in physical games (a love letter to slots, boxes, stickers, tokens, and dashboards)
• From Root to mah jong to tarot: how to make interpretation of card suits a more meaningful mechanic
• Wildermyth, leveling up, and the gradual accretion of mostly-forgotten memories that forms the foundation of the self
• Idk, something about neurobiology or epigenetics? Are you interested in that?

And here’s a few other things I’ve found to be particularly inspiring lately: The Black Book, genetic bottlenecks and the founder effect, weird suburbs, Threads of Fate, well-designed weekly planners, deckbuilding games.

Looking to the future,

Ben // Foresight Studio

As always, find me on tumblr or twitter (or cohost or bluesky or mastodon, though I can’t promise I’ll be active there). Or come hang out on the Foresight Studio discord server!