How did you make and structure the whole PDF? It's really fun to look at and read asghghghasghghas!
a lot of it was just notes i took while stuck at work, futzing with a deck of cards on break to see how stuff would shake out/what could be fun or what kinda numbers sounded/felt okay to play with- it was quick to get ideas down, and organizing it was about the same.
Structuring took time to type/transcribe notes, manually format text (my art program didn't have a wrap-text option at the time so i suffered ;;), and to do the art/assets- i wanted to challenge myself a bit by sticking to a style that wasn't as hatch/detail reliant as my primary one. i play/read a lot of ttrpgs, so I'm always a fan of how illustrations get set into rulebooks.
It + Heartbreaker are still kinda messy, but i'm happy with how it all turned out
OH!! I love hearing the process, it's really cool! And tbh, everytime I read Dialtone it just really makes me want to make my own system and such! Gets me really excited about TTRPGs! I do wonder if the main party or scenes in there are all on the spot or it's like from a campaign? Dialtone's and Heartbreaker's illustrations are such eye candy!
i encourage you to make stuff always, even if you've never done it or are just starting out- its the best way to learn, and the act of creation is fun as hell in itself.
the scenes ironically came independent of any idea for a story- i more wanted to convey snippets of things happening outside their context that'd be fun to kinda get someone's brain going. during the writing for heartbreaker though, i'd been wanting to prod inklings i'd had for a story, which was mostly confined to illustration/impulses to do a comic or try to learn small gamedev to act it out- but i need to clear my plate more first before that