itch.io

Oh wow, hi Evlyn from Bluesky! I didn't know you made this game! It's so damn delightful. 

Yay! Thanks! Just sent you a message. 

Thanks!

I'm going to the GAMA Expo March 1 - 5th, so I probably won't be able to get the jam together until after that's over, but I'll keep ya posted! Do you have a Discord or something where I might contact you more directly by the way? 

Hey! I was also wondering: do you take commissions? I'm looking to get a logo done for Goblin Door Games and love your style. 

Since you effectively paid for the jam, and because it therefore seems like a possible conflict of interest for you to submit an Infestation as a contestant, how would you feel about being one of the judges? 

Just saw the purchase! Thank you so much! I'll figure out a jam as soon as I can!

Whoah! That's incredibly generous! I've never launched a Jam before, but yes, I would absolutely do that! 

Also, because I am, as aforementioned, apparently an obsessive madwoman, I just added a character sheet (with a handy-dandy lil cheetsheet included) to the download files. So if you do run a game, that's there for ya!

Thank you so much!

And that's a great point. I'll think on how to clarify that ambiguity. 

If you end up running it, I would love nothing more than to hear how it goes. 

So, because I'm an obsessive madwoman, I posted another update (3.1.3) in response to this feedback. I changed the core mechanic to kind of combine these two versions, but maybe more importantly, this helped me clarify some things about defining stakes, assessing narrative positioning, and the kind of experience I want the GM to have when adjudicating things at the table.

I also wrote some more thoughts down in a Devlog if you're interested! 

https://goblin-door-games.itch.io/before-the-worms/devlog/1374867/squishy-meat-b...

Or maybe I should just go back to the earlier version. It's possible I over-tinkered :P

Thanks for the feedback, and for catching the typos! As I noted in the most recent devlog, there seems to be some sort of cosmic rule that you must notice a typo immediately after you hit submit on something.

As for the mechanics... Hmmm. Yeah, I worried about players litigating draws too. I might just change it to combine the two? That is, GM decides likelihood, then players draw a number of cards corresponding to that assessment (1 = unlikely, 2 = even odds, 3 = likely, 4 = very likely, and "draw two and take the lower" = very unlikely.  

Great font, thank you! I used it for a Liminal Horror supplement about Scary Angels :) 

https://goblin-door-games.itch.io/be-not-afraid

Also, I just uploaded a new version with a minor tweak to the core mechanics (basically, you draw a number of cards, usually 1 - 3, trying for a face card). The probabilities are a bit cleaner this way.

Not sure if that had anything to do with why the mechanics got the side-eye, but I'm always interested to hear critiques, as I'm always trying to make it better.

I also added a couple more pages with advice on framing scenes, and more art!

Wow... I'm at a loss for words. That's incredibly humbling and heartening to hear. I've definitely tried to work in and condense some of the best advice I've heard on the subject, along with my own personal perspective as a GM and game designer.

I always hope that, apart from anything else, the things I'm making will be useful to people. So thank you, it truly means a great deal. 

Done! Thanks so much for the reminder, and for putting this bundle together!!

Yay! Thank you! 

I also agree that this would be an excellent way to create Orcs for a longer game. I especially enjoyed that they weren't limited to the standard fantasy trope depiction, and that although they are warlike creatures, it's because they were specifically created as living engines of war by unscrupulous sorcerers, and the actual culture of the Orcs and their relationship with the Lannians is just important as the weird gribbly bits and various distortions of their harrowed flesh. 

I played a solo game of this in about an hour and had a lovely time imagining my shapeshifting Orcs who reproduced by eating and absorbing people (and each other), then tearing bits of flesh off themselves. They won every battle and then were oppressed by their Creators after the war in a desperate attempt to control them. And although they lost their subsequent rebellion, they didn't completely die out. The survivors turned into roving bands of mercenaries, and the other nations soon began making their own...

10 / 10, would Orc again. 

Hello again! First off, I wanted to let you know that I've just uploaded an update to the version of Before the Worms I submitted for the jam. Hopefully you still feel that these very kind and generous words apply to the new version. Assuming you feel that they do, I also wanted to ask whether you'd be comfortable with me using this review on the game's page and/or in promotional materials. 

And thank you so much once more!

My girlfriend and I just played this! We made up a novel called "Dark Star" about a butch flyboy and a vampire navigator who fall in love aboard a generation ship bound for a blacklight star that wouldn't burn vampires. It was written by a teenage girl known only as "SapphicStarChild" and it was absurd and amazing. We also ended up making out quite a bit both during and between our scenes. 10/10 would yearn again. 

Would also like to know if I can use this in a game project! 

Unsplash collage artists high-five! XD

Awee, yay! Thank you! 

Je ne peux pas lire le français (j'écris ceci avec Google Traduction), mais je suis tellement amusé par l'image de couverture, car j'ai utilisé la même dans une œuvre d'art pour mon jeu d'horreur très sombre.

Thank you so much for these incredibly kind words. 

Regardless of what people do with this game, or if it even ends up being played, the fact that people like yourself can see clearly what I am attempting to communicate through it... truly means the world to me. Thank you again, and if you ever have any further feedback or questions, I'd love to hear them, especially  you ever get a chance to play it. 

(PS, funnily enough, I did in fact set the playtest of the game in my hometown!)

Thank you so much! If you ever do get the time to play it, I'd love to hear how it goes! 

Thank you! You as well! I just sent a friend request on Discord, and I'll reach out over email as well. 

Thank you so much for these beautifully horrifying images! I backed this Kickstarter and am still waiting to find the right project to use such incredible art on, but I have no doubt that I shall! 

Wow... I really can't express how meaningful that is to hear. That's really all I wanted to do with this game. So it's deeply gratifying to hear that it reached someone in the way I hoped it might. Truly made my day, thank you so much. 

And yes, absolutely! I'd be honored, and would be happy to talk with you about the translation, however works best for you. 

And I appreciate the typo catch! I'm actually about to run a playtest and will  do a few edits based on that and some other notes, then will upload an update soon, and will fix the error you noticed as well!

Once again, thank you so much for the kind words. It really means the world to me. 

How dare you see me. 

Thank you.

I'm going to print this out and look at it next time I start fighting the War. 

Hey thank you so much! If you get a chance to play it, I would love to hear how it goes! 

In my personal experience, the game is best enjoyed as a LARP. Trying to really *embody* the Word is what connects me with the world and the characters. 

As an aside: it's a really easy game to hack! My girlfriend and I replaced the word with a different one, and it let to a similar but very distinct play experience! 

Best of all, you can play the whole game in just a few minutes! Great for parties. Definitely one of my favorite short-form indie RPGs.

Heya! I just wanted to let you know that I've published another update to the system which, among other things, adds some tools that I think will help a lot with solo play! 

Thank you so much for this feedback! It's incredibly helpful.

Responding to your questions / observations:

• Hunter (specifically Hunter: the Vigil) is definitely an inspiration! As was the Wyrm / Pentex / the Fomori. I should maybe add the latter to the list of Touchstones, actually. The needle I'm trying to thread here is between describing a very bleak and uncompromising setting to serve as a stark backdrop for the ethics and decisions of the characters, but not making it so dreary and unrelentingly depressing that nobody wants to play it! I'm glad it seems intriguing enough to not be an instant turn-off, at least. 

• Because it's such an intense game, I think a long-term campaign would be difficult to sustain on a purely emotional level. I imagine that games would be single "episodes" of 1-3 sessions or relatively short "arcs" of maybe 7-10. Which means that I do expect characters to burn out relatively fast. But at the same time, I don't want it to be so lethal that the players don't have time to get to know them (and thus feel the impact). I did think about giving a way to "heal" relationships, but decided against it. I'll need to playtest the death spiral to see how fast it tightens though, and how that feels. 

• The point about the character's own abilities is a good one. In my current thinking, the idea was essentially that your relationships *are* your abilities, in that if you, say, know how to shoot, one of your Tethers taught you that. But I see that it's not really explained in the text. Plus, I think it might be a bit muddled. Separating those out may work better, though I'm not sure how to distinguish them mechanically without adding unnecessary complexity. 

Anyway, once again, I really can't thank you enough for taking the time to engage with this. If you end up doing a solo playthrough, I would love to hear how it went and any notes you may have. Honestly, just the idea that someone might actually play the weird little game I made absolutely makes my day!

Hello! I've written a tabletop roleplaying game I could submit to this Jam. Are those accepted, or only digital games? 

Heya! I just wanted to let you know that I've posted another revision, which I hope makes some of the answers to these questions clearer. 

I just added an introduction to the game text, reproducing the text on this page. Thanks again! 

You're welcome! Thanks for your art! I actually just took that game down and replaced it with a different but related one, a more fully realized evolution of the system. It still uses a couple of your pieces, though more heavily edited and layered with other images. Here's the link!

https://intrepid-gremlin.itch.io/before-the-worms