itch.io

What’s on this page is basically all the info that exists so far! It’s a category that I devised for my smaller games that are one page or less and PWYW with a suggested price of $1. At one point I had thoughts about trying to make it a more defined label for others to adopt as well, but I haven’t put a lot of time into trying to spread it yet. The whole collection so far is here: https://itch.io/c/2906016/odd-bijoux

Also, having seen your edit, I did indeed call this game Eyes In The Dark for a long time during development, so I was very curious where you’d run across the name!

May it see you safely on your way to more tasks checked off and more treats!

Wow, thank you for your incredibly kind comment and superb feedback! I’m so thrilled that you enjoyed your playthrough and the story you ended up creating!

Thank you for sharing your experience, I always love to hear about how playthroughs go! Beautiful tragedy is very much a tone I love and I’m glad to hear that Galatea could deliver that for you.

What a brilliant game. Making a personalized playlist (or even better, getting someone close to you to make you one) is a wonderful way to both add a unique personal connection to your individual playthrough and introduce a wealth of potential subtle changes to the basic story frame. I was astonished how quickly the lyrics from the songs in my playlist braided together with the open-ended prompts to become a story I wouldn’t have envisioned writing when I started - and a story that will be significantly different from any other playthrough. A really fantastic experience beginning to end.

My playthrough: https://mirror-lock.com/2025/06/22/playthrough-one-more-song/

My playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0hTFEF6jDo4iZzrVTpPeKU?si=Syff8UXoTim4vczQVK6PKA&pi=jXQ-Khs6SH6xp

A great addition to the Wretched & Alone genre! One detail I noticed - on page 4, the text says you need a standard deck of playing cards with no jokers, but the illustration of the hand of cards has the jack of spades crossed out.

If I were to put together a shortlist of solo TTRPGs to learn from, Root & Knot would be at the top of the list. The diegetic mechanics to selectively change the rules text are so cleverly executed.

Glad to hear that you’re excited to play! Knave of Cups has no plans to release a pages version of their risograph product. If you can only print in pages form, the older versions of the game (v1.01 and the print friendly version) are set up for printing on 8.5” x 11” paper. The text is the same, only the layout is different.

Beautiful! I hope the journey ahead is kind to you!

I’m thrilled to hear that you enjoyed playing!

Glad to hear you’re enjoying the game so far! Essentially, every check represents some moment when there is a hazard with a potential risk of failure. It doesn’t have to be strictly one per day. If the story that’s unfolding for you doesn’t feel like there’s room for immediate dangers that day, keep writing until you do come across a potential challenge! I hope that helps - let me know if I misunderstood your question.

This exact situation is why I keep evolving ever more true names for myself. Let’s go with “S. Kaiya J.”

You know, this is the second time that I’ve heard of this very rare ending occurring! The very first playtester for Her Odyssey drew the jokers as the 53rd and 54th cards of his deck, and his wanderer ended up inciting a mages’ revolution to make their false home into something that could be called a true home. I hope that you enjoyed your wanderer’s journey and that she finds a way to carve out a home for herself as well!

Sometimes fairy tales are kind to their heroes. I’m glad you were able to save your love, and that you had a good time!

Hi there! There isn’t an official alternative printed in the game since so many aspects of the game involve interacting with the physical tower in a way that dice pools and other typical Wretched & Alone tower-alternatives can’t model (for example, choosing how many blocks to build up the tower with in each layer, and inserting tarot cards into the tower between layers). That said, here are some alternatives I can recommend you:

• You can use both hands when placing and removing blocks, or use some other method to help steady yourself.
• You can forgo the use of the Jenga tower entirely, ignoring all prompts to build on and remove blocks from the tower.

The tower falling is only one out of four potential ending conditions, and most playtest games ended before the tower fell. You’ll still have interesting choices to make and multiple paths towards different game-end conditions if you remove the tower from gameplay.

I’m thrilled you enjoyed your playthrough! I haven’t given any thought to making Galatea a multiplayer experience - if you devise a way to play it with two players, please let me know how it goes!

FYI the page that starts “Your Character” appears to be duplicated in both the high-res and printer-friendly PDFs.

Oh gosh, thank you so much for your kind words! I hope your monster’s journey continues to be a source of reflection and inspiration.

Thank you so much for playing! Your Solovember playthroughs are always real gems to read.

I’m honored and touched to hear that the game made such an impact on you!

Thanks for your kind words!

Take your time! I’ll be thrilled to see your work no matter when it’s ready!

Knave of Cups isn’t planning on releasing a pages PDF of their print zine layout at present.

That’s a reasonable concern! You can just place the cards at the bottom of your deck rather than using a discard pile.

(While you could certainly shuffle the deck between every draw, it’s a variant rule for a reason - I find it changes the feel of the game a slight but significant amount. It’s great if that extra layer of uncertainty is what you want to opt in for, but placing the cards at the bottom of the deck is a better way to get the standard experience if that’s what you want!)

That sounds great, thank you!

I’m honored to have been an indirect inspiration! Especially for a game that delves deliciously into some of my favorite themes and tropes.

After reading the new version, I have some more questions about how the rules work. Is there a better way to send those over to you than through Itch comments?

Extremely interesting and innovative combination of Wretched&Alone with Breathless! One note, though - in a deck of playing cards, J generally stands for Jack, not Joker (of which there are two). Drawing “all four Jokers” was a very confusing phrase the first time I saw it.

Absolutely, feel free to mix aspects of Aspire with other systems, and to submit it to multiple jams! To borrow a quote from the hosts of the Dead Belt Jam, if you feel like it’s an Aspire game, then it is.

Amazing, thank you for the heads up!

Thank you so much for sharing Clarice’s odyssey! I’m so glad she was able to find a new home after a short and sweet journey.

Let’s talk about your ideas for your Aspire games! What kinds of decks and dice are you thinking about using? Do you have an idea for your game’s flavor yet or are you waiting for inspiration to strike?

Wow, thank you so much! I’m looking forward to seeing what you make during the jam!

Thank you so much for your kind comment! Wishing you an interesting journey ahead.

Thank you for the wonderful in-depth review. Each of your video essays is itself a labor of love.

Thank you! I’m eagerly looking forward to the release.

Your statement at 20:11 is indeed a sizzling hot take, haha! Thank you so much for covering Galatea and for your lavish praise!

Much obliged, Chariot.

Thrilled to see the first Black Contract out, Chariot. Pardon if my eyes aren’t working the way they used to after staring at so much dust and void, but - where are the Threat rules for generating a Haint Threat?

Re: 1 - thank you! The italics formatting of “Add 2 Load/Cred” was making us second-guess, since the italics were reserved for the bad outcomes on the other options.