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A little of both :) Glad you enjoyed

World Ending Game is a marvel. As a collection of final sessions for ttrpg campaigns, it's a wonderful resource. As a design object (especially the phyiscal edition that I just received in the mail), it's absolutely gorgeous. From the matte cover with its foil detailing, to the full page artwork and spreads, to the layout in general, I cannot speak highly enough of what Everest and their collaborators have accomplished.

As a designer, teacher, and facilitator of tabletop games, I find the illustrated section on Camera Directions (pp. 22-23) to be a fantastic tool, and it pairs nicely with the Last Shots ending (pp. 78-79). All of the endings are wildly creative and inspiring, but I think my favourites are Tableaux (pp. 64-67) and The Earth Swallows Time (pp. 75-77). Everest's The Ground Itself has been a huge influence for me, so especially with the latter ending, seeing those themes continue here is a pleasure.

In sum, this is a truly original work of game design, and a significant contribution to the history of tabletop games overall. Thanks Everest, and all who contributed, for this lovely work.

Great, thanks! Can confirm that hitting ESC works to cancel and clear a partially typed code and try clicking redeem again! Tested today on my last redeem and it worked just fine to do that.

I realized that I was typing a code wrong, but it doesn't seem you can delete what you have typed. To see if I could avoid wasting one of my seven redemptions, I tried closing and relaunching the game. But when I went to redeem codes, the game told me all of my daily redemption attempts were used. Obviously a goofy scenario that I got myself into by experimenting, but a bug nevertheless!

• 2022/02/15: #5748 Lonie 33ab0e44
• 2022/02/16: #4571 Jenny 057d0ab8
• 2022/02/17: #394 Wm 80a559a8
  
• 2022/02/18: #3824 Mellie 82002140
• 2022/02/19: #1870 Sylvester 9d7b0904
• 2022/02/20: #2343 Odelia d0662020
• 2022/02/21: #7035 Elbridge 922dc1d0
• 2022/02/22: #10 Leora 23703a73
• 2022/02/23: #1080 Hans 997a3ab2
• 2022/02/24: #6118 Mannie 6d26d271
• 2022/02/25: #7352 Cathrine d694590d
• 2022/02/26: #1391 Dottie 01e01d98
• 2022/02/27: #606 Elgie 7a90c09a
• 2022/02/28: #7942 Annetta 68162b01
• 2022/03/01: #9484 Chester a0c69d24
• 2022/03/02: #6450 Thomas 0d9395ea
• 2022/03/03: #4364 Leta 7aeb8b2e
• 2022/03/04: #89 Tessie b04a825e
• 2022/03/05: #9153 Lenora de0be850
• 2022/03/06: #149 Minnie 8eb61c90
• 2022/03/07: #4439 Mabelle 4b049461
• 2022/03/08: #3546 Stephen 27ad905b
• 2022/03/09: #7798 Cecelia 0070a604
• 2022/03/10: #8376 Elva 1dae4ced
• 2022/03/11: #3621 Ardelia 64210058
• 2022/03/12: #5223 Johnny 371c4da8
• 2022/03/13: #6789 Jesse 1ec60a28
• 2022/03/14: #547 Frank 40a35e69
• 2022/03/15: #591 Gussie 32d67c2a
• 2022/03/16: #5246 Author 092ccc14
• 2022/03/17: #6176 Isa 75c4e205
• 2022/03/18: #6307 Lula 518c33c4
• 2022/03/19: #4862 Tilman a0b0e622
• 2022/03/20: #1657 Cammie 6d6e108c
• 2022/03/21: #1539 Hennie 44c13c63
• 2022/03/22: #2933 Corine 986b0d89
• 2022/03/23: #9214 Johannah 1e291923
• 2022/03/24: #9242 Aurora d720024c
• 2022/03/25: Lost streak :(
• 2022/03/26: #1243 Melton 05b743e0
• 2022/03/27: #6268 David 18693be0
• 2022/03/28: #232 Christie 46dc0cb8

Oh it's Le Guin's version!! Of course!! Thanks so much for the reference :)

This is fantastic, thank you for commenting! My education was sadly very western, so those are the sources I know, but this is such a concise, poetic encapsulation of everything I was trying to say. Thanks for pointing me in the direction of Lao Tzu! Is this your translation, or from a published translation? I've looked around but haven't been able to find this exact rendition. If it's yours, I'd love to include it at as part 5 in a v1.1 of the zine and credit you!

Thank you so much! To enjoy it is one thing, but to return to it is incredible! I'm so glad it's been of value to you.

I shared this article from the Strelka Institute, "Backcasting Kardashev One," in the Discord for the jam: https://www.backcasting-kardashev.one/. It presents four "future visions" of the Earth, organized in four timelines that are ultimately "backcasted" to the present. Backcasting is just the opposite of forecasting: take a speculative future, and then work backward from it to plot the steps necessary to get there. This exercise is intended to help us plot courses toward more desirable futures and away from less desirable futures (which is necessarily a political exercise as well), specifically in terms of "energy, civilisation and planetarity."

The accompanying essay provides some additional theory and context: https://strelkamag.com/en/article/backcasting-kardashev-one. I'll excerpt the core motivation for their argument here:

"we propose repurposing the Kardashev scale to assess what planetary civilization means here on Earth. In that context, we ask: Where are we on the scale, and what does that say about our level of advancement? What might be the thermodynamic and civilizational consequences of advancement on the Kardashev scale? What is the scope of our agency as we head towards many possible futures, and what might those futures look like? And finally, working backwards from them, what might we learn about inhabitation of Earth during our current anthropogenic crisis of energy metabolism?"

I hope this resource can get the creativity flowing for more of you, as it already has for a few of us in the Discord! Build a setting from one of the timelines, use "backcasting" as a game mechanic (makes me think of Everest Pipkin's The Ground Itself), build a whole civilization simulator using the framework—or something else entirely! There's a lot of room to work here.

Thanks to thegiftofgabs for encouraging me to post this here! If you have ideas and want to discuss them with other jam participants, come join us in the Discord!

Fantastic! I'm glad you like it! I was pretty pleased with how it turned out!

Hi evangineer! Print copies are now orderable!

Hi evangineer! Sorry you missed the Kickstarter, but I will keep you posted on whether or not I have extra print copies once I get details back from the printer. Thanks for checking out the project!

We might say: geologic space jazz!

Thanks! Glad it resonated with you!

I design games and I also teach a class on interactive storytelling at my local university. I used this book to help explain structure and drama in games to my students, and I can report that it has been so effective as a learning resource. After a semester of practice, my students are confident talking about dramatic forces and the interplay between narrative and gamic elements in a wide variety of games, and they regularly suprise me with their insights. Forest Paths is well worth a read, and I especially love that it's now on itch!

This sounds like a great idea, and totally actionable. Praxis and rules aren't so different! I'm excited to see what you do with this puzzle!

Haha, sorry for the lost feeling zeestar! As in my response to the previous commenter, I definitely intend to revisit this and release a more complete version!

Oh fantastic! No, I haven't read this, but that looks like a great connection. Might not be able to get it into this project, but a valuable resource and on my list of reading for sure!

And yes, precisely! I loved that sense of a connection there, with Graeber, but also that there is so much open space to explore!

Hi Nitonise, I will definitely consider making a solo version for a v1 release. Thanks for the feedback!

Oh for sure, g_o! I didn't feel like that's what you were saying, and I totally apologize for the lack of accessibility! I actually really dig your idea of a game jam being a party. Hopefully a full version 1 in the future will be able to realize that ethos better.

Your feedback is helpful because it shows we where to focus on building out rules. I don't want to assume that everyone has read all the same games, so providing that context will be priority for sure!

Thanks again for the comments.

Also, if you're interested in identity and free will, Being and Nothingness is a really great, but very challenging text. It's well worth close reading, and because it's so long, it's definitely not one to rush through. I sure didn't! Many paintstaking hours...

Good thinking! I'm quite interested in the relationship between carnival and insurrection that Graeber identifies, so I'm currently thinking that through. My work kind of drifts between games and essays, so not sure which pole the final product is going to go more towards... But that's the point of this jam! Very flexible with respect to format! Really anything engaging with the topics listed is welcome. What others thoughts are folks having?

Hi g_o, thanks for the feedback! You are correct! They are, indeed, meta-instructions. If you spend a lot of time in the tabletop rpg space, then this would (in theory) be playable with only what is here. But, as I say in the document, this is both an intuition and a version zero, so I don't expect this to be readily playable as it is.

I came to the jam really late and so I didn't have very much time to develop the rules into something complete (or even playtest them! I have no idea how balance would actually work out at the table, for instance). I borrow many mechanics because I was using them to think through the central intuition inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre (the freedom mechanic, which is my own). And since this was a philosophy game jam, I was more concerned with getting the philosophical framework written down than having comprehensive rules written.

I hope to work on this more in the future, so maybe one day I'll be able to provide you with a better recipe so that you can satisfy some of that rpg hunger! Thanks again for the feedback.

This is amazing. I have sheets and sheets stored somewhere that are full of sword drawings from my elementary school days. This takes me right back, and the collaborative storytelling element is an excellent touch.

Hi Jupiter, thanks for the feature! This is awesome work you do :) So many little games get missed, so it's cool to see all this work on display from such a diverese group of creators!