It's been a very long time since I've sent a newsletter update. I checked back and the last one was in September 2025, about the Blinking Birch Puzzle Hunt. This is because I've done very little in the RPG space and also everything has happened.
I bought a house. I did a lot of work on said house. I drove 2000 miles to help my friend move into said house. I took four trips to the Midwest. My grandpa passed. My grandma had a health scare. My friend had a health scare. I saw some very good theater with said friend. I went dancing for the first time in a decade.
All this to say, life has been moving very fast, and games work has been moving very slow. But move it does.
Game Updates
I wanted to make something small and self-indulgent to get back into game design after a number of months away. Fortunately or unfortunately, this has (predictably) spiraled into a fully fledged project.
It's a sci-fi adventure of exploration, deductive reasoning, and communication, inspired by Outer Wilds. A couple corporate employees go missing after touching down on Aion-8b, a tiny planet in the habitable zone. Your job is to find them and figure out what happened. Quickly, you learn that you're not alone, and that the entire system is stuck in a time loop.
I'm currently playtesting the first draft with friends. There's been a few sticking points, but overall it's been a great time. Here's some notes taken by one of my players (in MSPaint), featuring many borses:
There's a lot of refining and additional playtesting before this adventure sees the light of day, but I plan to release it as a cheap beta version first to see if there's interest and to get more feedback. You'll know when it drops.
Other than Aion-8b, I've been working on a second project that I can't share yet. This is one I've been picking away at for some time now, but I think I've finally had a breakthrough. More on that in... probably a long while.
Editing
Since my last update, I've edited a handful of games:
- Full Send by Laurie O'Connel, a tarot, trick-taking game about the thrill and dangers of professional mountain climbing
- All's Fair by Dillin Apelyan, an erotic duet game about the importance of love and intimacy under the terrors of fascism
- Rise, Wizards! by Robin Ekberg, a dice-stacking game about wizards competing to build the tallest tower and take power from the Monolith
Also, a few games I edited were nominated for / won awards!
- ARKYVR by Alewood Games, nominated by the ENNIEs (2025) for Best Supplement
- The Time We Have by Elliot Davis, nominated by the Indie Groundbreaker Awards for Best Graphic Design, Best Art, Best Rules, Most Innovative, and Game of the Year
- A Fool’s Errand by J Strautman & B Marsollier, gold winner of the Canada Roles Awards for Visual Design, and silver winner for Rules Design.
Actual Plays
There's been a surprising number of very cool actual plays of my games over the past few months:
- Party of One - Host Jeff Stormer played Death of the Author with author Isabel J. Kim (Sublimation, "Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole") to tell the story of a superhero fighting against the narrative
- One Shot - Host Dillin Apelyan played Anamnesis as one of their characters from a previous One Shot season: Eloise from Realis
- Monster Hour - Host Quinn Majeski and guest Kendo (Tales Yet Told) played Death of the Author as a ship captain on a perilous journey and the author who created them
- Game Master Monday - JienBirb and Rosalie Mullican, guided by Grant Nordine, played Death of the Author as a romantasy author and their character
It's really wild to see these games still be in the public conscious this long after their releases (especially Anamnesis - it's been 4 years now!). I couldn't be more delighted.
Appearances
I've been on a couple channels / podcasts since my last update:
The lovely Gnome Anne invited Elliot Davis, Emily Greymoore, and me onto her channel for a panel about making your first game. We had a excellent time chatting!
Also, Chris Airiau had me on his sci-fi module review podcast, Ansible Uplink, to talk about The Man We Knew, an Orbital Blues adventure by Kayla Dice. I ran the game for my home group before recording, and Chris and I had a great discussion about this very unique module.
Other Stuff
Here's a collection of other things I've been enjoying over the past many months:
- Impossible Landscapes (TTRPG) - The behemoth Delta Green module recently spotlighted by Quinns Quest. I've been playing this at my FLGS and having a grand time.
- Project Hail Mary (movie) - I read the book last year and was completely enamored by it. The movie is a fantastic adaptation, and I've been thinking about it since watching it back in April.
- Spread Me (novella) - A queer, erotic horror story by Sarah Gailey about a woman and her team at a remote research outpost. I haven't read many books since September, but this was my favorite of the bunch.
- Widow's Bay (show) - I'm not immune. My roommate and I have been watching it together. We still have a couple episodes to go, but as a huge fan of Gravity Falls I feel like this show was made for me.
- Resident Evil (franchise) - I don't typically play horror games, but I've finally been dipping my toe in the Resident Evil series and having a great time. I finished the remake of 1 (great), and the remake of 2 (excellent), and also read the first S.D. Perry novel (not as great).
- The Message from Deep Space (video game) - If you check out one thing from this list, it should be this game. It's blowing my mind. I'm 30 hours in and it's the best puzzle game I've played since Blue Prince. It's the 70s. A meteor has landed on earth and is broadcasting frequencies from an alien computer inside. You play as a translator making meaning from the frequencies, slowly building up a language between you and the aliens. This game has so much heart and so many mind-blowing moments.
Sign Off
Thanks for reading. I plan to send these more regularly in the future, about once every month or two, barring no further major life events. If you've been playing, reading, watching anything remarkable lately, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.
Until next time,
Sam Leigh