itch.io

Oh my goodness, I LOVE the concept of this jam: it's sweet AND silly as heck. And your artwork in that image and the title text are lovely as always from you 🧡 

Also, congrats on being part of Indiepocalypse 61!!!

- ✨Beth

Ooooohhhhhhhh nice! I'm definitely intrigued 🙌

Oh awesome! Consider me hyped 🥳 Making word-limited micro-RPGs is such a fun challenge, I always get so hyped when the 12/24/36-Word RPG Jams roll around. And yeah, you did a great job with keeping them generic yet inspirational!

Angel has released her latest poetry collection zine in her Sometimes I Write About... series, this time about writing! She wrote on the Itch page:

Whether it's my worry that I won't be able to find the words, or how awe-inspired by someone else's words I am, this poetry attempts to capture the different aspects of what writing means to me.

This is a collection of eight poems (easy-to-assemble instructions included for a pamphlet-style zine). You can get a digital copy for $2, or we'll mail a physical copy here in the US for $4. There are also community (free!) copies available, or you can get it and four other creations by joining our Patreon with a free Gamer trial membership! 🥳🥳 

And, as a bonus, we'll send you keys for a couple of random zines if you email us at bethandangelmakegames@gmail.com and let us know who your favorite writer is. It could be anyone, even yourself if you're a writer (although we're totally gonna ask you what you write because we'll be interested lol).

I grabbed one of the community copies for this almost immediately after you entered it into our jam (the Who Do You Want to Be? jam). It's fantastic! I was amazed at how nicely it all fit into this trifold, and how much you were able to do with so little for each of the games. It's a great blend of "open to infinite interpretation" but also "makes you want to play again," while most games with LOTS of interpretation fail at that latter thing. 

Well done with this collection of games!

- ✨Beth

This combination of systems is fantastic, and I love how you set the world up. It's equal parts cozy, friendly, inviting, realistic, and still full of potential challenges and dangers. I also love the way you sneak such depth into the different ancestries, backgrounds, and callings. 

I'm very glad you were inspired to release this before it was done! :D

- ✨Beth

This is great! I love the vibe, and the late-game twists to the Sleeping Beauty story were so great (I won't specify them so I don't spoil stuff). 

Great job with this! And HECK YES for more queer fairytales! 🧡 

- ✨Beth

This is so awesome, and such an epic way to share your feelings and thoughts about being transgender. I'm trans myself, too, and it was the exact opposite situation for me lol: I discovered I was trans, and then that I must be a lesbian because I'm a woman who's with a woman, and in that moment it hit me that I was pansexual. Like the frickin floodgates opened and here I was.

It's taken years to finally be confident in who I am... And I am delighted to fill the world with my rainbow 🧡 I have no doubt this will inspire others to do the same!

TL;DR - this is a beautiful game and I love it. And I'm so glad you discovered yourself, Rose!

- ✨Beth

Yay!!!! I'm so glad you do :D I love giving objects stories, and to add generosity and kindness behind them adds even more power 🧡 

- ✨Beth

Oh wow, I hadn't heard of that before. I see the one example one there (and the archaeology layer dice game too!) and that's super cool! You did a great job of adapting it in such a limited space, and focusing more on the die rolling.

- ✨Beth

I like the twist of grabbing the correct everchanging snowflake design. In using the arrows to control the cocoa mug the moves are pretty widely spaced, sometimes making it difficult to maneuver among the closely staggered flakes. But I did enjoy this challenging little game.  

~Angel 

This was such a cute little tale. I loved the story book portions and then getting to go on an adventure to advance the story. It was a heartwarming little game with nice interactive and puzzly little moments. 

~Angel

Thinky little puzzles. I love penguins so getting to play as a penguin sliding on its belly is definitely cozy and cute. I like the fanfare sound effects when finishing a level, it's a nice bit of celebration.

~Angel

Definitely cozy. The art and layout look like a story book and the little grunt sound effects when jumping and yaaay! when you make it to the end are super cute. The bear and the crow kept hanging me up but I finally made it to the end. The little gathering of animals to celebrate was a nice touch.

~Angel

This is definitely cozy and fits the theme of metamorphosis well. You do a nice job of clearly portraying the intentions and vibes of the gathering intended and its always nice to have something to play that is entertaining but can be applied in real life and better us as well. 

~Angel

I love penguins, this is cute and day 7's rush of SO MANY GUESTS was funny and a cute touch. 

~Angel

This is simple yet there are several decisions and ways to get to the goal. I like the gambling aspect of the hot cocoa which can pay off really nicely or be a big waste and still it makes you want to press your luck for the big pay out. 

~Angel

This has such satisfying little animations like a bigger water PLOP when you drop the ingredients in from higher up. The cat paw hanging up the new orders is really cute and the view of the snowman outside while you're making soup is definitely cozy winter vibes.

~Angel

Oh goodness this can get hectic after a bit! I was so resolved to find the last cat type and kept getting more cats and feeding them and it just got more difficult to to spot a new time among like 70 cats haha. I loved adding balls and watching the cats run around playing with them. It definitely kept me busy and entertained while also challenged to meet the goals set forth. 

~Angel

The art in this is super cozy and the cats popping out as they're found is really adorable. 

~Angel

This is simple but hooks you in to beat your streak. It's easy to pick up and quickly get addicted to playing it.

~Angel

You're so welcome! And yes, lol, I think there's such power in associating good feels with doing good things like writing letters. I'm still learning to do that with small rewards for small wins for myself, but I never considered how simply saying "you win!" can actually be super effective like this.

- ✨Beth

OMG well thank YOU too!!!! I think Angel did an awesome job of playing with the words for the 36-Word Jam too, but I just... couldn't come up with anything clever. So all of mine are like "hey here's a very brief intro and some rules."

Yours is the most clever I've seen thus far with how things are laid out, and I never in a zillion years would've guessed it was a 36-word jam entry if it wasn't listed as one. Usually it's super obvious because the wording is super weird and it's hard to figure out how to play 😅 Or like "this would be so much cooler if it was bigger!" 

But not this game, it's perfect as it is! 🙌

- ✨Beth

My goodness, this is an awesome, clever creation. You made FANTASTIC use of those 36 words, getting a whole story-generating flowchart (or two) out of it. And you get to build a snowfolk, too!

Also, while I know it says you were inspired by Cozy Grove's snowfolk, I love "snowfolk" as a nongendered term for "snowmen".

- ✨Beth

This is really clever! I love that you'll end up creating critters from stuff that's randomly around you, but also there's lots of freedom, like if I'm looking left and have a few items to choose from, and need to pull the pattern from one of them, I can choose any of those things. 

And you did a cool job with utilizing those words throughout the card, too!

- ✨Beth

I love this! I just made something about writing greeting cards recently, and I love how this captures everything I said in 36 words. AND you win! Mine had no winning lol

Very cool, and the title is awesome as well 🥳 

- ✨Beth

This is super clever! I love that it REALLY feels like Slay the Spire reading it, and you did a great job with translating those mechanics. I'm excited to see how many runs it takes before I can beat a boss 🥳

Also, congrats on this being your third finished thing already!

- ✨Beth

This is super clever! I love that it REALLY feels like Slay the Spire reading it, and you did a great job with translating those mechanics. I'm excited to see how many runs it takes before I can beat a boss 🥳

- ✨Beth

I did it! And I made it out with 13 coins! 🥳 It took me a few rounds to figure out how to get coins, but then I restarted and really liked it! The art is super cute, the gameplay is fun and chill since the enemies don't actually "hurt you" (just sap your bubble), and I loved powering up my attack and flinging foes out! I'm sure the music was great too but I had my laptop muted :D

- ✨Beth

This is terrific and SO relatable. It's awesome you made it live on stream! And the use of the grey shades was super clever.

My partner and I each got COVID, and while we weren't hospitalized, we sure got long COVID from it... We've had major brain fog, focus issues, memory struggles (I already had major memory issues before that lol) and more ever since, and getting back to "normal" has been an uphill battle. But I never considered that people would've used that opportunity to research brain fog more!

Also, I especially love this line: "take breaks, even when you can’t." I rarely take breaks... I think I took four days off in 2024 lol. I've taken two or three this year as one of my focuses this year is on taking weekends off, but I didn't take today or yesterday off because we made a new game. So thanks for the reminder!

- ✨Beth

Oh that's true! I've seen a zillion hacks of Lasers and Feelings but never even considered this one. It's even called "Tough Love" and the stat is even Tough!!! 😱 LOL I have no idea how I missed that. It's brilliant!

I hope so too! I haven't picked out books in so long that I'm pretty bad at choosing books now 😅 I'm sure I'll get better with time, but I like that this will confine my searches.

Anytime! Thank you for making it, it's fantastic and genuinely clever and unique!

Oh my goodness, this is fantastic, and such an elegant use of that singular stat! I also frickin LOVE that art, of course 🥳 

- ✨Beth

I JUST got a library card to a bigger (yet still local) library and this sounds like such a fun way to narrow things down and explore. I have a goal to read a book a month this year and haven't read for fun in like... a decade or more (I had a job a while back doing book reviews but it was from a very limited pool of books).

The layout and artwork is lovely too btw, and I love that it fits in my wallet so I can bring it to the library! I'll definitely be changing "thriller" to nonfiction though lol 😱 

- ✨Beth

Oh my goodness, this is brilliant! It's SUCH a clever use of the 36 words, and you even have a whole world here, oh my goodness! There's so much to read into everything, and I love the emergent stories that are so visible even just from looking at the game.

Fantastic work! This is an amazing example of what a 36-word RPG can be 🥳 

- ✨Beth

I love this! It's the epitome of a zine with the hand-craftedness, but also explains what a zine is, how to make/fold it, and then gives people some prompts! Fantastic work! 🥳 I hope it inspires lots of people to make stuff!

- ✨Beth

Aaaaawwwwwwwwww oh my goodness, thank you so much, Elijah!!!! That's so sweet, and we had no idea you were fans of ours! And it's so lovely to meet you 🙋‍♀️ You made our day with this post (I read it to Angel and she loved it too).

Beth here (42/F/Indiana), and yeah, we like making stuff in confined spaces because it really helps with making things. They don't end up too big or too complex, and it doesn't take forever to make them. In fact, they're great things to finish for this jam! Although, with that said, most of the things on my list are bigger things: SHe (an autobiographical-esque RPG about being trans), Whoops! I Crashed in This Weird City and Need Money Fast! (a Carta-based RPG about earning money, meeting people, and exploring in an ever-changing city), and other tabletop games I'd entered into previous Ludum Dare jams.

There are some shorter things, like I have a set of cards based on Stoic wisdom and quotes, another based on things Sahil Bloom has shared in his blog and in emails, etc. Heck, the cards are basically written, I just need to make em!

And, with that said, did you plan to create anything Elijah? I'd love to see what you create, and you've got a whole year to do it! In fact, our February jam is gonna be based on a blog post I'm writing called You Can Make a TTRPG, hoping to inspire more people to make games! 🧡

Oh, and PS: I LOVE this idea for a thread here!

- ✨Beth

Aaaaaaawwwwwwwwww this is brilliant! Goodness, perhaps the most relatable game ever tbh. Well done, and awesome art as always 🙌 

- ✨Beth

Hiya! So two things:

1. This IS free, it's on "sale" while the rating period is live
2. It's a one-page RPG despite the digital version being 8 pages because this is a zine :D The printable version exists solely on a single sheet of paper, which can be folded into a lil booklet 🥳 

-✨Beth