May Update: A new Hope
Hey, y’all folk! 😈
Things keep changing… rather fast I must say. But things are looking up, or so I think.
Vacation Trip
Haven’t been talking much about it, but I started a long-distance relationship at the start of this year that has been what is keeping me sane so far I believe. I thought long-distance relationships didn’t work, as that’s what everyone always told me, but we here have been doing amazingly, and after 3 months of knowing each other I decided to meet her in person traveling last month. I had an incredible time, got to see the beautiful country of Central America where she is from, and got to play some games with her as well! I was also in serious need of relaxing my head a little. All around amazing, and I got to experience them with a fantastic person! Here are some photos from the trip:
Btw, go follow my partner’s work on social media, especially if you are big into reading (her content is all in English). Not a request, but a threat 🔪
Lady Azulina for games and her professional writing || AzuIsReading for book recommendations
Money, money, money
We live in a capitalist world. There is no escape from that. So money ran out, I have not been getting freelance gigs, my latest project was not enough for me to live off of it for long, and I am not landing any stable job. What did this mean? I had to move back to my parents’ until I find a way to be more stable money-wise.
LinkedIn, Indeed, Freelancer, Workana, Twitter, Discord, repeat. Day after day. It’s stressful when you have one of the university titles that get more job offers (Software Engineering) and still don’t get to land anything. I would rather be a game designer, but as long as I get something I am open to anything. But hey… at least living with my parents means I don’t have to worry as much about that, meaning I can focus more on the projects I care about.
However, there are some new hopes coming about:
Moonbeam
I managed to interview Anthony about the platform he is working on that comes to revolutionize creating streaming content. While I love the community aspect, as well as how they handle AI for automatic moderating, the monetization aspect is what impacted me the most. Moonbeam is supposed to allow for creators to have some earnings that make it worth putting an effort into streaming there. Some big news are coming June-July, so maybe they’ll say more about an open Beta or something? As a Global South creator, a platform like this could be life-changing monetarily-wise, so I am definitely interested. Especially because I would love my next project to make an appearance there:
Rol de 10
A clever word-play that only works in Spanish, I believe. In April I joined a team of TTRPG Actual Players from Argentina who are just getting started but are gaining a lot of traction. We as a team are creating amazing stuff, primarily D&D oriented, but with more coming soon (like a City of Mist two-shot I GMed). It’s all in Spanish, so you can use it to practice the language and recommend it to your fellow Spanish-speaking friends. We are also creating a Monster Manual of Latinoamerican legends that will be translated into English in the future, so stay tuned 👀
Magnolia: City of Marvels - Setting of Art, Punk, Rebellion
If you ever wanted to play a game that is a mixture of fantasy and cyberpunk, then this is the right product for you. Nobles have an unbreakable status quo determined by art, and gangs with a punk vibe to them trying to break the mold and rebel against these oppressing forces to liberate art. Choose a side, as well as your system of choice as this is a system-agnostic setting, prepared for a wide variety of playstyles. Once that is done, delve into the world of the City of Marvels! Follow the Kickstarter to be notified when the campaign launches on June 27th, or check out the Setting Sample to know more about Magnolia:
What I Watched
Haikyuu. After a long time of having a friend of mine recommending me to check out an anime about volleyball, considering I am not a big sports fan, I started seeing enough people fanning over it to consider giving it a try. I did not expect to like it this much. It has a lot of heart and team effort while showing people who are doing their best to fulfill their dreams. I dunno, it’s difficult to describe, you should just give it a try I suppose.
Haikyuu: The Dumpster Battle. With many friends, we went to the cinema excited to watch it, but the cinema experience sucked cause we went to an archaic one in my city. Still, the movie was good, just not as good as I expected it. I feel the 20-minute duration format helps it much more than containing a whole match in a movie length.
Videos and Articles
📝 [17 mins] Combat In Dungeons & Dragons: Combat in Dungeons & Dragons will never not be a controversial topic. A game that sells itself as a sandbox where you can do anything while having 60% of its rules revolving around combat feels like false advertising. In any case, Evan Torner brings to Rascal a great article surrounding the 50 years of the hobby: LINK
▶️ [14 mins] The Economics of Monster Encounters: Whether you are creating a TTRPG, a videogame, or a TTRPG campaign for your players, it is essential to have the economics of the game be tied to the theme of it so you don’t end up with a bland result. This is a great explanation of the why: LINK
📝 [7 mins] Make it Episodic – GM Tips & Tricks: Having watched a bunch of Supernatural and Gravity Falls last month, I wanted to give my thoughts on episodic storytelling in roleplaying games. Why are they good for our tables? Come find out: LINK
📝 [5 mins] Critical Role Launches New Membership Service—Beacon: More and more companies keep going independent to stay away from big corporations. While it is REALLY cool for me to not give money to a megacorporation, and offer it directly to the creator, having another streaming platform is starting to get obnoxious. Not that it is needed though. More on that here: LINK
📝 [13 mins] Deathmatch Island Review: Deathmatch Island, a TTRPG offering a Squid-Game-like gameplay style came out, and it has been picking my interest from the start. For starters, it uses the same engine Agon does, which is a very different game from what we are used to. I’m also interested in the PVP playstyle among the players. This review is pretty good, but I would still love to do my own review, do a short campaign, and interview one of the creators: LINK
▶️ [2 hours] The 100 Games that Taught Me Game Design: A bit of a magnum opus of GMTK, showcasing some of the best videogames out there that you need to try out to understand the evolution of gaming: LINK
Azu’s Corner
My partner playfully said to me I should add a section about her… So I decided I will make this a section in which I recommend games or activities I tried out with her that I recommend for people to try out with their SOs.
Not Yet: A brilliant game about creating love stories of people that keep finding each other and might at some moment end up in a lovely relationship. It’s played trying to match the same number on a die, which has a special je ne sais quoi that felt really cute. Definitely recommended.
Love is On the Cards: Having already played it for a VOD that has not come out yet, I played it again this month without the creators instructing me and following the rules as part of the HypeSwap I do. You can create very fun romantic tales with it, that even though revolve around the Holidays, they don’t necessarily need to be about them. The story ended up as a Hallmark movie, very sweet as well. You can read my full thoughts on the game right here.
Kaos’ Lair
After coming back from vacation I didn’t encounter a cat, but a cylinder catto. He grew quite a bit.
