Monthly Musings
The last month has, in many ways been a tale of two extremes. As we rolled into the new financial year I tallied up my provisional profit for the year, which came to a grand total of… £177. I dug into the maths over on the blog but the short story is that 22/23 was a year of investment and increased outlays, mostly associated with attending a convention for the first time.
So why has it been one of extremes?
Because at the end of the month I was included in a tiktok which went viral and sent my sales through the roof. I haven’t worked out the total revenue yet but it’s likely that the boost will come close to twice my profit from last year. Again, I dug into the numbers over on the blog if you’re curious what a significant boost looks like for me. It just goes to show how important cross promotion is and the value of getting a game in front of a wider audience than my immediate circle of connections.
Quick Review: One Breath Left by Stout Stoat Press
What is it? Continuing my solo sci-fi RPG theme this months Quick Review is One Breath Left from Stout Stoat Press. It’s a proceedurally generated sci-fi horror game about exploring an abandoned spaceship as you try to determine what happened. As you explore each room by drawing cards from the included deck you’ll uncover its secrets while consuming your limited oxygen reserves. Give up too soon and you’ll fail to fulfil the terms of your contract but dive too deep and you may become the newest corpse aboard the ship.
Why should you play it? From the moment you open the box (yes - it’s a box set) it’s clear that this game is something different. Included within are three booklets, a deck of cards and a meeple. The booklets cover the rules (Operations Manual), your character and the contract they have taken on (Explorer’s Handbook) and room descriptions (Navigation Guide). A number of ships are included, each of which included a couple of special rooms that you’ll add to the base deck.
As you explore and draw cards to create the ship plan you’ll be confronted with prompts while searching out clues and items to aid you. Like last month Notorious the mechanics serve to add back that game element that is absent from many solo games. Yes, it’s still a journaling game but one with choices and decisions to be actively made. It’s also designed with enough variation to be replayable and there’s the option to even continue with the same character should you wish! I’ve only played one game so far (and failed to survive!) but I can already see myself using it to build stories within the world of the Dyson Eclipse in future.
Where can you get it? It’s available directly from the Stoat Stout Press website (digital and print) as well as itch.io (digital only).
News from Elsewhere…
The always excellent Wyrd Science magazine has shipped its latest issue and once again I’m having to ration the articles as the next release is still months away.
The Explorers Design blog explores the graphic design of Brindlewood Bay and looks at how the layout supports the theme and mechanics. As one of the many indie designers that has to also do their own layout this sort of breakdown is invaluable.
If you want another solo sci-fi game and were wondering, “what if I want dwarves in space?” then check out Stoneburner which has just entered the final stretch of its kickstarter.
The Wrap Up
That’s enough for a bank holiday weekend (our second of three during May here in the UK). All going well next month I’ll be reporting back on UK Games Expo and a weekend of gaming. If you’re attending I’ll be at Games on Demand Friday and Saturday afternoons so feel free to swing by, say hello and play some indie games.