I am *not* an experienced videographer, and I committed so many amateur mistakes in shooting this video, from using the wrong resolution, losing focus, and having a shaky cam. But: Done is better than perfect, and I've learned a lot for next time. And aspects of the editing was even... fun?
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I strongly believe there's no "wrong" way to play a journaling game, so I resisted making a how-to video for The Bonsai Diary. But a trusted friend and experienced designer shared that he could have used some tips in the first few pages. That changed my mind:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CDJ...
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That's why Jason Slingerland is designing therapeutic journaling games!
Then there's also all the good work at @thebodhanagroup.bsky.social and @gametogrow.bsky.social
Traditional RPGs tell you what happens, and you decide how your character reacts. It's a common bit of advice to GMs: don't tell your players how they feel.
But what if the game instead tells you how you feel, and you need to figure out why? What can we achieve when we reverse the formula?
"Write to find out" is the best way to write and the basis of my best writing coach experiences
I love that G4C has an analog track now
Early in my career I absorbed the linguistic advice to avoid conjugations of "to be" in favor of other verbs. This produces more dynamic sentences, and it also avoids recurring definitional debates like "are you an artist"?
But I can see how taking it to the extreme can feel like urgent "doing."
I remember some old advice about GMing: never tell the player how they feel. I'm curious if you agree and have thoughts on how journaling games can not only get away with it, but often center on assuming an emotion
It's a universal game. We all feel the six things are a part of our struggles in the world. Even if we've never been arrested or near death we feel them as present possibilities.
I happened to play Guards of Atlantis over the weekend and having never played a MOBA before, it was... aight?
a photograph top down of Glatisant laying open to its center spread showing prompts for the Jack, Queen, King and Ace of hearts as well as an illustration of the Green Knight, who appears in the Jack of hearts prompt. The knight is on a horse but is holding its own head in an outstretched arm.
Glatisant is a nominee for Best Rules for IGDNs Groundbreakers Awards!
When designing this asymmetrical two player game we really wanted the Knight to feel like they were chasing, and the Beast to feel like they were leading.
You can read about the rules in a few places:
Congratulations!!!
I guess what is definitely different now is that there are many stores that can easily source indie games. From my conversations with them, doing the legwork of ordering from individual creators is way beyond their capacity given how challenging it is for small businesses now
I only captured a fraction of what I found in their indie games section; it's vast and extensive and really, really cool: /profile/stickydoodler.bsky.social/post/3mjd4zr4o6k2y
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Thank you for the correction! I wasn't in the scene then and only remember dropping by now and then and, TBH, not connecting. I clearly missed out on something really special.
We left the area in 2009, and at the time our local game store was all about Warhammer. (Pandemonium was in Harvard Square and, IIRC, focused on scifi books and D&D / Pathfinder). Having a local store sell indie games at all is, itself, such a delight, nevermind finding my own game there.
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Last weekend I visited Boston/Cambridge, where I lived for 15 years. I got to visit Pandemonium Books & Games, just a few blocks from my last apartment. I was delighted to find my game, The Bonsai Diary, there amidst an oasis of other small-press / indie games...
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Yes I am indeed writing a paper on the least amount of mechanics a game can have. It's called The Bonsai Diary
Thanks for trying it! Did your gnat meet someone special?
Do you mean the fifth player? If so, yes, and we were having a hard time imagining it as less than a 5-player game
...as an anti-cynic of government, I do wish QE's theme was more apt than the basic observation, "hey, central banks can print blank checks!" There's more than a few world leaders who already think this way, much to our collective risk.
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... we held inflation down so the experience was rational and bloodless. As one reviewer of QE observed, real world monetary policy is "so important that being dull and predictable is actually part of the calculus."
As a game QE is fascinating, but
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thethoughtfulgamer.com/2022/02/26/q...
QE scoreboard, blank check, and token. North Korean ₩5 note shown for scale
QE by Gavin Birnbaum is a great example of subtractive design: what if blind auction game, but no money? The answer is a social deduction game with a press your luck twist.
Last night was my group's second play of this game. Our economist was there the first time, and between the two of us
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Also, I've submitted this to the Lean Green Zine Jam by @junkfoodgames.bsky.social. It's not green, nor even that colorful, but it's small!
Check out the rest of the jam:
itch.io/jam/lean-gre...
Technically 🤓 the insect I sketched is drosophila (fruit fly), not a gnat, but gnats aren't defined scientifically anyway.
In penance for all the gnats I inhale every spring, I made this tiny journaling game about finding your one-in-a-million love as a gnat.
The drawing mechanic of this one is a-maze-ing:
stickydoodler.itch.io/gnat
You can now watch @connievdc.bsky.social's 2026 Unpublished Games Festival for yourself:
youtu.be/0bGs8WSxZE0
This is one video where you can't listen at 1.5x speed because it's PACKED FULL OF GOOD STUFF
Truly nothing uplifts my soul like seeing people getting something out of my games. Thanks, Josh, for sharing these moments.
If you've enjoyed someone's game recently, take just a minute to say so! You have no idea how much it means to us. 💚
It's gorgeous! I love to see these thriving trees (even if they also suffer adversity).
It looks like you're hitting one of the more challenging moments in the game. Take care of yourself!
Amazing! I wonder what your seatmates think you're up to
