Posted by adamebell on Dec 16, 2023
When I applied to join the Comradery cooperative, I was an intentionally unemployed game designer trying to see if it was possible for me to eke out a living by designing and publishing tabletop games. I've long toyed with the idea of starting a patreon for one reason or another--the monthly donation structure is an interesting promise to any creative, but a challenging one if you have anything else on your plate. Since I was unemployed, I figured it the best time to try it out.
Life is funny though. My application was accepted in April of 2022, which was about the same time that my partner absolutely needed a break from working. When I quit my job in 2021, I ensured them that I would find another job if their already miserable one became too much to bear. I found a job. It paid well but I knew from the start it was likely to be my least favorite work I've ever done.
I tried to continue doing game design on the side and post it here when possible. I was successful for an extremely short period of time, making solid progress on Promise the Moon and later the Bell Hack. The only thing I published in that time was the new version of my brain is a stick of butter.
It took until early 2023 for my job to reach its full potential in burning me out. Not long after the new butter was finished and shipped, I stopped working on games entirely as I just didn't have the energy. That burnout led to me taking a 3 month unpaid leave over the summer. I started reading books for fun again and working hard on a game collection called The Story So Far (which I'll post about in a seperate post, but if you're a supporter I've just added a draft to the draft folder of the google drive), as well as a murder mystery game to go along with the detective novels I've been reading. When the final month of leave hit, the dread of going back to work hit me like a brick so I cut back on the games work yet again.
About a week after I got back to work from my leave, I was told that Dec. 1 would be my last day on the job. I won't go into detail about how I feel about that, but the simple version is that I'm angry yet relieved. As though a switch was flipped in my mind, I was immediately able to get back to game design. I playtested and finished the ashcan design of The Locked Room Murder Mystery Game, which you can get in the Finished Games section of the google drive (available for all supporter tiers at $5 and above!). You can also order a physical copy here with the free shipping code BICYCLING available til early january if you buy 2+ games.
Now that I'm an unintentionally unemployed game designer, I'll be poking away at a bunch of my designs to see what sticks. I'd like to also use this space more to talk about them and give Comradery the shot it deserved from the start. If I succeed, look forward to posts about The Forged in the Dark board game I'm working on as well as a few other board games. I'm also pecking away at a full version of Reliance, possibly in a joint release with The Bell Hack and Promise the Moon as 3 games that can offer 3 takes on a shared mechanical framework.
If I find another job shortly, things may of course change but I'd love to make this game design thing stick while I have an unexpected opportunity. We'll see, though. Thanks for reading!