There are many fun and interesting ways to make roleplaying games feel immersive, but my new favorite has been the “Keepsake Game” sub-genre, which has been gaining a lot of popularity since being pioneered by Shing Yin Khor and Jeeyon Shim a couple years ago. Keepsake games guide you through creating an artifact that’s an important part of the story, therefore immersing you, the player into the story as an important part of it yourself.
The Secret of the Mermaid is a brand new keepsake game currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter that aims to involve the player in a research project about mermaids via a series of beautiful and immersive postcards and ephemera. The game creators, American Kevin Dann and German Margit Schäfer, take immersion very seriously, fully taking on the roles of researcher Dr. Dann and ritualist Clarissa, who will guide the player through the game. We had a chance to chat with both of them about their vision for The Secret of the Mermaid.
Jamey is a non-binary adventurer from Buffalo, NY who wishes they were immortal so they’d have time to visit every coffee shop in the world. They write code, like plants, record podcasts, categorize zines and read tarot cards. Find them on twitter at @jameybash – and ask them about Star Wars or Vampire: the Masquerade if you dare!
Welcome to this week’s Get Your Game On! I’m fresh off the plane from a conference and spent every free minute of it playing Rune Factory 5. A great addition to the franchise so far (minus the still incredibly frustrating experience of only equipping party members by gifting them items and then watching their previous equipment disappear into a void. Yes, I gave the wrong weapons to the wrong party member and yes, I am bitter)
December Cuccaro (she/her) is an MFA graduate from the University of Nevada, Reno and a member of the 2021 Clarion West cohort. When not rambling about video games, she writes about sapphic werewolves and sad necromancers searching for friendship.
Hello and welcome to Get Your Game On! Maddi here, hoping the new year is treating you kindly so far. While I generally feel that January 1 is a day like any other, I’ve been feeling particularly refreshed and ready to tackle new games and projects in 2022. We’re in a bit of a video game release lull, so I’ve been playing Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator and the 2018 Shadow of the Colossus lately in an attempt to tame my backlog of games. Have you been playing anything good? Let us know on Twitter, or, if you’re a member of our Patreon at the Sega Genesis tier or higher, drop a recommendation in our Discord! Now, here’s all the news you need to know from the last week. Please note that the third section, “Users Review Bombing Tabletop Simulator After Global Chat Controversy,” explicitly discusses transphobia, if you prefer not to read about this type of content. Take care of yourselves! (more…)
Madison Butler is Sidequest’s self-proclaimed jock editor. She co-founded the blog Critsumption and once got really into powerlifting via Fitness Boxing for the Nintendo Switch. She tweets at @_maddilo.
Gloomhaven is one of those legendary Kickstarter stories, fueling the idea that if you have a good, solid game, you can enjoy outrageous success. In 2015, it presented itself as a “cooperative game of card-driven combat set in a persistent fantasy campaign.” Choices would have real impacts upon characters and the world, changing them forever over several sessions (i.e. a legacy game). This first Kickstarter raised $386,104, just over five times its original goal. By 2017, the fact that designer Isaac Childres had actually delivered on his original game (combined with glowing reviews) meant he experienced a much more wildly successful campaign this time. Though the 2017 Kickstarter’s goal was $100,000, Gloomhaven took in nearly $4 million in pledges (40 times the target amount). (more…)
Angie writes reviews and stories whenever she is not investigating the latest dating sim or visual novel. She is a full-time Dragon Age obsessive but also plays board games and tabletop RPGs when she can. Besides games, Angie enjoys manga, broody tattooed elves, and TV cannibals.
Having spent unrepentantly large portions of my life shipping fictional characters (from Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler to Dr. Bashir and Garak), I was intrigued to learn about Star Crossed. This tabletop roleplaying game (RPG) is written and designed by Alex Roberts, who has contributed to other tabletop RPGs such as Misspent Youth, Dialect, and Damn the Man, Save the Music!. She is also the podcast host of Backstory, as well as the Project Coordinator for Bully Pulpit Games, who have teamed up with her to publish Star Crossed.
Angie writes reviews and stories whenever she is not investigating the latest dating sim or visual novel. She is a full-time Dragon Age obsessive but also plays board games and tabletop RPGs when she can. Besides games, Angie enjoys manga, broody tattooed elves, and TV cannibals.
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