Nebulous Rivals is the next big game likely to come to fruition – the idea is to drawer 2 cards from a mixed deck each turn and then trade them in for suns, planets, asteroids, and tiles which you use to build your own patch of space. The finer details of how it’s going to be scored are still a mystery to me, but I’ve begun getting all the kit in to build a prototype deck, which is never a cheap endeavour when you’re on a low income. I looked into buying marbles but it was estimated to come out at £20-£30 per game which is unsustainably high, and so I’ve decided to make them myself – I prefer to keep my big projects as hand made as possible because mass production is inherently unethical (the only labour I’m exploiting is my own!)
Category: Game Dev
My first ever card game that saw me through a hard time following a broken nose by a neo-nazi (did you know that the word Nazi started as the German version of “Cletus”? No one respects Nazis), the aim See Creatures is to collect all the needed parts to build a creature to lay for points and effects. Full of bright, fun pictures and queer nudge-nudge humour, it’s a great way to brighten your day! Expansions that will be available alongside the base deck in the kickstarter campaign: Xtra Queer Fish, Whale-of-a-time, and Horror-fishing.
What you can expect: pop-culture references like “wet as merfolk” and gentle innuendos like “happy lendings,” See Creatures is about fun and laughter. Players start with 10 cards: 2 solos, 4 Tops and Bottoms, and 4 Middles, and take turns laying down creatures and drawing 2 cards. Beware Whale Falls and UFOs, or they could ruin your game!
Last year was pretty fucking rough, and amazing. While the year started with a violent encounter with a bigot, it then went on to acting for the first time, creating new art, and enjoying the smallest moments. Healing my body and mind held me back me from a lot of things, but I’m feeling ready to to tackle life again with a fresh perspective, Ngl the nature of my life means things get in the way nearly constantly so I can only do my best, but I’m happy with that.
The writing club I run (Friends of Penelope) ran a poetry competition in December and I sent it off to acclaimed author Molly Potter for judging – The results just in! I was not the winner, but I think we all did great work and I’m excited to release it as an anthology by printing some copies in house and selling them at markets or via local book shops. Title tbd. I’m feeling more able to write again following the traumatic incident of last year, and so I’m hoping to publish a few anthologies of my own this year – one poetry and one short story. I say hoping, that’s because of several influencing factors and I don’t want to put excess pressure on myself, that’s the death of motivation (and more importantly, enjoyment) for me. Those will be available on this website.
I’ve decided that I love working on games and will be pushing that as a large facet of my career from here on out – See creatures will have a second go at a kickstarter campaign early/mid 24, after I’ve managed to get some travel sized versions out to reviewers. (Travel sized because I’m on an extremely low income and have to do what I can manage). If you want more info on that amazing game (not that I’m biased!) go to seecreatures.co.uk. It’s part of my Deep Sky game series – the heading under which all my games will be published. There is talk about setting up a gaming co-operative under Queer City Gaymes, but only time will tell if that’s going to actually happen. I’d like it to. All info or links to my games can be found on this website.
I also plan to sell some of my art, I’ve done a series on Trans Masc bodies (18+) that I’d like to sell, and I’ve done another based on my experiences during the summer.
And that’s not even mentioning the choirs I’m in or run, nor the personal music I’ve been working on, combined with my work in the community and training workshops I’m hoping to see the results from my efforts really grow this year.
Check out my socials for more info!
Categories
Update
The last 7 months have been quite trying, hence my website being quite. In a nutshell my partner and I agreed to be in a documentary about trans issues, we had a lot of distress over this decision as we were worried about the final content of the show (which we haven’t seen yet), we also didn’t want to make a commodity of trans day of remembrance for other people’s entertainment but felt the desperate need to do what little we could to try and stave off the waves of hate trans people face. We, ultimately, didn’t want to be in it at all and have been plagued by anxiety and distress. The final outcome of the show remains uncertain for us, and channel 4 have been grossly misrepresenting it’s contents in publicity statements.
This was followed by an attack by far right extremists in the park during an art rally I held against section 35, which resulted in my getting a broken nose and concussion trying to pull an attacker off of an innocent by-stander. There has been no justice on that matter, only polite words of concern.
This has lead me to take a step back from several facets of my life while I nurture my mental and physical health.
Not everything has come to a halt however – I’ve been working on a few creative projects! The first is a book called “Irreversible Joy” which is about finding happiness from the perspective of someone who’s gender diverse (spoiler alert, there’s a lot of it to be had!) and a card game called “See Creatures” which is a bright and lighthearted game about making creatures for points and to inconvenience the other players with their effects – another update coming soon!
I also have been working on a thriving theatre life, I started a new protest singing group which has become a tightly knit group and we also do writing and acting – our current project being around the history of gender diversity, which crosses thousands of years. I also have a (thankfully small!) part in a community theatre production in a nonbinary role, which is on during late June and early July.
Hopefully going forward things will continue to improve!