OWG Day 6 - The cookies! (And another "godly" game)
10 months ago – Sun, Oct 29, 2023 at 09:05:32 AM

Hey Fellow Cultists!

We have passed the 5k mark, and have hit 100 backers. So that seems like it deserves a special update.

One of our images floating around the internet asks "Wanna join our cult? We baked cookies!" and it has a lot of people laughing (which was the point, of course.) But personally, I think we should follow through with that promise of providing cookies. Now, I can't mail them to all the backers - that's not what we are doing here. But I can provide my favorite cookie recipe to you all!

This one comes from the 12th Edition of the Better Homes & Garden's New Cook Book. I prefer the 1981 9th edition for most main dishes, but this 12th edition has some GREAT cookie recipes.

Giant Ginger Cookies

Prep: 20 min Bake: 11 min per batch Oven: 350 Yield: About 24 cookies

• 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons baking soda (not baking powder, these are different things)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon (I always double this. Cult secret!)
• 1 teaspoon ground clove (a pinch more if you want a mouth numbing sensation)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups butter (the original recipe calls for shortening. But who even uses that these days?)
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup molasses (this is KEY!)
• 3/4 sugar (for dusting on the tops)

1) In a medium bowl, stir together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat "shortening" with an electric mixer for 30 seconds on low speed. When using butter, you are basically breaking it up until it is creamy. Add the 2 cups of sugar and beat until fully combined, making sure to get the stuff on the edges of the bowl in the mix. Beat in eggs and molasses. Beat in as much flour as you can without breaking your mixer, then add in the rest and stir by hand.

2) Shape into 2' balls (which is about the size of a golf-ball.) Roll the balls in the extra sugar, coating the outside. Place them 2 1/2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. 

3) Bake in a 350 degree over for 11 to 13 minutes, or until bottoms are lightly browned and tops are puffed. Basically, don't burn them! Cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.

4) Invite friends over. Tell them about this game. Get them to join your cult. Enjoy the cookies!

A Divine Calling is the other thing I wanted to tell you about! GingGal Games, one of my fellow IGDN members (that's our trade organization for indie game creators), also has a "god-themed" kickstarter ending in a little under 3 days. The premise sounds really cool and I have backed it!

You are a high-school kid, chosen by a god, to be their warrior in a battle for the fate of the universe! This project just passed the funding goal last night and are now working on stretch goals. I skimmed through the free sample of the game and now I really want to play it with my own discord peeps!

So, please give it a gander and, if you are able, show another indie creator some love!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1398456656/a-divine-calling-ttrpg

Thank you all for your continued support! I'll toss some more cozy (and culty) stuff your way next week!

-Robert

OWG Day 4 - Playing Cards & Fishing
11 months ago – Fri, Oct 27, 2023 at 08:21:42 AM

Hey fellow cultists!

When I told you I would show off the cards, I actually meant I would show some pictures. But moving pictures are more fun, right? So here's a video!

Secondly, the eagle eyed among you might have noticed that I tweaked a stretch goal. Originally I had a fishing mini game at $13,000, but the more I have thought about it - I really want to fishing game to be in there no matter how much money we raise.

Fishing is a staple of every cozy video game I can think of. (Animal Crossing, Cult of the Lamb, Cozy Grove, and even Sea of Stars.) And while it has been in there as a village task since early on in the design process, I want to give it a little more prominence. I want you to draws cards to determine what you catch and have those give you different effects (for both good and ill.)

So yeah, its official! I am going to add that! That's one of the upsides of making an indie game, nothing is final until I send it off to print! And yes, I should have thought of this sooner - but sometimes inspiration doesn't strike until you are out fishing in the sea of the damned...

At that 13k stretch goal, I will instead figure out how to accommodate a request I have had since my very first game, which is "Can I play this solo?"

Technically, you can play Our Woodland Gods solo right now, as written. But I didn't design it that way. The game is supposed to be about the trials, tribulations, and teamwork of your pact. You don't need friends to play, but it is going to be super hard to run it solo as is. If we hit the 13k stretch goal, I will spend the time figuring out what needs to change to make it a more manageable and fulfilling solo experience and create a solo guide sheet to let you play it all by yourself.

But enough about stretch goals, we gotta get to the goal goal first. Tonight I will be emceeing a Halloween party at my favorite, local gaming pub (The Forge Tavern). There will be promo signs up with the cute little deer cultist and a QR code so folks can check it out right at the party. Next weekend I will be at Acadecon in Dayton, Ohio doing promotion and selling my other games. 

We also have a feature coming up in No Dice Unrolled, are planning to do a session with our friends at Nat21Adventures, and there are some other media appearances still being tweaked. I expect to see more eyes on the project very soon and am confident we will reach the funding goal with room to spare!

Thanks for all your support, and keep sharing those links! (Though, watch out for the heretics!)

-Robert

OWG Day 2 - Thank you! And check out these cards!
11 months ago – Wed, Oct 25, 2023 at 12:14:28 PM

Hey fellow cultists!

First off, you all rock! Seriously, every single one of you. We have 66 backers as of right now (which is practically a cult symbol all on it's own) and are 36% funded! For an indie RPG from a tiny studio (just me and some freelancers), that's great! We are in a really good place right now!

You may have heard the old rule that a kickstarter has to hit it's funding goal within the first 48 hours to be successful. And for a lot of projects, that's true. Having run 13 kickstarters prior to this one, I know that mine tend to go differently. Indie RPGs are more of a roller coaster ride to begin with and my projects in particular tend to be slow burns that build and build.

I don't low ball the numbers to get that "We funded in one hour!" hype. I don't spend thousands on marketing before hand, one because we don't have it and two because I would rather the money go to the artists first. 

Instead, I do the math (so much math) and set a realistic goal for a quality product, and know that we will get there in the end. The way we get there though is for awesome folks like you to spread the word amongst your friends. We all know Facebook and Twitter and such are horrible, soul sucking things - but the more we feed that beast, the more people will see this cool thing!

Tomorrow I am going to show of the printer's proof of the playing cards that arrived yesterday, but today I had a question from a discord that I wanted to address up front.

The question: "Is this just Cult of the Lamb(tm) the RPG?"

The initial idea was certainly inspired by playing that, plus Animal Crossing, and some other cozy game about helping ghosts on an island. Also from watching and loving Midsommer, Over the Garden Wall, the VVitch, and some M. Night Shyamalan movie about a secluded cult-village. That one may have just been called "The Village." Oh! And definitely a bit of the very old Black and White video game (where you are a god leading a village and for some reason have a giant, dumb, monkey-thing...) 

But I wouldn't say it's Cult of the Lamb the RPG. Its much more a story of your pact-mates, and how they work together to save (or doom) their village.

This game was originally meant to be a 32 page zine for ZineQuest 2023, but after the first playtest, we realized there was so much more game to explore here. And I am glad we did! 

I love running games, so making this as a GMless game was a huge departure for me. But I also loved the Choose Your Own Adventure and Fighting Fantasy books as a kid, and I have done my damnedest to make sure you don't need a GM to play. And when the playtesters, both over zoom, at conventions, and in person at our local pub realize they don't have to ask anyone for permission to do things, and they get to tell a story TOGETHER, and that it actually flipping works... well, that has been amazing to see!

So thanks for believing in this project! Thanks for jumping on board on day one! Thanks for reading all this... okay, you can have one of the pictures today then!

-Robert