In the last 2 weeks, Godspark successfully funded on Kickstarter! In this issue of Ink & Dice, we’ll talk about how I used Affinity Artboards to build the Kickstarter page, and I talk a bit about designing my next solo TTRPG adventure, Moe’s House of Meat.
Inside
Gameplan for Godspark
Affinity Artboards
Moe’s House of Meat
Content Corner: You read the book and…
Gameplan for Godspark
Godspark has finished its Kickstarter campaign, successfully funding in 30 minutes and reaching over 1000% of its target! We hit all of the stretch goals for the game, including some upgrades to the Saint Sheets, two-player rules, and stickers of the god skulls. We also got some amazing new art by Matt Gomez that will be featured on the back of the Saint Sheets.
Now begins the process of finishing the game and delivering it to backers. The base game is finished, and the two-player rules are being tested and finalized. Proof copies have already been reviewed, and the order should go to the printers for books, stickers, and Saint Sheets by the end of the week.
While I wait for the products to be delivered, I will be fulfilling the digital rewards to all backers. These will come through Itch.io so that you can log on to download the game in PDF and text formats. I am hoping that I will be able to turn around the physical products within a couple of weeks of them being delivered to me, so be on the lookout for an email from BackerKit so that I can get your shipping information and get the game in your hands as quickly as possible.
Affinity Artboards
During the set-up of the Kickstarter Story page, I finally took the time to figure out how to use artboards in Affinity Designer. This turned out to be a huge help in creating the images that I needed for the page, and I ended up using the same document to make new advertisement images as well.
At the request of a couple of other creators, I am going to go into how to create and use artboards in Designer. In this little tutorial, we will build an artboard template that we can use for building itch.io game pages. We will start by creating a new document with an artboard with the dimensions of an itch.io game cover.
This will bring us to the artboard view with one blank artboard (you know you are viewing artboards because the background color will be lighter than usual). We will start by renaming this artboard by either double-clicking on the title, using CMD+SHIFT+R on the keyboard (CTRL+SHIFT+R on Windows), or double-clicking on Artboard1 in the Layers panel.
We can now add whatever images or text we would like to build the cover for our game. I find copy-and-pasting images or text directly from my Affinity Publisher file for the game works best to build the cover.
The other image that we always need is the banner for the top of the game’s page. For this, we will create another artboard. This can also be done in a few different ways. You can duplicate the Cover artboard in the Layers panel; you can select the Cover artboard, hold Option, and click-and-drag a copy; you can use copy-and-paste to duplicate the artboard; or you can use the Artboard Tool, found between the Move Tool and the Node Tool on the toolbar.
With the Artboard Tool, you can click-and-drag on the background of the workspace to create an artboard of any size. Once you have a second artboard created, rename it “Banner” and resize it to the itch banner size using the Transform Panel.
We should now have two artboards in our workspace.
We can now build our game’s cover on the Cover artboard and then copy-and-paste the objects over onto the Banner artboard, allowing easy viewing of multiple graphic assets at the same time. Once we have designed our images the way we want them, exporting is as simple as switching to the Export Persona, selecting the artboard(s) we want to export, and clicking the export button. No more dealing with selections or slices!
One note: when you export as PNG, the artboard will be exported with a transparent background. This does not work well for itch covers, so you will want to put a white rectangle on the Cover artboard and lock it to make a background. You can add additional artboards for whatever other images you like to include on your game pages, including inline images and screenshots. Finally, go to File>Export as Template, and you’ve got a starting point for every itch page you make.
If you like, you can skip all this and download the template that I use here:
Moe’s House of Meat
New game announcement! Moe’s House of Meat is a one-player module designed for The Lost Bay RPG. Moe’s is a seedy restaurant on the outskirts of town, well known as a spot for teens to congregate in the wee hours of the morning. It is also well known as the last place several missing people have been seen.
In the module, you are dropped into the basement of the restaurant, and you must fight your way back up to the exit. You start without any items, but you have some money in your pocket. In the first room, you are given the chance to use a vending machine to acquire some weapons and gear.
Throughout the dungeon, you will encounter NPCs, both friendly and hostile. Each NPC has money values attached to them: a cost to pay them off so they ignore you, the amount you can loot from them if you beat them in a fight, and a cost to pay them to join you as part of your party.
I set the module up in this way to add a resource management aspect to the adventure. It’s one thing to work your way through a dungeon killing everything. It’s another when you could be hiring the NPCs to fight with you against the boss. I also hope that it adds an element of replayability to the game. Sure, you got taken out by the Bone Hulk this time, but what if you had hired that last Butcher Boy instead of buying the Revolver? You’ll need to play again to find out!
The Lost Bay RPG is heading to Kickstarter next month to fund its first print run! With the core rulebooks, you will be able to play through Moe’s House of Meat and my full, multiplayer, mystery module Elevator Game, complete with three in-world punk zines to lead your players to the lair of the creature Rin. Follow the Kickstarter campaign here for updates:
Content Corner
More MÖRK BORG tables! This time, you come across a weathered tome deep in a dungeon. The spine creaks as you open the leather cover. The next thing you know, the GM asks…
Thank you!
That’s all I’ve got for this week. Thank you for reading, and thank you to everyone who contributed to making Godspark such a runaway success! Ink & Dice will be back in two weeks with more M. Allen Hall updates, game design thoughts, and TTRPG content.
— MAH
Thanks for the little Affinity tutorial! I really need to start using those art boards...