My 2024

30 December 2024

As December draws to an end, it’s time for the obligatory end-of-year roundup that all bloggers must seemingly partake in. For me, that means talking about all the games I’ve released this year, the highlights from my first year of blogging, and where I’m going next. So without further ado:

My Games

I released 5 games this year, not too shabby! It started in February with my entry to DotZines' Dottolus’ Dotnomicon. For this wizard-themed zine, I wrote a simple card game played on a pentagram called Summoning Circle. The zine is free so you should go check it out! Summoning Circle is on page 60 of the pdf, accompanied by art from the wonderful Rainier Wall!

Then my next game was ABODE 2nd Edition at the start of October! ABODE is a game of gothic lineage where players draw a family tree as they play. This is definitely my biggest project so far, with a double-digit page count, a fully illustrated cover by the lovely Jas and tons of interior art from Strega Wolf’s Creative Comrades Library and my incredible partner Jamie! I’m so happy with how this game came out, it’s definitely the kind of thing I’d love to do physical copies of, so let me know if there’s interest! To coincide with the release of ABODE, I released the RPTree Creator Kit, a free resource for creating games with the same family tree mechanic as ABODE.

I had a very busy November, making 2 games for different game jams. First up was Late Night in Limbo, which I wrote for the 200-word RPG jam on Tumblr. It’s a LARP about a talk show hosted by a spirit of death, where they will use the conversation to judge whether the guest is worthy of heaven or hell. I love the challenge of the 200-word jam, and definitely want to keep it going as a yearly tradition (last year I wrote Trivia Heroes). The art for this was from the British Library’s Flickr page, an amazing resource for free art with an antiquated vibe.

With more art from the British Library Flickr page, There’s Something About the Deep was the final tabletop game I released this year. Set in a submarine at the bottom of the ocean, players must vote to move the submarine up or down, aiming to complete their hidden objective before surfacing. They also have to manage the pressure of the sub, making sure it doesn’t reach a point where the sub caves in, killing everyone inside. I was really happy with the playtest for this, the exact tension I was aiming to create emerged, with players muffling their frustrations in an attempt to keep the pressure down.

Finally, Pinball Wizard was the first video game I released on Itch! Made for my university game design course, Pinball Wizard is an arcade roguelike where the player builds their own pinball machine using pieces they collect through play. I was the lead designer for this project and I’m really happy with what I contributed. The game is still a little buggy - we could’ve done with a bit more time to touch it up - but some of us the team have chatted and we’re planning on continuing development as a small side project for the new year, so hopefully that goes well!

Best of Jackalope Mail

I started this blog back in January with my entry to Prismatic Wasteland’s New Years Resolution Mechanics Challenge. I made a comedy combat system called Sword Slash to the Chest, and You're on Fire. That was a silly post and I never planned for the blog to become such a big thing, but 12 months later, I’ve written a number of posts and essays that I’m genuinely really proud of.

Starting with Blood on the Clocktower: Misregistration and the Power of “Might” in TTRPGs, where I got to talk about one of my favourite social deduction games and apply some of its design to TTRPGs. I’ve always really loved this idea and I’m still trying to find a way to incorporate it into one of my games, I think it’s such an interesting ability to put into the players’ hands.

Next up is How to Build a World like Breath of the Wild, where I got to talk about one of my favourite video games and apply some of its design to TTRPGs. Breath of the Wild is definitely one of my biggest inspirations as a creator, so it was really fun to be able to pick it apart in so much detail and talk about a couple different things I think it does really well.

And finally, How Wanderhome Mechanises Animism, where I got to talk about one of my favourite TTRPGs! This piece is a perfect combination of my love of game design and my love of folklore and religion, I definitely want to read more games that live at this intersection of my interests, so if you have any suggestions send ‘em my way!

Other Accomplishments

I basically put this section in because I wanted to highlight that I hit 1000 followers on Bluesky! This is so many more followers than I’ve ever had on any other social media, and it’s been amazing to hit such a milestone so quickly on a new site. Bluesky’s starter packs have definitely been a huge reason why I’ve been able to do this, and I hope it actually translates to good, long-term engagement, but only time will tell! If you haven’t already, follow me over on Bluesky here!

Moving Forward

There’s a lot of new stuff I want to do in 2025 and unfortunately that means a cut down to the blog. I want to focus a lot of my time on my uni work, which is getting more serious as I head into the second half of year 2 and then into my final year. In 2025, blog posts will just come out whenever I feel like I have something interesting to write, rather than once a month. I’ll keep posting Design Diary entries as I release games, and my monthly recommendations series Things I Liked Last Month will become quarterly after my post for December releases on January 1st.

Focusing on Uni means I’ll probably be uploading more video games to Itch! I have one more module where we’ll be making a game in Year 2, and then one more as my final project in Year 3, I’m also planning to make a tabletop game to accompany my Year 3 dissertation, so that’s at least 3 games I know I’ll be making, on top of any personal projects or game jams I do.

My New Year’s Resolution for 2025 is to actually play more TTRPGs! Specifically at least one new game a month. I read loads but never manage to actually schedule any games, so I want to put more effort into that in the new year. I already have a list of things to play which features some of the games I have physical copies of, including the Wildsea, Blades in the Dark and Cryptid Creeks, very exciting!

So that’s where I’m at and where I’m going in the new year! Let me know what your plans for 2025 are in the replies!

See you next year!