Ithaca in the Cards 2E & What Should We Have Tomorrow?

Text Lock for Layout
10 months ago – Thu, Jun 12, 2025 at 01:35:05 AM

Hi everyone,

Really quick update this time. Just letting you all know that I've completely locked down text for both games and they are now in the capable hands of Ella and Xiao Ming to put this all into beautiful layout.

I've also sent the finalised text to Montro to commence the translation of What Should We Have Tomorrow? into Japanese, and Yon is hard at work on the final sticker set.

There's not much to share at the moment as the artists get on with their work. I'll update once we've made some more progress, and probably will be alerting all of you about surveys and pledge managers as well next time.

Text-locked regards,

Aaron

May Update, Finalising Text for Layout, Sticker Progress
10 months ago – Mon, May 26, 2025 at 10:40:33 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Funds In, Sticker Progress, Writing Progress
11 months ago – Thu, Apr 17, 2025 at 10:57:43 AM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Week 4 Report: Funded! Thank you!
12 months ago – Thu, Mar 27, 2025 at 10:38:33 AM

Hi everyone,

We funded!

Thank you all for supporting this campaign and these two games! I am so excited to get to work on these games and also to get to work with such a great team of artists and designers to bring them to life.

In terms of next steps, I'll be taking it a bit easy for the next couple of days as I recover from jet lag from my trip to Breakout Con, but after that it'll be full speed ahead on finalising the text of the game and getting started on initial layout and art briefs.

I had some really great feedback from the demos and playtests I did at Breakout Con and will be incorporating them into the main manuscript in the next week. Once that's done, I'll do a couple rounds of playtests with the revised text before I finalise that. I'll send out an update with details on those playtests when the revision is ready, along with an invite to the playtesting Discord if any of you would like to join in. My aim is to get the "zero drafts" for both games ready by the end of April so we can focus on layout and art in earnest in May.

I'll probably be updating about once a week for the initial stretch as I finalise the text and look for playtest input, but after that I'll probably slow down to updating once every 2 weeks or once a month as the layout and art process takes time and might not have a whole lot to report on week to week.

Thanks again for all your support during the campaign, and I look forward to getting you some really amazing games.

In the meantime, if you're looking for other games to support, you can check out the following games that I've supported recently as I think you'll find them interesting as well:

• The Last Job You'll Ever Need - I love games that use playing cards, and I love heists, so this was a slam dunk for me. Being able to track your odds via counting cards for different suits is also the right kind of mechanical heft that I like in my games.
• Fiction in the Space Between - Pidj is one of my favourite creative forces in the world of TTRPGs and I love, love, love the idea of a zine that's just wholly devoted to one thing. This is the sort of project that's perfect for a Zine Quest/Zine Month/Pocketopia initiative. Small, scrappy, full of heart.
• The Red Lion Hotel - I've been following Come Martin's work for a while, ever since Meanwhile, In The Subway blew my socks off. I also love telling stories of places that have hosted a wide variety of people - shopping malls, schools, theme parks, hotels - so this was a no-brainer for me as it combines that interest with the Come Martin spark.
• Hit the Road, Jack! - I really dig the cat-and-mouse chase between hunter and hunted, and drawing on the theme of mythical/fabled Jacks as both sides of the chase is a really cool twist. Also love seeing more card-based and boxed games.
• A Land Once Magic - You say world-building and playing cards and my credit card details are already pre-filled in the form. I've also been a big fan of Viditya's work and the playfulness with which he approaches design always comes through, and that's a big thing I'm into. Design should be play too.
• Edinburgh Indie Gamers 2025 - Instead of just making up fictional communities in a world-building game, how about helping out a real community of indie gamers in Edinburgh and getting some cool games and articles in return? I think we need more of these community and scene building efforts and I'm glad to see the Edinburgh Indie Gamers still going strong.
• Returning Home - So this one technically already finished its campaign, but late pledges are still open. As evidenced by my prior work with An Altogether Different River and Spectres of Brocken, places and people changing over time and how you deal with that is a strong recurring theme for me, and I love to see how other artists tackle the subject.

Relieved regards,

Aaron

Week 3 Report Addendum - Ithaca in the Cards 2E Demo Actual Play
about 1 year ago – Thu, Mar 20, 2025 at 10:33:59 AM

Whooooooops, this was supposed to be part of the previous update but it got left off while I was adding the images.

As I mentioned last week, I did a livestream with Valiant Dorian and Dungeon Mother Kir as an actual play and demo for Ithaca in the Cards: Second Expedition. While you can still find the video on Val's Twitch page, it's also now available more permanently on YouTube here:

Since we played online on playingcards.io, it didn't have the full procedure of the "dealing from the bottom" trick for the setup, but I think we had a really fun game and managed to showcase what makes Ithaca in the Cards: Second Expedition such a fun and compelling game. Check it out!

Sheepish regards,

Aaron