A roleplaying game about community, family, and hope on an aquatic world.
Descent into Midnight is a Powered by the Apocalypse game where the players take on the role of psionic alien sea creatures who are defending their home from an otherworldly Corruption.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
We have a first draft of the whole book laid out!
3 months ago
– Mon, Sep 30, 2024 at 08:33:17 AM
Progress Since Last Time
Like it says in the title, we have the first draft of the whole book laid out! We're still working on getting the publishing metadata sorted out, and we're reading through the entirety of the book together to make sure everything looks good and flows well.
Overview
DONE: Finish first draft of whole book layout
Get publishing metadata block / library cataloging info generated and into book
Finalize supporter/backer list (to include BackerKit post-campaign supporters) in the book
Lay out printable Playbooks
Generating print layout & proofing the book
Printing the books
Confirming addresses
Shipping
Campaign extras (coloring book pages, token files, etc)
Finally
I can't say express excited I am to have a collected version of the whole book laid out to proofread. We'll be working on the play aids and getting the print production started soon!
- Richard and the DiM Team
First draft of Playbooks Chapter Layout complete
5 months ago
– Fri, Jul 19, 2024 at 08:59:31 AM
Progress Since Last Time
We've made some continuing adjustments to the materials before the first chapter and after the last, but the big update is that we've finished a first pass on Chapter 5 layout!
We still have to arrange for publishing metadata to be created and add that in, insert page numbers, etc, but we're getting close to having a laid out version of the entire book ready!
Overview
Covers and frontmatter: Done (except for publishing info which we'll get once we have a final page count and can produce the meta data block necessary for libraries, etc)
Chapter 1 - Basics: Done
Chapter 2 - Safety & Accessibility: Done
Chapter 3 - Characters: Done
Chapter 4 - Moves: Done
Chapter 5 - Playbooks: In layout - first pass done
Chapter 6 - Campaign Play: Done
Chapter 7 - The Guide: Done
Chapter 8 - Running the Game: Done
Chapter 9 - Making the Game Yours: Done
Appendices: Done
Finally
I'm continually grateful for all the beautiful work put together by the team that's transforming the words we put down in a Google Doc into a real roleplaying game book.
Also, a random fish fact I learned yesterday: there's apparently a version of tuberculosis that fish can get. So I suppose if you really wanted to, your game of Descent into Midnight could take after the great Victorian novels full of Consumption, just with a few more aquatic creatures and a lot more psionic super abilities.
-Richard and the DiM Team
Playbooks Chapter in Layout!
7 months ago
– Sat, May 18, 2024 at 07:29:47 PM
Progress Since Last Time
We've gone through and updated the playbooks, including renaming one of them to match the latest updates (The Traveler is now The Explorer). The Playbook chapter (Chapter 5) is in layout and we've done the official split of the Chapter 5 contents (the section that will appear in the book explaining each Playbook) and the reference sheet we'll be using to populate the Playbook sheets themselves. Because we now have the content synced and don't want to keep updating it multiple places, it is now locked unless we're forced to change it due to layout.
Overview
Covers and frontmatter: Done (except for publishing info which we'll get once we have a final page count and can produce the meta data block necessary for libraries, etc)
Chapter 1 - Basics: Done
Chapter 2 - Safety & Accessibility: Done
Chapter 3 - Characters: Done
Chapter 4 - Moves: Done
Chapter 5 - Playbooks: In layout
Chapter 6 - Campaign Play: Done
Chapter 7 - The Guide: Done
Chapter 8 - Running the Game: Done
Chapter 9 - Making the Game Yours: Almost finalized
Appendices: Mostly done, waiting on a few final details
Finally
We're getting to the layout of the heart of the game, the content that most players will spend the most time interacting with! Chapter 5 and the Playbooks themselves are the last major pieces that need to be laid out.
I've also really been enjoying the penguins at the Birch Aquarium, so here's a quick picture of some of the inspiration for the game!
A group of small, squawking penguins on the rocks in an enclosure
-Richard and the DiM Team
Finalizing Making the Game Yours, Revising Playbooks
9 months ago
– Fri, Mar 15, 2024 at 09:54:17 AM
Progress Since Last Time
Work on Chapter 9 is within a hairs' breadth of done (we needed to revise some of the formatting to make things more consistent) and we also made a brief update to Chapter 8 (we found that we were having some confusion around one of the examples and realized we needed to re-write it if it wasn't clear within the team).
In the meantime, our Concept Lead, Rich, has been running the game for kids as an educational tool and refining the play materials. We've been tweaking things to make them easier to put onto the printable Playbooks and clarifying them to make the play experience smoother. It's one of the reasons we left Chapter 5 (Playbooks) to the end; we knew that it was the most likely thing to continually develop and we wanted it to be the best it could be.
Overview
Covers and frontmatter: Done (except for publishing info which we'll get once we have a final page count and can produce the meta data block necessary for libraries, etc)
Chapter 1 - Basics: Done
Chapter 2 - Safety & Accessibility: Done
Chapter 3 - Characters: Done
Chapter 4 - Moves: Done
Chapter 5 - Playbooks: Tweaking slightly to due play-testing, needs a re-layout and brief editing pass
Chapter 6 - Campaign Play: Done
Chapter 7 - The Guide: Done
Chapter 8 - Running the Game: Done
Chapter 9 - Making the Game Yours: Almost finalized
Appendices: Mostly done, waiting on a few final details
Finally
I'm really excited about getting to the last major chunk of layout and editing. We're on the cusp of laying out the Playbooks chapter (one of the most critical in the book) in tandem with the new play materials.
I'm also looking forward to my new "office" for working on the project: a local aquarium! I'm able to work remotely and decided to pick up a membership to my local aquarium, where I'll have a dedicated, thematic workspace to spark inspiration and reward myself for moving things forward.
Also, I'm celebrating April 1st this year with April FOODS Day and running a food drive at the office because the best April Fools Day prank you can pull is kicking hunger's butt!
-Richard and the DiM Team
Chapter 9 In Progress
12 months ago
– Sun, Dec 31, 2023 at 10:42:03 AM
Progress Since Last Time
We're moving right along as we've headed into the winter holiday season. Chapter 8 is done with a final review pass by our accessibility expert, and Chapter 9 has been laid out and is in iterations. The past month or so has seen a few vacations and illnesses on the team (pretty much par for the course for December) but we're in a great spot to move forward in the new year.
The initial layout of Chapter 9 is looking awesome and we'll be polishing it and then moving on to circle back to Chapter 5, which will then lead into redesigning the Playbook layouts.
Overview
Covers and frontmatter: Done (except for publishing info which we'll get once we have a final page count and can produce the meta data block necessary for libraries, etc)
Chapter 1 - Basics: Done
Chapter 2 - Safety & Accessibility: Done
Chapter 3 - Characters: Done
Chapter 4 - Moves: Done
Chapter 5 - Playbooks: Rewrites complete, needs to re-layout and brief editing pass
Chapter 6 - Campaign Play: Done
Chapter 7 - The Guide: Done
Chapter 8 - Running the Game: Done
Chapter 9 - Making the Game Yours: In Progress
Appendices: Mostly done, waiting on a few final details
Finally
We're moving right along and got some good rest over the winter holidays. Having a professional project manager shepherding things along is making a huge difference, and in my own personal life I've made a bunch of healthy changes and have lots more energy to get things done.
