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:
Chapter 7 Edits
almost 2 years ago
– Sat, Feb 11, 2023 at 08:24:59 PM
The Update
Just a quick update this month!
We've now made some of the very difficult cuts we needed to make to Chapter 7 (The Guide) to make the layout work. We've been saving the original version of the examples for our own reference and we'll be sharing some of them with future updates.
We'll probably have some additional iteration on the Chapter 7 layout next before moving on to Chapter 8 (Running the Game).
Example - Presenting information as a gift
The example below was inspired by the second game of Descent into Midnight ever played, where our friend Darcy Ross told us about the Aristotle's Lantern.
GUIDE: “Someone at the construction site comes over to you. What do they look like? What species are they?”
PLAYER 1: “I’m imagining them sort of like a construction worker, except they’re their own backhoe. Here, look up a picture of an Aristotle’s lantern on a sea urchin, you’ll get a kick out of this. It’s got these five interlocking teeth that look sort of like horrifying shovels or something...”
GUIDE: “(Looking it up) “Oh no. Well, that’s gonna haunt my nightmares forever. I love it!”
Finally
On a personal note, we'd just like to encourage folks to reach out to the people they love this month, even if only to just say hello.
- Richard and the DiM Team
January Update
almost 2 years ago
– Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 09:55:53 AM
What have we accomplished since last time?
We've added a bit more content to Chapter 4 (Moves) to massage the layout and get rid of an ugly blank page and create some symmetry for the pages where the Moves are explained. Here's a sample page featuring one of the fantastic drawings from Taylor Livingston (and of course part of Devon George's city illustration peeking in on the margin).
Page from Chapter 4
We've also started in on refining the layout for Chapter 7. We're still iterating on the example text to make it fit well but also maintain the tone we've found to be most effective at our tables.
What's next?
We're continuing work on Chapter 7. We need to lock in a style for the examples then re-write until they fit nicely within the layout, so I'd expect a bit of back and forth on this for the next few weeks.
A few final words
The ball's continuing to roll on this. Things slowed down a bit in December and early January due to illness and time dedicated to family but we've kept things moving. If you'd like more frequent updates, we're posting on Facebook and Twitter between the official backer updates.
Hope you all are safe and healthy,
- Richard and the DiM Team
2022 Year End Update
about 2 years ago
– Mon, Dec 12, 2022 at 05:27:43 PM
Where are we?
The Chapter 4 layout ended up having an awkward blank page, so we've added a bit more content ahead of it to smooth out the layout. We'll need to reflow everything and make some minor adjustments for the content ahead of that page.
Chapter 7 presented us with a challenge in the layout for differentiating between Move text and example text, and with the issue that some of the examples are rather lengthy. We've done some revisions but will need to massage the layout and the example text quite a bit to make everything look nice and flow smoothly.
We may be moving some of the material from the appendices to another location, so we're working through whether we want to move it and where.
What happened?
The short version is I've been burned out. The long version is it's been incredibly difficult to find caregiving help for an ongoing family medical issue and I overcommitted myself to help out. What we thought would be a stop-gap arrangement has lasted around 8 months now. The last year has been tough for my family dealing with both chronic medical issues and COVID. During the last few months especially I had let it affect both my work and personal life to a degree I couldn't ignore, so I've scaled back a bit and asked for help.
What's next?
We're shifting some responsibilities on the team around and our Concept Lead, Rich, will be driving the project management. I'll still be doing the bulk of the updates and working with our layout designer to manage the edits and iterations, but we'll be doing regular check ins to ensure we're maintaining momentum. Speaking of updates, as part of the check ins I'll be posting to Facebook and Twitter with more frequent updates in the style of a dev blog so folks can follow along with the details more closely if they'd like.
Content-wise, we're looking at iterations on Chapter 4's new suggestions to fill in that blank page, decisions about how to present examples and whether that will differ from Move text, editing the examples in Chapter 7, and potentially moving that appendices content. We're continuing to move forward with the project
Finally
I again can't express the appreciation I have for everyone's patience and support. We're not going away, we're committed to continuing work on the project until we can get everyone their copy, and we're excited to have all of you along with us on this journey.
- Richard and the DiM Team
Chapter 7 in Layout!
over 2 years ago
– Wed, Sep 07, 2022 at 10:01:09 AM
This will be a quick update. After revising the layouts for chapters 4 and 6, they're about 95% done. I'm working on expanding the content of one section to fill a blank page but otherwise they're all set. It has been surprisingly difficult in places to adjust the content to fit, but the end product is incredibly satisfying.
We're now on to the layout of Chapter 7! This is the chapter for the Guide, so there's lots of advice and play examples to go along with the Guide Moves that help keep the story running. I'm anticipating there being a fair bit of trimming and expanding going on to make things look nice, but I'm excited because so much of the game runs on how the Guide nudges the narrative along when things get tense or there's a perfect opportunity.
Stay safe, stay cool (we're in the middle of a heat wave here), and remember the ocean is full of more stories than we'll ever be able to tell.
- Richard and the DiM Team
A long overdue update
over 2 years ago
– Mon, Aug 08, 2022 at 08:05:48 PM
First things first
Obviously, the first thing I need to do here is apologize for the tardiness of this update. At this point in the project, I (Richard) am driving the progress, handling the iterations necessary for layout, etc. Everyone else on the team has been great and I've been holding things up entirely on my end. My intention has always been to have regular updates, and while the last few months have made that challenging, they didn't make it impossible, so I should have kept you all apprised.
The short version of what's happened the last few months is that my family has continued to have no luck finding a caregiver for some medical needs, which I've been stepping up to help with, and there have been two major projects at work that, while thankfully both completed now, were keeping my plate full with supporting my team and had me literally dreaming in JavaScript (which, if you've never had recurring dreams where you're writing code before, I don't recommend). I've been, simply put, burned out.
On the upside, both those major projects are now completed, and we're continuing to search for caregiving help through as many avenues as we can find. I'm feeling rejuvenated after taking some time off to recuperate, and I'm ready to continue work on the project.
Where does the project currently stand?
The latest news is that I've completed a series of edits for the Moves chapter to make them fit the layout better. The good news is that for most of the Moves, it will mean a bit more explanation because we're shooting for a two-page spread for each of the Basic Moves and Special Moves. Our editor, Rhi, is taking a look over them and then they'll be slotted in to ensure everything fits nicely.
In the meantime, we've got edits for Chapter 6 as well that should be ready for a layout iteration as well. The pages themselves are lovely.
I'm getting our recurring project meetings and check-ins back in place, and setting aside dedicated time to work on any updates I'll need to do as they come in.
And finally
I again want to thank everyone for your belief in the project and your patience. If you had asked me in February of 2020 what I thought this project would look like, I certainly never would have imagined it going the way it has, but I'm extremely proud of the work the whole team has put in and the game that I'll be able to send to all of you as soon as it's ready.
