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:
Octopus Tarot and Playing Cards!
about 3 years ago
– Sun, Nov 21, 2021 at 01:17:34 AM
This is just a quick shout-out to a project we're not affiliated with but I think folks might be interested in. The Octopus Tarot and Playing Cards campaign just wrapped up here on Kickstarter but they're taking pre-orders through BackerKit.
Sample of the major arcana, each card with octopus and bits of holographic detail
And with that I'm off to go review the latest layout progress. See you all with the next update in December!
- Richard
October/November Update
about 3 years ago
– Wed, Nov 17, 2021 at 02:34:31 PM
What did we accomplish in October and the first half November?
In short, not much on the book, BUT we're now full steam ahead for the rest of the layout. The delay was two-fold. First, I had a commitment to a local theatre production to help build a mechanical articulated parrot puppet, which ate up much of my free time. More importantly, our layout design had to pause for several weeks due to some life changes on the team, but we're past that and had a great meeting this weekend outlining what's up next on the docket.
What's next for the second half of November?
We're all set to have both the front matter (the pages before chapter 1) and chapter 2 in final accessibility and layout review by the end of November, and we don't have any other (known) life upheavals in sight. I'm optimistic that by the first quarter of 2022, we'll have the majority of the layout complete and be working on the final details like getting publishing and library catalog meta-data. Backers should already have access to the text of the game (see the previous backer-only update) and we'll get folks a nice copy of the digital layout as soon as it's ready.
A few final words
In the long journey of this project, there have been ups and downs, slogs and sprints. I'm extremely excited by the workflow we have currently and am very confident we're going to be start chewing through chapter layouts rapidly. Despite all the challenges we've had, there's never been a question in my mind about whether we'll get the book made and into your hands. Every layout and design meeting we have, every page that's laid out, every accessibility note we get and correct is a joy and a step toward that goal, and I can't wait to share the results with you as we get them.
Thanks again for your patience and your support.
-Richard and the DiM Team
September Update
about 3 years ago
– Thu, Oct 07, 2021 at 08:59:52 PM
What did we accomplish in September?
In short, we have the first finished chapter! Chapter 1 is undergoing one last accessibility check, but aside from inserting page numbers references, it's looking like the final product. In addition, I've been continuing work on the digital character keeper.
What's next for October?
I'll continue work on the digital character keeper. We still have at least a few months to go to finish the layout, so I'm pacing myself on the software development work. We're also taking a brief pause on the layout because of some real-life situations that have cropped up, but we expect to get things rolling again in November. Given how smoothly the work on Chapter 1 has been going, I have every confidence we'll be moving forward rapidly on the other chapters, especially the simpler ones that don't have play examples or the Playbook chapters.
A few final words
We're still rolling along, and the book is turning out as gorgeous as I'd hoped. Next month's update will likely also be a bit spare, but we should have some good progress to report on by the end of November.
- Richard and the DiM Team
August Update
over 3 years ago
– Wed, Sep 08, 2021 at 11:59:03 PM
What did we accomplish in August?
Let's start with a preview of the new layout!
The finished book will have one of Devon George's full color illustrations per chapter, and we're planning on each chapter's pages being bordered by bits from that illustration. The black and white illustrations from Taylor Livingston are getting a watercolor background treatment to really make them pop. With this design getting fine-tuned, we'll be ready to start surging ahead on the layout soon.
Mock up of open book, with stylized fonts, embedded image of a sea wyrm, and illustrated vertical page borders.
Layout revisions on chapter 1 and pre-chapter 1 content.
Minor editing and copy updates based on layout flow, etc.
Playbook Moves and general infrastructure improvements to digital character keeper.
While three items may not sound like much, we're zero-ing in on the final template for standard text chapters (the Playbook chapter will be its own fun beast). This includes concurrent accessibility review, adjusting text as needed so it flows properly, minor editing updates, and shuffling around some of the content as needed.
The work on the digital character keeper has been slower than I'd like, but a lot of that is ensuring that it will be a single-page html file that does everything a page using a heavier-weight software library would do. Manually recreating all the functionality it needs is time consuming, but should be worth it in the end. And I have no doubts it's going to be ready by the time the digital version of the book is ready to distribute.
What's next for September?
Continued work on the digital character keeper (next up is selecting arbitrary Playbook Moves from other Playbooks gained via Insights and then Corruption Moves).
Finalizing the base layout template for standard text chapters.
Finish Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 layout.
We're already in the process of laying out Chapter 2, but obviously that won't be finalized until we have the final decisions on Chapter 1 and the overall style guide. We've been working closely with our accessibility consultant to ensure we won't be running into unexpected issues down the line, and work should proceed quickly on the rest of the layout until we get to the Playbook chapter. That chapter presents some unique layout challenges that we'll deal with once we get there.
A few final words
We're moving along with layout and accessibility review and the digital character keeper, I've been keeping an ear out about the logistics phase that will follow. Shipping and printing are going to be costlier than we had anticipated due to the effects of the pandemic, but we're lucky in that we're planning on using a domestic printer and don't need to import components like some other projects. We're still in good shape to get books to everyone once they're ready.
On a personal note, the fulfillment side of this project has essentially marked the time of the pandemic for me. It's given me something to focus on creatively, a reason to stay organized, and a long term goal to accomplish. I'm grateful to all of you for your patience and your belief in the project.
Thank you
- Richard and the DiM Team
August Update will be slightly delayed
over 3 years ago
– Fri, Sep 03, 2021 at 11:22:06 PM
Hi everyone, just a super quick update. I'll be doing the monthly update about the August progress after the long US Labor Day weekend. We've got some exciting things to share and I'm hoping to sneak in a bit more work on the digital character keeper/sheet over the weekend.
