Getting February updates in just under the wire, but here’s what’s new at Foresight Studio. It’s been a busy month!
Copies of The Cross Stitch from the initial print run are now fully sold out, so I'm gearing up for a second. I'll have more info on when and where to find it sometime next month. In other Cross Stitch news, the adventure was recently featured on the podcast Fear of a Black Dragon.
Also coming early next month is Public Access, the latest game from Jason Cordova at The Gauntlet. I'm doing the layout and graphic design, and let me tell you, this game is really something special. It’ll be out to The Gauntlet’s Patreon supporters about a month before its full digital release, with crowdfunding to eventually follow.
This month, Haunted Table Games revealed some very exciting news about Triangle Agency, their upcoming game of bureaucracy, anomalous powers, and that sweet, sweet mixture of humor and dread. Along with an upcoming jam,
they announced The Vault, a series of monthly missions by guest writers that will roll out following the game’s Kickstarter. And you guessed it, I’m writing one of these missions!
Last but not least, preparations are underway at Hillbrook Glen. Later next month, I'll be releasing Follow Your Bliss, the second workshop in the Glen’s series of four. I'll be recruiting playtesters soon, so keep an eye out for announcements about that on Twitter or the Foresight Studio discord server. Or just let me know if you’re interested!
Now, on to today’s topic: A brief reflection on immersion.
Go ahead, dive in
Last week, I spent a couple days at Disneyland. While I have my fair share of reservations about Disney, its commitment to creating an immersive experience is unlike anything else I’ve seen. Especially in the newer of its “lands” (Star Wars, Cars Land, and the Avengers Campus stand out), every detail is sculpted to draw you in, to build a world that feels lived-in. Details like striation in faux stone, grime and rust on the edges of metal-plated buildings, the choice of font on every sign, even the varieties of trees planted in each section of the park.
It's hard not to feel a sense of wonder when a whole new reality seems to open up to you as you round a corner.
In that way, the experience mimics what I love in TTRPGs: to be immersed in a strange, wondrous new version of existence. And like TTRPGs, it doesn’t negatively impact the experience to understand the ridiculousness inherent to it—even when you’re faced with the absurdity of seeing adults line up to meet-and-greet a racecar with eyes. Even if you are an adult lining up to meet-and-greet a racecar with eyes.
So if the physical trappings of Disneyland are any indication, a hugely underused way to invite players to dive into a game is attention to detail on the design of the thing itself, the physical (or digital) book & accompanying content. Maybe it's just that I've been deep in layout-land for the past month, but the presentation of a game can do an incredible amount to pull players in. You may not be transported to another reality, but you can feel like you plucked an artifact from that reality, hold it in your hands.1
That's the sense of wonder I want from games I play and games I make. All that said, while good mechanics can help build it and good design can reinforce it, only commitment from everyone at the table can make immersion happen.
Looking to the future,
Ben // Foresight Studio
PS. As always, if you want to stay up to date on what’s happening at Foresight Studio, I’m on twitter, mastodon, and discord.
While more common in board game design, this practice belongs in TTRPGs! A few recent examples of games with text or accessories presented as in-world artifacts include Logan Dean’s The Company and Raph D’Amico’s The Zone, with notable non-TTRPG examples including puzzle games like PostCurious’s The Emerald Flame and stuff from the Mysterious Package Company. There’s definitely tons more, though—if you have favorite examples, share them!