❖ Version History ❖

13th of September, 2020:
While leaving work this evening I discover three audio messages on my phone from my girlfriend. She describes her evening as having been spent with a few friends from upstairs over food and drink, where, by the end of their time together she has told tales of the tabletop games that I have been concocting among my friends over the past year and began in this very moment the rest of the story that is to follow.

16th of September:
By this time I have now received email correspondence between My Girldfriend, Her Neighbor, His Friend, and That Fellow’s friend (Matthew L. Buchman), who is an author in search of a game designer. The email chain explains to everyone involved that Matt is hoping to find someone who can make a game that would take place within the universe of one of his novel series, and that I am on the hunt to start making game design a more serious part of my career. This is the first time that either of us is in contact, and it is truly the beginning of a serendipitous journey. In fact, Matt’s very first email describing the kind of game he would like happens to arrive in my inbox while I myself actively arrive at my co-designer’s apartment (mr. Benjamin Seagrave), and we immediately begin concocting ideas on how this game will go from of the few notes we have been given to work with.

18th of September:
After a few days of email conversation going back and forth, Matt and I conclude that we need to have a zoom conversation. We meet for the first time in a live video chat, and get to brainstorming back and forth about the plot of the book series and how a game will come from within it:

• What the game will be like?
• How will it play?
• What genre should it be?
• What are the motives of the players?

We also discuss some basic concepts for mechanics, and the importance of why this game will exist within the story world. Before the end of this day we have certainly established that we will be friends. We are both feeling motivated against the challenge of making this project a reality, and both eager to start. He sets a hopeful deadline that this game must exist in full by March, 2021 for an April release. The goal is to have it come out alongside the 8th book of his series, as that will be when the characters have finished making the game in the plot of the story world. Excited and equally intimidated about the deadlines, I immediately leave the video chat and begin ferociously scratching down notes about the inspirations that he has left me with. By the end of the next day, I have already thrown together the featured doodled image of some card designs and layouts that became integral to the later design.