Paul Czege on the wild energy of the itch.io ttrpg scene, or, "My Life With Itch"

[Tun Kai Poh]

Paul Czege, the designer of MY LIFE WITH MASTER has spent this year looking at the indie scene on itch.io, and the crazy wild energy on it. An important thread on Twitter. If I were his editor, I'd title it "My Life With Itch."

Have you seen people talking about the tabletop storygame and RPG scene on itchio, but then weren't impressed with any of the games? Then this thread is for you.

It's clear to you that a lot of #ttrpg games published on itchio haven't been playtested? Maybe your unconscious gamer reaction is, "I don't buy ideas."

Or maybe you're not seeing how they're even playable.

I pretty much spent this year diving into the itchio scene, perceiving its energy and trying to figure it out. I designed and published a game a month from May through September. I joined and participated in four game jams.

I've traded games and made friends with other designers.

This is the Physical Games section of itch.io today, BTW. Over FOUR THOUSAND tabletop rpg pdfs, about three-quarters created/added THIS YEAR.

And here's the big thing I learned: the small games people are making and selling on itcho aren't products in the ways gamers are conditioned to process them.

And they're not just ideas either.

They're...incitements.

You have to shop for them in a different way than gamers have been trained to shop. And you use them in a different way.

Here's a resounding endorsement:

I'm convinced the future paradigms of RPGs are being discovered in the itchio scene. Nothing has flowed out powerfully yet, but it will.

(So now feels like the time to figure it out for yourself if that's something you're interested in. Remember the frustrations of folks who wanted to engage with the Forge scene in 2006, only to be confronted with too many years of activity to catch up on?)

The thing is, RPGs have always been incitements. Jorune aims to incite you to play with the fullness of its worldbuilding. Primetime Adventures aims to incite you with its system and procedures. D&D aims to incite with its survival challenge and advancement rewards.

But what makers of small games on itchio are doing is exploring the wider landscape of incitement.

There are games like @bjrecio's Cockamania, which aim to incite with cultural expression.

There are games like @temporalhiccup's The Mermaid Spell, which aim to incite with procedures of ritual and affirmation:

There's a lot more, but here's the wrap-up:

The designers of small games on itchio are yearning and striving to spark your incitement. They believe you are more than a gamer buying products that probably don't work for you.

They believe you bring your whole self and capacities to the table, and that you can trust and achieve things they imagine for you if you just believe it yourself.

To be incited you have to figure out how to believe in yourself as much as their games do. That's how to shop for games on itchio. Shop as if you believe in yourself.

 

[dragoner]

Joined, tbh, it seems mostly computer games?

 

[Tun Kai Poh]

There is a filter for Physical Games, or go to itch.io/physical-games

 

[dragoner]

There is a filter for Physical Games, or go to itch.io/physical-games

Great! Thank you, I am looking through them now.

 

[Morrus]

I‘m struggling to understand what that means. What is an incitement? I have to figure out how to believe in myself?

 

[Ovinomancer]

I‘m struggling to understand what that means. What is an incitement? I have to figure out how to believe in myself?

An incitement is an encouragement to break the law. No idea what why they used it in ad copy.

 

[pemerton]

Paul Czege, the designer of MY LIFE WITH MASTER has spent this year looking at the indie scene on itch.io, and the crazy wild energy on it.

Thanks for this post - this is the first I've heard of itch.io.

I just bought and downloaded two games - The Mermaid Spell and the treasure at the end of this dungeon is an escape from this dungeon and we will never escape from this dungeon.

With the former I thought I might get something like Wuthering Heights, but misjudged. It didn't move me as it did Paul Czege ("This not-a-game is thoroughly great. It invokes a strength people need in the world in an intense, but wondrous and caring way. ") but maybe I need to come back to it in a different frame of mind.

The latter reminds me a little bit of Vincent Baker's Murderous Ghosts. I don't know if I'll get to play it any time soon, but it seems like it could be pretty interesting.

 

[pemerton]

What is an incitement?

The OED gives two definitions:

1. The action of inciting or rousing to action; an urging, spurring, or setting on; instigation, stimulation.

2. That which incites or rouses to action; an inciting cause or motive; stimulus, incentive, ‘spur’.

So RPGs have always been incitement = RPGs have always been spurs to action.

The designers of small games on itchio are yearning and striving to spark your incitement = those designers are yearning and striving to spark within you an arousal to action.

I have to figure out how to believe in myself?

I think Czege's view is that a genuine arousal to action, that comes from within the aroused person, must be sincere and flow from the self even though another has sparked it. Self-doubt will hinder that flow. That's what believing in yourself means in this context.

You can see this also in his comment on The Mermaid Spell that I posted just upthread.

 

[Ovinomancer]

The OED gives two definitions:

1. The action of inciting or rousing to action; an urging, spurring, or setting on; instigation, stimulation.

2. That which incites or rouses to action; an inciting cause or motive; stimulus, incentive, ‘spur’.

So RPGs have always been incitement = RPGs have always been spurs to action.

The designers of small games on itchio are yearning and striving to spark your incitement = those designers are yearning and striving to spark within you an arousal to action.

I think Czege's view is that a genuine arousal to action, that comes from within the aroused person, must be sincere and flow from the self even though another has sparked it. Self-doubt will hinder that flow. That's what believing in yourself means in this context.

You can see this also in his comment on The Mermaid Spell that I posted just upthread.

Sorry, but what action do RPGs incite you to do? Also, rather disappointed that the OED defines incitement by direct reference to iis root word.

 

[pemerton]

Sorry, but what action do RPGs incite you to do?

Well, in Czege's conception, I think it would depend upon the RPG in question.

Like someone might see poetry as, or as aspiring to, incitement in much the same sense but different poems and different poets would incite to different sorts of things.

I also think we would need to consider that Czege almost certainly regards action as encompassing the exercise and manifestation of creativity. I don't think he's working with a classical empiricist conception of the mind as all ideas and impressions! He's closer to an idealist/romantic conception of creativity as expressing and constituting the self.