Resolve
I think this is probably one of the better prompts I've encountered so far for #RPGaDay2026. My resolve, as a game developer, finally kicked in late last year. I graduated with a Bachelor's in Game Design and Development back in 2016 and haven't really done anything with it since. Yesterday's post touched on part of the reason I decided to pursue this TTRPG, but it goes a bit further than that. I really want to make this game. It's been with me for over 16 years, and I genuinely want to do it now. It's almost a need at this point.Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what kicked it back into gear this time. Part of it was playtesters in my community asking me for another TTRPG campaign — I wanted to work on my own game instead, so I decided to combine the two. There's also the degree sitting there. I got a Bachelor's in Game Design and Development and haven't used it for much of anything since. I don't want to look back and feel like I wasted the time and money on it. And, well — yay games. I like making and playing them. So let me go over my resolve for 2026 and my game.
I originally started thinking about how to develop this game toward the end of 2025. I decided January would be the starting point for creating creatures for my bestiary. That's where the idea for Bestiary 52 came from — one creature a week, 52 weeks a year. It gets me creating a creature for my game, gets me incorporating them into my playtesters' games, and it gets me developing things. By March, I wanted my TTRPG actually running in FoundryVTT. I'd looked into making modules before and it seemed pretty easy. Turns out they're semi-easy but also hard to work out. I've been doing a decent job so far and have made a handful of modules on top of the core system. This will give me a solid framework to turn this TTRPG into a video game later down the road — get the bugs out, make things easy to grow later.
By June, I wanted to start being a bit more open about my game on various social media platforms, as well as start looking for more potential playtesters. Unfortunately, I got delayed a little and am just now getting around to it. I started my social media expansion back around July and started looking to others in my community to see if any new interest sparked. Alas, none — so the core group of five continues. I'm hoping by late October/early November I can start wrapping up a solid "preview" of my game. There won't be a published version for the rest of FoundryVTT to try, because honestly I'm just using it to test out my video game preview. If there was enough interest for a release, I might consider it — I don't know. By December, I'll have a solid preview of my creatures. I'm aiming for a decent collection of them, possibly for a future publication, but I have no idea if that'll even happen.
That core group of five has stuck with me through all of this, and I owe them a lot for it. This game wouldn't be nearly as far along without their willingness to test and give feedback.
That's been my resolve — not just a decision I made once, but one I've had to rebuild after years of letting it sit untouched.
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