Love role-playing games (RPGs) like Dungeons & Dragons? Well, here’s a story for you.
I initiated an exciting journey in May 2022, and it all started with my cute, dorky boyfriend, who’s mad about RPGs and escape rooms. On his birthday, I pondered over the existence of a two-player and perhaps an “exciting” version of Dungeons & Dragons.
Long story short, a friend joined us and we formed a unique group called ‘The Bold and the Brazen.’ Our primary goal? To develop a spicy RPG game. Picture this: we planned to churn out a prototype by Christmas 2022. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Little did we know how massive a task we had undertaken.
Our friend L.J., and her husband, Capricos, offered their expertise to create the storylines. Meanwhile, the three of us brainstormed over game mechanics. Surprisingly, discussions weren’t all wild and crazy but fixated on game elements and layout designs.
In our endeavor, I discovered my innate passion for fonts and white space proportions. I grappled with learning Adobe InDesign and faced challenges when Pages couldn’t perform as expected.
Finally, we launched an IndieGoGo campaign for our game. The idea was to gather about $10,000, hire professional artists, and create a physical version of the game. However, we only raised around $400. Nonetheless, we stayed hopeful and listed the game on itch.io. Now, we’re working on advertising and selling more copies.
Far-fetched as it sounds, we dream about HBO or some television network finding our game and seeing potential for a TV series. A more down-to-earth dream sums up to spreading the word and getting better at marketing. Currently, we’re focusing on converting the current version into one suitable for Amazon’s print-on-demand portal.
Creating a tangible game has been a journey of highs and lows. Despite these challenges, we continue to believe in our creation. After all, it’s a perfect match for couples, one of whom is inseparable from RPGs while the other wouldn’t mind trying.
If you and your partner enjoy RPGs, give our creation, ‘The Tavern of Conquests’, a look and drop us a review!
But don’t expect an overnight success story here. This project has been work-heavy and marginally rewarding financially. Still, we’re far from done. We’ve got loads of ideas for several expansion stories. As we say in RPG land, the adventure continues!
So if you have dabbled in game-building, do tell. What pushed your buttons the most?