With 2025 around the corner, I figured it’d be fun to have a brief glance back and a long look inward/forward before storming off into the future!
The Blog
I wrote 37 posts this year, excluding this one. Going through the list, these are some of my favorites (that you may have missed!):
My most popular posts this year, going by pageviews (so not necessarily published this year):
- https://dicegoblin.blog/making-meaningful-dungeons-with-cyclic-dungeon-generation/
- https://dicegoblin.blog/four-types-of-dungeon-design-how-to-combine-them/
- https://dicegoblin.blog/medieval-religion-in-your-ttrpg-setting/
- https://dicegoblin.blog/going-retro-using-pixel-art-on-your-virtual-table-top/
- https://dicegoblin.blog/the-things-we-find-along-the-way-filling-the-gaps-in-a-hexcrawl-or-pointcrawl/
Itch.io
Block, Dodge, Parry, my pride and joy, saw a major update this year (and next year holds exciting things for it, too!).
It is by far my best selling ‘thing’, and sold 222 copies in 2024. In total, it has sold 883 times and has been downloaded more than 7700 times – which are ridiculous numbers! It’s a bit hard to split any data per year, but I can look at the projects I released within 2024:
Depths of Dark Bargain
My first foray in releasing dungeons was downloaded 266 times.
DEEP DELVE
This dark and dangerous depthcrawl was bought 49 times.
Sail, Swab, Scurvy
The naval ruleset/playkit Sail, Swab, Scurvy was purchased by 61 people!
FIST campaign: PROJECT OBSCURA
The 4 FIST modules (FALSE SELF, DEAD ZONE, CHEAP TRICK and KUNDUZ GAMBIT) that I wrote in december have (together) been downloaded over 750 times, which is really cool for something I only just released!
Reflecting
I really like making things, and I really like putting things out into the world. When I started writing things and putting them online, I figured, “if only one person pays one dollar for anything I write, that’d be amazing“.
That milestone has long been passed, to the point where I continuously reinvest any Itch payouts into refining the stuff I make. To actually have a budget is such a huge privilege. For update 2.0 for Block, Dodge, Parry, for instance, I was able to hire an amazing editor who proof-read everything to hell and back, and the final product is so much better for it. But: stuff like that ain’t free (nor should it be!). I find that most major ‘upgrades’ to something like BDP cost something in the $1000 range; layout, illustration, editing… Which is real, big money, and things that I could never afford without having previous revenue. So yeah, that has snowballed in a really amazing way.
Beyond that, 2024 felt like a year of… community? I got published in KNOCK! (oh, yeah, I never blogged about it, but I GOT PUBLISHED IN KNOCK!), which also felt like a major (next) milestone on my journey as a creator. There are so many creators out there that I respect, and look up to, and admire, and while I want to be really careful to not be all like, “Yeah, those are my peers 😎”, it has been so warm and nice and cool to see the cross-contamination of ideas, inspiration and vibes between the people I interact with on various platforms. I wouldn’t dare to presume to call those people my peers, but I get the feeling that sometimes they do (which is actually me daring to presume to call those people my peers). Anyway, I ramble.
What I’m getting at, I guess, is that yes, I make money off my work, which is amazing, but just as nice is seeing people talk about stuff I made (without me mentioning it in the first place), or refer to terms I’ve coined, or leave nice reviews or comments or mentions or whatever.
I don’t say this in a, “😎Yeah, I have fans” kind of way – the opposite, I say this in a “Do you even realize that when someone takes the effort to leave a nice review, I screenshot it, send it to my parents, my partner, my friends and am elated for the next 24 hours?”
I say this as a heartfelt thank you, is my point.
Looking Forward
I'm going to ramble here. I'm writing this stream-of-consciousness, mostly for myself, but it might be fun for other creators to read as well.
My December has been ridiculously productive, which has been amazing. I will try to ride that lightning as long as I can, but also not fret if it peters out – we’re doing this for fun, and I don’t want to pressure myself or shame myself in regards to creation.
I’m learning more and more about making things look nice – Typora has been a godsend, and I’ve switched to writing everything in Markdown. Typora allows me to export it as pretty neat PDFs (and I’m learning more and more about those possibilities), which really helps with the workflow. Besides that, I am getting more proficient with Affinity Publisher, as well, but I think that’ll be more of a thing for pamphlets/short adventures, as doing 50+ pages in Affinity sounds… not fun.
Which brings me to the next point: Creating (for me) is a process of building a routine and allowing yourself to get ideas and shut up, sit down, and make a thing BUT ALSO does it spark joy? I started this year’s AdventUre Calendar with the goal of fleshing out a full BDP starting area, but my inspiration… just flowed in another direction? and now I’m 14000 words deep into a spectacular finale to my series of FIST modules.
So goes with what feels right. Just write. Make things for the sake of it. For the joy of creating. I have so many maps, notes, modules that have so much effort put into them, and that I just kinda lost the spark for, and that’s ok. I enjoyed making them – that was the point.
On the flip side of that, though, I also want to take the idea of keep it small, keep it simple, finish things into 2025. Yes, I love making things for the sake of it, but I really learned this year that if I want to make a megadungeon, I should basically not even take that word in my mouth, not even think about that’s what I’m actually making, and first just have a lot of fun and ideas and fire for something small that is actually achievable. And only when my ideas and inspiration don’t fit their current container (say, a 5-room dungeon), that’s the time to expand.
I’d love to write bigger and more proper dungeons, since I’m starting to get the hang of it. The dungeon I’m writing for FIST right now is essentially 30 rooms (+corridors), but because it’s a modern-day setting, for some reason I feel like it doesn’t ‘count’ as it’s way easier to relate to/write for? There’s a lesson somewhere there, I think; write dungeons as little immersive sim puzzles? Hmm.
This one may seem contradictory with small and simple, but it started from a small module to showcase the rules I came up with (FALSE SELF) and from there snowballed into something bigger. I didn’t sit down to write 30 rooms – it turned out that my idea required 30 rooms.
Don’t be afraid to get minimal. I love big production values (I made maps, custom audio briefing tapes, worn documents and more for my recent FIST projects), but I should also know when to stick to the roots of the hobby. Depths of Dark Bargain features some really simple sketches by yours truly, and I think they really serve the module.
Then again, it also has an Affinity layout and flowchart which all look really clean and professional and I’m quite proud of. So yeah, mix-and-match.
Ok, so far, we have:
- Discipline and routine (but it’s also okay if you don’t feel like it for a bit)
- Make things that spark joy
- Keep it small and simple, and if the fire of an idea burns brighter than its current container, expand the project
- Don’t be afraid to be minimal in presentation, when the project calls for it.
That’s a good summary, I think. Beyond this, I’d really like to collaborate with other creators (which I’ve never done before – if you read this, hmu) and just keep expanding my skills and tools (like how I made a Skill Selector for BDP) and and and…
Gosh. So much to do. 2025 can’t come soon enough!
All the best,
– Lars