Light Eaters was my first “big” game project, after numerous stalled attempts to finish something and lay it out. I put it on Itch around the beginning of November 2023. I wanted to get a feel for the process, but I also wanted to get this idea out of me and into a playable form: Apocalyptic demigods, superpowered misfits, laying a claim to a future out of humanities reach. It was a game about violence and decay, but also about revolution and change. The last mortal city still stands, and they want to make you play by their rules, if only to let them last a little longer. It was a game about shifting hierarchy, and what lengths those at the top of the pyramid would do to keep power. 

This project helped me learn about game design, production, and the community. When I started, I was in a vacuum. I had a large library of games to reference, but I did not have many people to bounce my ideas off of. I had my gaming group and close friends, but it was insular. I was outside the walled gardens, and I did not know where the discussion was taking place. I think the initial lack of community made this game suffer hard - there were some moments where outside critical analysis could have changed the entire trajectory, and make it something that might have been more broadly playable.

Over time I developed a playtesting group of about six consistent people, who helped me get the concept on track, but I find that the game was made for me and made for them. We played a campaign and a half over a two year period, where I was able to refine the core mechanics into something that we found effective. Since this game has been released, I have no idea if anyone has gotten it to the table other than my initial group. This is okay! But it certainly made the finished product far more niche, and allowed me to develop blindspots that still have not been discovered.

Once it had been played to a point where I felt it was “fully cooked” (it was not), I spent weeks making art, creating layout concepts, and trying to find the heart of the aesthetic. This was maybe the most emotionally difficult part of the process, since I didn’t and don’t consider myself a “professional” artist (or anything) and so harshly judged my work. More than half the art I originally made did not make it into the book, mostly out of embarrassment, but partially because I knew it did not do the game justice.

Light Eaters was a self assessment and correction. I peeled back my own thoughts, expectations, and assumptions, and learned how to look at my own designs from a broader perspective. Starting this project was daunting but easy - get the ideas written down, play it, and make edits. Rinse and repeat. Finishing it and getting it into the world was a personal challenge, so I have pride in the fact that I created anything at all.

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My favorite aspects

Beliefs - The Belief system is my favorite part of Light Eaters. It sits at the heart of the game, defining the characters and creating exciting avenues for play. In the playtests, the abilities given by beliefs are where characters were able to shine and the story moved in the most exciting direction. Exalting mortals into their allies, calling on the Colors of enemies, and exploring what exactly it meant to be a Light Eater. If I were to update Light Eaters, I would move beliefs more into the spotlight, give them to players at character creation, and create two or three times more to choose from. It was a missed opportunity to not make them more definitively central to the play experience.

Corruption - As Light Eaters become more corrupted, an inevitability, they degenerate into something inhuman. Their facets over time shift as they become Changed, the essence of their nature changing to reflect the powers they relied on. Witnessing characters go from the machine-genesis trait to machine-changed, from blackhole-kinesis to blackhole-changed, was fun to see happening in slow motion. At the end of the game, characters become unrecognizable. 

Dice System - The dice system had pros and cons, and while it may not be the strongest or most fluid system there is, it certainly created a unique style of play. The act of strategizing, both at the table and with the assignment of dice, was different than I have seen in other games. Everyone laid out their thoughts and intentions prior to the scene, discussing what moves they would want to make, and how to synergize different characters' actions. Restrategizing during a conflict created interesting story beats, and there was always a discussion of how much Chaos the group would be willing to endure to reach any particular goal. It had a certain meta level of consideration that was also fitting within the fiction. It did not feel quite diegetic, but players and characters were both aware that by pushing themselves, they push the world closer to the end.

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My least favorite aspects

Rigidity of phases - The two phases of play, Lifestyle and Sceneplay, often felt jagged and bizarre. There were times where players wanted to roll from one conflict to the next, but were interrupted by the necessity of the mechanics. It had its merits, the ways it allowed the integration of new NPCs and characters to get a temporary spotlight, but it often felt rushed to get to the “meat” of the game. If I were to update Light Eaters, I would consider removing the phases of play altogether, allowing more freeform world exploration and emphasizing strategizing as a group.

The Agenda - Fundamentally, I have no problem with the Agenda in Light Eaters. It is very clearly lifted from Apocalypse World, which is one of my primary design inspirations across the board. AW was my first game outside of D&D that captured me, and it revolutionized the way I see and approach games. Light Eaters came from this lineage in my mind, the core resolution mechanic originally built from a picklist move structure. I do think that the Agenda is weak, poorly explained, and does not best prepare a GM for running Light Eaters. The advice that comes later is perhaps more central to the LE experience. If I were to update this game, I would drop the Agenda in favor of more bespoke advice specifically for running this game. How to utilize the Authority, how to utilize enemy Light Eaters, how to slow drip the apocalyptica and create the sense of the rapidly evolving, or degenerating, reality. I would also want to put a focus on how the abilities of the players can have far reaching and unintended consequences, and how to explore that with your descriptions and threats.

Layout - I had basically no prior experience with layout design, having picked up Affinity Publisher for the explicit purpose of making Light Eaters (and other future games). I got a small amount of practice with two previous, much smaller games, but it did not sufficiently prepare me for laying out such a large document (180ish pages). While I don’t think I did a terrible job, I think it is amateurish and has a lot of weak spots.

Dice System - The dice system has pros and cons! I think it feels very different from the standard “moment of truth” style dice mechanics that most games use. It creates a long pause before a scene starts as players strategize both fictionally and mechanically; who should load their dice in Fight and who should load it into Watch? who should be prepared to synchronize with who? Where at we with Chaos, and should we risk pushing our luck? These questions can be fun and interesting, but I think we spent far too long on them during play. What was intended to be a two or three minute rap about the state of things became multiple fifteen minute break in the flow of conversation as people traded dice and optimized their planning as much as possible before moving forward. This was not much of a problem at the start of the scene, but in the middle of scenes when players were restrategizing it was noticeably harsh.

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Final thoughts

The design of Light Eaters was a challenge, and it helped me identify my strengths and weaknesses as a designer. Even now, I know there is more that I could learn from it. Like all art, it is not finished, but abandoned (for now). Because of this game I expect more of myself, while also learning where I am at and how to keep projects within the scope of my abilities.

Ultimately, I am so happy I made this and put it out into the world. I even have two test prints on my shelf lovingly nestled between my favorite games! I was able to learn the basics of layout and what it is I am looking to get out of my creative pursuits. It has given me avenues to explore other designers at a new level, and has broadened my perspective on design as a whole.