It's all a great big mess....

A self-examination into the creative process behind Peasantry

Note: the voiceover is my own voice, in keeping with the messy theme, I uploaded the very first recording I took. It does not follow the transcript verbatim, there are minor tangents, and I get distracted. But it is a fun listen!

Introduction

Hey everyone, today I wanted to take a second and look back on all the progress I have made these past couple years.

My goal with this post is to take a look at the creative process, how much work goes into making a game, the success, the failure, the many iterations upon iterations, and just how messy it can all be. I took all of these photos/screenshots today, it is raw, unfiltered, exposed, I didn’t attempt to hide anything. I want to show you exactly what my work looks like, good and bad.

These first two images show my desk, it belonged to my grandfather, and I got it when he passed. It is not big enough to hold all my thoughts. It’s covered in papers, books, trinkets, dice, mtg cards, bills, schoolwork, drawing tablet, water bottle, a photo of my girlfriend slid into the side of the PC case (you can’t see it, but it is there), a clay pot I made in kindergarten, a broken metal latch from my time in the army, and many more things with many more memories. I should upgrade to a bigger desk, but it makes me feel connected to him, which inspires me to work.

The first thing I learned about my creative process was to surround yourself in things you love. As you can see, it is a mess, there is not enough space for everything, but I make it work, because I am surrounded by memories, and I am inspired by it.

Started with a character sheet

This is the first thing I made for Peasantry, the very beginning, March 1st 2022, late in the evening when my brain could no longer contain my thoughts.

Why did I start with a character sheet? Shouldn’t I have rules first? That’s a very good point! And I probably should have! but I think my initial instincts told me to make something that the players could immediately hold and use. The idea for the rules was already in my head; so why not make a character sheet and playtest a game with friends? At the time I used random tables written by other people online to determine occupations and fears. I doubt I could find the exact same tables now.

What I hope you take away from this is that it doesn’t matter where you start, just that you do. If I had not made this initial character sheet, who knows if I ever would have made it this far.

Here are some images of other character sheets I have tested over the years, from oldest to newest. Some were used; others were not. Some show small changes overtime, others show big changes in the rules. I have always found that a character sheet can immediately explain a lot about the game. I hope to add more silly artwork to the character sheet when I finally solidify the rules.

First Manuscript

I would spend the next year creating little mini assets for the game like a 1d100 table of fears, occupations, and peculiarities (you will see pictures of these later). I probably ran the game maybe 2-3 times over the year, it was a side-project, nothing serious at the time.

It wouldn’t be until a little over a year later, June 2nd 2023, that I would begin writing the very first Peasantry Manuscript. After that day, I decided to start getting serious about the project, focusing several hours a week on the game. Nowadays there is rarely a day that goes by without me doing some kind of work on the game, or at least thinking about it…

Every time I made a major change to the document I would create a new version of the game. I thought keeping older copies for reference would be useful. Over the years I would create many different versions of the Manuscript. We are currently on version 11 of the game.

Here are some photos of various versions that I printed for playtests

It took me a long time to get serious about making the game, there were large gaps in time that I took breaks. But eventually, I returned to working on the project and have made leaps and bounds of progress. I think the lesson to be learned here is that projects never need be abandoned, but long breaks are perfectly acceptable.

So Many Papers…

Here is a compilation of everything I have printed/written/drawn for Peasantry. We will go ahead and take a quick look at each.

This first image is literally just everything piled on my dining table. I added some labels to show off what things are. Remember my desk from earlier? Yeah, all of this was stuffed into that.

I started some work on an adventure called Shackles and Sharkteeth. Here is the evolution of the map. From physical sketches, planning, outlining, inking, and finally ending in a digital asset.

Here are some random sketches in my sketchbook. Chicken drawings and also the start of a map for an adventure that’s going to be included in the final book. Also, my handsome cat Gideon rolling on the papers like a dog.

Here are all my filled notepads that I have used for many Peasanty games and other rpgs. In the bottom right you can see that I have even written on the opposite sides of the pages, which is a pain because the notepads don’t really like to bend that way. The little notepad holder is a gift from my grandmother.

These papers were from when I was testing font/print sizes. I want the book to be A5 , so I bought some A5 paper and just started printing and comparing to other RPG books I owned to see what it looked like. I wanted to lean into something a little bigger and easier for people to read.

Here are some screenshots of my desktop, folders, and google drive. It’s sort of organized… At least I know where to look for most things.

The big message I want to share about making your own game is to save all of your work. Who knows whether or not you're going to need it in the future, our brains simply cannot hold all of the words we write. A record of your work is so important.

Before and Now

Here is a bunch of images showing before and afters of various parts of the game.

Occupations were changed to be more interesting. A Poultry Plucker is so much better than a Poultry Keeper.

Fears were changed so that each peasant has three fears rather than one. This makes it easier to get at least one that works for every adventure.

Peculiarities were changed to be cleaner and easier to read. I also just wrote a ton more.

The table of contents now actually has content behind it! I almost have 100 pages of Peasantry written!!

The Bestiary is expanded and now has art, which is super cool

The character sheet constantly evolves with the rules of the game. It’s looking better than ever.

Reflect on how much you have accomplished and celebrate it. This post is my celebration of how far I have come, I am proud of what I have achieved thus far, and I am excited to do more! I encourage you to take time and celebrate your own achievements.

Playtesters

I have playtested this game so many times now. I wanted to share just a couple of the awesome portraits people have drawn this past year.

I knew this before I got into game design, but it’s important to reiterate it here. Make sure to thank those who have helped you. It’s important to remember all the people that helped make a project come to life. While the game is still being worked on, I wanted to at least share a list of all the people who have play tested so far.

Amazing Art by Charles

The craziest thing that has happened over the past year is we got art by the spectacular Charles Ferguson-Avery! Please check out his portfolio on Itch.

In July of 2024 I began to reach out to several artists to see if they were interested in working with a brand-new indie designer like me. I was hopeful that my game would peak someone’s interest, but the first few emails I sent were never answered.

I decided to try again and sent my first email to Charles on July 31st. August 1st, one day later, Charles emailed me back this:

And I am so glad he did. I really could not have asked for a better artist on this project. Charles took the ideas I had written in an email and seriously knocked it out of the park. Here is an email I sent to Charles about a full art piece.

With only a small paragraph of information, Charles proceeded to create the following masterpiece. And yes, I did end up deciding to use it as the books cover, because it was just so damned cool.

Thank you so much Charles for all the great work you did. I am excited to get both of our works into print soon.

The next lesson I learned was sometimes you get to work with really amazing people. I’ve been able to make many connections with so many others in the TTRPG community, but I am very proud to say Charles was the first. Again, please check out all of his work and support his creativity, I want to see more of his art too!

Conclusion

The creative process no doubt looks very different for each individual. Some are certainly more organized than I am, others less. But at the end of the day (or years…) we can all create amazing games.

I hope a look at my messy process will reinvigorate you to pick up an old project, or power you through a current one. Thank you so much for reading this and consider following along with the games progress. I don’t have a launch date for you yet, but we are getting there.

I just want to take another moment to recap the lessons I have learned throughout this project:

• Surround yourself in things you love

• It doesn’t matter where you start, just that you do

• Projects never need be abandoned, but long breaks are perfectly acceptable

• Save all of your work

• Reflect on how much you have accomplished and celebrate it

• Thank those who have helped you

• Sometimes you get to work with really amazing people

Thanks again, hope to post here again soon.