Yazeba's B&B: When A Dream Becomes A Project

Happy February everyone! It's incredibly snowy here, and I'm writing this update while bundled up in my office and eating some cake one of my roommates baked. There's going to be a couple of exciting things coming this month! Grubby is going to be doing an article about the methodology and art direction behind Sleepaway and Uncanny. She'll go into detail about font choices, layout decisions, her priorities, and how she guided the other artists on the team. Additionally, I'll have a new first look coming, for a game Kazumi and I have been working on together. If you're part of the discord you've definitely already seen people losing their mind over it (and even creating some fan content in advance). 

For now though, I want to talk about a project I'm sure a lot of you have been waiting for news on. I've been working on Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast for more than a year now, in one form or another. It's finally (finally!) at the stage where it's ready for some sort of official publishing. We have a (hopeful, uncertain, unofficial, able-to-be-pushed-back) launch date of September 15th. That's the sort of day that feels both way farther away than it is and way, way closer. Which means ... it's time to build a team. 

But not just any team! Yazeba's is the first RPG I've ever worked on that's going to be more than a solo venture. That means not only are we hiring artists and editors and all that fun stuff, we also need additional writers. Yazeba's is a beautiful autobiography, and that autobiographical nature is both a strength and a weakness. As long as it's just me and M — white trans people from upstate New York — it will always feel limited to our very specific viewpoint. Also, the game is enormous. There's no goddamn way we're writing all this in time.

And so with that, we picked out a couple of incredibly talented writers to join the project. 

Mercedes Acosta is a children's illustrator, comic artist, and tabletop game designer. Mercedes does horror and found family and sometimes the two mixed together. Rumors that he can walk up walls are unconfirmed. You can check out his art here or their other games here. 

Lillie J. Harris is a Cartoonist and Illustrator from Maryland. Characterization is at the heart of their work, with tension and freneticism not too far behind. This is their first foray into RPG writing, but they've already more than proven their ability with the medium. You can check out their art here. 

You'll be seeing the impact of their creative presence on the text as we reveal more of the game over the next few months — I hope you all like the chapter where Amelie and Sal start a band together, or where Hey Kid catches a cold that makes them act really politely.

Additionally, we've started putting together our art team. All that is much more Grubby's area than mine, but so far our big objectives have been a) figuring out what art we need and b) when we need it by. In previous PCG Kickstarters we've had to launch the Kickstarter without much art to show off. In fact, if you go back to the original Wanderhome Kickstarter page you'll notice there's no actual art on the page itself besides the cover image. That's an impractical way to promote a game, so we want to make sure we have a bunch of great pieces to put everywhere leading up to the KS. 

But before we can do any of that, we need one very special artist! For the first time, PCG is hiring a concept artist — someone who can create the designs for everything, that will then serve as a reference point for the other artists. For a project like this, with set characters and aesthetic, it's going to be HUGE to generate a cohesive look between our different artists. And while I don't have the rest of the art team to announce right now, I'm so so psyched to introduce all of you to Aster!

Aster Santiago is a queer illustrator, animator and concept artist from Mexico City. He’s worked on a variety of projects in games, animation and kidlit with clients such as Cartoon Network and Condé Nast. His passion lies in storytelling and worldbuilding, with a focus on creating stories and experiences that make this world a little brighter and hopefully make us feel a little less alone. You can check out his work here (some art is NSFW).

Grub put it well — there's no one she trusts more to handle the exact mixture of fluffy idealism and body diversity we're seeking to represent.

Alongside myself, Grub, and M, we've started the foundation for something very special. You'll be hearing more about Yazeba's in the next few months, and this Patreon will get a first look at any concept art, new bits of writing, and the slow perpetual march towards the Kickstarter.