Breach: a mecha rpg

“War does not determine who is right — only who is left.” 
― Anonymous

The war has lasted 10 years already. Your side is winning because of its pilot-mech duos. But sentient mechs come with a cost: they can go berserk. No one can predict when a mech will snap.

A mech is marching towards your HQ. Its pilot is not responding. It will make contact in minutes. Protocol is clear: if the pilot remains silent the mech is classified “berserk” and must be eliminated...but maybe they’ve simply lost coms. Maybe they aren’t dangerous at all.

Only one pilot and mech are close enough to respond.

Play Breach here.

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I usually don't make any New Year's resolutions. This year I made two: make more digital art and explore making some quick-but-quality RPGs.

Crossing Worlds is still a huge focus of my time and energy. However, after years of working on it, it is easy to become burned out. I've tried some other game projects on the side, but inevitably, they've always become complicated, long, requiring 100+ page rulebooks. I can't really refine them without taking too much time or energy away from my main design project.

A few months ago I started reading short games by other people. Games that could be explained in 1-4 pages. I had no idea how to make a meaningful short game, but the challenge appealed to me.

In January I made I'm With You, a narrative game about relationships and community after a disaster.

For February, I made an entry for the Emotional Mecha game jam: Breach.​ Designed for 2-players, it is a quickplay game that explores the way war forces us to make impossible choices.

Each time I make one of these focused games, it gives me new energy to keep working on Crossing Worlds. Maybe while you wait for the next big update to that game, you'll consider checking them out.