John August

John

Birdigo comes out July 30th!

Birdigo, Games, Projects

Birdigo, the fun word game I made with Corey Martin, comes out on Steam on July 30th. (That’s a Wednesday.)

Here’s a brand new trailer:

Birdigo began with a mention on Scriptnotes that I was looking for a developer to collaborate with on a new videogame. Corey wrote in; we zoomed; we had a demo up on Steam just a few months later. (Weirdly, we’ve never met in person.)

I’m incredibly proud of this game. It’s been a damn delight to make and play. We’ve gotten great response from reviewers, many focusing on Birdigo’s chill-but-challenging vibe.

Birdigo is a rare thing: a word game that’s both meditative and meaningfully strategic. It has the cosy vibe of a puzzler, the satisfying depth of a deckbuilder, and it’s all wrapped in a charming, low-poly aesthetic.

If you’re reading this blog, you’ll probably dig it. Make sure to wishlist it today!

Constructing a great action sequence

Formatting, Video, Words on the page

On Scriptnotes, we often explore craft topics, looking at the specific choices writers make on the page. But there’s an obvious challenge when discussing visual storytelling in an audio medium.

That’s why for the most recent Scripnotes video, I wanted to revisit my conversation with Christina Hodson on writing action sequences. In this new format, we can see both the finished scene and the script pages behind it:

Thanks to Sam Shapson and producer Drew Marquardt for putting this together!

Scriptnotes on YouTube

News, Video

After 14 years, we’ve finally added a proper YouTube channel for Scriptnotes.

In addition to several of our most-loved episodes, we have shorter weekly videos drawn from past conversations. Here are the first two, focusing on Die Hard and Greta Gerwig’s approach to screenwriting.

In the obligatory parlance of YouTube, make sure to hit that like button and don’t forget to subscribe.

New Florida, an Alien RPG scenario

Games, Geek Alert, Resources

book cover for Alien RPGOver the weekend, friends and I played our first game of Free League’s Alien The Roleplaying Game. We had a blast. The game mechanics are fun, built around a Stress mechanic that basically ensures characters will freak out at some point.

Alien RPG can be played in campaign mode, where characters progress over many sessions like classic D&D, but it’s probably best suited to “cinematic mode,” which captures the experience of the movies. Most characters will die. That’s how we played it.

The rulebook comes with a scenario — a one-shot called Hadley’s Hope — but I was eager to design my own. The result is New Florida, which finds a crew on a routine, short-haul flight from a research station to Torin Prime.

Spoiler: things go very wrong.

The scenario is designed for 3-5 player characters, and should take about three hours to play. It’s heavy on role-playing, with appropriately terrifying bursts of combat.

The characters are pre-generated, and include:

Vivian Rook — Company executive. Sharp, polished, and dangerous. She rose through the Weyland-Yutani ranks with a mix of ruthlessness and charm.

Sgt. Elias Kane — Marine, Rook’s bodyguard. Professional to a fault — except with Vivian. Loyal, physically imposing, emotionally compartmentalized.

Jace Calder — Pilot. Roguish but competent. Thinks quick, acts quicker.

Milo “Gramps” Vech — Engineer. A long-timer nearing retirement.
Grizzled and grease-stained, he knows this ship better than anyone.

Corporal Dex Marrow — Marine. Sardonic, weary, smokes when he shouldn’t. Doesn’t trust many, but once he gives it, it’s for life. Good friend of Kane’s.

While it’s not a murder mystery, players know details about their characters (and crucial story points) that the others don’t. I gave each player a backstory sheet before we started playing.

I’ve packaged up all the maps, tokens, and other resources I used in a .zip file you can download here: New Florida – Alien RPG Scenario

If you play New Florida at your own table, please let me know!