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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU

@dvcgames.bsky.social
1.9K followers 747 following 2.4K posts

games that come alive at dvc.games | queer fem + enby led game design collective & publisher | tabletop, rpg, digital, immersive, intersectional, accessible | account co-run by jono & sometimes ben and jess

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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Another good test of Serenissima! It’s a medium Euro with a ton going on… but pretty much anyone who plays it has a great time with it so far. And it is smaller box-space-wise than Inkwell? Okay so if I made it very pretty, is that within our wheelhouse as a publisher? It is heavier than the rest!
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Continued success in this little engine that could. Main feedback ‘It was surprising, with everything going on, how easy it was to take a turn’. Trying to fit that Euro crunch and friction in the tiniest space possible.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
An improvement! Surprisingly playable!!
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
It's a bit quiet at work since both DUST and Photo Club are finally moved forward in their own ways. There is a sad satisfaction to seeing something that consumed so much time and energy for so long sort-of disappear. But the final results are pretty nice I think!
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Eventually the prototypes do get prettier and prettier.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Area control… worker placement? Surprisingly engaging first test.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Sad there is a game named Serenissima because I’d love to name this Serenissima.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Fir Bolg vs Dragons at RGC giant Pacts time
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Rigged a copy of DUST for our photographer. Other than key ‘low spoiler’ cards, nearly everything was swapped out for blank cards so that there wouldn’t be mistakes or confusion in snapping those photos. But also, funny you know that, in the final pictures, those decks are basically empty.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Finally have some product photography of Photo Club!
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Idk if we will keep him but its been fun
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Giant Pacts for RetroGameCon next weekend.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A game of spoilers and a game that is intensely photogenic. Family silliness vs. brooding & intense. Uncertainty in purgatory against nature in sunset. I am not sure if we will ever beat how different these are, and that sort of rocks. We love them both with all our hearts.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This made the best turns and some weird pictures. Ultra-close-ups, low angles, overhead shots, and so on. We also started including a camera ‘frame’ that could be used instead of a phone- both work great, and both have their fans. A lot of dev has mostly been tuning difficulty and point values.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We soon found it wasn’t as complex as we thought. Players liked the gentle puzzle of find-the-angle. Add a single move/rotation per turn, and it is a neat optimization puzzle. We messed with all sorts of restrictions but finally let go; let folks ‘cheat’ and enjoy trying to break the game.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Years later, we were considering how to make a nature photography game after seeing Teena’s work. But every mechanic paled in comparison with ‘but when do we actually take a picture?’. We started prototyping a slice of a local park and seeing what was the most fun.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
On the other side is Photo Club, our most photographed game (???). This one started years ago at Story Machine Games, where debates with @bobbywest.bsky.social about perspective-as-gameplay was always top of mind.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
It is am ambitious and entirely unique experience, like an impactful indie video game. It is full of surprise, wonder and a big dose of Undertale humor. Josh & Danielle worked wonders here. We are stoked it is coming into existence. And Danielle pitched it right: It’s goth and small and weird. Yay!
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The game has taken us on a JOURNEY. Writing, mechanics, difficulty, even components. A cloth mat, papercraft cards (???) and a graphic novel (150+ pages!). @thejaybell.bsky.social did wonders working with us on making this possible.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Looks like we just wrapped up dev on two insane games. I’d like to at least ruminate on both a little, as a treat.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Running prototype goodies on the new office laser. Big convenience upgrade for us and all the designers that co-work in our building.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Last day of tests of Photo Club!
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Stress testing the point values on cards to the last second
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
DVC monthly open game night. Starting with a game of Here Lies II, and I am a regular investigator!
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Fiddling with Pacts: Legends cover. Always looks strange since magenta = foil, but it is coming together I think!
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Jerry and I had fun playing and speeding up some gameplay today.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Rob made a bonus piece of cute art for Thieves’ Cant and I just quite adore it. It’ll find its use!
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Love it when art comes together. Pretty much almost there with Thieves’ Cant, our improv game where two thieves communicate in code while the remaining players watch and try to catch them red-handed.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Fresh prototypes floating around the office!
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Today’s high scoring photos. How are folks doing?
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
After that we have a set of three sequels. We don’t have Pacts 2 (2027) or Signal: Second Edition (probably 2028) in cover format yet, but we are loving going back to these worlds to try at them again.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
That leaves DUST, which was heavily developed separately from our usual processes by the designers, so while it doesn’t fit the emotional journey above, we are obsessed with it and everything it does. It deserves to stand alone and proud, and in many ways without peer.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
But immediately, being weird would be something we missed. So we also knew we would ‘rebound’ with games that had almost extreme approaches to game design again, somewhat fearlessly and with a desire to surprise, even to an extreme.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
We wanted to round things out in our second year with games that were more nuanced and strategic, even trying for a ‘gateway’ level game in the mix, but give them all a royal, gilded ‘historical’ treatment like they were Kickstarter editions.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Here Lies was always on our list to bring back from the old SMG days, and we started working on it with its progenitor, Rosetta. Signal leapt out of testing as its own thing, but viscerally related.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
At the same time, we knew we wanted some print-and-plays to make sure we were commercially ready. Funny enough Thing Thing was only intended to stay this way, part of a roll-and-write + drawing + party game set. It ‘graduated’ after pressure from our local community.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Easily first are the games we published first. Corvids was developed alongside Scream Park, and TYPESET popped out among them, sealing an early set of ‘goth’ games with reasonable production costs and themes that hit our friend groups well.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Photos I used to beat @bobbywest.bsky.social at Photo Club today.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Coolest part of today was finally getting my hands on Tales of Myth & Legend by @bobbywest.bsky.social et al. It’s enormous and ambitious and twisty and full of little things that are special to be discovered (reminds me of Zelda or Hollow Knight). But the teach was maybe 5 minutes long. Amazing.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
And some lovely samples of our PAXU/holiday promos
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Yay sample copies day. PPC of DUST is complete and all fits! MPC of Pacts, Scream Park, TYPESET reprints also good
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
tomorrows lunch time activity
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I could keep doing boring things OR keep playing this.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
admiring the art on the Photo Club season cards today
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Just a few more pieces of art and then I get to make a nice copy of this oddball. Been trying to crack a very specific feeling in improv and deduction for YEARS and Jesse really found the missing pieces on this one.
Cover art for Thieves' Cant, a game by Jasper Beatrix, Jesse Panther, and Rob Armbrister (artist)
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
upgrading some pacts 2 prototype cards for paytests yeah no i dont know what to keep secret never did im just excited we get to make things
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Drafting the decks of Here Lies II from the playtested cards to build more cohesive decks.
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Here are some other renders of the cards we got bumping around:
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DVC Games 🔜 PAXU @dvcgames.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
It was super cool to talk about DUST at Gen Con, and pre-orders are now open and everything. Got really used to saying 'an adventure without a rulebook' and I think that's a great little hook. If you want to learn more, try out the digital prelude at playdust.digital
Box and card render of DUST, an upcoming game
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