Musings of the Shrike #2 10/5/2025

Shrike Publishing, R. Val

October 5

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I feel a certain tension with the term "game designer." Of course, I am one. I have been since 2019- and even earlier as a homebrewer, but I've also been a lot of other things too. Hell, since 2023 I've put out 2 tabletop game projects and 6 different fiction projects. That's not even counting the 25ish poems released this year.

So, I guess on some level it's just an honor to be known, but whenever someone talks about Era of Silence as a game with fiction about it, I always am a little struck. To me, having lived with this project for two decades, I see EoS as a multimedia franchise with many different ways to experience it. Playing the game and reading the stories are both valid, but neither is centered around the other. The stories you tell are yours, but I have my own canon in mind.

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So what am I up to this month? One big thing is reworking the website with the help of Allison, who is a good friend. Also developing Shrike as a business, we're actually doing a big fund drive so expect some activity on this page as I try to get new blood (tell your friends!). Of course, working on an October story. Not quite a horror piece but a lot of religious disturbia, it's called Contempt, My Shield. Also hoping to start streaming again but I've been a little scrambled.

Not every dev diary post is gonna be super long, sometimes i just want to give you a window into my process. Next up, some game dev work and aiming to get some mail out by the end of the week.

Until next time.

-R.