Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Chris Gardiner

Failbetter Games - Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 2d

Read more about Mandrakes, the naming of things, and how to introduce a new world to a player without going too weird, too fast in our recent blog post by @chrisgardiner.bsky.social.

And if you, too, are enthralled by the magic of the Mandrakes then please drop us a wishlist; it's a great help!

Mandrake - A Mandrake by Any Other Name - Steam News

Narrative Director Chris is here with the history of Mandrakes in the real world, and insight into how the people of Chandley feel about Mandrakes.

store.steampowered.com

5 21

Reposted by Chris Gardiner

Failbetter Games - Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 2d

Here are some real and actual facts about Mandrakes:

- Their smell could drive away demons
- It was a popular component of fertility spells
- Witches used it in the unguents which gave them the power of flight

So: the perfect plant to name our new game and its protagonist after.

#indiedev

A public domain black and white botanical illustration of a mandrake with root and leaf, entitled Mandragoras.

2 14 83

Chris Gardiner @chrisgardiner.bsky.social · 7d

Yes! I just finished A Pirate’s Tale a few weeks ago – it was brilliant.

I LOVED Wild Card, too – such a perfect Star Wars idea.

1 1

Chris Gardiner @chrisgardiner.bsky.social · 7d

Big same.

Alex Puncekar @alexpuncekar.bsky.social · 8d

If any of the folks that worked on Star Wars Outlaws follow me, I want y'all to know I'm loving your game right now. You did such a good job. Having so much fun with this game!

1 5

Reposted by Chris Gardiner

Jim Rossignol @rossignol.bsky.social · 12d

I did a newsletter. But more importantly I DID A VIDEO. Riiiight out of my comfort zone, but entirely inspired and necessary because Doomsong is so fucking cool. Check it out (and also get yourself a copy of Wyrd Science issue 7):

Things! GOLD TEETH Beta, Book Delay, Doomsong, Poor Old Jim

Welcome, bold adventurers, to the TEETH newsletter! This is a (sort of) weekly transmission about our explorations in the very secret land of Tabletop...

buttondown.com

13 39

Chris Gardiner @chrisgardiner.bsky.social · 13d

Refuse to live in a world where I’m expected to pretend I understand what gilts are.

1

Reposted by Chris Gardiner

Hannah Flynn 🐀 @itshannahflynn.bsky.social · 13d

hey! i have space to do some freelance work next week! you want me to look at your steam page? you want to talk about indie game marketing and get some solid advice? let's talk!!

Hannah Flynn 🐀 @itshannahflynn.bsky.social · Jul 11

Intro Post!

I'm Hannah; I've been at Failbetter Games for a decade and yet find it thrilling still

I cover marketing, communications, PR, events, social, newsletter: all the trimmings

I'm also freelance doing the same!

10 18

Reposted by Chris Gardiner

Failbetter Games - Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 13d

This is what we're talking about when we say we're excited to have honest-to-goodness sunlight in our new game, Mandrake.

10 34 250

Chris Gardiner @chrisgardiner.bsky.social · 13d

Hope you got hazard pay.

2

Chris Gardiner @chrisgardiner.bsky.social · 13d

They will be remembered.

In the abstract, obvs.

Chris Gardiner @chrisgardiner.bsky.social · 13d

A miracle you’re still here to tell the tale.

1 1

Chris Gardiner @chrisgardiner.bsky.social · 13d

Just seen some people are trying to spell “manoeuvre“ again.

Please don’t. Someone could die.

That word is only to be spelled by trained writers working in safe conditions and using specialist equipment.

8 14 91

Reposted by Chris Gardiner

Heather Flowers @hthrflwrs.bsky.social · 13d

I got to write another Exceptional Story for Fallen London!! Check it out!!!

Failbetter Games - Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 13d

A pair of assistants wheel out a metal table, upon which a writhing, screaming number seven has been strapped. Its eyes roll around in its head. "Who would like to cut it open?"

The Exceptional Story for October is here! The Shape of Infinity, by Heather Flowers.

A white woman with bobbed brown hair and a blue, high-necked Victorian dress looks serenely at the viewer. One of her hands rests on a giant, curving entity which loops over her head like a massive shepherd's crook. It glows amber and is studded with slitted amber eyes.

4 21 76

Chris Gardiner @chrisgardiner.bsky.social · 13d

”summoned an owl to rip someone’s throat out” IN THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES.

1 2

Reposted by Chris Gardiner

Hannah Flynn 🐀 @itshannahflynn.bsky.social · 13d

This is your official warning that Halloween approaches and the best thing you could do with your TTRPG group for a one off blood-shrine-hunting Regency romp is to buy and read TEETH: Blood Cotillion now

Jim Rossignol @rossignol.bsky.social · Apr 4

If you want to support the cool TTRPG things @marshdavies.bsky.social and I are trying to do this year then it would be hugely appreciated if you purchased our amazing low-prep one-shot Blood Cotillion, or one of our other TEETH RPGs! Thanks so much.
teethrpg.itch.io/blood-cotill...

BLOOD COTILLION by TEETH: A ROLEPLAYING GAME

A grotesque, single-session, standalone TTRPG

teethrpg.itch.io

2 19 46

Chris Gardiner @chrisgardiner.bsky.social · 14d

“HAVE YOU MET ANY PEOPLE?! THEY’RE FUCKIN’ *WILD*!”

1 1

Reposted by Chris Gardiner

Failbetter Games - Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 14d

You can read a full blog post about our visual development - and give us a wishlist - on Steam. It really helps!

Mandrake - The Chaos of Nature - Steam News

Mandrake Art Director Toby Cook, who was also Lead Artist on Sunless Skies, shares our inspirations and references for the Mandrake setting.

store.steampowered.com

3 4 55

Reposted by Chris Gardiner

Failbetter Games - Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 14d

We're making Mandrake, a rural life sim set in a beguiling new world inspired by British history and folklore.

Now we're not in the Fallen London universe (Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies), we had the opportunity to add sunshine! And trees! 😮 🧵

#wishlistwednesday

An illustration from Mandrake. A ruined red brick archway in a lush green open space, with a river, brick bridge, simple wooden fence and dirt path.

14 130 720

Reposted by Chris Gardiner

New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine @newedgeswordmag.bsky.social · 15d

92% funded!
And at 100% we'll reveal the author & artist duo behind the 17,000 word bonus 'zine we're gunning to unlock as our first stretch goal...
www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

White text on black. Reads "BONUS 'ZINE STYLE NOVELETTE FROM MYSTERY CREATORS"

1 12 20

Reposted by Chris Gardiner

Failbetter Games - Wishlist Mandrake on Steam! @failbettergames.com · 15d

reading through bits of fallen london: the roleplaying game for approvals is truly a delicious gift, i think you all are going to LOVE all the lore we're capturing *and* all the new things going into it

2 4 78

Chris Gardiner @chrisgardiner.bsky.social · 16d

This policy is stupid, cruel, immoral, chaotic, pointless and – as if more was needed – economically illiterate and destructive. Adopting it requires lying to people about what it would actually entail, and the media choosing not to discuss its horrifying costs.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Farage vows to scrap indefinite leave to remain, placing thousands at risk of deportation

Reform UK plans to force non-citizens to apply for visas with high salary thresholds and no access to NHS services

www.theguardian.com

1 2 10

Reposted by Chris Gardiner

Minilla Jovovich 🍉 @minillajovovich.bsky.social · 17d

Imagine an AU where young (not)Genghis gets his shit kicked in by a rival, loses his throne, and becomes a hunted outlaw across all of (not)Asia, that's Orhan Timur.

1) you can read em in any order
2) Dariel is SO GOOD at writing action, small scale or large
3) he makes wizards so gross, goddamn

New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine @newedgeswordmag.bsky.social · 18d

🧙‍♂️AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT✍️
Dariel R.A. Quiogue brings you character-driven, fast-paced tales. In THE HUNT OF A THOUSAND LEAGUES his Genghis Khan-inspired Orhan the Snow Leopard flees & fights a menagerie of murderers!

Learn more and get your copy here 👉 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

Author portrait of Dariel R.A. Quiogue. (sorry bsky has made me redo this four times...)

Cover for THE HUNT OF A THOUSAND LEAGUES by Dariel. (Sorry, bsky has made me redo this four times).

2 12 65

Chris Gardiner @chrisgardiner.bsky.social · 19d

This is a lovely piece (and I particularly enjoyed the fierce Dickens opinions) but be warned: by the end of it, my list of “books I have to read“ had expanded dangerously.

Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · 19d

Sad that the @atticalocke.bsky.social shout-out got cut from this! But here it is anyway…

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

Nick Harkaway: ‘I loathed Charles Dickens – it nearly turned me off reading for ever’

The author on his secret theories about Tolkien, the most perfect and terrifying Moomin book, and how his father, John le Carré, inspired him

www.theguardian.com

2

Reposted by Chris Gardiner

Wyrd Science Magazine @wyrdscience.bsky.social · 21d

So, you know we've a new print mag out in a hot minute but that also means we can finally spend some time on our new website too

Kicking things off @macreadymusings.bsky.social speaks to @andrewgillis.bsky.social about Girl By Moonlight (@evilhat.bsky.social), hope, transcendence & transformation

Girl By Moonlight: Hope, Transcendence, Transformation

Ben Macready speaks to Andrew Gillis about Girl By Moonlight, a game of tragic struggles, defiant triumphs and personal transformation.

wyrd.science

1 19 37

Chris Gardiner @chrisgardiner.bsky.social · 22d

It lives again!

1