Two years as a full time RPG designer!

Hello, everyone! December marks the second anniversary of me going full time, with Blackoath being my only source of income. It's still absolutely incredible that I get to write RPGs for a living, so I really want to thank all of you for making it possible. You're the best!

While I started working on RPGs somewhat professionally in 2019 with the release of Disciples of Bone & Shadow, it wasn't after the initial success of Ker Nethalas and distribution of Across a Thousand Dead Worlds that I realized I could leave my other job and dedicate myself fully to game design. It was a scary decision, but it was also a natural one. I had been slowly transitioning to game design taking more and more of my time, and by the time I decided to make the switch I was maybe dedicating two hours a day to my other job. Fortunately I was already self-employed, and very familiar with the publishing business, so it was a natural, easy transition.

While 2024 was undoubtedly a fantastic year of growth for me, 2025 has been one of consolidation. I went back and revisited some old games (Riftbreakers, Warlord Ascendant, Sacrifice), and decided to give Ker Nethalas a good facelift with the Gravebound Edition, but I've also tried new things (Machine Gods, Choir of Flesh, and a few others) that have definitely pushed me forward as a game designer. This is the year that my Momentum Engine was born, too, after having used different variations of D100 rulesets for years now. With the Momentum Engine, you'll see more consolidation when it comes to my rulesets during 2026, since all the games I will publish will use it in some form or another. The first one to be released will be Warlord Ascendant 2e (which is done, and just waiting for the last few illustrations), but shortly after you'll have my upcoming extraction shooter Into the Warp & Ruin, and many more to come. Across a Thousand Hollow Vaults, the standalone expansion for Across a Thousand Dead Worlds, will be the sole exception, since I have no desire to rewrite a basically finished game. Besides, it needs to remain compatible with ATDW! The second edition of Sacrifice will undergo a rewrite, though, since I wrote it using a D20 ruleset, but I want it to use the Momentum Engine, since it will be a much better game with it.

So yes, it's been a very fruitful second year! I do feel like I'm learning and becoming a better designer in all senses (it's almost painful to look at older games like Sacrifice 1e, Path of the Aram Thyr, or even worse, Disciples of Bone & Shadow and Seekers Beyond the Shroud, both when it comes to their mechanics and graphic design), but they are all stepping stones in my journey as a designer, and I do hope that every game I release is better than the previous ones. There are some shinning gems that I still think are great, like Ruthless Heavens, Boundless Fate, a truly ambitious game that almost nobody plays, or the more recent Riftbreakers 2e, which turned out pretty cool, and it's one that people are actually enjoying a lot. I took a risk with the card-based combat but it seems to have paid off, because everyone loves it! Expect more Riftbreakers soon, by the way!

So once again, thank you all for making this possible, and for your continued support! 2026 is going to be an awesome year full of really cool Blackoath games, you'll see!

-Alex