Ian Howard

@leafydragongames.bsky.social

1164 Followers 527 Following

ENNIE-winning designer of One Breath Left, Here We Used to Fly, Aurora Decree, and more. Founder of Leafy Dragon Games LLC. Narrative Lead at Button Shy Games. http://leafydragongames.com

A screenshot of some embarrassingly vague game design notes, titled General game. The notes are as follows: a big map, choose your units, move them to different places to represent invasions, and presumably add strengths together to hit a target number of some kind
An overhead view of the map for Aurelian: Restorer of the World at the end of a game. Various boxes show the regions of the Roman Empire, while cardboard chits indicate the different enemies at hand. This game was a loss despite clearing the western edges of the empire and attempting to keep the populace pacified through temples.
Two game boxes from Hollandspiele sitting on a table. The one on the left is called Aurelian Restorer of the World and it has a purple cover with an ancient Roman sword. The one on the right is called Swords Against and it has a blue cover with a rectangular graphic showing a heroic adventurer blocking a fire attack of some kind; the box appears to be in a 1970s style.
The box for the board game Cross4 stands on a wooden table. In front of it are three crossword-style grids partially filled using colored dry-erase markers. None of the boards have a particularly good score because this game is very hard (but it’s also very fun).
A mini-zine called I Am / You Are sits on a table next to a homemade business card game. The top of the business card reads “Recipe for” with directions for play in a column along the side.
Two books, MIRU and MIRU 2, sit next to each other on a table. MIRU is red with a skull-like design on the bottom, while MIRU 2 is green and has a similar but more pixelated design with open eyes.
A boxed deck of cards sitting on a table. The title is Arcane Catastrophes. The artwork features a skeleton on a bright yellow background. Both the skeleton and the background are festooned with colorful objects such as stars and ribbons.
Two books side by side on a table. The book on the left is Junk Drawer Heroes; the book on the right is Dungeon Crawler.
On the left, the cover of a game called Ghosts of Relationships Past. On the right, a bundle of beautifully collaged postcard games wrapped in a silver-white ribbon.
Three books arranged on a table so that their covers are visible. The top-left book is Love & Barbed Wire; the top-right book is titled Ross Rifles; the bottom book is Bettin’ Bullets.
Two zines, Wither & Grow and Witchflip, on a table next to a rat-themed bookmark and a sticker for Ratti Incantati.
Printed zines of two games, Infinite Paths and Burnword, sitting on a wood table. The cover of Infinite Paths shows a full-color image of an adventurer stepping between multiple worlds, represented by natural, science fiction, and dystopian elements. Below it, the cover of Burnword is printed with black-and-white text indicating that it is for playtesting only.
The front covers of Moon Rings and The Bonsai Diary. Moon Rings is a bold red spiral-bound with a splashy moon graphic while The Bonsai Diary has a tan and green cover with a charming illustration of a cat looking curiously at a bonsai tree.
A cardboard box holding many copies of the solo pro wrestling TTRPG 5-Star Match. The top book overlaps the two stacks below. The book cover shows a wrestler holding a championship belt and posing on the turnbuckle for the crowd. In the foreground another wrestler lies defeated on the mat.
A card from Finspan depicting the majestic leafy sea dragon
The front cover of the RPG Dawn of the Orcs. The cover depicts a group of dark fantasy sages gathered in a gloomy hall. A round table sits in the center with a blade driven through the center of the table. Behind the blade a pair of red eyes glow from a darkened doorway.
The black-and-white front cover of Anamnesis. A tastefully nude humanoid figure sits in the foreground. Their head appears to be made of smoke that streams backwards away from them; the same smoke billows around the figure’s torso and legs. Behind their head lies a full moon. The title appears at the top in bright white and is then repeated multiple times more faintly, as though it were a dying echo or a fading afterimage.
The front cover of Thousand Year Old Vampire, which features an abstract image composed of swirls or bubbles in gold, blue, and grey-ish white. The cover is mocked up to look like an old, well-traveled library book. Two bookmarks of ribbon peek out from the bottom of the book.
The front cover of Ten Candles. A small group of humans with lit flashlights stands at the very center of a city shrouded in darkness. Indistinct monsters, much larger than the humans, lurk at the edges of the cover. To the right, a splash of red suggests a building on fire, with a dark dragon-like face just in front of it.
The front cover of Be Seeing You, which depicts a wall-mounted security camera in black and white. The title occupies big yellow blocks that feel like they’re bursting off the page in comparison. The game’s subtitle reads “a roleplaying game about independence, control, freedom, & compliance by Tanya Floaker”.
The front cover of Notorious features 6 panels, each of which shows a different sci-fi mercenary against an orange background. The mercenaries have a variety of equipment and styles. Standouts include a slender lo-fi droid and a humanoid iguana with a kerchief around its neck and a laser rifle across its back.
Two books, one titled Fiasco and the other titled The Fiasco Companion. Fiasco features a stylish red cover with silhouette art showing a gun firing from the left and a character with a broken heart reaching out of frame on the right. The Fiasco companion features a similar cover but in blue and showing two characters holding hands. The left character has an intact heart and appears to be wearing a skirt with a triangular haircut, reaching out of frame to the left, while the character on the right has a broken heart and a blockier skull shape. All of these characters are doomed.
The front box cover of Xenolanguage, depicting a pair of humans facing outwards from a central spine of radiating energy. Behind them are moderately indistinct landscape images bathed in sunlight. The text underneath describes it as “a game about alien language and human memory”.
The front cover of Spectres of Brocken, which portrays two youthful anime-style pilots in front of a hulking giant mech that looms over them both.
A card layout from the RPG One Breath Left showing a fully explored Wreck
An image of the game box, a sample character, and a sample village at end of game for the RPG Villagesong from Storybrewers Roleplaying.
A screenshot from the video game Hardspace: Shipbreaker describing the fictional job of Jellyman (a jellyfish-catcher) in a retro-computer style using green text on a black background
Several record-keeping sheets for a professional wrestling RPG laying on a table with two dice and a pencil. The sheets feature wrestling terms and game imagery but have not been filled out.
The cover of “Under the Autumn Strangely” by Graham Gentz. The zine has somber autumnal tones with spreading vines across the cover.
A screenshot of a Google Doc showing an overly-wrought chunk of game text too large to transcribe. The author describes his love of professional wrestling and briefly describes this game’s purpose: to focus on the art of booking professional wrestling matches.