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What Do We Owe Our Projects?
In the book Big Magic, author Elizabeth Gilbert describes creative ideas as living creatures. Like ghosts, she says creative ideas enter and inhabit a person. That feeling is what we call “inspiration.” If the artist doesn’t act on the idea and bring it to life, the ghost leaves the person and travels to another host.…
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Adventure Snack’s New Home
All 100 interactive fiction games from my Adventure Snack newsletter have a beautiful new home! The all-new Adventure Snack website collects every game in an easy-to-browse and search site. A big thank you to Mario Vellandi for lending your awesome web design skills to this project. (Mario was an OG Adventure Snack player. He reached…
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A Scavenger Hunt!
Years ago, I was first transitioning into game development full time, I had lunch with my friend and collaborator Spencer. Spencer runs an indie studio, YYT Games. Naturally, the conversation turned to game ideas. I can’t help myself. I like to bounce ideas off people, which is why my nickname is Bounce House*. I have…
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Nancy Drew: Socialist Detective
In February, I co-developed a Nancy Drew game with Gwen Katz for the annual public domain game jam. In 2026, the first four Nancy Drew books went into the public domain. I’ll write more about developing the game next week. Today, I want to talk about Nancy Drew, the character and the books. The first…
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Is Running a Kickstarter Fun?
I’ve been trying to fine tune my creative process for maximum fun and enjoyment. In fact, this newsletter is about how to make game development as fun as playing games. It’s right there in the tagline! I’ve found a big part in making art more fun is to put process over product. What good is…
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My Film Degree Comes In Handy
When I asked Nicole Amato, formerly the Games Outreach Lead at Kickstarter, whether creating a Kickstarter campaign could be fun, she told me about her late husband. The two of them ran a game publishing house together. He was an artist who enjoyed the challenge of designing enticing graphics to showcase their games in the…
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Glitch City Gauntlet
🃏 My Kickstarter for ALL-CARDS, the trading card storytelling game, ends today. I’m excited (and relieved) to say we blew past the initial goal! ALL-CARDS is over 155% funded and still going! 🙏 Thank you for backing and getting the word out. It means a lot to me. I’ll talk about this more in a…
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The Card Collector to Designer Pipeline
🃏 This is the last week to back my Kickstarter for ALL-CARDS, the trading card storytelling game. I’m getting the word out! My friend Grant Pardee, the very first backer of the campaign (💖), invited me onto his show Sonic Weekly, where we discussed how ALL-CARDS can gamify writing Sonic fan fiction. Then I ventured…
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Geoffrey Versus The Sunk Cost Fallacy
🃏 It’s been one week since you looked at me I launched the Kickstarter for ALL-CARDS, the trading card storytelling game. The response has been super positive! There are 80 backers supporting ALL-CARDS from all around the world, excited comments on the Kickstarter page, many folks sharing the game on Bluesky, and ALL-CARDS was featured…
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I’m Going on a Zine Quest
Today’s newsletter is Show and Tell, but I brought three things instead of one! That has to get me extra credit with Mrs. Frankfurter. After my last math test, I need it. Ho boy… Today I officially begin my “Zine Quest,” after nearly a decade away from crowdfunding. Join me on my journey! I just…
👋 Hey, I’m narrative designer Geoffrey Golden!
Equip Story is a weekly newsletter about how making games can be as fun as playing games.
For the Love of the Game
Equip Story is my newsletter of self-discovery through game development. I’m Geoffrey, a narrative designer, game maker, and interactive fiction writer from Los Angeles with over 15 years experience. I’ve had commercial success working for studios like Disney, Gearbox, and Ubisoft, but I’ve always treated commercial success as the most important goal for my art. Now I’m looking for something more. →
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