In Case With Grace: December 2024

Author

Grace Lewis
December 16, 2024

I guess this is a bimonthly newsletter now, though it’s not on purpose! They’ve sent me to the Newsletter Mines to find some of those rare, sought-after newsletter gems you know and love.

This month, I…

  • Started working on a redesign of APRA's site and branding.

  • Redesigned APRA's logo.

  • Redesigned APRA's background.

  • Designed this year's Halloween avatar for my personal accounts.

  • Worked a lot on GUTGUN, including a whole file corruption mess that necessitated a rewrite of the whole draft!

  • Redesigned GUTGUN’s ENCOUNTER TRACK. Again.

  • Redesigned Ghastronomy's character sheet + removed my deadname from the PDF, for the game's 2 year anniversary.

  • Made a logo for a discord group on a whim.

  • Ran and wrote APRAween 2024.

  • Wrote a teeny RPG for this year's 200 word jam.

  • Wrote a lengthy blog post on the importance of names in your TTRPGs.

  • Finished and released a new art piece. (Nudity/gore warning. Stop scrolling now if you don’t wanna see it, I ain’t censoring my art in my own newsletter.)

  • Started prepping to host writing on my website.

  • Commission: Designed a set of magic-type icons.

  • Commission: Designed a typographic logo.

Cool Things

STRAFTAT

I hunger deeply for a good arena shooter, but the gaming market abandoned them a long while ago in favor of e-sports-able team shooters. Winning is key. Fun is forgotten. Needless to say, STRAFTAT came as a pleasant surprise, a game made by two brothers— something to fill a niche they wanted to play together. A free, 1v1 arena shooter styled after some of the older titles I loved!

Where AAA fails, indies thrive. It’s weird. It’s faced paced. Lots of variety. Great fun! Scratches that itch I’ve had for years.

Forgive Me Father 2

FMF2 is a lovecraftian boomer shooter with a very pleasing visual style, interesting ideas, and some fun level structure. It’s a very solid game, fun time, full of soul— the developers clearly had a lot of fun making it. There’s a gun that’s literally just an elder thing from Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. Not a gun designed to look like one, but one that’s straight up just 1:1 an elder thing, as unergonomic a shape that is and it’s hilarious. You feed it fish to reload.

Lovely!

Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

I haven’t seen Jacob’s Ladder in A While, and decided recently to give it a rewatch. See if it holds up at all. I am delighted to say that it retains its spot as my favorite horror movie of all time— yes it has some rough bits here and there (there’s a few misogynistic scenes/plot points!) but for the most part? Still holds solid!

I even picked up on some subtle foreshadowing that I’d never noticed before!

It’s a slow burn psychological horror story that I honestly will not tell you more about because you should just. Go. Go watch it.

Prompt

Each month I provide a prompt to inspire you to create something in any medium you like!

This month’s prompt: The point of no return.

Readers can share their work in the #sharing-grounds channel on my Discord server!

Interested in a commission? Contact me!