Mini RPGs available on itch.io




Other Games

Research Project: Recruitment Rush!

In 2023 I worked as a research assistant designing this educational game with Dr Melissa Rogerson at the University of Melbourne’s School of Computer and Information Systems. It’s intended for use in the classroom, to simulate recruiting participants for usability testing. We ran some playtests of the prototype and it was pretty fun for a relatively light serious game! I don’t own it so I can’t share it here, but it was a great project and I hope to work on more educational games in future.

Dungeon Time

A sample character from a Dungeon Time workshop; the main sheet has a child's drawing of "Charlie", an anthropomorphised ice-cream cone. It is surrounded by smaller cards depicting Charlie's foes and special powers, including the power "Call their Mum" and a "Poison dart frog room".

Every adventurer has to start somewhere! Dungeon Time is a storytelling game workshop for kids who want to get into fantasy adventure roleplaying. It involves simple, easy-to-learn rules for generating your own dungeon-crawling adventures – without even needing a Dungeon Master!

I first ran a Dungeon Time workshop at ArtPlay for the 2017 Melbourne Writers’ Festival, and have since run it for several libraries including Diamond Valley, Eltham, Mill Park, Nunawading and the State Library of Victoria, as well as a modified version at 100 Story Building as part of their holiday program.

If you – or your kids – have been to a workshop and would like to play some more, I’ve made the character sheet available below, though you can also just make your own using some blank paper. If you’d like me to run Dungeon Time for a library, classroom or any group of kids, get in touch! I have versions suitable for 5-8 year olds and 9-12 year olds. I’m also working on a standalone set of rules.

Download Dungeon Time character sheet  (A5 PDF, one page)

Ben McKenzie’s Late Night Games Night: The Board Game

An A6-sized flyer for the comedy event "Ben McKenzie's Late Night Games Night", including a playable board game printed on the back.Ben’s last-minute six-nights-only late night board game show during the 2018 Comedy Festival definitely wasn’t just an excuse to make a flyer with a complete, playable board game on the back… But it was partly that. You can download a PDF copy here for your own enjoyment.

Download Ben McKenzie’s Late Night Games Night: The Board Game (A6 PDF, 663 Kb)

It’s a simple game that uses party-game style challenges themed around the games I featured in the show. The original final challenge was to see Ben McKenzie’s Late Night Games Night but since the festival is long over, here are some alternatives:

  • If a fringe arts or comedy festival is currently on in your city:
    • See any of the shows featured in the Safety House Guide.
    • Collect a flyer from a performer whose show sounds appealing to you.
    • Share your thoughts about a show you loved (with a link) on social media or a festival web site.
  • If there’s not currently a festival on:
    • Book tickets to a live performance featuring performers you’ve never seen before.
    • Agree to play a game you’ve never played before.
    • Go to a public playful or games event, like the ones organised for the Freeplay Independent Games Festival.
    • Contact Ben and tell him about a challenge you created for a blank space.
    • Let the other players pick one of the challenges on the board you haven’t done yet; you must pass that challenge to win.
    • Forget about having a challenge at the end, you just win when you land on FINISH!