April Walsh writes Gay Spaceship Games
@gayspaceship

I'm April Walsh (she/her or gay/ghem), and I design tabletop roleplaying games celebrating queer love and power, with a focus on chosen family. I'm best known for Thirsty Sword Lesbians, and you can see my other released works at https://gayspaceship.com

Now, I'm hard at work on book three for Thirsty Sword Lesbians: "Falling Deeper," as well as a feelings-and-tactics game with an original tactical system, called "Dream With Me." As a side project relative to these two, I'm working on "Moonfall," a game of tragical girls failing to save the world. And I have a few other projects in the works that are less far along than these three, which are all playable and getting polished and expanded as I have the time. For instance, I'm in early stages of planning out a game about revolutions and the relationship between violent and nonviolent tactics, which will include as game mechanics some planning tools used by activist organizations that I think make for really interesting play in a fictional context and will also teach players some skills for organizing campaigns.

My time is the limiting factor. I've heard how important my art has been to people, how it's helped people understand themselves, find love, heal from trauma, and have the courage to take a chance on being their authentic self, even when it's scary. I've been considering shifting more of my time into game design, and I'm hoping to see if there's interest in financially supporting me in doing that.

If you choose to donate, you'll be encouraging me to focus more on design and on publishing previews and playtests along the way. This will speed up the pace of my releases, both the previews and such here as well as the final products.

I am a longtime advocate for open access to knowledge and culture, and have published my games under various Creative Commons terms allowing remixers to build on what I create. I've also ensured that money isn't a barrier to accessing my games through community copies and by publishing the Sapphic Reference Document containing the text of Thirsty Sword Lesbians, available free at https://poweredbylesbians.com

As many people are struggling financially and I do have a job at the moment, I only want to receive donations at this time from cis people or those making six figures. If you want to support me in a non-financial way, just write to me telling me that my art is important to you or something else encouraging.