Hey Reader!

David Kessler here.

​Sea Scroll is getting Published!​

Congratulations to Alex Houghton, whose first game, Sea Scroll, is being published by Renegade Game Studios. It releases on February 26th!

​Sea Scroll is a light and easy to learn card game with deceptively strategic set collection. You'll guide fish from the reef to form schools of fish in your personal habitat. Curate and Collect large schools of fish, but don't overcommit!

Alex took Sea Scroll to five Protospiels. And in all five, the theme was different from what he ended up with in the final product. Originally, players were climbing "up a tree" to get away from a bear. And later, he had different kinds of trees that would either be selected for the arboretum or be "turned to timber". Here's a glimpse of the tree theme:

Alex liked the themes, but knew they didn't quite fit the mechanics one-to-one. Renegade Studios became interested in the game, but was not enamored with trees. In every Protospiel, Alex would ask players for ideas. And in a few, "schools of fish grouping together to scare off a shark," came up as an option. That turned out to be the perfect pairing for Yulia Brodskayla's beautiful "C-Scroll" style of art, and everything worked out from there. Here's what the game looks like now:

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Theme wasn't the only aspect of the game that benefited from Protospiels. Alex was initially reluctant to ask players to learn the game from reading the rules because he felt he might be asking too much of players. However, with a game as short as Sea Scroll (typically under 15 minutes), he found that it wasn't too much to ask players to spend an extra five minutes reading. And as it turned out, many designers and playtesters were happy to do this! The process helped Alex to hone in on the intuitive parts of the game.

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📣Announcements Announcements Annooouuuncements!

• Atlas Games is running their Fork ICE February fundraiser through the end of this month
• The ICE Out For Good toolkit is now available online at iceoutforgood.org/​
• Submissions for Global Game Jam's GGJNext student jam session submissions open through Mar 15, 2026
• ​Fur, Feathers, & Fun Game Crafter Design Contest submissions open through Apr 18, 2026

~David

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