Nat Mesnard
@natmesnard.bsky.social
Game designer, writer, teacher in NYC. Co-founder Scryptid Games & Unquiet Games. They/them 🤖 natmesnard.com
Reposted by Nat Mesnard
Hehe. So pumped to playtest this unhinged sock puppet TTRPG I codesigned with @natmesnard.bsky.social this weekend at Metatopia! It’s been too many years since I had to pick dried glue off my hands for days.
Definitely looking forward to co-GMing some truly unhinged puppet shenanigans with @brigittewinter.bsky.social. Puppets in TTRPG are having their moment, so let's get glue and googly eyes all over the Hyatt Regency Morristown!!! Haha just kidding, we totally promise it will be clean. Sort of. Yeah.
November 6, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Hehe. So pumped to playtest this unhinged sock puppet TTRPG I codesigned with @natmesnard.bsky.social this weekend at Metatopia! It’s been too many years since I had to pick dried glue off my hands for days.
Other Metatopia 2025 highlights! 🧵
November 6, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Other Metatopia 2025 highlights! 🧵
Peak Metatopia is getting off the waitlist today into @jenkatwrites.bsky.social's Friday morning playtest for Pax Deorum. Ideal schedule complete. I can't wait to play!
November 6, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Peak Metatopia is getting off the waitlist today into @jenkatwrites.bsky.social's Friday morning playtest for Pax Deorum. Ideal schedule complete. I can't wait to play!
Really excited to be presenting our second iteration of the @scryptidgames.bsky.social x @twentysided.bsky.social TTRPG Writing Workshop during Game Design Days this year! We'll be joined by the amazing @sccreatives.bsky.social ✨
Game Design Days is also returning November 14-22! This event series highlights the underground independent game design communities of NYC, creating additional opportunities for anyone curious about game design to connect with local studios, collectives, and spaces.
game-design-days.com
game-design-days.com
October 30, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Really excited to be presenting our second iteration of the @scryptidgames.bsky.social x @twentysided.bsky.social TTRPG Writing Workshop during Game Design Days this year! We'll be joined by the amazing @sccreatives.bsky.social ✨
Reposted by Nat Mesnard
Game Design Days is also returning November 14-22! This event series highlights the underground independent game design communities of NYC, creating additional opportunities for anyone curious about game design to connect with local studios, collectives, and spaces.
game-design-days.com
game-design-days.com
October 30, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Game Design Days is also returning November 14-22! This event series highlights the underground independent game design communities of NYC, creating additional opportunities for anyone curious about game design to connect with local studios, collectives, and spaces.
game-design-days.com
game-design-days.com
Reposted by Nat Mesnard
Today on Edge Effects, @natmesnard.bsky.social reflects on their new table top role-playing game Assemblages: the strange creatures players create for its imaginary multispecies universe and the meditation they elicit on extinction, grief, and collaborative, queer survival in the Anthropocene. ♟️🍄
Role-Playing Queer Assemblages Amidst Capitalist Ruins - Edge Effects
Ecologically inspired role-playing game Assemblages is a meditation on extinction, grief, and collaborative, queer survival.
edgeeffects.net
October 30, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Today on Edge Effects, @natmesnard.bsky.social reflects on their new table top role-playing game Assemblages: the strange creatures players create for its imaginary multispecies universe and the meditation they elicit on extinction, grief, and collaborative, queer survival in the Anthropocene. ♟️🍄
Reposted by Nat Mesnard
“My ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ character was a fat, short, slutty, transmasculine lightfoot halfling bard named Apple (no relation to Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter).”
Up now in Evergreen’s DAS VIDEOSPIEL: “Bad Apple” by @natmesnard.bsky.social. evergreenreview.com/read/bad-app...
Up now in Evergreen’s DAS VIDEOSPIEL: “Bad Apple” by @natmesnard.bsky.social. evergreenreview.com/read/bad-app...
[DAS VIDEOSPIEL] Bad Apple
Evergreen Review
evergreenreview.com
October 21, 2025 at 2:51 PM
“My ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ character was a fat, short, slutty, transmasculine lightfoot halfling bard named Apple (no relation to Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter).”
Up now in Evergreen’s DAS VIDEOSPIEL: “Bad Apple” by @natmesnard.bsky.social. evergreenreview.com/read/bad-app...
Up now in Evergreen’s DAS VIDEOSPIEL: “Bad Apple” by @natmesnard.bsky.social. evergreenreview.com/read/bad-app...
New essay up on @evergreenreview.bsky.social where I talk about my hot Baldur's Gate 3 character, POV in video games & the indie game dev work I've been doing as part of @unquietgames.bsky.social: evergreenreview.com/read/bad-app...
[DAS VIDEOSPIEL] Bad Apple
Evergreen Review
evergreenreview.com
October 17, 2025 at 1:48 PM
New essay up on @evergreenreview.bsky.social where I talk about my hot Baldur's Gate 3 character, POV in video games & the indie game dev work I've been doing as part of @unquietgames.bsky.social: evergreenreview.com/read/bad-app...
I'm teaching an interactive fiction class at @onestorymag.bsky.social this summer! Join me online July 10 - August 7 to make interactive stories in Twine. No coding experience required. Sign up here:
one-story.com/product/inte...
one-story.com/product/inte...
June 28, 2025 at 3:50 AM
I'm teaching an interactive fiction class at @onestorymag.bsky.social this summer! Join me online July 10 - August 7 to make interactive stories in Twine. No coding experience required. Sign up here:
one-story.com/product/inte...
one-story.com/product/inte...
Reposted by Nat Mesnard
Next month I'll be taking this Interactive Fiction class (as a student!) with @natmesnard.bsky.social at @onestorymag.bsky.social. Join us as we play & create stories that break the mold. All levels welcome. one-story.com/product/inte...
June 27, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Next month I'll be taking this Interactive Fiction class (as a student!) with @natmesnard.bsky.social at @onestorymag.bsky.social. Join us as we play & create stories that break the mold. All levels welcome. one-story.com/product/inte...
@thealeks.bsky.social hey, I'm a writer / game dev who sometimes works with Twine, and I want to write about your game "Egress" for an anthology I'm contributing to. If you'd be willing to chat about it, would you DM me?
June 10, 2025 at 1:28 PM
@thealeks.bsky.social hey, I'm a writer / game dev who sometimes works with Twine, and I want to write about your game "Egress" for an anthology I'm contributing to. If you'd be willing to chat about it, would you DM me?
Reposted by Nat Mesnard
Check out @unquietgames.bsky.social and their debut project BANNED TOGETHER, a first-person, 3D narrative puzzle game that follows two trans college students finding history — and chosen family — in a campus library.
unquietgames.com
unquietgames.com
June 7, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Check out @unquietgames.bsky.social and their debut project BANNED TOGETHER, a first-person, 3D narrative puzzle game that follows two trans college students finding history — and chosen family — in a campus library.
unquietgames.com
unquietgames.com
Reposted by Nat Mesnard
Author/publishing friends, Banned Together is a mystery video game about #bannedbooks from NYC-based devs @elanamakesgames.bsky.social and @natmesnard.bsky.social. You play as Ruby, an aspiring journalist.
Coming in 2026: unquietgames.com
#pridemonth #books #libraries
Coming in 2026: unquietgames.com
#pridemonth #books #libraries
June 4, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Author/publishing friends, Banned Together is a mystery video game about #bannedbooks from NYC-based devs @elanamakesgames.bsky.social and @natmesnard.bsky.social. You play as Ruby, an aspiring journalist.
Coming in 2026: unquietgames.com
#pridemonth #books #libraries
Coming in 2026: unquietgames.com
#pridemonth #books #libraries
Reposted by Nat Mesnard
Live fast. Eat trash. Solve mysteries.
Inspired by guidebook-style TTRPGs and a pulpy, punk ethos, Psychic Trash Detectives from @scryptidgames.bsky.social is a shared-GM game for 3-4 players about psychic trash animals solving the mysteries no one cares about
tabletopbookshelf.com/products/psy...
Inspired by guidebook-style TTRPGs and a pulpy, punk ethos, Psychic Trash Detectives from @scryptidgames.bsky.social is a shared-GM game for 3-4 players about psychic trash animals solving the mysteries no one cares about
tabletopbookshelf.com/products/psy...
May 25, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Live fast. Eat trash. Solve mysteries.
Inspired by guidebook-style TTRPGs and a pulpy, punk ethos, Psychic Trash Detectives from @scryptidgames.bsky.social is a shared-GM game for 3-4 players about psychic trash animals solving the mysteries no one cares about
tabletopbookshelf.com/products/psy...
Inspired by guidebook-style TTRPGs and a pulpy, punk ethos, Psychic Trash Detectives from @scryptidgames.bsky.social is a shared-GM game for 3-4 players about psychic trash animals solving the mysteries no one cares about
tabletopbookshelf.com/products/psy...
Reposted by Nat Mesnard
Announcing: Games in NY Steam Sale event!
A selection of more than 100 games made, set, or published in New York, on sale for one weekend!
Join us Thurs 5/29 at 1pm EDT with a showcase on Twitch (twitch.tv/nyugamecenter) coinciding with the Sale page launch!
More info at linktr.ee/nyugamecenter
A selection of more than 100 games made, set, or published in New York, on sale for one weekend!
Join us Thurs 5/29 at 1pm EDT with a showcase on Twitch (twitch.tv/nyugamecenter) coinciding with the Sale page launch!
More info at linktr.ee/nyugamecenter
May 23, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Announcing: Games in NY Steam Sale event!
A selection of more than 100 games made, set, or published in New York, on sale for one weekend!
Join us Thurs 5/29 at 1pm EDT with a showcase on Twitch (twitch.tv/nyugamecenter) coinciding with the Sale page launch!
More info at linktr.ee/nyugamecenter
A selection of more than 100 games made, set, or published in New York, on sale for one weekend!
Join us Thurs 5/29 at 1pm EDT with a showcase on Twitch (twitch.tv/nyugamecenter) coinciding with the Sale page launch!
More info at linktr.ee/nyugamecenter
Reposted by Nat Mesnard
The @narrascope.org conf is coming up this June in Philly, and this year includes a narrative games showcase.
This will be attended by leaders in narrative spanning industry, academic, and independent backgrounds, and also has a wee bit of prize money involved 🏆
Submit now! itch.io/jam/narrasco...
This will be attended by leaders in narrative spanning industry, academic, and independent backgrounds, and also has a wee bit of prize money involved 🏆
Submit now! itch.io/jam/narrasco...
NarraScope 2025 Showcase
A game jam from 2025-02-01 to 2025-05-02 hosted by vel & NarraScope. A showcase of narrative game excellence in conjunction with NarraScope 2025 . Calling all narrative game makers! Designers, develop...
itch.io
April 28, 2025 at 1:24 AM
The @narrascope.org conf is coming up this June in Philly, and this year includes a narrative games showcase.
This will be attended by leaders in narrative spanning industry, academic, and independent backgrounds, and also has a wee bit of prize money involved 🏆
Submit now! itch.io/jam/narrasco...
This will be attended by leaders in narrative spanning industry, academic, and independent backgrounds, and also has a wee bit of prize money involved 🏆
Submit now! itch.io/jam/narrasco...
Reposted by Nat Mesnard
April 10, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Nat Mesnard
Registration is now open for NarraScope 2025! Until April 11, full NarraScope 2025 memberships are available at a discounted Early Bird rate. Your membership provides access to all NarraScope talks, meals, and opportunities to sign up for workshops. Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/narrascope...
NarraScope 2025
NarraScope brings together writers, developers, and players in support of adventure/narrative games and interactive fiction.
www.eventbrite.com
March 26, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Registration is now open for NarraScope 2025! Until April 11, full NarraScope 2025 memberships are available at a discounted Early Bird rate. Your membership provides access to all NarraScope talks, meals, and opportunities to sign up for workshops. Register here: www.eventbrite.com/e/narrascope...
We are truly in the final hours of the Assemblage #ttrpg campaign through @backerkit.com's #Pocketopia. Weird ecologies, remarkable interdependencies, survival in an uncertain future. 🍄 If this is your jam, a pledge before we close at 4PM ET would mean a lot to me! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...
Assemblage: A TTRPG of World Building & World Breaking
Together, become a weird ecology. When the world shatters, how will we survive?
Assemblage is a science-inspired eco-fantasy TTRPG in which 2-6 players collaboratively build the story of an interdepen...
www.backerkit.com
April 3, 2025 at 6:27 PM
We are truly in the final hours of the Assemblage #ttrpg campaign through @backerkit.com's #Pocketopia. Weird ecologies, remarkable interdependencies, survival in an uncertain future. 🍄 If this is your jam, a pledge before we close at 4PM ET would mean a lot to me! www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...
Playing a bit of my GMless #ttrpg Assemblage today with the wonderful @drbrightstar.bsky.social, we found ourselves describing an organism (and its symbiote) who swims in a stomach-acid mangrove and sports a ridge of pitcher plant-like ears 🌱
April 2, 2025 at 11:14 PM
Playing a bit of my GMless #ttrpg Assemblage today with the wonderful @drbrightstar.bsky.social, we found ourselves describing an organism (and its symbiote) who swims in a stomach-acid mangrove and sports a ridge of pitcher plant-like ears 🌱
Reposted by Nat Mesnard
happening tomorrow:)
Join us for the Bundle of Joy release party on April 2nd, 7PM EDT at boshi's place!
Come celebrate with developer Essay Games (@essaygames.bsky.social) and play the game! Come hang out, take care of baby, try not to reach a breaking point (in-game), and take a break at the coloring station.
Come celebrate with developer Essay Games (@essaygames.bsky.social) and play the game! Come hang out, take care of baby, try not to reach a breaking point (in-game), and take a break at the coloring station.
April 1, 2025 at 5:33 PM
happening tomorrow:)
Hey, I am so delighted to see @goblinmixtape.bsky.social bringing the spotlight to these Pocketopia projects, including Assemblage! 💙
Pocketopia is a crowdfunding event focusing on pocket-sized tabletop games.
Here are five TTRPGs from Pocketopia that I recommend checking out!
Here are five TTRPGs from Pocketopia that I recommend checking out!
March 29, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Hey, I am so delighted to see @goblinmixtape.bsky.social bringing the spotlight to these Pocketopia projects, including Assemblage! 💙
A signal boost for this awesome dev log by @elanamakesgames.bsky.social! I got to playtest Old and Gray from @bolerogamestudio.bsky.social for the first time at GDC and I am so ready to cry my way through this wonderfully heartfelt and cozy narrative game when it comes out ✨😭💕
Being a game designer isn't about getting things right the first time: it's about trying something out, listening to playtesters, trusting your team, then trying again! Here's my dev log about the evolution of a rhythm game at @bolerogamestudio.bsky.social: bolerogamestudio.itch.io/old-and-gray...
Unpacking the Game Design Process of Old & Gray
It's GDC season and the Bolero crew is in San Francisco with an expanded 7-minute demo of Old & Gray! The whole team has been hard at work enriching and polishing our latest build for playtesting with...
bolerogamestudio.itch.io
March 29, 2025 at 1:12 AM
A signal boost for this awesome dev log by @elanamakesgames.bsky.social! I got to playtest Old and Gray from @bolerogamestudio.bsky.social for the first time at GDC and I am so ready to cry my way through this wonderfully heartfelt and cozy narrative game when it comes out ✨😭💕
Reposted by Nat Mesnard
I had the delight of chatting with Nat about Assemblage during GameFace Con - after hearing more about the game, this was a no-brainer back for me!
If you're interested in weird, fictional ecologies (and/or you were a Spore kid, like me), you should absolutely give this a look.
If you're interested in weird, fictional ecologies (and/or you were a Spore kid, like me), you should absolutely give this a look.
My #ttrpg Assemblage is crowdfunding on BackerKit and we just (very tentatively) hit our initial funding goal 😭 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...
Assemblage: A TTRPG of World Building & World Breaking
Together, become a weird ecology. When the world shatters, how will we survive?
Assemblage is a science-inspired eco-fantasy TTRPG in which 2-6 players collaboratively build the story of an interdepen...
www.backerkit.com
March 29, 2025 at 12:15 AM
I had the delight of chatting with Nat about Assemblage during GameFace Con - after hearing more about the game, this was a no-brainer back for me!
If you're interested in weird, fictional ecologies (and/or you were a Spore kid, like me), you should absolutely give this a look.
If you're interested in weird, fictional ecologies (and/or you were a Spore kid, like me), you should absolutely give this a look.
My #ttrpg Assemblage is crowdfunding on BackerKit and we just (very tentatively) hit our initial funding goal 😭 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...
Assemblage: A TTRPG of World Building & World Breaking
Together, become a weird ecology. When the world shatters, how will we survive?
Assemblage is a science-inspired eco-fantasy TTRPG in which 2-6 players collaboratively build the story of an interdepen...
www.backerkit.com
March 17, 2025 at 6:46 PM
My #ttrpg Assemblage is crowdfunding on BackerKit and we just (very tentatively) hit our initial funding goal 😭 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/s...