I asked my parents to microwave a dandelion.
Hello darlings. Contents:
1 - Where are all the dandelions when your microwave needs them?
1.5 - Interlude - My puppet’s eye fell off.
2 - Sock Puppets is pretty now.
3 - Everyone in my Discord server is cooler than me.
1 - Where are all the dandelions when your microwave needs them?
I love flower crowns. They’re delicate, ephemeral, creative, expressive, pretty. I like to gather broadleaf plantain in the summertime and tie the crown with clovers.
Last month, I designed a game where everyone makes dandelion crowns and mourns a lost friend named Jessie. The flower crowns are real; Jessie is not. What flowers you find and how you weave the crown shape your conversation about her, and the kind of person she was.
Because the game is a kind of eulogy, I wanted the design to be a collage. Memories of a person often feel like little cuttings from their life, reassembled into a story. I rummaged around the Internet finding public domain dandelion art, stock photos, paper textures.
There was one thing I couldn't find online: a (free) photo of a pressed dandelion, meant to look like it was pressed between the pages. Once I latched onto that idea, I really wanted it! So I slipped on a backpack and went walking.
Unfortunately for my goofy ass, it was October in Canada, so I couldn't find a dandelion in bloom. I did manage to snag some that had gone to seed, which were useful on their own. I was holding my bundle of dead flowers, looking (I imagine) very strange, when a dog walked up to me. The owner was standing with a few friends, on the edge of the sidewalk.
As I passed them, the woman said, "what'll you do with dandelions?”
I looked at her. "Short answer, or long answer?"
"I was talking to her." She gestured to the dog, then looked back to me. "It's none of my business what you do with dandelions."
I hid a smile. "Well it's none of my business what your dog would do with dandelions, I suppose. Have a good night."
The next day, I was talking to my parents over the phone, complaining about my dandelion woes. To my surprise, my mom said "I think I saw one in our garden!" and dashed outside. A minute later, she was back on the phone, triumphant. She found a dandelion!
But I needed a pressed dandelion... and since the game was going online soon, we were short on time for the slow process of preserving flowers. I was not without my tricks, though. Did you know that, in a pinch, you can microwave flowers to get a quick-dry that's almost as good as a few weeks between books?
I'm sure you can see where this goes. Which of the following steps do you think was hardest to explain over the phone to two seventy year-olds?
Place the dandelion between two kitchen towels.
Place a flat piece of glassware (a food storage container, a glass pie plate) on top of the towels.
Set the microwave to 50% power.
Microwave for 2 minutes.
If I was a betting man, I'd guess you just said number 3. Here's how the conversation actually went:
Why a kitchen towel! Does it have to be a kitchen towel? We have paper towels. What do you mean "between"? Face down or face up? We'll use the paper towels. Why a kitchen towel?
How do I put the glass on top? What do you mean "glassware"? It's too heavy. It's too light! I don't know if we missed the dandelion. Does it just sit there?
We know how to set the microwave to 50% power! My goodness, who doesn't know how to do that? You don't need to explain everything.
TWO MINUTES! It's going to burn. We're going to burn the dandelion! Two minutes? Oh no. It needs to be less, I think. Oh dear.
Two minutes later, I had one picture of a pressed, yellow dandelion.
Two months later, I was very lucky to receive an award from the judges of the Golden Cobra Challenge for A Crown of Dandelions.
I do feel a little imposter syndrome -- they couldn't exactly play it during judging, November in New Jersey -- but I am very grateful for the nod. And also to my parents, for finding a little yellow dandelion and trusting my microwave instructions.
Before I sign off, I’ll share my favourite review of the game. Several people said very nice things, but I’m tickled pink by this quote from Sam Dunnewold:
★★★★★
The fastest point between where you are right now and crying is reading Kurt's games
1.5 - Interlude - My puppet’s eye fell off.
Look. If you make a puppet, you spend the next two months showing everyone in your life that you made a puppet. He’s done more talking than your shy cousin did in the first three years of grade school.
I’m not gonna share a picture. Too tragic, too gruesome. Just know that you shouldn’t sew an eyeball on by the eyelid. Maybe just spring for that spray adhesive instead.
But he’ll have to be fixed up for the Kickstarter video soon, because…
2 - Sock Puppets is pretty now.
Sock Puppets is a game about puppets and their problems: a failing children’s television show and the squabbling puppeteers who run it.
Behind the scenes, Xan has been working hard to format and illustrate Sock Puppets. So I am thrilled to share with you these glimpses of the game, with art! (Xan also needs me to tell you these are SKETCHES, WORK IN PROGRESS NOT FINAL, as if you will look at these and think anything other than “OMG”.)
Here’s the Roles introduction page, which gave me a full-body WOW when I saw the palette and style.
Here’s a few of our favourite terrible relationships, and the puppets you might choose for your puppeteer:
Finally, here’s maybe my favourite drawing of a puppet ever.
With Sock Puppets slated to be finalized this month, I’m looking forward to a Kickstarter early 2025! I’m SO excited. This game is so silly and fun and awful, and it will be amazing for people to be able to play it for themselves.
3 - Everyone in my Discord server is cooler than me.
In this ongoing segment, I’ll share some of the cool, creative, wonderful things that the people on my Discord server have been cooking up since we last checked in on them. (All works shared with permission!)
Online pal and fellow Zelda designer Paki Spivey makes gorgeous collages. They coat a gelatin plate with acrylic and press a collage of magazines together to make the image, then apply paint and paper and peel it off.
Mo, a dear friend and Kalamazoonian, has been taking beautiful pictures of Lego figures. I’m always so excited when I see a new picture go up.
Sierra (AKA absolutely) shared a beautiful top that they made with spare yarn and no pattern. I just adore the colours.
Among the many people I’ve met in the online TTRPG scene, Logan is one of the first people who made me feel really welcome. But Logan is also a talented designer, poet, and podcaster — and to this effect, I was so happy when Logan’s podcast on lyric games was honoured by The Awards this month!
Finally, I’ll share a little glimpse into a friend-via-convention, the talented Christian Malleck. Christian (and Tony) were two of the first people I really connected with at Breakout Con in Toronto. Since then, Christian has made games of his own! I am OBSESSED with his work-in-progress Junk Drawer Heroes, which has maybe my favourite mechanic ever: junk.
Junk [is] the mostly useless little objects kept in sacks. Any action with an uncertain outcome is resolved by pulling junk out of a bag and imagining a creative use for it.
I just love that. I’m eager to try it out, because grabbing your destiny from a sack is about as good as it gets.
I’ll end our letter there. Maybe you enjoyed this? If that’s true, I’d invite you to subscribe. Maybe join the server, if it suits you. If it fits the shape of your day.
Goodbye, darlings.
Warmth,
Kurt