Happy New Year!

I don’t do resolutions, but it feels like it’s time to actually send out the newsletter I’ve been threatening to start for years. It’s now called Jess Verbs Nouns, and this is the first issue.

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I figured this first one could be something like an end-of-year Christmas letter/New Year’s card with an update on my life, work, and play in the past year. For me, the three do tend to mingle.

The year was an eventful one, with some major milestones and accomplishments.

Some notable [nouns] I [verbed] in 2025

Launched Rosewater and got engaged to my partner

The big accomplishment of the year was releasing our game Rosewater, which Francisco (mainly) and I (intermittently, in fits and spurts) had been working on for six years. It launched on March 27 to some really lovely, glowing reviews, and recently received an IndieCade Festival nomination for Best Performance. We celebrated with a Western-themed launch party at a fun honkey-tonk bar with a mechanical bull, karaoke, and a tequila toast.

Immediately following the toast, Francisco proposed, and now we’re officially engaged after 11 years together. Just like with game dev, great things take time. No, we have no wedding plans yet. Check back in another decade.

Expanded into voiceover production with Foolish Mortals

With Rosewater out the door, we turned to our next project: script editing, casting, directing, and producing the voiceover for the merry and macabre adventure Foolish Mortals. We had an absolute blast working with incredibly talented husband-and-wife team David and Sophie Younger of Inklingwood Studios and recording with a brilliant cast, starring the delightful AJ LoCasio. It’s been incredibly well received, and its success couldn’t be more deserved!

It made sense to use Francisco’s expertise in (and enthusiasm for!) voiceover production from his own games and begin offering our services to other devs looking for help elevating their voice performance on an indie budget. We’re grateful to David and Sophie for trusting us with their game as our first external project, and we’re looking forward to our next one. (Any leads? Send ’em our way!)

Tallying up 2025 in life, work, and play

🚀 3 games launched (Rosewater, co-writer and producer; Foolish Mortals, editor and voiceover producer; One-Eyed Likho, editor)

⭐️ 1 award nomination received (Rosewater, Best Performance, IndieCade Festival 2025—wish us luck!)

🛫 2 conferences attended (NarraScope in Philly, AdventureX in London)

👩🏻‍🏫 1 talk given (Tabletops and Twine: Adventures in Adventure Game Proto- and Telotyping, with Francisco at NarraScope)

💬 1 panel appeared on (The State of NYC Indie: Developing a Better Game Industry at the NYU Game Center—sadly not archived permanently so far as I know)

🍻 12 monthly socials hosted (NYC Indie Games, now in our 12th year!)

🎮 37 games played on Steam^* (dominated by Peak, Valheim, and a late, intense fling with The Sims 2)

▶️ 145 days streamed on Twitch (mostly GTA RP^**, with a smattering of others)

💪 30 VR workouts completed on Supernatural^* (not bad, but going for at least weekly this year)

🥾 6 hikes logged on AllTrails^* (more than I thought, actually—aiming for monthly now!) 

💍 1 engagement proposal accepted

🧘🏻 Unquantifiable human experiences experienced

* If you’d like to connect on one of these platforms, reply to this email with your username and I’ll look you up! It’s more fun with pals. Would especially love some new hiking buddies!

** My dive into GTA RP, “my stories,” continued this year. For the evolving exploits of an idealistic yoga instructor and organic market owner turned Mayor of Los Santos, or a retired bus driver and serial widow living in a Golden Girls-esque coven of busybody criminal grannies, follow if you dare.

There are fascinating things happening in the serious GTA/Red Dead roleplay scene that I think games folks should be paying more attention to. At the intersection of MMORPGs, improv, and collaborative storytelling, it shares traits with LARP, tabletop, and virtual theater—and it’s nothing like the random chaos of vanilla GTA Online. On a good private server (ours is the UK-based Happy Fun Time, actively recruiting with global members), with the right rules of engagement and a good bunch of people, it’s like a surreal small-town soap opera you can live in. Ask me about it sometime if you want an earful.

What [nouns] I’m [verbing] next

Getting Project Lion underway

Preproduction on the next unannounced Grundislav Games project started last summer, and just yesterday I donned my producer hat and we made it more official by populating the task tracker and kicking off the first actual production sprint. On this one I’m co-writing, producing, editing, and who knows what else. Stay tuned for an announcement later this year!

Organizing a networking group for game editors

I’ve been kicking the idea around for a while, and now might be the time to get it together. I’d like to start up a small discussion, networking, and advocacy group for editors working (or wanting to work) in games—something like the CEL (Copy Editors’ List) or the IGDA Game Editing SIG, which existed very briefly just before I was starting out freelancing ten (!!!) years ago.

I haven’t made any decisions about platform or format yet, but I’ve been quietly collecting contact info for a seed group of folks to invite to get it off the ground. If that sounds like something you’d like to be part of, get in touch!

Seeking new clients

Here’s the part where I shill for my tiny family business, The Game Editors!

I’m in the middle of one (also unannounced) game editing project that I’m very excited about (whenever I can stop playing the game long enough to work on it—seriously, it’s so good), and now I’m looking to fill up the rest of the Game Editors project calendar for the spring.

I rely on this work to survive, and word of mouth is my bread and butter. And frankly speaking, despite all the good things I filled it with, 2025 was a lean year. So if you hear of something in my lane, I’d be grateful if you’d keep me in mind and tell others!

I’m actively seeking clients for game editing and voiceover production—for games of all kinds, but particularly indie, narrative-driven, and/or adventure games. 

If you could use a little help with worldbuilding, representation, concept development, narrative design, or just some feedback or advice, I also offer one-shot, prepaid consulting sessions that are great for individuals or teams. 

Check out my personal portfolio for past work, or visit the Game Editors site to browse our offerings.

In addition to developers, I’m also eager to connect with publishers and localization agencies who might like to have the number of a reliable editor in their back pocket. (One firm stipulation—I won’t touch AI.)

If you’re curious about working with me, or if you know someone who might be, any and all leads are very much appreciated.

See you around!

I don’t know if people are still starting newsletters in the year-of-oh-lord 2026, but I’ve been feeling like I should make more of an effort to create and put pieces of myself out in the world. Hence quashing the jitters and letting it all hang out on Twitch, or making more of an effort to show up on Bluesky, Mastodon, and (shudder) LinkedIn. I don’t have the problem of tearing myself away from an addictive feed—instead, it’s always a struggle to force myself to open the apps and engage. But I’ve been working at it, and actually starting this newsletter seemed like the right next move.

I’m a blazing fast editor but a painfully slow writer, which is why I don’t write for clients anymore. (Assembling this newsletter took me days.) I’m never going to be dashing off a missive a week or busting anyone’s inboxes open, but I could see myself eking out maybe three or four of these things a year. I’m sure I’ll tinker with the format and content as I go. Still unsure about the name/schtick, but maybe it’ll grow on me. (Game designers and editors both are always banging on about verbs…get it???)

If something in this note resonated with you, or even (especially!) if it’s just been a while and you want to say hi or maybe grab a coffee, please hit reply and send me a few words of your own! I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing from me, and I’d be delighted to hear back.

Hope your new year’s off to a good start so far. Wishing you peace, prosperity, and plenty of opportunities to play in 2026. Thanks for reading, and until next time!

Cheers,

Jess

Personal site: https://jesshaskins.com
The Game Editors: https://thegameeditors.com
NYC Indie Games Social: https://jesshaskins.com/nycindiegames
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