Make A Manifesto, Damn You

 

Make A Manifesto, Damn You

I made this for Manifesto Jam 2026. For a full free art version, check it out on itch.io here.

Life hit me like a sack of bricks the last 6 years.

A manifesto requires courage, certainty, confidence. I don't have much of those anymore, but I miss that version of myself so I'm forcing this upon myself, damn it.

1. Run everything, play everything. You don't know what you don't know until you know what you know.

2. Develop curiosity about the world. Everything makes you a better game designer and worldbuilder. Don't stop yet, keep learning and experiencing. In the real world as much as possible. Travel if you can.

3. Our work is only meaningful if it helps people. (You count as people.) If you're as privileged as me, that means giving back over and over and over. It is a biological and a moral imperative.

4. This hobby is trans. I'm not trans, and you might not be, but this hobby is. There is no hobby without those who dream the most personal and transformational dream of all. 

5. This hobby is for all the oppressed. Keep dreaming and scratching at the brake lights of reality.

6. Build community. Keep out the creeps. Organize. Have hope. Get mad at your friends when they disappoint you. (Re)teach people social skills through consequences. Go bowling. Make Tocqueville proud.

7. Make your silly little weird niche unplayable indie game and market the hell out of it. Clamor at the gates.

8. Seriously consider sobriety. Having considered it, go sober. Give sobriety as many chances as you gave oblivion.

9. Consume mindfully. Produce wildly. Be aware that you walk the knifepoint of reality and consumption makes you dulldumbflatnumb. Be aware of what you put in your brain as much as what you put in your body.

10. Build power, don't just critique it.