Prototypes and Rubber Roaches

As we are getting our “process diaries” together for our Negocios Infernales Kickstarter, and trying to imagine how best to do them—vlog with transcript? Written word and gifs?—we have been digging out the early prototypes.

When Carlos first conceived of an inspiration deck of words and images to power an RPG game through card pulls rather than dice, he used public domain art from Earth’s history. You can see some of the phrases that remain, even now, on our NI cards on this early art history deck—though the art by Rebecca Huston remains a core vitality of our Negocios Infernales game.

One of our prototypes had a hidden “alien agenda” that the players knew but the characters didn’t. I found the envelope! I can’t remember what we put INSIDE though.

Funny story about searching for prototypes…

Once upon a time, yesterday, as we were looking through our mountains of games, prototypes, components, card sleeves, and “empty boxes wot might someday be useful” (in order to find this very particular early prototype), Carlos kept looking under the bookshelves, certain it was under there.

Long after he gave up and went back to prioritizing writing, as I should have done, I kept looking. Because, well, looking is easier than writing!

Anyway, after scrounging around various shelves and drawers for a long time, I returned to the dusty shadow realm under our bookshelves. I found a prototype-sized box! I opened it excitedly!

It was full of life-like rubber cockroaches! AAAUGHHHH!!!

They were a gift to Carlos from my brother Declan sometime in 2020. He presented them in the hopes that one day Carlos might find them useful.

We did use them—once—to prank a friend who liked to BEG us to prank her. She liked when we left her chocolate in strange places…

Well. You can imagine.

Little did we know that roaches were not… as funny as we’d hoped. Much apologies and chocolate bars later, and a lot of nervous laughter, she forgave us, like a darling.

Anyway! I GOT MY OWN BACK!

I yelped! I laughed! I told Carlos!

And then? Behind the box of fake roaches, I found…

The prototype.

And we all lived happily ever after that Monday, until midnight came, and it was Tuesday.