In a spectacular turn of events, I'm happy to report that I'm currently shopping Hide & Seek around to several different publishers and fulfillment partners like Plus One Exp, Space Penguin Ink and Exalted Funeral. If you know me as a person or as a content creator, you know that these folks are all friends, so it's not really a huge surprise that I'll be working with folks from any of these publishers, but it looks like it's definitely a thing now. Initially, I wanted to be in-print for this current spooky season, but that's not in the cards for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I have three projects crossing the finish line soon (I swear I'll talk about those as soon as the publisher gives me the go-ahead) and started two more (one is a slow burn, "write when I'm inspired" kind of thing, the other being a game I've been developing along with my kids, so it gets worked on whenever we play together), plus all of the uncertainty of watching an empire collapse from the inside... and I haven't had a lot of gumption to work on a project that's already "finished" in some way.

But it's not finished. I want to do more with it.

So here's the plan:

In 2026, I'm planning a physical release of Hide & Seek. At this point, I'm just working out which publisher I'll be working with for it. I plan to start with the U Con 2024 Ashcan edition and add about 8 pages of content & art (bringing the total page count from 24 to 32) and add a new cover.  Some of the new content will be stuff that I've published here -- The Neighborhood and Player Agenda posts here are some of the new content -- and some of it has yet to be written (a "GM Agenda" section paralleling the Player Agenda one,  a "Table Agenda" one and a short section on pacing and session planning). 

Once those 8 pages of content are written, I'll dive back into the layout document of the ashcan edition to redesign some elements that are really bugging me (the Agendas page has always sat poorly in my soul), standardize a few things (honestly, it's an opportunity to take more time to learn Affinity Publisher's various tools, and I'm looking forward to that), before I start laying out the new 8 pages. It's tempting just to tack that stuff on at the end, but I think it needs to be inserted into the game in different places for the flow to work right.

While I'm working on all of that, I have two other major production goals: #1 - figure out which publisher I'm going to work with. This is going to involve a lot of emails and conversations, and I'm open to considering publishers/fulfillment folks other than the ones I've listed. I'm most interested in finding the best audience fit for Hide & Seek who'll work with an independent creator like me aaaaaand let me retain the rights to it all. #B - Find an artist whose vibe fits Hide & Seek.  

These final 2 things are the ones where I could use some guidance. What indie publishers are friendly to Lasers & Feelings hacks that basically amount to a one-page RPG blown up into an art zine? What artists do you love who'd fit the vibe of Hide & Seek? I'd love to have a discussion about both!