A Hero's Journey

Tuesday, March 04, 2025

Hey there Reader,

Digital hygiene has been top-of-mind for me since the start of the year, and after a couple of weeks of research, I made my first big purchase of the year and the single biggest change to my computer habits, probably ever. I bought an ergonomic split keyboard called the ZSA Voyager.

And in the process of purchasing my new keyboard, I learned that ZSA also sold a very well-made, premium set of playing cards (actually two sets that come together as a single product), with beautiful hand-designed iconography, typography, and even illustration.

These two purchases kicked off what has become my two New Year's Resolutions: to adopt a cleaner and more streamlined environment and workflow for when I'm working on the computer (coding, writing, etc.) and to revisit an old flame—game design—by designing 8 card games in 2025.

Digital Hygiene

I'd like to spend 2025 making progressive improvements to my regular computer and digital habits, with the aim of unlocking greater productivity, reduced friction in the creation process, and better health for my eyes and wrists.

I still don't know what all this will entail, but I have a few things already in flight or that I am planning on tackling next:

1. Adopting a split keyboard. This is both for wrist health/preventing carpal tunnel or RSI and for increased productivity. The Voyager can be placed for optimal wrist position, and the smaller size and usage of layers means reduced strain and movement necessary to type effectively.
2. Getting a window manager (for MacOS). I bounce around between windows often when I'm on my MacBook, and I want to get a window manager so I can do that with keyboard shortcuts instead of my mouse.
3. Learning how to type correctly. When I got my split keyboard, I realized how much I "cheat" when I type: looking down at the keyboard occasionally and often using the wrong fingers to push keys. Because the Voyager has a columnar layout with no staggering between rows of keys, it makes typing "properly" (like how you were taught to do it in school) much easier and more natural. It's about time I built this habit.

Card Games

My goal is to publish 8 different card games in 2025, most of which you'll be able to play with a regular deck of cards (some might require two decks or the extended ZSA decks, which have a few extra cards in there).

I've finished designing and just published the story and rules for the first game: Crazy Aces, an enhanced take on the classic Crazy Eights game.

​The story of how I designed Crazy Aces on my website blog.

​The rules of Crazy Aces so you can play too.

Additionally, I've finished designing the second game but haven't yet written up the rules and release story. I hope to do that in the next few weeks, and with two games designed before the end of March, I'll be on track for finishing the whole challenge this year. If you're curious, there's a little sneak peek in the story linked above, but I'll also publish a new issue here when that comes out.

And I have plenty more ideas and mechanics to explore for the next six games of this series. I'm super excited to be designing games again for the first time in a very long time!

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