About

Salty Games was born of an attempt to turn something generally regarded as bad (the pandemic) into something that will hopefully be generally regarded as good (fun games). 

I'm Russ - aka Salty - and I'm a sailor and a nerd. I spent three years sailing the world between 2016 and 2018, and I wrote a lot of terrible fiction during the long, slow, enjoyable journeys between places. While my fiction is abysmal, it sparked the creation of NewEdo, a tabletop roleplaying game that could encompass all the crazy ideas that I had drafted into my writing. I worked on NewEdo for about five years, during and after my travels, alone and with friends, but I never thought about trying to clean it up for public release until... 

I found myself with a lot of free time during the dark ages of 2020 and 2021. With that time, I was able to put the finishing touches on NewEdo. A friend convinced me to run a Kickstarter for NewEdo in Nov '21, a campaign that far exceeded my expectations and made it possible to spend more than $10,000 on original art for the game - something that would have been impossible without crowdfunding. Kickstarter lived up to its name, boosting NewEdo from a hobby project to a real game, and it gave me the courage to change course (again). 

I've learned a lot over the past two years about design, layout, art, and publishing, and continue to learn more about game craft every day. Most of the non-technical aspects of these projects don't come naturally to me, but I have been surprised with how much I enjoy playing with colours and patterns (in addition to spreadsheets and power balancing). 

Salty Games is a loose alliance of folks who may or may not realize that I consider them part of the crew. I have an amazing circle of friends and family (at home and abroad) who test my ideas, play my games, and correct my spelling. My wife, Beth, is incredibly helpful with design advice, and is wholly supportive of my nerdly projects. Salty Games doesn't have any staff artists, but I've been lucky enough to form relationships with some very talented individuals and I look forward to every future project with them. Together, we've managed to cobble together at least one game that seems to make people happy, and that makes me happy and proud. 

Thanks for being here, and for being curious. 

Cheers,

Salty