Make your own one-page RPG (Part 6: Publishing)
A step-by-step guide to making your first one-page TTRPG
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This is Part 6 of a series. Go to Part 1 - Introduction to start from the beginning!
In Part 5 of this Create and publish your own one-page TTRPG guide, we looked at writing, design, and layout. If you’ve been following along, you have a finished game!
But what good is a game if no one plays it? This part covers how to publish your game.
Available in print and PDF
Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game is available now in print at the Exeunt Press Shop and PDF at itch.io. Written by the creator of the ENNIE nominated Exclusion Zone Botanist, this Skeleton Code Machine guide takes you through every step of the process from initial concept to publication. It offers practical advice and examples you can use.
You made a one-page RPG!
“I admire anybody who finishes a work of art, no matter how awful it may be.” — Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday
You did it! You finished making a game! Congratulations!
This part of the guide assumes that you have completed making your new one-page RPG. You’ve chosen a theme, selected mechanisms, and finished all the writing and layout. It’s a playable game, ready to share with others.
If you aren’t at that point yet, that’s OK! You can start from the beginning with Part 1 or jump back in at any stage. Come back when you are ready!
Publishing online
There are many places to publish your game online, two are the most popular:
DriveThruRPG (DTRPG)
All Exeunt Press games are published on itch.io and are not currently on DTRPG as of July 2024. Based on this experience, this guide will cover how to publish on itch.io:
1. Export and test your PDF
If you are using Affinity Publisher, export your PDF using the “PDF (for print)” setting. Make sure that Convert image color spaces and Include bleed are not checked.
With a one-page RPG the distinction between pages vs. spreads doesn’t matter much, because they would be the same thing in this context.
As recommended in 10 Affinity Publisher Tips, open your PDF in a few different viewers such as Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Edge, and Google Chrome. Check for any rendering difference or issues, making sure it looks like you intended.
2. Create an itch.io project page
If you don’t already have one, make an itch.io account. If you aren’t charging for your product, you can probably ignore the parts about taxes and payment.
On your Creator Dashboard click the Create new project button:
Title: The title for your game, and will be used to generate a Project URL.
Project URL: The address people will use to find your game. I recommend editing it to keep it short. Remember that some social media sites limit characters per post, so no sense wasting them on a URL.
Short description or tagline: Use the pitch you made in Part 2. For example Eleventh Beast uses “A solo monster hunting and journaling game”.
Classification: Set this to Physical Games.
Kind of project: Set to Downloadable.
Release status: Set to Released.
Pricing: Your choice. Most Exeunt Press one-page RPGs are “$0 or donate” meaning they are “Pay What You Want” (PWYW). If you choose PWYW, you can set a Suggested Donation (e.g. $5).
Uploads: Upload your PDF(s). Set the type to Other. You can use the Move arrows to move them up and down to reorder.
Details: Write a short description of your game. No need to be long winded. Use your short pitch from Part 2 and your longer description from Part 3.
Tags: These are helpful when people try to find your game. Consider the following tags depending on your game: solo-rpg, fantasy, ttrpg, one-page.
Custom noun: You can change this from the default of “game” to something like “adventure” if you’d like.
Download & install instructions: Skip this.
Community: Decide if you want to allow comments on your project page.
Visibility & access: Draft when you are working on it and Public when you go live!
Check the itch.io Your first itch.io page for full documentation. There is a lot more you can do with pricing, demos, community copies, and more.
Add a cover image
Your cover image will be most people’s first exposure to your game. It’s your chance to make a quick, visual impression. Most cover images include the game’s title. If you do include text, make it big! The cover will be shown to users as a tiny little thumbnail.
You can read Skeleton Code Machine’s cover image analysis to see what colors are used most often. I recommend high contrast, bright colors.
Use 800x635px or 630x500px dimension for your cover image, although it can be as large as 3840x2160px (max 3 MB).
Add some screenshots
Perhaps even more than your written description, your screenshots grab attention.
The Itch Game Page Image Guide & Templates by Star West are incredibly helpful. It lists the various sizes and aspect ratios to use when customizing your project page. The Your first itch.io page documentation also has image size information.
I’d recommend adding a Banner and at least two Screenshots:
Banner: 16:9 aspect ratio, minimum 960x400px
Screenshots: If you used A4 paper for your game, export it as a 1.414:1 aspect ratio image at 1131x800px
Of course you can also add inline images, change the font and make your page look very fancy if you’d like.
Entering game jams
Game jams are development sprints that are limited by a (usually short) time period and are (usually) centered around a specific theme or technology. The time limit could be hours, days, or months. Many game jams focus on making video games, but tabletop games are also popular.
There are countless ways to host and organize game jams, but hosting a jam on itch.io is simple, making it a popular platform. As of March 2023, itch.io claimed that almost 259,000 games have been created for jams hosted on itch.io.
The One-Page RPG Jam has been hosted each summer for the last few years. It’s the perfect place to submit your new one-page RPG for feedback and exposure.
Don’t worry if your game is “good enough” to submit. Trust me, it is. Game jams are about making stuff and having fun. Be proud of what you made. Submit it!
Publishing in print
Most one-page PDFs are just published online in a digital format, usually PDF. You might want to get some copies of your game printed, however, to give out or sell at conventions.
If you have a local print shop, go talk to them first! Depending on what you want, you might be able to get a great price and save on shipping costs.
Online printing is also an option. Exeunt Press uses Mixam when printing zines like Exclusion Zone Botanist, Eleventh Beast, and Blackflower.
If you followed the print-ready tips in Part 5, there really isn’t much you need to rework to be able to get your game printed. You should already have it set up with 3 mm bleed, CMYK color, and the appropriate margins and quiet areas.
Use Affinity Publisher to export your game as “PDF (press-ready)” pages, not spreads. Make sure it is set to 300 dpi, CMYK color space, include bleed.
That file will be ready to upload to Mixam and get printed!
📝 Exercises
Each part of this Create and publish your own one-page RPG series includes something to read/watch and something to make/try. Here’s your assignment:
Read Ten Years of Game Jams at Skeleton Code Machine.
Check out the list of active game jams at itch.io.
Create an account at itch.io.
Create a new project page for your game, upload the file(s), and customize it with screenshots and text.
Enter your new one-page RPG in a game jam if possible!
— E.P. 💀
P.S. Get this series as a single PDF. Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game is available now from Exeunt Press.
Skeleton Code Machine is a production of Exeunt Press. All previous posts are in the Archive on the web. If you want to see what else is happening at Exeunt Press, check out the Exeunt Omnes newsletter.
Hello, I'm just stopping by to inform you that I have followed your guide and designed my game for the One-page
I leave you the link, so you can give me your opinion https://vane-boggio.itch.io/el-extrano
Thanks and regards
This and part 5 are the secret gold. The rest is fantastic, of course, but these two chapters are so incredibly valuable. Making something is hard enough, but man, I'm so glad there are some tips for the physical making and the "What the heck do I do with this thing?" part.