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Newborn Games
🎃 October Production Update — Putting Silent Læke to the Test
October is almost over.
Halloween is just around the corner.
And somewhere in Silent Læke, the woods are getting darker.
So, what have we been up to this month?
Well, not as many new pages as I'd hoped.
But quite a lot of game development.
And some exciting news on the production side, too.
Let's get into it.
🃏 Campaign Mode: The First Playtest
One of October's biggest milestones was something I've been looking forward to for quite some time:
We finally put Silent Læke's Campaign Mode to the test!
As you know, Silent Læke was originally designed around intense, replayable one-shot experiences, particularly with one or two Players and a Director. Campaign Mode takes things further.
- What happens when the story doesn't end after three Days?
- When the characters explore each Place in Silent Læke
- When the consequences of one story begin to shape the next?
This first playtest gave me the opportunity to explore those questions at the table, rather than just on paper.
And it was incredibly useful.
We tested and refined several mechanics, including the Sheriff Response Matrix, and experimented with additional game modules such as Wings of Passion, playing through several episodes of Silent Læke's very own delightfully questionable soap opera.
We also explored how previously developed scenarios, including Last Traces and The Cherry Pie Incident, could intertwine within a continuing campaign. And perhaps most importantly, the experience helped me identify several opportunities to refine the game's underlying rules.
There's nothing quite like watching your carefully designed mechanics collide with actual Players.
Some things worked exactly as intended.
Others taught me something.
And that's precisely why we playtest.
Over the next two or three months, I'll be running another Campaign Mode playtest to see whether the lessons learned during this first run hold up with a different group.
After all, one successful experiment is encouraging.
Two successful experiments start to look like a pattern.
And I want these mechanics to be solid.
🎨 A New Pair of Hands
Now for some rather exciting production news.
I've hired a graphic designer to work on the Silent Læke core rulebook!
And not just any graphic designer. She already has experience working on published tabletop RPGs, which is exactly the kind of expertise I wanted to bring into this project. I'll introduce her properly in a future update, along with more details about her work.
But for now, I wanted you to know that this is an important step forward. Not only will her expertise help make the finished corebook even more beautiful, but having someone dedicated to graphic design and layout should also make the production process considerably more efficient.
It means I can concentrate more of my time on writing, developing and refining the game while another experienced professional helps bring the book itself to life.
Less on my shoulders. More hands making Silent Læke happen.
And that's a very welcome development.
📖 Six Books. One Game.
Meanwhile, work on the manuscript continues.
I've made further progress on Book of Whispers, the fourth and final Book of Part I: For Everyone Who Conquers.
But I've also been revisiting some familiar territory.
Specifically, I've been going back through Book of Dusk and Book of Faces, carefully reviewing how they connect with the mechanics established in Book of Threads and the content being developed for Book of Whispers.
Why?
Because these aren't supposed to be six separate books that happen to share a cover.
They're six Books that make up one game.
As the mechanics and setting details become more refined, I want to ensure that concepts are introduced naturally, references are genuinely useful, and everything connects in a way that makes sense to someone reading the corebook for the first time. That means revisiting earlier chapters, adjusting explanations, improving cross-references and making sure the whole thing reads as a coherent manual.
It's not particularly glamorous work.
It doesn't always produce an impressive number of new pages.
But it matters.
And it's helping the different parts of Silent Læke come together as a whole.
🎬 About the Rough Cut Edition...
Last month, I asked whether you'd prefer early access to a playable Silent Læke: Rough Cut Edition — The whole game. Before the final cut. — or whether you'd rather wait for the finished corebook.
Well, the results are in.
Six votes.
One answer.
100% chose:
🌲 "Either works for me. I'll be happy whichever way you decide to handle it."
Not exactly the dramatic showdown I was expecting. 😄
But I appreciate the trust.
For now, my priority remains finishing the corebook.
Once the manuscript is ready, I'll assess whether preparing a Rough Cut Edition would be worthwhile without significantly delaying the final release. If it makes sense, I'll be delighted to let you into Silent Læke a little earlier. And if not, we'll keep working towards the final cut.
Either way, thank you to everyone who participated.
🌲 Looking Ahead
So, October wasn't a particularly productive month in terms of new pages written.
But it was an important month for testing, refining and preparing the next stages of production.
- Campaign Mode has undergone its first playtest.
- Several mechanics and additional game modules have been put through their paces.
- Another round of campaign testing is being prepared.
- A professional graphic designer is joining the production.
- And the six Books of Silent Læke are becoming increasingly interconnected.
There's still plenty of work ahead.
But the game keeps growing.
And the team helping me bring it to life is growing with it.
Which brings us to one last thing...
🎃 Happy Halloween!
Halloween is almost here.
And somewhere in Silent Læke, the jack-o'-lanterns are already glowing.
The nights are getting longer.
The woods are getting darker.
And some things are better left buried.
Happy Halloween, everyone.
Thank you, as always, for being part of this strange little town.
See you at the lake.
Yours,
– A Máquina do RPG
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Newborn Games
September Production Update — Revisiting the Roadmap
September is coming to an end, and this month's production update needs to be a little different.
There's been progress.
There's been some absolutely beautiful new artwork.
There's been a lot of work happening behind the scenes.
But September has also made one thing clear:
But September has also made one thing clear:
it's time to revisit the roadmap.
So let's talk about where Silent Læke actually is.
🧵 Book of Threads: Written, But Not Forgotten
Book of Threads is fully written.
But "written" doesn't mean "we never touch it again".
Over the past few weeks, my proofreaders and my sensitive reader have been going through the Book intensely, and their feedback has been invaluable.
There are no massive rewrites happening. The mechanics are there. The structure is there. The Book works.
What I do have is dozens of small decisions still to make.
- Can this rule be explained more clearly?
- Does this example actually help?
- Is this sentence doing too much?
- Does this expression sound natural in English?
- Is the tone right?
- Could two paragraphs become one?
- Should one paragraph become two?
You know.
The glamorous part of game design.
This process is taking time, but it's making the Book considerably better — both mechanically and linguistically.
And that's exactly what proofreading is supposed to do.
🤫 Book of Whispers
Meanwhile, Book of Whispers is being written.
This is where I'm behind the schedule I originally set for myself.
My initial plan was to finish Whispers in August. Instead, I used part of August to properly finish Book of Threads.
Then I entered September with the rather optimistic idea that I could compensate by finishing both Whispers and another Book this month.
That turned out to be a little too optimistic.
I've started Whispers, but I'm nowhere near where I hoped to be by the end of September.
And I've realised that trying to "make up" for one delayed month by cramming two Books into the next one isn't particularly useful.
I'd rather write one good Book than rush through two because an old calendar tells me to.
So I'm changing how I look at the roadmap.
One Book at a time.
🎨 Meanwhile, Silent Læke Is Becoming Beautiful
Remember that little sketch I showed you last month?
Well... Ludmilla V. has now delivered the finished artwork for the Book of Whispers chapter divider.
And...
And...
Holy shit...
Rather than simply showing you the illustration, I thought I'd go one step further.
I dropped it into a mockup of the actual two-page chapter opening, complete with its title and introductory text.
This is still a work in progress. The final layout may change before publication.
But for the first time, you can get a glimpse of what opening one of the Books in the finished Silent Læke core rulebook might actually feel like.
Last month it was a sketch.
This month, it's starting to look like a book.
And I couldn't be happier with it.
🌲 September Was... Complicated
There's also some personal context I think is fair to share.
My mother suffered a serious fall this month and fractured her hip.
Since then, a significant part of my daily routine has temporarily shifted towards hospital visits, managing things at home and preparing the house for her return with reduced mobility.
I'm not telling you this as an excuse.
Life happened. The work continued.
It just continued more slowly than I'd planned.
September was also an extraordinary month for Newborn Games in other ways. We've been invited to workshops, talks about game design and game production, liveplays and other events, and Rolisboa brought us new players, collaborators and some genuinely exciting conversations about the future.
Those are very good problems to have.
But all of this has also made me stop, look at the calendar, and reassess what is realistic.
📅 So... About That Roadmap
Before the crowdfunding campaign began, my original estimate was to have the digital core rulebook ready around October 2026, with physical fulfilment following in 2027.
October is now upon us.
And I can tell you honestly that the first of those estimates is no longer realistic.
Silent Læke grew considerably during the campaign.
We unlocked more content.
More game modes.
More physical components.
More artwork.
More things to write, edit, test, lay out and produce.
And working through Book of Threads with my readers has reinforced something important:
I don't want to rush this game just to satisfy an estimate I made before the crowdfunding campaign even began.
My current target is to have the core manuscript written by the end of 2026.
That's a target — not a new promise carved into a sycamore tree.
Whether the complete final layout will also be finished by then is something I'm not prepared to promise yet.
And I'm also not going to replace the old physical fulfilment estimate with another date until I have enough information to give you one responsibly.
There are still too many variables between a completed manuscript and boxes arriving from manufacturing: editing, proofreading, layout, additional unlocked content, print preparation, proofs, manufacturing and fulfilment itself.
When I know more, you'll know more.
But there's another question I want to ask you.
🃏 What If You Could Play Before the Book Was Finished?
Even if the fully edited, illustrated and laid-out core rulebook isn't ready by the end of the year...
the game itself might be.
And that creates an interesting possibility.
I could prepare a separate Backer Rough Cut Edition of Silent Læke.
Not a replacement for the finished digital corebook.
Not "here's your reward, sorry it isn't finished".
And certainly not an excuse to rush the final book.
And certainly not an excuse to rush the final book.
It would be an additional early-access version, made specifically for those of you who would rather start playing than wait for every illustration and every piece of final layout to fall into place.
It would contain the rules necessary to play the main game, together with Character Sheets, the essential play sheets, and a Print & Play version of Coffee & Shadows containing the cards you need at the table.
And if you don't feel like printing and assembling cards?
The essential sheets and a regular deck of playing cards will still get you into Silent Læke.
In other words:
it wouldn't yet have the finished book.
But it would have the game.
There is another side to this, though.
First impressions matter.
Some of you have already played Silent Læke or Dusk's Embrace. Some have followed development for a long time.
But for others, opening the core rulebook will be your first real encounter with the full game.
And you may prefer that first encounter to have the artwork, atmosphere and presentation we're building for the finished book.
I think that's completely valid.
So rather than deciding for you...
I'm asking you.
Check the attached poll.
📦 And the Physical Rewards?
One final clarification, because I don't want the changing roadmap to create the wrong impression.
Whenever the physical rewards are manufactured, in our hands and ready for fulfilment, you will not have to wait for a convention to receive them.
Shipping will become available as soon as we're ready to fulfil.
Convention pickup will simply remain an optional alternative for anyone who would rather collect their rewards from us in person.
Depending on when manufacturing is completed, future events may provide opportunities for that.
But they're an option. Not something standing between you and your books.
🖤 Where We Are
So no, September didn't go according to the spreadsheet.
Book of Whispers isn't where I wanted it to be.
The October digital-corebook estimate isn't going to happen.
But Book of Threads is written and being carefully refined.
Book of Whispers is underway.
Ludmilla's finished artwork is arriving, and for the first time Silent Læke is beginning to look like the actual book I've had in my head for so long.
The game is being played.
The community around it is growing.
And I'm going to keep building it properly rather than rushing it to satisfy an outdated calendar.
Hopefully, with your blessing, some of you may even get to play it before every last piece of that book is finished.
Thank you, as always, for your patience, your enthusiasm and your trust.
We're getting there. One Book at a time.
See you at the lake.
Yours,
– A Máquina do RPG
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Newborn Games
Rolisboa '26 — The Lake Is Getting Crowded
I'm back from Rolisboa '26.
And I'm tired.
Still very tired.
But mostly...
I'm happy.
This weekend was another one of those moments when Silent Læke stopped feeling like something I'm making behind a computer and became something that exists between actual people.
And that still gets me every time.
🌲 Five People Walked Into Silent Læke...
We ran a new Silent Læke session at the convention, with four Players and one Director.
Now, that's actually larger than the game's sweet spot.
Silent Læke is designed to shine particularly brightly with one or two Players plus the Director.
Silent Læke is designed to shine particularly brightly with one or two Players plus the Director.
But this was a convention.
I wanted more people to have the chance to step into town.
So we crowded the lake a little.
And you know what?
We had an absolute blast.
Four Players brought a different energy to the table, and getting to watch another group inhabit the game, make terrible decisions and discover what its mechanics can do was immensely rewarding.
Every table teaches me something.
This one also made me laugh a lot.
I'll take that.
📖 Backers Came to Visit
One of my favourite parts of the weekend happened at the Newborn Games booth.
Some of our Killer backers actually came to collect their physical copies of Dusk's Embrace.
There is something wonderfully strange about recognising a BackerKit username and then suddenly having the actual human being standing in front of you.
We also had Lovers who—even though they could have perfectly well played "Dusk's Embrace" using the PDF included in their pledge—bought physical copies at the convention.
And then something even more unexpected happened.
People who hadn't backed Silent Læke at all saw Dusk's Embrace sitting on the table...
picked it up...
looked through it...
and bought it.
Apparently making the magazine pretty was a sound business decision.
Who knew?
🖊️ And Then This Happened...
There was one autograph this weekend that I wasn't quite expecting.
Grant Howitt bought a copy of Dusk's Embrace.
And then asked me to sign it.
Yes.
THAT Grant Howitt.
I'm still processing that one.
🖤 The Lake Keeps Growing
Rolisboa brought us more than players and sales. We were visited by musicians, graphic artists and other creators interested in collaborating with Newborn Games.
We had conversations about Silent Læke.
We had conversations about Silent Læke.
About music.
About art.
About future games.
And even about possibilities for getting our games into more hands beyond Portugal. Some of those conversations may lead somewhere. Some may not. That's how conventions work.
But the fact that they're happening at all means a lot to me. Because Silent Læke began as a very personal, very strange passion project. And somehow, around it, a community has formed.
Backers.
Players.
Readers.
Artists.
Musicians.
Designers.
People who stop at a convention booth because the cover of a weird little magazine catches their eye.
People who know me only as a username.
People whose usernames I now know as faces.
I came home from Rolisboa exhausted.
But also incredibly moved.
Life is good.
And this strange little town keeps getting bigger.
Thank you to everyone who came to play.
Thank you to everyone who came to collect a book.
Thank you to everyone who bought one.
Thank you to everyone who stopped just to talk, ask questions, pitch an idea, take a photo or say hello.
And, as always, thank you to all of you who made it possible for this game to exist in the first place.
The lake is getting crowded.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
See you at the lake.
Yours,
– A Máquina do RPG
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Newborn Games
Pick Up Your Dusk's Embrace @ RLX'26
Newborn Games Is Coming to Rolisboa '26!
Silent Læke is leaving the woods for the weekend.
Newborn Games will be at Rolisboa '26, with our own booth and copies of Demon Ninja and Asilo available for purchase.
But for Silent Læke backers, there's another reason to come say hello.
🌅 Pick Up Your Dusk's Embrace
If you backed Silent Læke at the Killer, Homecoming Queen or Homecoming King level, your pledge includes a physical copy of Dusk's Embrace.
Normally, that copy would ship together with the rest of your physical rewards in 2027.
But if you happen to be in Lisbon and come to Rolisboa... you can pick it up right now.
Just come to the Newborn Games booth, tell me your BackerKit username, and I'll check you off the list and hand you your copy.
No need to wait for the lake to come to you.
And yes, I'll happily sign it if you'd like me to. 😉
📖 Not a Killer, Queen or King?
You can still take Dusk's Embrace home.
Physical copies will be available at the booth for €25, whether you're a Silent Læke backer at another pledge level or someone who completely missed the campaign.
Dusk's Embrace is a standalone prequel to Silent Læke, so you can already start playing.
All you need besides the book is a regular deck of playing cards.
No need to wait for the full game.
☕ Come Say Hello
Even if you don't want to buy or pick up anything, please come by.
Seriously.
Seriously.
Come talk to me about Silent Læke.
Ask about the mechanics.
Ask about production.
Ask when things are coming.
Ask about something weird you noticed in Dusk's Embrace.
Take a photo.
Get your magazine signed.
Or just introduce yourself and tell me your BackerKit username so I can finally put a face to one of the names I've been seeing for months.
That's part of the fun of doing this in person.
🧵 Meanwhile, Back at the Lake...
Development hasn't stopped either.
Book of Threads is currently undergoing an intense round of proofreading and refinement. My readers and I are going through the mechanics carefully, improving both the clarity of the rules and the language used to explain them.
Meanwhile, I'm writing Book of Whispers — the People, Places and Stuff of Silent Læke, and the final Book of Part I: To Everyone Who Conquers.
And there's more artwork coming.
I've already approved the sketches for Ludmilla V.'s chapter divider illustrations, and if everything continues according to plan, I hope to have another glimpse of Silent Læke to show you within the next few weeks.
But that's a story for another update.
For now...
come find us at Rolisboa '26.
The Newborn Games booth will be waiting.
And so will I.
See you there.
Or, as always...
see you at the lake.
– A Máquina do RPG
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Newborn Games
August Production Update
August is over, which means it's time to open the curtains again and show you what's been happening behind the scenes in Silent Læke.
And this month, one particularly big thread finally reached its end.
🧵 Book of Threads Is Finished
This one actually got its own update earlier this month, but it deserves its place here too:
Book of Threads is finished.
I had originally hoped to get there in July, but Silent Læke's mechanics turned out to need a little more time, care and refinement than my calendar would have liked.
So part of August went into finishing it properly.
And I'm very glad it did.
Book of Threads is the mechanical heart of Silent Læke. Scenes, spreads, the Oracle, Beautiful Darkness, Melancholic Horror,
Now that the writing is complete, the Book has moved into the next stage.
✏️ Proofreading & Sensitive Reading
And this is already going very, very well.
My readers have been working hard on Book of Threads, helping me refine it from two different but equally important directions:
- On one side, we're looking closely at the rules themselves: whether explanations are clear, whether procedures are easy to follow, and whether what makes perfect sense inside my head also makes perfect sense to someone encountering the game through the book.
- On the other, we're refining the language: tone, sentence construction, idiomatic expressions and all those little things that separate understandable English from natural English. I am Portuguese, after all.
And writing an entire RPG in English occasionally means discovering that a perfectly reasonable sentence has apparently never been uttered by an English-speaking human being.
This stage isn't about changing what Silent Læke is.
It's about making sure the book communicates it as clearly, naturally and confidently as possible.
And my readers are doing wonderful work.
🤫 Meanwhile... Book of Whispers
While Book of Threads is being scrutinised by people with considerably fresher eyes than mine, I've already moved on to Book of Whispers.
I had hoped to finish Whispers during August. That didn't happen, simply because part of the month still belonged to Threads.
But slowly isn't stopped.
And Whispers is now underway.
This is the fourth and final Book of Part I: For Everyone Who Conquers, covering the People, Places and Stuff that make Silent Læke more than a set of rules.
Once this Book is finished, the entire Player-facing portion of the core rulebook will be written.
And then we cross the line into Part II: By Demons Be Driven.
That's where Players should stop reading.
👕 T-Shirt Fulfilment
There's one piece of August business I didn't manage to move as far forward as I wanted.
There is still roughly one third of the t-shirt fulfilment left to complete.
I deliberately prioritised finishing Book of Threads this month, which meant some of the remaining fulfilment work had to wait a little longer.
That's next on the list, and I expect to get those remaining shirts moving very soon.
As before, this concerns the t-shirts included with Killer, Homecoming King and Homecoming Queen pledges, as well as those purchased as add-ons.
If you're still waiting for yours: I haven't forgotten you.
🌲 Looking Ahead
So August wasn't quite the month I had originally drawn on the calendar.
Book of Whispers isn't finished yet.
But Book of Threads is.
It's being proofread, challenged and refined.
The next Book is underway.
The first chapter divider sketches have been approved.
And Silent Læke is slowly making the transition from something that has existed in my notes, documents and imagination for years into the book you'll eventually hold in your hands.
September begins with Book of Whispers.
People to meet.
Places to go.
Stuff to find.
And plenty of things in Silent Læke that probably shouldn't be there at all.
Devagar não é parado.
Or, since I'm supposed to be improving my English:
Slowly isn't stopped.
See you at the lake.
Yours,
– A Máquina do RPG
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Newborn Games
One More Book Closes
Remember when I told you I didn't quite manage to finish the Book of Threads in July?
Well...
it's finished.
The third Book of the Silent Læke core rulebook—and the big one dedicated to the game's mechanics—is now fully written.
All the Scenes.
All the cards.
All the Beautiful Darkness.
All the Melancholic Horror.
All the strange little threads that make Silent Læke actually work at the table.
They're finally woven together.
And now?
Book of Threads goes to proofreading.
📖 Next: Book of Whispers
While someone else gets the unenviable task of finding all my mistakes, I'll be moving straight into Book of Whispers, the fourth chapter of the core rulebook.
This is the Book of People, Places and Stuff.
The people you'll meet.
The places you'll visit.
The things you'll find, buy, carry, eat, drink... and occasionally wish you hadn't.
But there's something else significant about this one.
Book of Whispers is the final Book of Part I: To Everyone Who Conquers.
In other words, it's the last Book intended for both Players and the Director.
Once it's finished, the entire Player-facing portion of the Silent Læke core rulebook will be written.
And then...
we cross into Part II: By Demons Be Driven.
Book of Mirrors.
Book of Echoes.
The beautiful and darker secrets.
The things only the Director is supposed to know.
The things Players probably shouldn't even know exist.
So enjoy Book of Whispers while you can.
After that...
Players should probably stop reading.
See you at the lake.
Yours,
– A Máquina do RPG
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PROJECT UPDATE
Newborn Games
CREATOR
Project Update: 🎃 October Production Update — Putting Silent Læke to the Test
October is almost over.
Halloween is just around the corner.
And somewhere in Silent Læke, the woods are getting darker.
So, what have we been up to this month?
Well, not as many new pages as I'd hoped.
But quite a lot of game development.
And some exciting news on the production side, too.
Let's get into it.
🃏 Campaign Mode: The First Playtest
One of October's biggest milestones was something I've been looking forward to for quite some time:
We finally put Silent Læke's Campaign Mode to the test!
As you know, Silent Læke was originally designed around intense, replayable one-shot experiences, particularly with one or two Players and a Director. Campaign Mode takes things further.
- What happens when the story doesn't end after three Days?
- When the characters explore each Place in Silent Læke
- When the consequences of one story begin to shape the next?
This first playtest gave me the opportunity to explore those questions at the table, rather than just on paper.
And it was incredibly useful.
We tested and refined several mechanics, including the Sheriff Response Matrix, and experimented with additional game modules such as Wings of Passion, playing through several episodes of Silent Læke's very own delightfully questionable soap opera.
We also explored how previously developed scenarios, including Last Traces and The Cherry Pie Incident, could intertwine within a continuing campaign. And perhaps most importantly, the experience helped me identify several opportunities to refine the game's underlying rules.
There's nothing quite like watching your carefully designed mechanics collide with actual Players.
Some things worked exactly as intended.
Others taught me something.
And that's precisely why we playtest.
Over the next two or three months, I'll be running another Campaign Mode playtest to see whether the lessons learned during this first run hold up with a different group.
After all, one successful experiment is encouraging.
Two successful experiments start to look like a pattern.
And I want these mechanics to be solid.
🎨 A New Pair of Hands
Now for some rather exciting production news.
I've hired a graphic designer to work on the Silent Læke core rulebook!
And not just any graphic designer. She already has experience working on published tabletop RPGs, which is exactly the kind of expertise I wanted to bring into this project. I'll introduce her properly in a future update, along with more details about her work.
But for now, I wanted you to know that this is an important step forward. Not only will her expertise help make the finished corebook even more beautiful, but having someone dedicated to graphic design and layout should also make the production process considerably more efficient.
It means I can concentrate more of my time on writing, developing and refining the game while another experienced professional helps bring the book itself to life.
Less on my shoulders. More hands making Silent Læke happen.
And that's a very welcome development.
📖 Six Books. One Game.
Meanwhile, work on the manuscript continues.
I've made further progress on Book of Whispers, the fourth and final Book of Part I: For Everyone Who Conquers.
But I've also been revisiting some familiar territory.
Specifically, I've been going back through Book of Dusk and Book of Faces, carefully reviewing how they connect with the mechanics established in Book of Threads and the content being developed for Book of Whispers.
Why?
Because these aren't supposed to be six separate books that happen to share a cover.
They're six Books that make up one game.
As the mechanics and setting details become more refined, I want to ensure that concepts are introduced naturally, references are genuinely useful, and everything connects in a way that makes sense to someone reading the corebook for the first time. That means revisiting earlier chapters, adjusting explanations, improving cross-references and making sure the whole thing reads as a coherent manual.
It's not particularly glamorous work.
It doesn't always produce an impressive number of new pages.
But it matters.
And it's helping the different parts of Silent Læke come together as a whole.
🎬 About the Rough Cut Edition...
Last month, I asked whether you'd prefer early access to a playable Silent Læke: Rough Cut Edition — The whole game. Before the final cut. — or whether you'd rather wait for the finished corebook.
Well, the results are in.
Six votes.
One answer.
100% chose:
🌲 "Either works for me. I'll be happy whichever way you decide to handle it."
Not exactly the dramatic showdown I was expecting. 😄
But I appreciate the trust.
For now, my priority remains finishing the corebook.
Once the manuscript is ready, I'll assess whether preparing a Rough Cut Edition would be worthwhile without significantly delaying the final release. If it makes sense, I'll be delighted to let you into Silent Læke a little earlier. And if not, we'll keep working towards the final cut.
Either way, thank you to everyone who participated.
🌲 Looking Ahead
So, October wasn't a particularly productive month in terms of new pages written.
But it was an important month for testing, refining and preparing the next stages of production.
- Campaign Mode has undergone its first playtest.
- Several mechanics and additional game modules have been put through their paces.
- Another round of campaign testing is being prepared.
- A professional graphic designer is joining the production.
- And the six Books of Silent Læke are becoming increasingly interconnected.
There's still plenty of work ahead.
But the game keeps growing.
And the team helping me bring it to life is growing with it.
Which brings us to one last thing...
🎃 Happy Halloween!
Halloween is almost here.
And somewhere in Silent Læke, the jack-o'-lanterns are already glowing.
The nights are getting longer.
The woods are getting darker.
And some things are better left buried.
Happy Halloween, everyone.
Thank you, as always, for being part of this strange little town.
See you at the lake.
Yours,
– A Máquina do RPG
Newborn Games
CREATOR
It's Halloween night, 1992. The sun has disappeared behind the mountains. The streets are getting quieter. And you've decided to spend the evening somewhere in Silent Læke. Where are you going?
6 votes
Newborn Games
CREATOR
Your answers will help me decide whether preparing this additional edition is worthwhile. Either way, the finished corebook remains the destination.
6 votes
• Final results
PROJECT UPDATE
Newborn Games
CREATOR
Project Update: September Production Update — Revisiting the Roadmap
September is coming to an end, and this month's production update needs to be a little different.
There's been progress.
There's been some absolutely beautiful new artwork.
There's been a lot of work happening behind the scenes.
But September has also made one thing clear:
But September has also made one thing clear:
it's time to revisit the roadmap.
So let's talk about where Silent Læke actually is.
🧵 Book of Threads: Written, But Not Forgotten
Book of Threads is fully written.
But "written" doesn't mean "we never touch it again".
Over the past few weeks, my proofreaders and my sensitive reader have been going through the Book intensely, and their feedback has been invaluable.
There are no massive rewrites happening. The mechanics are there. The structure is there. The Book works.
What I do have is dozens of small decisions still to make.
- Can this rule be explained more clearly?
- Does this example actually help?
- Is this sentence doing too much?
- Does this expression sound natural in English?
- Is the tone right?
- Could two paragraphs become one?
- Should one paragraph become two?
You know.
The glamorous part of game design.
This process is taking time, but it's making the Book considerably better — both mechanically and linguistically.
And that's exactly what proofreading is supposed to do.
🤫 Book of Whispers
Meanwhile, Book of Whispers is being written.
This is where I'm behind the schedule I originally set for myself.
My initial plan was to finish Whispers in August. Instead, I used part of August to properly finish Book of Threads.
Then I entered September with the rather optimistic idea that I could compensate by finishing both Whispers and another Book this month.
That turned out to be a little too optimistic.
I've started Whispers, but I'm nowhere near where I hoped to be by the end of September.
And I've realised that trying to "make up" for one delayed month by cramming two Books into the next one isn't particularly useful.
I'd rather write one good Book than rush through two because an old calendar tells me to.
So I'm changing how I look at the roadmap.
One Book at a time.
🎨 Meanwhile, Silent Læke Is Becoming Beautiful
Remember that little sketch I showed you last month?
Well... Ludmilla V. has now delivered the finished artwork for the Book of Whispers chapter divider.
And...
And...
Holy shit...
Rather than simply showing you the illustration, I thought I'd go one step further.
I dropped it into a mockup of the actual two-page chapter opening, complete with its title and introductory text.
This is still a work in progress. The final layout may change before publication.
But for the first time, you can get a glimpse of what opening one of the Books in the finished Silent Læke core rulebook might actually feel like.
Last month it was a sketch.
This month, it's starting to look like a book.
And I couldn't be happier with it.
🌲 September Was... Complicated
There's also some personal context I think is fair to share.
My mother suffered a serious fall this month and fractured her hip.
Since then, a significant part of my daily routine has temporarily shifted towards hospital visits, managing things at home and preparing the house for her return with reduced mobility.
I'm not telling you this as an excuse.
Life happened. The work continued.
It just continued more slowly than I'd planned.
September was also an extraordinary month for Newborn Games in other ways. We've been invited to workshops, talks about game design and game production, liveplays and other events, and Rolisboa brought us new players, collaborators and some genuinely exciting conversations about the future.
Those are very good problems to have.
But all of this has also made me stop, look at the calendar, and reassess what is realistic.
📅 So... About That Roadmap
Before the crowdfunding campaign began, my original estimate was to have the digital core rulebook ready around October 2026, with physical fulfilment following in 2027.
October is now upon us.
And I can tell you honestly that the first of those estimates is no longer realistic.
Silent Læke grew considerably during the campaign.
We unlocked more content.
More game modes.
More physical components.
More artwork.
More things to write, edit, test, lay out and produce.
And working through Book of Threads with my readers has reinforced something important:
I don't want to rush this game just to satisfy an estimate I made before the crowdfunding campaign even began.
My current target is to have the core manuscript written by the end of 2026.
That's a target — not a new promise carved into a sycamore tree.
Whether the complete final layout will also be finished by then is something I'm not prepared to promise yet.
And I'm also not going to replace the old physical fulfilment estimate with another date until I have enough information to give you one responsibly.
There are still too many variables between a completed manuscript and boxes arriving from manufacturing: editing, proofreading, layout, additional unlocked content, print preparation, proofs, manufacturing and fulfilment itself.
When I know more, you'll know more.
But there's another question I want to ask you.
🃏 What If You Could Play Before the Book Was Finished?
Even if the fully edited, illustrated and laid-out core rulebook isn't ready by the end of the year...
the game itself might be.
And that creates an interesting possibility.
I could prepare a separate Backer Rough Cut Edition of Silent Læke.
Not a replacement for the finished digital corebook.
Not "here's your reward, sorry it isn't finished".
And certainly not an excuse to rush the final book.
And certainly not an excuse to rush the final book.
It would be an additional early-access version, made specifically for those of you who would rather start playing than wait for every illustration and every piece of final layout to fall into place.
It would contain the rules necessary to play the main game, together with Character Sheets, the essential play sheets, and a Print & Play version of Coffee & Shadows containing the cards you need at the table.
And if you don't feel like printing and assembling cards?
The essential sheets and a regular deck of playing cards will still get you into Silent Læke.
In other words:
it wouldn't yet have the finished book.
But it would have the game.
There is another side to this, though.
First impressions matter.
Some of you have already played Silent Læke or Dusk's Embrace. Some have followed development for a long time.
But for others, opening the core rulebook will be your first real encounter with the full game.
And you may prefer that first encounter to have the artwork, atmosphere and presentation we're building for the finished book.
I think that's completely valid.
So rather than deciding for you...
I'm asking you.
Check the attached poll.
📦 And the Physical Rewards?
One final clarification, because I don't want the changing roadmap to create the wrong impression.
Whenever the physical rewards are manufactured, in our hands and ready for fulfilment, you will not have to wait for a convention to receive them.
Shipping will become available as soon as we're ready to fulfil.
Convention pickup will simply remain an optional alternative for anyone who would rather collect their rewards from us in person.
Depending on when manufacturing is completed, future events may provide opportunities for that.
But they're an option. Not something standing between you and your books.
🖤 Where We Are
So no, September didn't go according to the spreadsheet.
Book of Whispers isn't where I wanted it to be.
The October digital-corebook estimate isn't going to happen.
But Book of Threads is written and being carefully refined.
Book of Whispers is underway.
Ludmilla's finished artwork is arriving, and for the first time Silent Læke is beginning to look like the actual book I've had in my head for so long.
The game is being played.
The community around it is growing.
And I'm going to keep building it properly rather than rushing it to satisfy an outdated calendar.
Hopefully, with your blessing, some of you may even get to play it before every last piece of that book is finished.
Thank you, as always, for your patience, your enthusiasm and your trust.
We're getting there. One Book at a time.
See you at the lake.
Yours,
– A Máquina do RPG
PROJECT UPDATE
Newborn Games
CREATOR
Project Update: Rolisboa '26 — The Lake Is Getting Crowded
I'm back from Rolisboa '26.
And I'm tired.
Still very tired.
But mostly...
I'm happy.
This weekend was another one of those moments when Silent Læke stopped feeling like something I'm making behind a computer and became something that exists between actual people.
And that still gets me every time.
🌲 Five People Walked Into Silent Læke...
We ran a new Silent Læke session at the convention, with four Players and one Director.
Now, that's actually larger than the game's sweet spot.
Silent Læke is designed to shine particularly brightly with one or two Players plus the Director.
Silent Læke is designed to shine particularly brightly with one or two Players plus the Director.
But this was a convention.
I wanted more people to have the chance to step into town.
So we crowded the lake a little.
And you know what?
We had an absolute blast.
Four Players brought a different energy to the table, and getting to watch another group inhabit the game, make terrible decisions and discover what its mechanics can do was immensely rewarding.
Every table teaches me something.
This one also made me laugh a lot.
I'll take that.
📖 Backers Came to Visit
One of my favourite parts of the weekend happened at the Newborn Games booth.
Some of our Killer backers actually came to collect their physical copies of Dusk's Embrace.
There is something wonderfully strange about recognising a BackerKit username and then suddenly having the actual human being standing in front of you.
We also had Lovers who—even though they could have perfectly well played "Dusk's Embrace" using the PDF included in their pledge—bought physical copies at the convention.
And then something even more unexpected happened.
People who hadn't backed Silent Læke at all saw Dusk's Embrace sitting on the table...
picked it up...
looked through it...
and bought it.
Apparently making the magazine pretty was a sound business decision.
Who knew?
🖊️ And Then This Happened...
There was one autograph this weekend that I wasn't quite expecting.
Grant Howitt bought a copy of Dusk's Embrace.
And then asked me to sign it.
Yes.
THAT Grant Howitt.
I'm still processing that one.
🖤 The Lake Keeps Growing
Rolisboa brought us more than players and sales. We were visited by musicians, graphic artists and other creators interested in collaborating with Newborn Games.
We had conversations about Silent Læke.
We had conversations about Silent Læke.
About music.
About art.
About future games.
And even about possibilities for getting our games into more hands beyond Portugal. Some of those conversations may lead somewhere. Some may not. That's how conventions work.
But the fact that they're happening at all means a lot to me. Because Silent Læke began as a very personal, very strange passion project. And somehow, around it, a community has formed.
Backers.
Players.
Readers.
Artists.
Musicians.
Designers.
People who stop at a convention booth because the cover of a weird little magazine catches their eye.
People who know me only as a username.
People whose usernames I now know as faces.
I came home from Rolisboa exhausted.
But also incredibly moved.
Life is good.
And this strange little town keeps getting bigger.
Thank you to everyone who came to play.
Thank you to everyone who came to collect a book.
Thank you to everyone who bought one.
Thank you to everyone who stopped just to talk, ask questions, pitch an idea, take a photo or say hello.
And, as always, thank you to all of you who made it possible for this game to exist in the first place.
The lake is getting crowded.
I wouldn't have it any other way.
See you at the lake.
Yours,
– A Máquina do RPG
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