Plz wishlist ICC's very first faltering baby deer steps into making games!

Our core principles of Cyberrats state that everything should be fast, fun, and legible. The worst part of any game is waiting for someone else to take a turn where you don't even understand what they're doing. We minimize that.

If you like what you've been seeing here, go follow the kickstarter. www.kickstarter.com/projects/201...

Armaments, the mechs' big guns, have a chance of blowing a fuse when they are used. This chance increases with every upgrade. That's right, all weapons are modular and upgradeable for the biggest, best boom.

This fuse idea actually came from a homebrew Victorian Steampunk Ghost Hunting game I was playing with my home group. Eventually I realized it solved the biggest problem with core Cyberrats: people could slap so many tags on a gun it became cumbersome to figure out what it did.

Well it was Atomic! So frightfully Comic! And the band’s sound was sub-sumed! Coz they were hurled into vac-uum! Yeah! OHHHHHHH YEAAAAAAH WELL THE RAT AT THE BACK SAID EVERYONE ATTACK-

The company handbook had HR reps take a vow of chastity, but how much conflict could there be dating an operative? She could die tomorrow, and was into you NOW. The laws of profit would understand. As her rough guffaw explained another feature of the mech you were riding in, you heard a crack...

“I hope we’re right about this wreck. The Karlins were the last species to give the Interlopers a run for their money.” “Oh yeah there’s no way there aint somethin’ good in there, boss.” “What makes you say that?” “coz it’s an actual war mech and mine used to be a parade float.”

“Kid they’re BUGS. Not even bugs with jobs, like our Hivers. They think she’s still alive, it’s some kinda pheramone. We’d be doing them a favor. Opening their eyes. Look, I know life was hard in the bilges, but yer safe now. The company’s FAMILY. We’ll care for ya.“ “Now lets go earn some scrip.”

ALL EMPLOYEES ARE ORDERED TO DISREGARD THE LABEL OF “ENEMY SPLASH” ON THIS DEPICTION OF THE COMPANY. THE COMPANY IS YOUR FRIEND. THE COMPANY IS YOUR ONLY FRIEND. THIS WAS IN YOUR CONTRACT. NOW PLEASE ENJOY THIS NORMAL TELEVISED DISCIPLINARY MEETING *KSHT* “End of the line, little matryoshka…”

i think abt this constantly and like with everything in 'worldbuilding' i end up vibes-forward. you can't actually make a real fictional place; you can't imagine language outside of history; you are building a Feeling of something within the reader on the basis of what they do and don't recognize

Surely there is a graph or chart somebody could smugly use to explain to me why this is wrong

There's so many dumb, wondrful jokes in here. Missile loading system (Jacob) Park (purely decorative, oxygen brought from earth at great expense) And of course the cockpit / ball pit double

dude you gotta love people. thats the whole point. if youre not loving people what are you even doing

had a webcomic, got too depressed by the story, put it on hiatus almost a decade ago now, concentrated on improving other parts of my work and process with zines, pitches and minis. started getting a break last year.

Guild wars 3!?

The Princess Pattern STOLEN An “art piece” purloined from our foes, the princess is unique in that her nanite-matrix composition can integrate gear from any mech pattern! if you pump enough biotech into her friendship-fueled core, this mech can self destruct with a force of several kilotons!

The Dynamo Pattern Z4P Rumored to be repurposed Valdivian tech, the Dynamo is a mobile power generator that can distribute diesel (rapid aged into appropriate fossil fuels from enemy remains) to its allied mechs. Operatives are advised to be cautious with all metal implants and fillings

This is a shame because the predatower has mastered the most powerful mechanic in the game, schmovement. With your towhooks deployed and your engine revved up, only characters of your choice will be permitted to Play Cyberrats. The other pilots are just… gonna look at you a way the whole time.

The Predatower Pattern M1DL1F3 Look, men sometimes have a lot of peculiar feelings about their vehicles. A lot of suburban dads really like the idea of a personal use towing and heavy cargo mech in their garage even if they’ll only ever use it to pick up groceries.

The Spider Pattern FW3ND The company aren't IDIOTS. They aren't going to build a giant robot that you can't merge together into a cool supermech with your pals. But it's hard fumbling with the right adapter. Turns out, building a cable splitter big enough to work made it need a pilot of its own!

The Leftovers Pattern 7UCK7 Not every intern gets hired. Due to budgetary constraints, this does not mean you cant contribute! Reclaimed biomass mechs have many advantages, like hooking up to the pilots biotech supply, and they're great for recruitment: “Keep The family together! Pilot a Leftovers!”

The Hotbox Pattern N0MN It slices it dices it burns it refrigerates it friccasees it parboils it sou vies it mashes it blends it chops it serves it ate it grinds it boils it fries it freeze dries it slow cooks it broils it bubbles it hacks it slashes it quarters it tenderizes it spatchcocks-

The Juggler Pattern H4H4 The whole bread and circuses strategy has a fatal flaw: Everyone hates clowns. Humans hate clowns. Mutants hate clowns. Robots hate clowns. ALIENS hate clowns. You pilot a clown and you hate 'em too. You know your mech's face is punchable. That's why you're the perfect tank.

The Germinator Pattern 3YUP War is hell, and agriculture is war. Therefore, by the transitive property, agriculture is hell. This mech is designed to see you through all nine circles and come out the other side smelling like freshly subsidized corn syrup. See you on the (battle)field

The Frog Pattern ERROR What? Sorry I've never seen the console do th- SHAPED LIKE A FRIEND SHAPED LIKE A FRIEND SHAPED LIKE A FRIEND SHAPED LIKE A FRIEND SHAPED LIKE A FRIEND SHAPED LIKE A FRIEND SHAPED LIKE A FRIEND SHAPED LIKE A FRIEND SHAPED LIKE A FRIEND SHAPED LIKE A FRIEND SHAPED LIKE A F-

The Beatbox Pattern 12KBPM Technically repurposed DJ equipment, a beatbox looks more at home at the battle of the bands than the battle against the interlopers, but never underestimate the value of good morale! While fragile, its cassete based munitions offer incredible support utility!

The Boomwagon Pattern C44U The fuse systems for mechtech is notoriously volatile, where even non-combat machines are likely to blow out components at a momentw notice. Taking cues from the Trenchy operative of yesteryear, the Boomwagon is specced to improve its performance by blowing its own fuses.

Well, if I’m gonna be telling everyone Cyberrars In Space is a mech game and asking for mechsploitation fic for the contest, I should probably introduce y’all to the mechs! Hold up, I had some tech specs in here…. All mechs of course come up with fully modular internals and a bio-linked control rig!

It shook its head and lit the cigar. Terrible habit, makes your pheramones impossible to understand. There was a clack and rattle. Exoskeletons, and charms being passed off. Get home safe. Give 'em hell. Avenge her. "Ay, little sibling." The ant patted the vipet by its side twice. "Lets go see mom."

ALL HUMANITY ™ LINE PRODUCTS ARE ORDERED TO ENJOY THE NEWEST OFFERINGS OF OUR LATEST CATALOGUE. LUXURIATE IN THE PRIVILAGES OF UNTOLD PURCHASING POWER. HOARD YOUR SCRIP. YOU ARE CONTENT.

Fans of the first book may recognize the executives from the careers page. We hope you’re all very proud of how your characters from the first campaign have moved up in the world

Happy to see the project fronted by a trans creator overcome the movie that is being promoted with pronoun jokes

I don't know how to explain to the people who pop up when creatives complain about "AI" to say there are legit uses for it just how much they sound like someone saying "Well actually fire is used to make bread" when people are talking about an organized arson ring burning down their fucking houses

i was feeling left out

In NYC, it’s rich people triggering environmental review processes whenever there’s affordable housimg in the works. They use a well-intentioned set of regulations to keep communities in need from exercising any agency. In Saint Paul, Mayor Her was elected by NIMBYs to stop a Summit Ave bike lane.

so many artists are like this and it is NOT CUTE it is time for you to FAKE BEING COOL AND POPULAR until you ARE COOL AND POPULAR

It's true, I do!

Fun fact about the expression here, I couldn't get the last song from "Nerdy Prudes Must Die" out of my head drawing that terrified rat. There's this great sad doomed vibe to it that I think carried the design through.

Saturday nights on a generation ship were no way to spend your teens, Rizzońe had thought. The greyfurs in cryo would talk day in and out about the excitement and glory of combat, the beautiful revenge they were going to take on the aliens. He heard operatives even get a MECH! How cool was that?!

Let's try that again open VGen give me money now vgen.co/ImportantBus...

Each of the mechs in Cyberrats in Space has a bespoke character sheet. Here's the one for the Boomwagon!

Emily Zhu (@dragonfucker69.bsky.social) first hooked me with a line about a horse and I'm delighted to have her on board as a guest writer for Cyberrats in Space. I got to interview Emily last year & it remains one of the strangest and most delightful I've done blog.alexrinehart.net/posts/emily-...

Often the change in the ENEMY PHASE won't take effect until the next round. It's a chance for players to exercise agency. The moth queen laid some eggs. Wanna spend your turn smashing them? Or deal with the hatching next round? Geyser starts bubbling, whoever's next to it is gonna have a bad time!

Third, each mission has an ENEMY PHASE. After each of the players acts (in popcorn order), the enemies get to go. At the start of the enemy phase, something changes. This might be a new tag getting added, an alarm going off, a bomb being placed, or terrain changing. It'll be telegraphed.

... This adds a lot of variety! Second, each mission has a set of tags that change a rule about how the game plays. Some of these tags help you, some help the enemies. Many encourage different styles of play (items rain from the sky! Munitions are way cheaper! EVERYONE takes double Harm!)

A lot of tactical games end up feeling kind of samey. Every mission turns into "show up, kill the enemies, leave". Cyberrats counters this in three ways: First, we have 20 types of missions, each with different goals and win conditions. Paired with a rotating cast of 2 enemy types at a time...

Are you an artist who uses a persona, character design, vtuber model, vrchat avatar, etc. to represent yourself online? My vrchat gallery is now accepting entries for a self portrait show themed around virtual identities, which is apt given that it's pride month rn! 🌈🔗🔽

I’m sorry but this is the coolest shit I have seen in my life