Hello there!:
My name's Mike (@miikedamule on insta), the guy behind Any Venture. This game isn't much at the moment, it's still in the works and I'm hoping to make it available soon for any and all to play. This game started as a fun passion project of mine so my friends and I could have a simple, chaotic, yet organized TTRPG that's all about storytelling first and math second. It's all about that power of imagination we've got inside us all.
This game is basically like improv theater of the mind where you have one player as the "Director" (GM) and 2-6 players as the "Actors" (players). The Director sets the stage, the world, the environment, time and day, the weather, places and things of interests as well as characters you encounter within the world. The Actors get to say and do what they want within this world the director paints for them, but roll for each action in a MUCH more simplified way to keep gameplay fast paced and fun. Game only uses two types of dice. 2D6 (two six sided dice) and a custom kind of die I've made up that adds or subtracts from rolls based on the Stats you've assigned to your character.
The game has gone from a lil' spark of an idea, into me working everyday for months straightâcranking out an entire world with its own clock and calendar system I made up based on music because WORLD BUILDING. I enjoy the act of writing and game making. It's fun. It's in my Mule nature. đ
I'm working on finishing up the lore for all the species first, I'll be fixing them up with traits and spells unique to each one and eventually update the site so we can all have a fun read from it.
Any Venture.
It's a game.
It's coming soon, just gotta make sure everything's good to go so it's in a good, releasable, playable state.
When it came to the art behind everything, yes, I used AIÂ
It could seem as though I went to the AI and said,
"Hey bro-bot, make all the art by yourself with no input from me, write all the lore of species with a vague idea and have it all SLAP! đ"
But nah, I planned the whole game out, edited all the cards and layouts in Adobe Illustrator, took months to get it into the state it's in now. I'm making sure the lore comes from the heart by writing it first and having the AI organize it all together, then reading it back and editing it to make sure everything's good and in my style. I made sure it was my voice telling it through, just had the AI fix up errors like an editor so you wouldn't get a chaotic mess of typos, grammar mistakes or whatever my wicked mule brain throws in there. Especially since I'm someone who used to say "da" instead of "the" as a kid.
Dank you speech derapy for helping me overcome da hurdle dat was speaking in 'da'.
I feel like you and I could've lost a couple of brain cells from reading that last part, but I'm gonna keep it in here to add to the Any Venture/Mule lore.
If the fact that I had AI involved to help me create the game turns you away from playing or reading, I understand. If you decide Any Venture is not for you, I wish you nothing but the best. If you wanna see where it goes,
then let's get it.
Any Venture's meant to be a fun experience where you get to play as whoever you want while also creating fun, long lasting memories with your friends and family.
As an artist who's used AI art to make this game, my experience with it has been fun. I'd treat a prompt like telling a story instead of "Give me rat thief in desert." It'd be more in the realm of:
"We have a Scaverin thief sneaking inside a small village bakery within the deserts of Scorrachai. It's night time, rich midnight blues with glowing orange tones like a Michael Bay film. The moon glows yellow like the cheese wheel settled upon the glass, bakery countertop. There's aroma emitting from the cheese wheel, flowing in a spiral, dancing through the air. Village guards with torches are seen in the background approaching to a sudden noise they've heard coming from the bakery. The Scaverin has no time, he must be quick if he wants to win the big cheese." and so on.
The AI would take a minute or two before outputting something decent. Then I'd run it back.
"Nah, that's good, but let's have the rat thief look less like Stewart Little and give him more of a face like a ratchety rat kind of guy. One where he looks like he's up to no good, stealing that cheese like the rat he is."
And it would crack me up to see some of the outputs from the AI. Like for the Furling art, it's cut off, but his left foot is a beaver's tailâin the Dunling art, there's that Dunling bard flying over the fireplace somehow, I prompted the Nyari one after the Scaverin piece and there was a cheese wheel in front of him on a glass countertop. The Brohtaur piece was the same deal where I had it made after the ConstrĂźkt piece, so you can see the Brohtaur is holding a bouquet of flowers in his hand while extending out for a fist bump. At first I thought to get rid of it, but then I thought it fit well with the vibe that is a Brohtaur. So the flowers stay.
Funny story with that is when I made the ConstrĂźkt prompt, I asked for the flowers to be in her hands, but they ended up on her forearm and I'm like "Bro-bot, what are you doing!? I didn't even mention flowers, yet you put them perfectly in his hands and not hers? đ" So I went into photoshop and moved them to her hands, copied the right forearm and pasted it mirrored as her left arm, changed the hues, added some brushstrokes. There wasn't stitching all the way across her face like a scarecrow, so I added more to that. And now technically, I could copyright this art piece since there's some "human authorship" added to it.
Interesting.
AI art should be known to all that it is AI art. It's a new medium compared to Digital Art, Traditional Art and Photography. All were new mediums at some point in history and were feared as "art killers", even going as far back to when paint and canvases came premade where you didn't have to go into the woods and find pigments for a specific color you wanted. Just go to the art store and BAM, there's the color red all sealed up and ready to go. BANG, there's a canvas pre-stretched and in perfect 18"x24" dimension. All mediums became a faster version for the artist to capture the vision, but as an artist, it's best to be immersed in all of them to truly understand the process behind each one, as well as appreciate the fact that I can just hit control+z and it's as if a mistake in my 26 layered digital painting "never happened".
As someone who has painted a picture of a sasquatch in art college where we had to use an unconventional tool to create our projects, a banana peel would be my brush, and I'd come to learn there's no wrong way to making art. Just have fun in the process, see what you can learn from it and if you can look back at your work or other's and be hit with a feeling, a memory, curiosity or even inspirationâthat's all that matters. That's art, and that's what life's all about.
All mediums are building something in the name of art, just at different speedsâbut life isn't meant to be lived in one constant speed. That's why we got somber, slow, piano songs and heavy metal death core music both existing on the same floating rock in space.
And let's be honest, an AI learned off of all the images uploaded to the internet to remix what it's seen into the prompt you put into it.
A human artist learned how to draw and paint by studying what's in front of themâremixing what they see into their own style.
The credit when it comes to AI art?
All of us. đ¤Żđ
Art comes in many areas in life. It teaches us a lot about the world around us, how to move with it, and how to build in it.
But I'm only one dude trying to make an entire game by himself, and I know it can use more minds and soul to make it better than what it is now.
One thing I learned from an animation teacher of mine from back in the day (lol, "back in my day") is that a full length 2D animated film requires not just one dude to finish the behemoth of a project that was Hercules, but an entire team of passionate creators behind each role. Writers to create the emotional blueprint behind the whole film, voice actors to give the characters a tone and voice, beautiful backgrounds to give the characters a stage to act on, animators striking the most important motions making keyframes for each character, animators who did the in-betweens tying it all together to bring life to those characters, music to match the scenes and nail those beats throughout the story, editors to stitch it all together and have the scenes dance togetherâthere's A LOT! đ
Now imagine if that movie Hercules was all done by one dude.
Imagine this dude had no idea how to compose music, voice act, draw, or screen write. "I need music. Screw it, I'll grab some loyalty free music off of YouTube. I'm tired from all these backgrounds I had to make in Microsoft Paint. Now how does one animate a character singing? Dang, I gotta sing for this part, don't I..."
I've been doing art for 10+ years, but I'd come to learn 27 years later after some self reflection and deep soul searching that I'm passionate about writing and story telling rather than drawing. It's wild, I know.
A Road Map for Any Venture (at the moment):
⢠Build a team (I'm just one mule.) đ´
⢠Finish the lore, traits and spells for all species in the world of Pentara.
⢠Create an app and dedicated website to streamline character building and gameplay. We'll wanna make it fully customizable yet simple for y'all.
⢠Playtest and get feedback from the community.
⢠Simplify rules (If possible, but like all games and any skill in lifeâthere's no better way to learn something new, than to just dive right in and play).
⢠Create premade cards for weapons, armor, gear and items with different rarities to make for faster looting and gameplay.
⢠Create quick premade random NPC cards with varied levels and stats to help the Director for a more fast, cinematic experience.
⢠Fine tune and add to all of the species lore.
⢠More Worlds
â˘Â Campaigns
⢠Even more Traits & Spells (There are no classes, only what you make of your character. You wanna be a barbaric frog wizard? Bang, Grogling with a battleaxe and knowledge on how magic works. A robot brawler who can shoot lightning out their hands? Done. Battlebørn capable of lightning powers. A wise beaver monk who wields guns and tail whips foes? Bam. Disciplined Damling gunslinger with a magic rifle.
Any Venture. You can do that here. There is no mold to fill, only what you imagine to become.)
⢠Put everything together with a team and build a polished version that can be available for the people.
⢠Keep building, keep adding more to Any Venture.
Right now I'm Directing a campaign where the party is a Dukeling named Theodore Cumberbottom, a Zorpian named Douglas Christmas, a Torqle named... (my friend never named him now that I think about it đ), a Battlebørn named Brod, a Grogling named Hopps, and a Brohlax named Smork.
A highlight from one of our sessions was when Theodore had this "Statue of Friendship" relic on his Dukeling self. The Torqle would ask to see it.
EXT. SOUTH ROJOUR CANYONS - NIGHT.
The party of four run into TORQLE and SMORK. THEODORE, a dapper Dukeling in a suit and top hat, but no pants nor shoes (because he's a duck) and the rest of the party have just finished a squabble against Kolzegrad Empyrean guards. The party sees the Torqle and Smork approach from down the dirt road.
TORQLE
Hey guys, what's up. I'm a Torqle.
SMORK
Smork.
THEODORE
(dusting off his hands)
Oh, hi! What's up?
TORQLE
What's up with the Draoken guards on the ground there?
THEODORE
Oh, don't mind them. They're dead tired.
Theodore pulls out a cigar and a match, but an odd relic tumbles from his suit jacket's pocket. It lands into the dirt road, catching the Torqle's attention.
TORQLE
Hey, what's that?
THEODORE
That? It's a "Statue of Friendship". I took-I mean, some Orkren gave it to me. I don't know what it does, but thought I'd hold onto it.
TORQLE
I am a magical turtle-man, mind if I take a look to see if it holds magical properties?
THEODORE
Yeah sure, here you go.
Theodore passes the Statue of Friendship over to the Torqle. The Torqle looks up to the DIRECTOR in the sky to ask him what's up with the relic.
TORQLE
Do I sense anything as I receive the statue?
DIRECTOR
Yes, you feel a slight bond grow between the two of you.
TORQLE
... This statue is cursed!
The Torqle holds the statue high in the air for dramatic effect.
THEODORE
Wait, what? Cursed? How?
TORQLE
Tis witch magic, BROTHER! We must destroy it at once.
Tis witch magic, BROTHER! We must destroy it at once.
The Torqle proceeds to pull out a stick of dynamite he just happens to have from inside his shell compartment. He holds it up to the relic, threatening to rid its existence from the world.
THEODORE
What makes you think that?
Theodore looks up to the Director in the sky.
THEODORE (CONT'D)
Can I roll Judgment to see why he thinks it's cursed?
DIRECTOR
Yeah sure, go ahead.
Theodore rolls for Judgment. He succeeds his check.
THEODORE
I rolled a nine.
DIRECTOR
You get a sense that he felt a friendship formed between the two of you after receiving the statue and he didn't like that.
Theodore's face goes from a confused look to a shrewd one. He turns to look at the Torqle holding the Statue next to the stick of dynamite up to the moonlight.
THEODORE
(crossing arms)
Waaaaait a minute... You don't wanna be my friend!?
Theodore stomps his webbed duck feet to the ground in frustration, ruffling his feathers.Â
CAMERA PANS UP SLOW TO THE MOON AND STARY NIGHT SKY.
The Dukeling, the Torqle and the party have a back and forth, debating the ethics behind this Statue of Friendship. Minutes go by. The group can all agree that they should keep the statue.
CAMERA PANS BACK DOWN TO THE SQUAD.
The Torqle hands the statue back to the Dukeling.
TORQLE
I'm sorry I threatened to blow up your statue, but you see where I'm coming from, right?
THEODORE
Nah, I gotchu mang, it's all good. I'm glad we could settle our differences.
(extends his duck wing out)
Put it there.
The Torqle and the Dukeling dap each other up. A genuine bond of friendship has formed between the two.
The End.
And yes, in the picture aboveâthat is a zebra head behind the "Director's Divider". My coach from the gym I go to would gift it to me. He said someone he was helping move asked if he wanted a zebra head, which he would then proceed to do a triple take like "Waitâwhat did she say?" He would decline the offer at firstâuntil he stopped in his tracks and thought:
"... I know someone who would want that."
He told her he would take the zebra's head off her hands and tell me the next day that he had a gift for me. Upon going into the gym, I'd be met with the gift on the gym floor wrapped neatly in a painter's tarp. I would unveil it, to be surprised to see this magnificent gift bestowed upon me.
A zebra head.
On the same night, the wildest thing would happen. I would text him this:
So I drive home, pull up into the driveway and I see my brother is in the barn with someone, and Iâm like âI donât care whoâs in there, Iâm surprising them with this zebra headâ
so I walk up the stairs and stroll in casually with this zebra head, and my brother just starts cracking up, and the girl turns around to see this big (word for rear) zebra head and is like âoh, WOW!â
I reached my hand over with a smile and said âhi, nice to meet you, my nameâs Mikeâ and weâre just talking about where I got it, asking if itâs real or not and the whole time, Iâm just holding this zebra head the casually like âyeah, this is normal.â
They said I need to bring it to a Hoedown this Sunday and dance with it, my brother said to practice with it so he played a quick song on the guitar, and I can say that I have danced with a zebra head in my life now.
I know this is a lot to unpack, but thank you coach, for this is one of the greatest gifts of all time. That was probably one of the best first impressions Iâve made with anyone ever. đ
Days later on a Sunday, 8/24/2025, I would bring the Zebra head to the Hoedown and dance with it to an improv song my brother's band made up called "Don't Touch my Zebro". It was a fun time. Fun time indeed.
At first, I didn't bring the zebra head into the bar, and the same person I had met for the first time at the barn would ask me:
"Where's your date!?"
"In the trunk."
And the WILDEST part would be when I would go and grab the zebra head from the trunk to bring it in and dance with, I would walk past someone who would say:
"You must be Mike!"
I'm at the door, I look over and I say,
"Yes, I am! Wait, how do you know my name?"
"I'm [my coach's] mom! He told me he was gifting someone a zebra head!"
I was in shock, like WOW, small world! đ I told her it was nice meeting her for the first time and would tell her I had to go and dance with my new friend.
Small world.
Yeah, I mean dang. I never expected to one day become the proud owner of this zebra head ever in all my lifeâbut it's happening. It's a thing now.
Welcome to Any Venture by the way. My name's Mike, it's nice to meet you. đ
If you'd like to see this game take off in the future or had a fun read, feel free to donate, but it's not necessary. Making this game and telling stories is a passion of mine and I just love creating lore for the species and world, while also creating them from sessions played with friends.
Take care, wish you all nothing but the best.
Let's get it.
- Da Mule.
đ´Heehaw.