The Deepest Dark is a brand new, self-contained GM-less ttrpg designed for oneshot play. It's both a system and a setting, which uses a communal d6 dice pool mechanic to track the group's resources and morale. The game is going to be printed as a monochrome, physical zine with illustrations by Georgia Cook (Explorers of Elsewhere, The Holmwood Foundation), layout by Luka Brave (Pyschhound Games) and a custom score composed by Amber Devereux of Tin Can Audio (Pitcrawler, Upriver Downriver).

The Deepest Dark is written and designed by Ella Watts (Upriver Downriver, Penny Dragon).    

This is a game about scaring your friends and making them cry, in a fun way! It's a game about how absolutely terrifying caves are, and we track that with your rapidly dwindling resources and dawning despair every time you have to face one of the extreme survival horrors of being trapped underground with no way out. But this is also a game about finding beauty in the darkest places, about friendship against the odds and in the most dire of circumstances, and about coming to peace with who you are and the choices you've made when the road finally reaches its end.

In The Deepest Dark we're deliberately invoking the ludonarrative aesthetics of some of our favourite games like Harvest by Luke Jordan, Sleepaway by Jay Dragon, Heart by Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor, Dread by Nathaniel Barmore and Epidiah Ravachol, and Ten Candles by Stephen Dewey.

The Deepest Dark is meant to be played intimately, in low light, with people you trust to be afraid with you.

Back at this tier to follow the campaign without receiving a reward. Backing at this level will give you access to add-ons, including the game soundtrack and audio zine.

Backing at this tier will give you a PDF copy of the game. You will also be able to access the add-ons, including the game soundtrack and audio zine.

At this tier, you will receive a physical copy of the zine in the mail, as well as a PDF copy of the game. You will also be able to access the add-ons, including the game soundtrack and audio zine.

Shipping will be charged after the campaign's completion due to fluctuating global shipping rates.

Backing at this tier will give you access to all digital rewards, including the PDF of the game, the audio zine, and a digital copy of the score by Amber Devereux. 

Backing at this tier will give you access to all physical and digital rewards. You will receive a physical copy of the zine in the post, as well as one of 20 limited edition cassette tapes containing the game's soundtrack. You will also received a PDF copy of the zine, the audio zine, and the digital copy of the soundtrack album. Please note that there are limited number of cassette tapes available.

Shipping will be charged after the campaign's completion due to fluctuating global shipping rates.

If you pledge to support this campaign, you will have access to the following add-ons. The Digital Bundle and Caver's Bundle tiers do not have access to some or all of these add-ons because they already include them in the initial pledge. 

If you selected the Caver's Bundle and would like an additional cassette tape, you can add one at the add-on stage.

This is a good will tier so that anyone who would like to purchase the audio zine at a discount for accessibility reasons may do so. If you do not need the zine for accessibility reasons and are able to do so, please consider adding it for its full price in order to support this team and the campaign.

This add-on will grant you access to a copy of the digital files for the soundtrack album composed by Amber Devereux, which is intended as an accompaniment for you to listen to whilst you play this game.

This add-on will grant you access to the digital files for the audiobook version of this zine, narrated by Georgia Cook. It will be available in .MP3 and .WAV format.

We are intending to ship The Deepest Dark zine and cassette tapes worldwide, pending any major global events that will prevent that from happening. We will be charging shipping after the campaign, due to major fluctuations in global shipping rates over the last 18 months.

We are based in the UK, and that's the basis on which we've calculated the below estimates.

If you are based in the UK, we estimate the shipping will cost £2-5.

If you are based in the EU, we estimate the shipping will cost €6-€12

If you are based in the US, we estimate the shipping will cost $13-30

Depending on our success, we plan to have shipped all physical and digital rewards to all backers by 30th June 2026, with the intention for all backers worldwide to have received their rewards by 31st August 2026.

The Deepest Dark is a completed game, and all illustrations will be finished by the end of this crowdfunder.

Depending on our success, we plan to have shipped all physical and digital rewards to all backers by 30th June 2026, with the intention for all backers worldwide to have received their rewards by 31st August 2026.

Again, this is with the assumption that global shipping or print supplies are not majorly impacted by unforeseen complications, which unfortunately has happened in the last two years and may happen again. If this does occur, we will keep you updated on the situation and let you know as soon as we are able to resolve it.

We are hoping to be able to distribute digital rewards sooner than physical ones. Again, this will depend on the campaign's success, but all going well we hope to have sent out all digital rewards by 31st May 2026.

This is the team's first project together, and we're all really excited about working with one another! Ella and Amber are long-time collaborators, and are constantly inspired by one another's work. Amber's going to be composing the score for the game live on stream, and judging by their previous work for Pitcrawler and Upriver, Downriver it's going to be brilliant.

Georgia is based in Manchester with Ella and is a fantastic horror writer. These two made friends playing indie ttrpgs together once a month and cannot wait to get spooky with it. Ella and Georgia met Luka through this project, but Ella's a big fan of Luka's design work and their games, and she's really excited to work with someone who gets what this game is trying to be.

Writer: Ella Watts (she/her)

Ella is a queer, disabled writer and game designed based in Manchester in the UK. She's best known in the ttrpg space for her original game and setting, Upriver, Downriver, published with MacGuffin & Company, which follows a crew of sailors as they traverse a magical river. Ella can also be found as @gejwatts on Itch.io, where she publishes small games, including the popular all-ages oneshot game, Penny Dragon.

Ella has been running and playing TTRPGs for over a decade, and can be found on various Actual Play podcasts and streams, including Realms of Peril and Glory, Girls Run These Worlds, Roll for Good, Who Hurt You?, Beholder to No One and more.

Outside of TTRPGs, Ella is a writer, director and producer. She wrote and directed the fantasy audio drama Camlann with her long-time collaborator Amber Devereux at Tin Can Audio. She also co-created season 1 of Doctor Who: Redacted, and directed and produced Eliza: A Robot Story.  Ella has also been known to direct video games, most recently and most notably she cast and directed Afoot Games' cozy point and click game, The Beekeeper's Picnic.

Ella can be found on her website, ella-watts.com, and on Bluesky/Instagram @gejwatts.

Illustrator: Georgia Cook (she/her)

Georgia Cook is an illustrator and writer from the UK. She has been nominated for a Scribe Award, was a finalist in the 2025 BBC Audio Drama Awards, and is the winner of the 2020 LISP Flash Fiction Award.

She has work published in Baffling Magazine, Luna Station Quarterly, and Vastarien Lit, and has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize multiple times, among others. She frequently writes for the Doctor Who audio range with Big Finish, and her Doctor Who Adventures Novel, Ruby Red, featuring The Fifteenth Doctor, was published in 2024 by Penguin.

She also regularly writes and narrates for various horror anthology podcasts, and is the co-creator of The Holmwood Foundation - a modern-day found-footage sequel podcast to the novel Dracula.

She can be found on her website at georgiacookwriter.com, and on Bluesky/Instagram @georgiacooked

Composer: Amber Devereux (they/them)

Amber is an award-winning writer, musician and sound designer, primarily making noises as Tin Can Audio.

They are the creator of the audio fiction concept album The Tower, and the producer of fantasy series Camlann. Amber has also made audio stories for BBC Radio 4's Short Cuts and QueerAF for their Trans+ History Week initiative, as well as music for Doctor Who: Redacted, and editing and sound design for Sony's This Is History with Dan Jones. They have also composed original music for the TTRPG games Upriver Downriver and Pitcrawler.

They spend most of their time surrounded by computers, synthesizers and tape machines to keep them warm during the long Glasgow winters.

Amber can be found on tincanaudio.co.uk and on Bluesky/Instagram @tincanaudio

Accessibility Consultant & Layout Designer: Luka Brave (he/they)

Luka Brave AKA Psychhound Games is a long-time TTRPG fan who has been playing since 2017 and publishing his own since 2022. His current goal is his 30/30/30 challenge: to play his 30th multiplayer system and publish his 30th TTRPG during the year he is 30. As a designer, his focus is bespoke systems, especially with strange mechanics like the weather, music playlists, or social media bots.

Last summer, he graduated with a Master's in Game Studies, focusing on therapeutic and educational applications for TTRPGs. He used TTRPGs in his classroom during his two years as a college instructor and published a few pieces on the experience. His first published therapeutic game, With Breath & Sword, was a 2025 CRiT Award Nominee. Currently, he is working on Spiritkeep, a multiplayer system designed to help players heal from complex trauma during long-term play.

Luka can be found on https://psychhound.com/ and on Bluesky @psychhound