Hello!
Welcome to Vengefularia Games! My name is Aria Bonczek and I’m a professional video game developer. Over the course of my career I’ve had the pleasure to work on amazing games with amazing people, including the *God of War* franchise and a few yet-to-be-announced titles. I’ve also been playing TTRPGs for more than half of my life.
I first discovered Dungeons & Dragons as a high school junior when I saw the 4th Edition Red Box on the shelf at my local Barnes and Noble. I didn’t know anyone who ran a game or had played before, so in my desperation to finally be a D&D player, I decided I would take matters into my own hands and run it myself. My friends and I would pull all-nighter after all-nighter to see where our adventure would take us.
Even as I began my studies to be a video game developer and got my start in the industry, roleplaying games kept their hooks in me. In addition to picking up D&D 5th Edition, I started branching out to other roleplaying systems like *Monster of the Week*, *Blades in the Dark* and *Dread*. I started getting involved in my local LARP community. Every minute I wasn’t thinking about video games (and honestly many moments that I was SUPPOSED to be), I was thinking about homebrew fantasy worlds and the adventures I’d send my players on.
And so it has been for the past six years, I’ve run a weekly mythic fantasy campaign in a homebrew world of my own creation ruled by an magocratic empire run by eight powerful sorcerers (maybe I’ll write something about it here someday). And every other day, the second I sign off from work, I look at my fiancée and ask “which of our four ongoing duet campaigns do you want to play tonight?” My desk at work has a post-it note on which I wrote my ultimate dream: “Play D&D with your kids”.
My personal mission in life is to make moments that move people. I have always sought to develop tools that drive the creation of games with a diverse cast of characters in fantastical worlds. Through my professional work, I have had the opportunity to contribute to game design as a technical contributor. I have collaborated with animation, design, and narrative departments to tie all of their pieces together, and I am deeply passionate about game design that reflects the story that is being told.
But I’m not a professional game designer. I’m not a professional writer. Yet.
I’m writing this blog because a game designer colleague of mine recently gave me some advice: “If you want get better at game design, spend a bit of time writing your thoughts about games as they emerge.” This will be a place for me to put those thoughts. Maybe someone will read them! Maybe someone will even find them helpful! Please let me know if you do.
But I’ve always valued having artifacts of my learning process. I love the rush that comes with reading something I wrote five years ago and I can see all of the little ways I’ve changed. All of what I’ve learned and accomplished. How bright eyed and bushy-tailed I was back then.
So that’s what this is for. To give me a clear view of my journey. Its like a journal, except anyone can read it. That’s a little scary if I’m being honest. But to write and design is to be bold. So I’ve decided to be bolder. Thanks for coming with me on that ride.
Oh and why “vengefularia”? Teenage me thought it sounded cool. Some things just stick around.
See you next time.
vengefularia 