What is Project Menagerie?

Project Menagerie is an initiative to bring more digitally distributed games to physical media.

Contrary to the popular saying, the internet is not forever. Physical media is important for media preservation in today’s digital-download-dominant culture, where many digital-only creative projects can easily be lost to time, and even to censorship.

With Sony set to cease production of physical games by 2028 and pressure from payment processors on online marketplaces such as Steam and Itch.io to suppress “controversial content,” it’s more important now more than ever for creators to have some sense of ownership over the means of distribution of their work. I’ve yet to meet a game dev who isn’t sick of trying to please an unseen social media algorithm just to get a few views on a project they spent hours and hours of life on, who didn't long for more control and connection to their own work.

The collaborative art of game creation shouldn’t be exiled to a dull, boring digital marketplace and social media. It should be celebrated among other art in places where art is celebrated. A physical game copy is a key to the physical world, allowing creators to bring their work to local markets and conventions, where creators can place their games in the hands of players and form a connection with their audience.

Project Menagerie aims to provide resources and information for devs looking to make, distribute, and/or spread awareness of their physical games.

Project Menagerie Resources

HOLDING THE BABY: how to make and distribute physical indie games in an age of digital download dominance. - You may have already seen this floating around itch.io, social media, or featured on Polygon! If you're a game dev looking to make your own physical games, but don't know where to start, check out this free zine!

DIGITAL GAMES, PHYSICAL SPACES: bridging the gap between indie games and local business spaces. Comic artists have local comic shops, authors have local book stores, artists and craftsmen have makers' markets, musicians have local cafes, bars, venues, record stores... Where do local game devs go? Whether you're a game dev with or without physical copies of your games, a shop owner, or a community organizer, this guide is your key to bringing more indie games to your local physical spaces.

Introductory pamphlet to Project Menagerie for Shopkeepers. - This is a pamphlet you can print and distribute freely. Drop some off at local shops or spaces that might be interested in featuring indie games to spread awareness.

Introductory pamphlet to Project Menagerie for Game Devs - If you are hosting or tabling at an event that might have game devs who might be interested in Project Menagerie's resources, you are free to print and distribute these pamphlets there or anywhere else you find relevant!

Poster Form - Submit a poster of your game to be added to a free promotional poster pack for spaces that want to display posters for cool indie games!

Physical Games List Form. - If you are currently distributing your indie game(s) on some type of physical media and would like to be put on our list of devs interested in collaborating with physical spaces to show or distribute their work, please submit here.

Physical Spaces List Form - If you are currently the manager of a physical space or event where you would like to distribute or display physical indie games who would like to be connected with possible collaborators, please submit here!

Friends of Project Menagerie

Prince Rosalium's Project Menagerie Cookie Shop

Do not eat them! Feed them to your computer's USB port for a much more delicious experience!

In my tireless quest to bring more indie games to physical form, I have begun to compile a hand-picked vault of physical indie games. Some will be singular games, others will be collections, and all are available for purchase in my web shop.

Creators featured in this collection are ones I believe in. They are creators and works that I have taken the time to get to know and love.

These USB wafers are not just plastic houses for indie games. Just like home-baked cookies, they are beautifully assembled treats that contain a piece of a creator's soul.

Precious keepsakes to keep in your pocket, pass to a friend, or throw in a drawer and forget for 10 years, only to come back and experience the fun all over again.

You can buy these cookies in the Priroshop, or you can buy them in person from markets and conventions attended by Priro.pro or Society of Play.

Buy Project Menagerie Games Here

Parfum Nostalgique

In Priro’s flagship visual novel, Parfum Nostalgique, slip into the platform boots of an already-too-tall 265-year-old therapist-by-day, dom-by-night vampire as he navigates the complexities of love, sex, friendship, the consequences of his actions, confronting his own mortality, the fragility of existence on a floating rock in the endless sea of space, and other lighthearted everyday challenges that come from centuries of life experience. A project full of all of the art, music, writing, and love I could possibly give to the world, my brainchildren, and myself over the 4 years of my one and only life it took to make. Best enjoyed with a cup of tea, a nice candle, and a soft heart.

Official Site

Data Sparrow: The Hypersports Collection

Data Sparrow is a remotely-operated art collective with an amazing library of tabletop games. Each game is crafted with simplicity, sincerity, and style in a completely original unified science-fiction setting. Whether you are an experienced or first-time player, you won’t be spending hours reading rules, mechanics, and lore before you play- unless you want to! Data Sparrow games are immediately approachable and easily understandable, yet highly customizable, immersive, and thoughtful. Accessibility and great player experience are perfectly balanced with effortlessly cool aesthetics and imaginative design in the awesome games Data Sparrow has bestowed upon Project Menagerie in this print-to-play collection.

Official Site

Ed Naarel's Anthology

Ed Naarel is a queer interactive fiction writer from Poland who is absolutely, positively always making something. Blending the supernatural with ordinary life in what Naarel refers to as “casual magic,” his text-focused interactive fiction pieces need only a few minutes to read; a short amount of time for a whole lot of impact. If you like it when your indie art really feels like it’s made by a dude in a bedroom going through the vast spectrum of feelings that come with the human experience, you’ll be right in your element with this massive collection of his works.

Naarel's Itch.io