A Mending

a keepsake game by Shing Yin Khor

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 INDEX
page 6
Adapting the Game
playing with two people
playing on paper
playing as an experienced embroiderer

page 11
Safety Guidelines

page 12
Preparing to Play
materials
the deck
where we live

page 18
Playing the Game

page 27
Sewing Resources
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You have been parted from a dear friend for a long time.
Now, they have called for you. You are going to visit your
friend, and the path is long and it will take many days.

A Mending is a keepsake game, a term that I use to describe

the kind of game I make - games that produce beautiful,
memorable physical artifacts through the gameplay
process. This honors my lifetime love of tinkering and
making, and reduces waste by producing something worth
keeping.

The story-building prompt cards will ask you to consider

memories and situations about your friend, helping you
build a narrative of your friendship and journey. As you
do so, you will create an artifact of your journey by also
documenting it on the map. These keepsakes are a collab-
oration between me, as a designer, and you, as a player.

Thank you for choosing to make something with me.

xoxo, shing

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 ADAPTING
the GAME

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 Playing with Two People

A Mending is a solo game, but it can be adapted if you

would like to play the game with two people using the
same map. To do so, you can:

Take turns, sewing two different paths, as two people

responding to the same friend. When you begin the game,
choose two different start locations. Each turn ends when
the path you are sewing crosses over into a new square.

B
Travel the same path together, and take turns pulling
cards and sewing your path. It could be interesting to see
how your relationships with the same friend can differ.

B
One person could take the bulk of the sewing work, as
if they were documenting the story on a tapestry, as the
other pulls cards and weaves a story for them.

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 Playing on Paper

The instructions for this game are written for a player

who is embroidering/sewing, but it can be played more
simply, or concurrently, with paper and pen. Where
references are made to sewing the path, just draw it
instead(slowly, and one grid square at a time, so you can
decide on a different path during the course of the game).

Where references are made to beads, buttons or other

objects, substitute it by annotating the map in pen. You
can use an X, a drawing, or written description, whatever
feels right for you to annotate the map with.

As you answer prompt cards, if any answers feel

narratively important to your story in the moment, you
may annotate notes about them directly on the paper map.
For example: “Here is where I remembered how my friend
looks when they are happy.” or “Here is where I realized
that I do not love my friend.”

If you choose to sew during the game, you can also

simultaneously create a paper version, to more precisely
document your notes about your journey.

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 Playing as an
Experienced Embroiderer
A Mending is meant to be accessible to people who have
no experience with embroidery and sewing. However,
here are some suggestions to complicate your life, if you
would like to add more embroidery to the map.

Develop a “map legend” to signify your stops, using small

embroidered patterns or graphics. For example, a leaf
could signify places on the map where you felt
positively about your friend, or a lightbulb could signify
places on the map where you have a narrative
breakthrough.

G
Embellish the map with new trees, flowers, mountains,
birds or anything you wish. Embellish the dragon and sea
monster on the border. Embellish the compass. The map is
your metaphorical oyster.

G
Instead of a running stitch to signify your path, pick some-
thing insufferably complicated instead. I am not a good
embroiderer; you will have to decide for yourself.

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 Safety Guidelines

This game does not have spoilers.

This is a story-building game, where you choose to build
your own stories. Feel free to look at all the prompt cards
before playing, and remove any that you prefer not to
engage with.

Skipping cards is perfectly fine.

You can skip answering any card for any reason, even if
you simply prefer a different card.

You know you.

Do whatever you need to make playing this game a
pleasurable experience for you.

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 Preparing
to Play

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 Materials
To play the game, please gather:

The cloth map and card deck.

An embroidery hoop.

Embroidery or craft thread.

Needles, suitable for your thread.

Pen and paper.

A selection of beads, buttons, and any other findings

you might want.

A coin

Optional materials:

Additional scraps of fabric, if you would like to add fabric

tags or flags to your map.

A paper map, if you would like to take notes.

A waterproof pen or marker, if you would like to write on

fabric.
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 Characters
A Mending is not a game with a character creation
process - instead, you are encouraged to let the
fiction and conception of both your character
and your friend’s character evolve as you proceed
through the game.

However, you prefer to play with characters in mind,

here are some questions to help create basic
characters before playing the game.

What do you carry in your pockets?

What does your friend carry in their pockets?

How do you and your friend differ in appearance?

How do you and your friend differ in personality?

What kind of home does your friend live in?

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 The Deck
There are four ENDING cards in the deck(labeled
on the front and back). Pull them out, and set them
aside, face down.

Shuffle and place the rest of the cards face down.

Arrange your play space so you have easy access

to pull cards from the deck and enough space for a
discard pile.

You will not need to pull the ENDING cards until

the end of the game.

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 Where We Live
On one of the outer edges of the cloth map, but
within the map itself, choose a square that will be
your start point. Attach a bead or button to mark this
spot. This is your home.

On the opposite side of the map(this is a long

journey, after all), choose a square that marks your
friend’s home, and attach a bead or button to that
spot. Don’t worry about creating the most direct
route between two points; you can explore with a
winding or indirect path if you choose.

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 Sewing Practice
If you are not already comfortable with sewing, this
would also be a good time to practice using the
embroidery hoop with the cloth map.

Feel free to make test or practice stitches on the

border of the cloth map! The “Sewing Resources”
section has a link to a basic sewing tutorial video by
Joan Goodspeed,

Care Instructions
The cloth map itself is screenprinted on 100%
cotton, is washable on any laundry or dryer cycle,
and can be treated carelessly before stitching. It will
become softer and more wearable after washing. It
can also be dyed or bleached.

However, after you play the game and add stitches,

beads and buttons to it, it should be hand-washed,
hung to dry, and otherwise treated delicately, as any
other treasured object with hand-stitched elements
should be.

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 Playing
the Game

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 One

Begin sewing a
path to your
friend’s home.
You can use any stitch you prefer. A running
stitch is an easy choice.

You do not have to decide on your path ahead of

time. You may take any roads you wish, or not
take roads at all. You can meander towards the
ocean, you can climb mountains, you can hurry
to your friend, or idle towards them. Your mode
of transport is anything not particularly effi-
cient(such as horse or foot).

Every stitch is a significant distance - every time

you cross a square, you have travelled for five
miles.

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 Two

Every time you

cross into another
grid square, pull a
card from the deck.
Answer the prompt on each card out loud if you
are playing in the company of other people. If
playing alone, you can write it down or answer
them quietly. As a story begins to coalesce
around these prompts, and you begin to under-
stand the story about you and your friend, write
down your notes on it on the paper map(or a
notebook).

Continue to sew your path and answer prompts,

as you head in the direction of your friend’s
home. Some cards will ask you to modify your
map, or may modify your intended path.

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After answering each card, place it in a discard
pile. If you run out of cards before reaching your
friend’s home, shuffle the discard pile and draw
cards again. Your answers to the questions may
have changed.

If at any point in the story or game, you

develop ungracious feelings about your friend,
and decide that this trip is not worth your
time, cut the map at the point where your path
stops(you can make a small cut, or cut the map
entirely into two pieces).

If you decide to return to the game, you will have

to mend it before beginning your journey again.

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 Three

Attach your
baubles.
Every time you encounter an interesting object,
person, or situation, sew a bead or button to the
map to mark that moment. Regular needle and
thread will work best for this.

When you answer prompt cards, if any answers

feel narratively important to your story in the
moment, mark that moment on the map by
attaching a bead or button to the place where
you encounter it. Feel free to bring in other
objects - charms, trinkets, pins, pieces of fabric,
or anything else you may want to add to the map.
You can also add stitches, details, or any other
decoration you wish, quilt fabric pieces to it, or
write directly on the map.

This is your map and your story, make it your

own.
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 Four

When you reach

your friend’s
house, pull one of
the ENDING cards,
and answer that
prompt to end
your game, and
your story.
If you have read all instructions, begin the game
by pulling a card for your home square.

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 Replayability

You can replay this game as many times as you

like, until the cloth map becomes too cluttered
for your preferences.

I would recommend using a different primary

thread color for each individual journey.

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Sewing Resources
I am not the best person to teach you how to sew or em-
broider. I don’t even like french knots. The following is
a list of resources on sewing and embroidering by people
better at it than I am.

but remember

There are no Rules

No really, there are no rules. Have fun and make stuff.

An A Mending Sewing Tutorial

A video was made for A Mending by Joan Goodspeed,

host of the DIY show Break n Remake, and a dear friend
of mine from grad school. (youtube.com/breaknremake)

It covers all the basic sewing skills for playing A Mending,

and links to it can be found at:

https://www.threeeyedrat.com/a-mending.

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 Other Embroidery/Sewing Resources

https://www.needlenthread.com/
Mary Corbet and Needle ‘n Thread have a wonderful
range of video tutorials and blog posts for beginners and
experts alike.

The Geometry of Hand-Sewing: A Romance in Stitches

and Embroidery by Alabama Chanin
A great beginner’s book, this book diagrams stitches in a
clear step-by-step way.

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Game Inspirations
For the Queen, Alex Roberts
Playing this simple and straightforward story-building game with
writer friends showed me how simple and lovely story-building
prompts could be. I simplified the first version of A Mending’s
story-building after this, for the better.

Dialect, Thorny Games

Dialect is a stunning game, and I spend a lot of time thinking
about its elegant storybuilding and language mechanics.

The Quiet Year, Avery Alder

This game is described as “cartographic poetry” and I find
that an accurate description. I have always loved maps, but this
game linked maps with narratives, which is an obvious point of
inspiration.

Field Guide to Memory, Jeeyon Shim and

Shing Yin Khor
It feels odd to put a game I co-designed on this list, but my
collaboration with Jeeyon was also a crash course in indie game
design, especially systems and narratives that treat story-build-
ing with empathy and community. A Mending was already in the
works before we began collaborating, but I doubt it would have
been completed without our collaboration on Field Guide.

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 Other Inspirations
Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas,
Rebecca Solnit
This book fundamentally changed how I think of maps, place-
making, and infographics. I used to see them as useful data
organization tools; now I see them as narratives of our own
unique lives and experiences.

For the Time Being, Annie Dillard

I can’t yet draw a direct line of inspiration between this book
and this game, but it lives in my heart and I think I am a different
person and designer after having read it.

The Bayeux Tapestry

An early version of A Mending(The working title was even just
“Tapestry Game” in my notes) was about embroidering the
events in your life as a timeline, visually similar to the Bayeux
Tapestry. This was quickly foiled as I did not actually have the
embroidery skills to rationally test my own game, but the lineage
of this inspiration persists.

Kino’s Journey
I’m mostly only familiar with the anime, and not the manga, but
this series imprinted itself on me when I first saw it over 15 years
ago. It is an emotionally compelling story about journeying,
quiet, loneliness, and other people, and A Mending is very much
a child of the thoughts I’ve been thinking ever since I watched it.

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Cities, like dreams, are made of desires
and fears, even if the thread of their
discourse is secret, their rules are
absurd, their perspectives deceitful,
and everything conceals something else.
Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
Translated from Italian by William Weaver

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 THANK YOU
Jason Bender, my husband and primary playtester.
Bug, who is a very good girl.
Joan Goodspeed, for sewing guidance.
Jeeyon Shim
DongWon Song
Amal El-Mohtar
Max Gladstone
Stephanie Neely
Friends of the Space Gnome
My incredible Kickstarter and Patreon backers

This game was designed and completed under COVID-19

quarantine, between October 2020 and April 2021.

It is typeset using Bodoni and Vendeur; all remaining type

is my own handwriting.

This is A Mending’s first printing.

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