Analogue | A work in progress
Analogue - A Netherbook Original Work In Progress (updated 2026-09-14)
Twenty-five years ago the Concord was signed. At its heart, three sentences, and what they did was take something away: no device may calculate beyond what a mind can hold, none may store information for later retrieval, none may carry a signal across distance. The screens went dark and did not come back. What remained is everything a person can make, read, and send by hand - and the post, slow and honest, which ties the world back together.
And there is something else, something the Concord cannot measure and officially denies: the Hush. The pressure in a room before anyone speaks. The warmth when two strangers pass on a narrow path. The weight of a moment no one else seems to notice.
Analogue is one world, and it will be told in several ways: games to play alone, with one other, with a circle or at a table, and a novella to read. Each stands fully on its own. Together they are movements of a single work, and if you like, you can weave them into one another through The Thread: the layer that makes the whole line one living world, by letter, slow and incomplete, exactly the way this world works.
First: the Correspondence Trilogy
The original plan was to release the whole symphony at once. We have chosen otherwise. A world like this deserves to be built carefully, one book at a time, and the first book is the one closest to its heart: the games played by post.
Analogue: The Correspondence Trilogy brings three games together in one A5 book:
- Analogue: Solo - alone, for one year, in letters to yourself.
- Analogue: Duet - between two people, by post.
- Analogue: Ensemble - for a circle of three to six, by post over months and years.
Three games, one book, one set of rules for the post. Giving this book all our attention first means every page gets the care it needs: playtested by real players, over real distances, before it goes to print.
The rest of the world follows. Analogue: Overture, the novella, accompanies the trilogy. Analogue: Chorus, the tabletop game for a full circle at one table, waits for a later campaign. And the world itself keeps growing in the meantime.
Getting to know the world before the letters start
The campaign for the Correspondence Trilogy launches on BackerKit in June 2027. Follow the project on BackerKit and you will hear the moment it goes live.
You will not be waiting empty-handed. In the months before the campaign, small games set in the world of Analogue will find their way to everyone who follows the project. Coda, for one: a single hour in the last control room, on the night the Concord comes into force. Each of them stands on its own and takes an evening at most. Together they let you walk the world before the letters start.
Where the work stands
A test-reading version of Analogue: Overture has been sent to a small group of proofreaders, and their notes are finding their way back to the writing desk. The first artwork concepts are on the desk as well: the starting point for the illustrations that will be drawn by hand for the book.
And then there is play. Solo, Duet and Ensemble are ready for playtesting at the same time, so the choice is yours: alone, with one other, or with a circle. Real letters, real post, real waiting. Would you like to be one of the first to play? See the playtesting page, tell us which game you would like to test, and we will take it from there.