Dev.Log 001 Hit Restart
Hei Hei my Beautiful Machines,
Let’s be honest — change is rarely comfortable. It’s the liminal space between what was, what didn’t materialize and what could, a place where nostalgia and anticipation wrestle for the upper hand.
For years, saphaburnell.com has been my digital sanctum: a place for Beautiful Machines, cyberpunk dreams, mythpunk poetry, and the odd philosophical ramble about the fate of humanity and the ethics of AI. It’s been a home for my words, my art, and my relentless belief that we can turn the dystopian tide if we roll up our sleeves and build something better.
But the world—and my worlds—don’t stand still. Today, I’m inviting you to step into a new chapter with me: the pre-launch of Blade and Banter Media, and the transformation of saphaburnell.com into a creative nexus for everything I do, from now self-published novels to video games, TTRPGs, and audio drama.
Why Merge? Why Now?
For a long time, I kept my author life and my business ambitions in separate boxes. One site for Sapha the writer, another for the company I’ve been quietly building behind the scenes with the help of my friends. But as the projects grew, the lines blurred. The stories I want to tell, whether in prose, pixels, or polyhedral dice, are cut from the same cloth. They’re about the future we can create, about myth we can’t leave behind, about the strange and beautiful machines we are and can become.
Letting go of the old boundaries wasn’t easy. There’s comfort in the familiar, in the old site structure, in the rituals of the Beautiful Machines blog and the cozy chaos of my Discord server (which will also be getting an upgrade, but not going away).
But comfort can be a trap, and I’ve never been one to let fear of the unknown keep me from a good story. Or a great adventure.
Even if I’m not so secretly terrified.
Introducing Blade and Banter Media
Blade and Banter Media Corp is a declaration: that the future of storytelling is collaborative, cross-media, and unafraid to ask big questions, while purposefully avoiding polarizing politics. We’re a studio for the strange and cerebral, the mythic and the mechanical.
Our mission? To craft worlds that challenge, delight, and invite you to play.
Video Games: Interactive stories where your choices matter, and the line between action adventure and cozy casual is a bit on the fuzzy side… and not only because of Sir Hildegarde Von Ratamir’s fuzz.
TTRPGs: Tabletop roleplaying games that blend cyberpunk grit with mythpunk wonder, where your character’s faith, flaws, and philosophy are as important as their stats. You’ll see some familiar titles here, like KS Bishoff’s Cutthroat series, and a new take on the ttrpg mini-game called Cutthroat Crew.
Audio Drama: Immersive, character-driven podcasts that bring speculative fiction to life with soundscapes as vivid as any neon-lit cityscape. We never got the chance to get Wax Wing off the ground, so now’s the time.
It’s a place for creators and fans who want more than escapism. Who want to wrestle with the big ideas, identity, technology, faith, rebellion, and still have fun rolling for initiative or hacking the mainframe.
Oh, and sometimes chill with a cute little puzzle game, like our upcoming picross adventure. Like everything going on here, it’s in development. This blog will end up being the dev log for it, and our other games, like a retro-style 2D platformer.
Sapha Burnell
The New Look of saphaburnell.com
With this relaunch, saphaburnell.com becomes the central hub for everything I do. You’ll still find my books & poetry (eventually re-launched as the current editions go out of print April 30th), and my essays here (because I’ll never stop writing about android mothers telling humanity to clean its room), but now you’ll also get:
Blade and Banter News: Updates on our latest games, playtests, and audio projects.
Behind-the-Scenes: Dev diaries, lore deep-dives, hand-drawn art, and philosophical musings on why we make the worlds we do.
Community Spaces: Discord links, podcast episodes, and ways to get involved—whether you’re a player, a playtester, a reader, or a fellow creator.
The design? Neon Rococo meets Vaporwave. Think cyberpunk meets mythpunk: bold colors, sharp lines, and a sense of motion. It’s a site that invites exploration, conversation, and maybe a little friendly debate.
Letting Go, Moving Forward
I won’t pretend it’s been easy to let go. There’s a vulnerability in change, in admitting that what worked yesterday might not serve tomorrow. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from years of writing cyberpunk and mythpunk, it’s that transformation is survival. The future belongs to those who adapt, who remix, who aren’t afraid to break the rules and write new ones, while honouring the past and what wisdom translates.
Blade and Banter Media is my answer to that call. It’s a place where stories aren’t just consumed—they’re lived, played, and shared. Where the lessons of ancient things are seen in the fresh light of our current time, and we’re able to see how humanity, while technology progresses, doesn’t change as much as we think. Where the boundaries between author and audience, creator and collaborator, are as permeable as the borders in our best speculative fiction.
What’s Next?
New Games: We’re deep into development on our first video game and TTRPG systems—details coming soon. Expect stories that challenge you as much as they entertain.
Audio Drama: The first season of our flagship podcast Wax Wing is in production, blending cyberpunk intrigue with mythic resonance.
Books Continue: The Beautiful Machines blog isn’t going anywhere. Expect more essays, more poetry, and more peeks behind the curtain.
Join the Journey
If you’ve been with me since the first days of Beautiful Machines, thank you. Your support, your feedback, your memes and messages have made this possible. If you’re new here—welcome. There’s always room at the table for another voice, another story, another roll of the dice.
Change is hard. But it’s also exhilarating. Together, we’ll build something wild, weird, and wonderful. Blade and Banter Media isn’t my next chapter—it’s ours. Soon, updates on our member site will be available, but for now please join our substack, my ko-fi and the discord server for updates. By May 2025, updates’ll be coming in more hot and ready every week.
Stay strange. Stay brilliant. And remember: There’s always something we can do, ‘cause we aren’t dead yet.
— Sapha
“We are the most capable and beautiful machines in the cosmos. Bringing the planet to a place of compassion & utopia is within our ability to roll up a multitude of sleeves, develop positive technologies and turn this sphere.”
