About Vertex Rim

Hi! I'm John LeBoeuf-Little, and Vertex Rim is my creative venture. I'm a software developer and part-time game designer in Boulder, Colorado who's been coding for years and making tabletop games on the side. I wanted to expand into digital game development, and started Vertex Rim to do that.

The Journey So Far

I've been deep in the TTRPG world for a while, co-writing games like Scum and Villainy and Band of Blades, as part of Off Guard Games. I'm currently working on a tabletop project called Piece of Work under this new Vertex Rim label. But I also want to explore the interactive side of storytelling, which has led me to video game development.

So in 2025, I formed Vertex Rim LLC to focus on creating small, polished games with strong concepts. I'm going the "start small, learn the full pipeline" route rather than trying to build the next massive hit right out of the gate.

Current Projects

Running Late (Video Game)

My first video game is "Running Late"—a half-hourlong space repair simulator where you're frantically trying to fix your failing spacecraft to make it to a wedding on time. Think Tin Can meets Space Team, where the travel disasters impact whether you make it in time for the ceremony.

As someone stuck in a small spacecraft cockpit, you deal with cascading system failures, solar flares, electrical storms, wormholes pulling you off-course, all while wedding messages pour in asking "WHERE ARE YOU??" Gameplay alternates between tactile repairs—replacing blown fuses, patching hull breaches with repair putty—and text conversations with your relatives about the chaos unfolding on Paradise Station.

My hope is to ship something polished and fun while learning the complete game development process from start to Steam release.

Piece of Work (Tabletop RPG)

Piece of Work is a dark, stylish, cybernoir TTRPG set in São Paulo circa 2107, where mega-corporations have supplanted traditional government and the city is carved into Corporate Sanctuary Zones. It's a world of high-tech control and low-trust survival, where social standing depends on whether you're a registered System Known User or a Null—someone off the grid and off the books.

Above it all looms the Spire, a space elevator symbolizing both corporate triumph and humanity's escape route. Every district reflects its controlling corporation's ethos: cultural glitterdomes, industrial nightmares, or zones locked behind walls of secrecy.

The tone is noir, but the questions are contemporary: What does identity mean when it's assigned by a database? How do you rebel when every gesture is commodified? The game is currently in development—most systems are designed, but I'm working on the finishing touches.

Background & Approach

I bring a professional coding background and TTRPG writing experience to indie game development, but I'm learning the video-game-specific parts (game engines, game design, art pipeline) as I go. I'm documenting the journey here—both the wins and the "why is this so much harder than I expected" moments.

My philosophy is pragmatic and iterative: test concepts small, don't over-invest, focus on shipping rather than perfection. It's better to complete something modest than abandon something ambitious.

What's Next

I'm planning to build a small catalog of games over the next few years, focusing on cyberpunk themes and systems-focused design—games where interesting mechanics create emergent stories. Each project is a chance to level up different skills while (hopefully) building an audience for the work.

You can follow along as I figure this out, one broken spaceship at a time.