Let’s spookin goooooo! 👻 Got my crowdfunded games by @connor.alwaysawake.games

My shipment of games from @connor.alwaysawake.games came in today! I play tested Club Spooky a while back and had a blast. That's The Spirit looks clever and good for my friend group

Slowly figuring out my system…but it’s happening! Club Spooky and That’s the Spirit will be on their way soon!

I hope we’re still collectively processing that AEG and the boardgaming consciousness draw the line at being pro-AI and lowering the value of game designers… But don’t draw the line at the insane levels of misogyny exhibited only 2 years ago? It’s wild to me he wasn’t booted to high hell sooner…

Tbf getting full enjoyment from a high luck & high skill game requires almost a cognitive dissonance... You must try super hard to win, exercising your skill, but also not care much about the final outcome, which may be dashed by luck. (This is also the personality type I most want to play with.)

Literally just paid these the other day 🫠 It’s gonna be such a mess sorting all this out and it’s already caused so much damage.

Which is to say, I want that author's execution. Because the execution is the art. Not only as a physical product, but as an artifact that signifies their effort, practice, and intentionality.

Minus the ai stuff, if you think game design is just combining past ideas, I can’t imagine you’re making anything interesting. To what end are you doing all this? The mechanics are nothing without the purpose you give them. That purpose is everything. The mechanics are just there to support it.

wow so great finally consequences for shitting on the creatives of the tabletop industry after years of zero consequences for shitting on women of the tabletop industry so cool I feel so much better about this company wow so cool so great

LOL. But this inevitable separation probably should have been clear when Dancey claimed a few years ago that women weren't succeeding due to inability to withstand creative criticism + not designing enough war games and giant robot games.

Today I want to share that Ryan Dancey and AEG have parted ways. This is not an easy post to write. Ryan has been a significant part of AEG’s story, and I am personally grateful for the years of work, passion, and intensity he brought to the company. We have built a lot together.

No level of cleverness, time-saving, energy and water efficiency, or even ethical processing of data will convince me to use LLMs or AI models in my process. I love the process so much, and I express myself through every step. You can’t automate self-expression. [4/6]

Business bros to game designers: just because you’re a game designer doesn’t mean you know anything about running a game business Also business bros: I run the business side of a game publisher, so I know everything about game design Just stick to the numbers…or actually put in the care and effort

Reposting with ALT because this kind of phenomenal disdain and disrespect from within the industry literally against two of their own titles and the designer who made them is important to recognize.

I use thenounproject.com religiously for my images and icons. And if I can’t find something that fits, I’ll just google and image and slap it on. You don’t need any skills in graphic design (though perhaps you may need space to develop visual taste) to make a very suitable prototype for pitching.

I know I just said not to blindly follow game designers’ advice….but the one thing I wish people did understand is that every type of game, mechanic, theme etc has a place and purpose. Being smug towards easy, complex, fiddly, “more of an activity” or whatever types of games misses the whole point.

To be fair to those players, I think a lot of them genuinely just enjoy noise and fiddling with a lot of moving parts. Which is all well and good! That's totally valid and a big appeal of board games. This preference only bothers me when it veers into a sense of smugness or superiority.

It's live!! The game I designed, Honeypot, just launched on Kickstarter! Two years of loving work. Would be grateful if you checked it out & considered backing! It's an "I stack, you choose" game where you play as secret agent bears setting and avoding traps! www.kickstarter.com/projects/fla...

I agree. Its the most important to find your own style and modus operandi. The way I work works for me, no clue if it works for someone else. Plus one of the most important skills is to filter feedback, to decide what is helpful and what is not.

That's why when people ask me about advice about the industry I usually end up asking more questions than they do. By clarifying their intentions and goals it helps reveal the next step. The difference between making an indie game, designing for retail, or crowdfunding a game is so vast.

My game design hot take is that you should rarely follow game designers’ advice. Especially industry professionals. Everyone has different goals they’re designing for and contexts they’re coming from that it’s rarely going to apply to you. Definitely listen, but don’t feel like you have to follow

Respectfully disagree? It can, & often is. System literacy makes the teach easier, for sure. Coming to a heavy euro completely uninitiated is going to be a rough on-ramp. So there's additional difficulty. But we often imagine it's all impenetrable shadow magic when it just asks for a bit more prep.

I'm so grateful when designers like Cole share threads like this. It's exhausting being told that the only worthwhile way to make games is to design for mass market. It damages the artistry of game design and makes assumptions that have been repeatedly debunked.

While I think this is often true, it also elides another critical point: professional designers often don't realize how smart and capable people are, espeically people who don't play games. 🧵

This has been our favourite game the last few weeks. Check it out before it’s gone!

Managed to power through the rest of the cards over the holidays! Had some ups and downs but it was kind of calming in the end just drawing swirl after swirl.

Managed to power through the rest of the cards over the holidays! Had some ups and downs but it was kind of calming in the end just drawing swirl after swirl.

There's a lot of wisdom (and sustainability) in choosing to succeed slower. With rare exception, Evil Hat grew (over 20 years) by incremental steps, risking only what we were willing (and able) to lose. Some variation on this features frequently when folks ask me the inevitable "how-to" questions.

Out of Sorts is one of the best experiences I've been able to share with friends this year - I'm looking forward to Club Spooky and That's the Spirit in 2026!

Well that was a year… outside of <waves hands> I launched my online store, sold over 300 copies of Out of Sorts, helped run the PaxWest indie market, ran a Kickstarter, and did a whole bunch of illustrations. This was the year of proving I have the basics down and that’s feeling pretty good : )

Honoured that That’s the Spirit is part of Best Week! This really has become my favourite genre of board game and it’s exciting being part of such great company.

I love how every announcement is the exact thing investors say they're not funding because there's no market for it, but by a famous person

Persuasion and Conviction, both by @xoe.gay, explore two distinct acts in the life cycle of a relationship. Both installments are incisive, thought-provoking, and (deliberately) toxic. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/12/09/p...

Having a good time working on a standard deck of cards. It’s starting to set in though that 52 is a lot of cards and I’ve ended up committing myself to drawing unique swirls on every one 😅

I scanned drawings and did minor edits digitally. And yeah the art style was chosen because I knew I could pull it off. Really happy with the result.

100%! This is also why my art is just colorful vector shapes. It's because I can't draw to the level I want it to be. My limitations have given birth to my art style.

In addition to everything else, the point about just doing your own sharpie stick figures is the hill I’ll die on. Your game doesn’t need 100s of highly realistic paintings. Collage public domain images together and throw on some filters. Draw stick figures. You’ll get better and faster as you go.

Over the last month, I've been working on this essay about the use of AI art in board games, "Is This Really What We Want?" Though it is contextually specific, it is also a reflection of my wider thoughts on the use of AI art and writing in creative contexts. www.meeplemountain.com/articles/is-...

Let's talk about board game boxes and their role in selling a game, framing and contextualizing the experience, and creating meaning. www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgfV...

For anyone who is interested in Adulting but didn't make it to IGNM, fear not! The PNP version is here! While I'd love to print more copies, this will have to do for now. It is pay what you want; I really just want to get this game in as many hands as possible. Let me know what you think!

Conviction by @xoe.gay is now available. A stable stalwart and an intrepid idealist vowed to live in harmony forever. But now, the two find themselves in a grim quarrel. You must decide if they cooperate, separate, or one dominates the story of their lives. The night is for mediation. 🌙

✨ Reminder!! ✨ Indie Games Night Market is tonight @ 7pm!! When the Expo Hall closes, come down to Hall C to buy the freshest indie games!! “More even than last year, these games seem like they’re pushing boundaries. They capture the spirit of what it means to be ‘indie.‘“ @danthurot.bsky.social

Finally sharing my sizzle reel! If you're in need of video production work (or pretty much anything creative), hit me up, esp. at #PAXU! I don't ask for this much, but if you're in the #boardgames industry and like what I do, consider sharing this! I'm looking to book up 2026! linktr.ee/jcw.gay

I sincerely hope people will check out this year's Indie Games Night Market at Pax Unplugged! I covered nine of the games that will be featured there, each of which has something to recommend it. With any luck, some of them will be picked up by publishers or continue to be sold by their creators.

And that is why I decided on hand-making copies for this year's Indie Games Night Market. I know it's perfect silly fun and a great way to draw a crowd at a convention 😉 - just please be careful with cross traffic! Please come check my game out & others this Saturday at PAX Unplugged!

Agreed. This is what KS was supposed to be for. Personal, niche, weird, offbeat, individual crafts that otherwise wouldn't be able to exist. Unfortunately, the hobby spent too long chasing the wrong objectives.

Seeing all the creativity coming out of these markets cemented something I’ve been feeling for a while. The “pitch to a publisher” pipeline as the norm really stifles game design. There’s so much creativity out there, it just needed an outlet.

Today I'm covering three more upcoming Indie Games Night Market titles! Fold & Fly!, Coupon Clipper, and Paper Pencil Stencil are all tactile treats. My reviews: spacebiff.com/2025/11/17/t...

We’re thrilled to share our Special Presentation; Indie Games Night Market Preview! It was a privilege to be part of this & share these games with you all~ youtu.be/HA_u8oxU0kc?... See the games that will be at the IGNM in exactly 1 week at #PAXunplugged! #boardgames #ignm #cardgames #indiegames

It's finally here!! Also this is a great thread for reading about Hollandspiel's latest releases!