Introducing more people to Counterpoint tonight! Still consistently impressed with how clever this cooperative trick taker makes me feel as I negotiate making music with my fellow bandmates. www.kickstarter.com/projects/squ...

This week has been all about locking in the art and look for Pax Playground. I think I have a box cover. Want to see it?

I just backed This Fight Is Staged! + New Challenges Expansion! on @kickstarter.com www.kickstarter.com/projects/jam...

My new sculpture body of work is available! I've been melding my ceramics and wood practices as an exploration of anxiety and ritual. Beasts of Burden is online at Archimedes Gallery, alongside work by @leslielevings.bsky.social and @evafunderburgh.com ! archimedesgallery.com/collections/...

I mean I love anytime Out of Sorts pops up, but I loved the writing about community and neurodivergence even more. It’s a great read.

After UK Games Expo last year, I wrote a very upbeat piece about games I played & people I played with & neurodivergence. I'm looking forward to heading back this year. You can read my thoughts from last year, which still feel right to me: www.timclarepoet.co.uk/uk-games-exp...

Got in a game of Roads and Boats yesterday. Love this game but I am awful at it. Went all in on donkeys and planes and managed to make a stock certificate for the first time.

Counterpoint is coming to Kickstarter ✨✨MAY 26TH✨✨ Hit the notify me button to be alerted when the campaign goes live! 🎻🎶🎲✂️ #tricktakers

Nothing has radicalized me more on this point than watching a publisher I respected publish a new edition of one of the most important "art games" of the last decade and make every possible wrong decision in the pursuit of hiding what it was to market it to the broader public

I think fundamentally it's about whether the publisher sees games as art and designers as artists to be respected with a vision to be supported, or whether they see games as products and designers as interchangeable, easily-exploitable labor

The WENDYBUXXX Kickstarter is now live!! I've also posted a designer diary at BGG: boardgamegeek.com/thread/37003...

The whole “don’t publish, just stick to game design” has always been weird to me. Board game publishers do a ton of game design work on top of the “just design”. Development, graphics, layout, product design are all pretty integral to game design. The business folks don’t “just stick to business”.

How has being a publisher impacted my creative process? (warning: video contains adorable pups) youtu.be/7M9cko3cTTE

A lot of effort in multiplayer board game design goes into making sure everyone feels they have a chance to win for as long as possible. But this isn't necessary if we persuade players to care about their ranking. So many players have internalized "1st place or nothing" but it need not be that way.

Getting ready for my first convention booth and just got the alert that this is on its way! (This was a big reason I redid my logo. Old one looked, um…bad…any bigger than it was)

Back at the video thing 😎 Taking a break did give me time to have lots of fake arguments in the shower on the next topic. So that was nice!

Counterpoint - a trick taking game about performing musical compositions - has all the elements I like from the Crew combined with bidding, a fun theme, and playlist you can listen to as you're performing. Coming soon to Kickstarter by Square Cactus Games. @tedmannschaller.bsky.social

Only a couple days left to get Chicken Fried Dice on Kickstarter!! Truly a labor of love that I've seen evolve and grow over the years. Go check it out before the campaign ends! @urbanprogames.bsky.social www.kickstarter.com/projects/urb...

Today’s the last day to get your applications in!

Excited to announce that Out of Sorts second edition is launching this August! All new books to sort, challenges to face and a mini expansion all in a shiny new box. Follow now on Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/alw...

A lovely game that is entirely the vibe of our usual game night crew. Glad to see it grow.

Excited to announce that Out of Sorts second edition is launching this August! All new books to sort, challenges to face and a mini expansion all in a shiny new box. Follow now on Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/alw...

Anyways, all that to say... I've been taking a break to revamp the Always Awake Games logo!

Now that the ks is officially fulfilled, Club Spooky and That’s the Spirit are now available! www.alwaysawake.games I’ve also got a few review copies set aside, so if you do reviews and are interested, send me a DM!

Not me starting a YouTube series and then burning out straight away. At least I'm living up to my ideal of not needing to make everything commercially viable 😅 My brain is in "dump ideas into a file" mode, and not so much "talk into a camera in an empty room".

Now that the ks is officially fulfilled, Club Spooky and That’s the Spirit are now available! www.alwaysawake.games I’ve also got a few review copies set aside, so if you do reviews and are interested, send me a DM!

Reminder that applications for the indie tabletop market at PaxWest close on the 19th!

Today on the podcast, we're putting the First Play in First Player Token! We took a spin with Club Spooky by @connor.alwaysawake.games and loved the silly spooky vibe! Listen to our one-play review here: www.buzzsprout.com/2292265/epis.... Warning: Cute kids on audio!

The PNW Tabletop Market at Pax West is happening again and applications are open through 4/19! If you’ve got a scrappy/quirky/weird/home made game you want to make and sell 20-50 copies of this is your chance! Excited to see what you’ve got : ) www.alwaysawake.games/pnw-tabletop...

New Multiple Win Conditions! Today I’m talking about “Find the Fun”. One of the most common bits of advice I got as a new designer youtu.be/vPTe9PlGAP8?...

but also: there's obviously a bigger appetite than people think for weird, experimental games that question the basic assumptions & received wisdom of "Good Game Design" if there wasn't, folks would have gotten sick of me a long time ago

The PNW Tabletop Market at Pax West is happening again and applications are open through 4/19! If you’ve got a scrappy/quirky/weird/home made game you want to make and sell 20-50 copies of this is your chance! Excited to see what you’ve got : ) www.alwaysawake.games/pnw-tabletop...

New Multiple Win Conditions! Today I’m talking about “Find the Fun”. One of the most common bits of advice I got as a new designer youtu.be/vPTe9PlGAP8?...

Chicken Fried Dice is the sort of roll-and-write I would introduce to my sister's family, a mid-weight, mid-complexity, mid-math game about building the most successful food truck. My preview: spacebiff.com/2026/03/27/c...

@coinflip.games & I had the absolute honor of joining @panda8ngel.bsky.social on Boardgamegeeks Podcast, episode 91! We talk about ourselves, Chicken Fried Dice,and how we got started mostly before jumping in to our favorite blank n write games! Thank you so much! boardgamegeek.com/blog/12153/b...

"Every good game I've ever seen has eventually found its audience!"

First of all, feedback like this from one of the designer friends I admire the most means the world. So thank you, Marceline! Second, this feels like a great opportunity for a lil chat on why my prototypes look like they do. If you're curious, follow along for a 🎲✂️ thread:

This segment in particular stands out. If you're trying to capture the feeling of asking a human with knowledge on the subject....have you tried actually asking a human with knowledge on the subject? So much of this is systemic of the breakdown of networks and institutional knowledge.

Club Spooky by @connor.alwaysawake.games is adorable! And a darn fine game, at least after a first play. Players bid on ghosts and ghouls to join their clique with VIPs offering different ways to score and randos not doing much. All very speedy and whimsical. Really glad I backed this one.

No budget? No problem! Free art from dead people for your games: www.skeletoncodemachine.com/p/public-dom... #ttrpg #boardgames #gamedesign #publicdomain #freeart #art

Getting two kickstarter #boardgames to the table the day after delivery... must be a record! Already some very funny moments - one player's picky clique collapsed in a cascade in Club Spooky and the tornado suit in That's the Spirit allowed the other players to manipulate me into the culprit!

Always a good day when it's a Kickstarter delivery day, and especially so when it's a couple of spooky card games from @connor.alwaysawake.games - excited to try these out!

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how so much game design advice that’s available is really just business/product advice. It’s got a lot of survivorship bias and as a result, it’s homogenising and dissuading a lot of what’s possible. So…I’m making a little vlog series about it!

Big Pasti's latest video, entitled "The 7 Deadly Sins of Board Game Design", had a real effect on me, and today's video is a response to his. I think there is a better way we can talk about game design. youtu.be/BY7TeikZcBw 🎲✂️

Excited about the selection for game night tonight!

That’s the Spirit was a big hit! We had a full group of five and made it through enough rounds that we saw all of the different causes of death. Folks really loved the different flavor of abilities for each cause of death. Well done Connor!

Almost exactly 3 years ago I started working on a game about public transit & reducing car dependency. And on Wednesday the Kickstarter campaign for the game goes live! Link to our page - www.kickstarter.com/projects/fow...

I’ve been following the journey of this game for a while and I’m so excited it’s finally launching! A real time, roll and write sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it does and it’s so good! www.kickstarter.com/projects/urb...

#tabletop Bluesky people! We're organizing a small print run board game market, hosted at UKGE this year (think Night Market at PAX). If you've got a small, original production that you'd like to get in front of people, we'd love for you to apply at market.bastiongames.co.uk Please share!

I'm so excited this is finally launching! Help them out and sign up to be notified if you haven't already. I mean, you know you want this game. But you can't back it until tomorrow. @urbanprogames.bsky.social @boardgameghee.bsky.social