This week's newsletter: We speak to @perryjon.bsky.social about his game Hot Streak. Cheer anthropomorphised fish, bears and hot dogs to victory in @cmyk.games' tabletop mascot-race simulation. thegenerationsgames.substack.com/p/jon-perry-...

Heard from a publisher yesterday: "We're looking for family weight games that after playing once, kids can teach the game to other kids." I'm going to start asking returning playtesters for any game to teach as much of it as they can to the other players. 🎲✂️

Now that I have some distance from my GDC talk, I think if I were to boil down my game design advice into a single sentence, it might be something like: Focus less on adding stuff to your game, and more on developing connections between the stuff you already have.

I've long been a proponent of the "losing is fun" ideology of game design, paired with "every decision should matter." And now I'm thinking that even more than that, every player action should bring some sense of immediate delight. #gamedev 🎲✂️

Worker Placement, Deck Building, and Victory Points are three pillars of modern game design. What other important building blocks would you say are discovered in the modern game design era? 🎲✂️

I noticed a really common pattern in co-op board games where players have to split their time between urgent tasks—which prevent a loss—and important tasks—which win the game. I wrote more about it in an article. 🎲 ✂️ #boardgamedesign #boardgames rossongames.com/urgent-impor...

In today's video I look into designing satisfying combos in games, the one rule I follow, and the advantages of following it! youtu.be/D14N8VEBp-g 🎲✂️

A good idea solves multiple problems at once.

My latest video talks about one of the things I have changed about my game design practice that has saved me the most time - minimising the work I do on a game before I test it. youtu.be/Yy1c-57mvaU 🎲✂️

This was a bit vague and esoteric, so I want to give a more concrete example, especially for folks who don't know my design history deeply. When I used to have the "games are just a bunch of mechanisms tied to a theme" mindset, I would always be flummoxed by a familiar pattern. 🎲✂️

While working on a game, the designer becomes blind to what confuses new players. But word-of-mouth is only possible for a game with a great first play. So: frequent testing with first-timers is critical (as is "blind testing" where players learn from the rulebook without help). 🎲✂️

Clarity! If you’re testing a new prototype you want to know if people like it. What works? What’s fun? You definitely don’t want players getting confused over your icons. The key message is simple: maximum clarity in prototypes means maximum testing of the actual gameplay. 🎲✂️

New post just dropped! For this one, I wanted to put together a list of ways to tweak your game. It's a thought exercise for some, but if you've been looking at your game and feeling stuck, try some of these to get it unstuck! open.substack.com/pub/entrogam... #gamedesign #boardgamedesign

Designers sometimes over-anchor to the satisfaction that comes when mechanics fit neatly. But players generally care more about fun. The ideal is fun AND clean, but no game is perfect, so we can't always have both. 🎲✂️

What makes a board game EXCITING? This is mostly a question for you -- I'm curious to hear thoughts -- but I'll tell you a little about what got me thinking about this 👇 🧵(1/4) 🎲✂️

For many, this takes deliberate practice, sometimes a mountain of it. But if you're like me, it's a godsend. By learning to see all criticism as a gift, a breadcrumb on the trail to truth, I've come to learn faster and savor the craft more deeply - both of which have sharpened me. 🎲✂️

“It’s impossible to imitate another artist’s point of view. We can only swim in the same waters. So feel free to copy the works that inspire you on the road to finding your own voice. It’s a time-tested tradition.” - Rick Rubin

Thought experiment: If I learned all my game design knowledge would soon be erased, but I could leave a 5-word message to my future self about how to design well, what would it be? 🎲✂️ Current best answer:

A mistakes I made in my time at Underdog Games: I created the name Trekking through History, and then pushed us to make it. I now prefer Trekking through Time It sounds better & highlights your time-traveler role. It's more fun, and communicates the game well. 🎲✂️

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Imo: In commercial tabletop game design, there are innumerable paths to failure for every one path to success. But to create, it’s often helpful to ignore this fact temporarily.

I've been listening to "Think Like A Game Designer", insightful game designer interviews by @justingary.bsky.social . Every so often I find myself writing down quotes, which I'll be sharing in this thread: 🎲✂️

"More clever than fun" I read the comment above about a random game in the BGG database. I feel that way about a zillion games. Fun is harder to design than clever. Also designers mix them up. Nothing against clever though. Fun AND clever is better than just fun. But fun is vital and hard.

there's a really important playtesting phase that a lot of ttrpg designers are scared to wallow in, which is the "this game is 100% unplayable without the designer present" phase

It’s hard to overstate truth’s value, as well as the difficulty of knowing truth. I take more seriously the views of folks who criticize and caveat their own beliefs. Confidence in belief is often a sign someone doesn’t understand the difficulty of knowing.

“Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture”

I've been doing life-gamification experiments. One that has worked well: My 6-year-old wants to go to the park often. When we do, I do one more pull-up on the monkey bars than I did the last time. Just did 23! Not bad for a 47 year old. 🎲✂️(1/2)

🎲✂️ I tried every method for producing custom dice that I could think of—hand drawn stickers, printer stickers, a label maker, iron on paper—but the best method by far has been spray painting with a silicone stencil. It was faster and produced much better results. I'll have to post my full process.

“Listening is suspending disbelief”

Collaborating is a skill, with a high ceiling. Some artists we think of as artistic geniuses are actually more like collaboration geniuses, but it’s hard to see that from the outside. Rick Rubin, a music producer who doesn’t make music, is the most archetypal example I can think of.

In today's video I talk about elegant design in games, and how you might go about aiming for it in your own designs! youtu.be/goONo66xVAs 🎲✂️

🎲✂️Lessons from Old Hits #3: Can't Stop (1980) 1. Press-your-luck needs variety (2s feels so much different than 7s) 2. Odds-defying comebacks are so fun 3. Loss aversion is a strong incentive 4. When a game shines on BGA, it can stay relevant indefinitely Other lessons for us?

My latest attempt to gamify my 6-year-old’s learning is off to a strong start. A friend loaned us a Nintendo Switch, then: My son and I planned together to do 5 minutes of reading each for each Mario Kart race we ran. In our first session, he read Dr. Seuss books to himself for an hour.

🎲✂️ Designers how well do you really know your game? We’re updating our pitch guidance and want to highlight the key questions a designer should be able to answer when submitting. Our working list attached : What would you add? #boardgames 🎲✂️

Going through games I’ve worked on, came across this one I did art direction for. I have a soft spot for it because of comments like this: “This is one of the dumbest games I have ever played, and also the hardest I have laughed with my board game group.”

The levels of revelation that can unfold in game design, as in any art, are inexhaustible. (borrowed from Steven Pressfield)

It’s said amateurs act for love, pros for money. That doesn’t accord with my experience. What I’ve seen: some combo of opportunity, determination, love, and pain-tolerance sorts amateurs from pros. The pros I know love the pursuit more than amateurs, and that love affords extra pain tolerance.

At 2, my son got a scoot bike. By 3, he was riding a pedal bike. We’ve also played board games since he was 2. Modern games are better than what I had, and he learned them earlier -they’re the scoot bike of games. I wonder how this will shape his long-term understanding and appreciation of games.

Today's video is about 10 common ways to improve your game design, things I find myself giving as playtesting feedback again and again :) youtu.be/px1sdjwL-z4 🎲✂️

Good things can grow in the soil of bad things: The tariff crisis seems to be sparking a creative surge in me. For a decade, my game design life has split between work and personal projects. 🎲✂️(1/9)

"Writing is a technology of rigor" This is a great expression of why I think game designers should try to write about what they're doing.

Today's video talks about some ways I think the publisher-designer relationship can be improved, from communication, to development and contracts. youtu.be/YXGdfWkgcGI 🎲✂️

A mantra that has served me well, making tabletop games for a living: The most important piece of marketing for a game is the game itself. It's one reason we now ideate at least 500 potential titles for each game and winnow them by an evolving rubric, for example. 🎲✂️

I love this game and I’m proud of Marceline and Underdog Games for having made it.

I think it’s not an accident the board game industry, and the players, are like 2 standard deviations more friendly than people in other fields. Tabletop games are super pro-social, and given the state of the world, that’s becoming less a luxury than a necessity.

Got the production sample for the last game I’ll design for Underdog Games for the foreseeable future. Happy with how it turned out, gonna miss Underdog.

Something we’ve begun doing that pleases me endlessly: Pre-shuffling decks of cards so players don’t have to shuffle before their first game.

This week's video is about 5 Board Game Design Myths, and my thoughts on why they might not be the best advice... youtu.be/vOgM4zjKQW8 🎲✂️

A silver lining of the tariff crisis is I've had a ton of conversations with other game publishers because of it. It's fascinating to see how different the approaches and operations of different companies are. Big reminder: always be talking to smart people.

Tabletop games are still among the most undervalued ways to spend free time and time with others. Wish I could somehow place a bet about this.