starting work on the card art for PREPOTENT, my long-delayed horse-breeding, -racing, and -betting game.

one thing that's interesting is that having anything on the back of the box is a relatively recent phenomenon - becoming commonplace just in the last 40 years or so. Many games prior to the 1980s had entirely blank box backs definitely cases where I have been tempted myself...

New game day! Belinda's Big Bonus is now available. Cookware not included.

So excited to crack open my shiny new copy of 'Cardboard Ghosts' by @amabel.bsky.social. I'm keen to see how her ideas on metaphor, immersion and agency might translate to classroom play experiences... particuarly with her commentary on several of @colewehrle.bsky.social's historical games.

LOOKING FOR AN INDIGENOUS COLLABORATOR 🧵 I'm planning a video essay on the Billy Jack films, particularly focusing on Trial of Billy Jack & its angry panorama of 1970s political activism - police brutality, penal reform, Viet Nam, Kent State - it kinda has everything & I wanna dig into that.

hey, let's learn how the heck I made a Belinda Blinked game www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSNp...

I think this is my favorite rules thread title

I need to take a break between stints at the Six Moons Wood Bits factory, so let's play a solo game of my new release cross4. Game continues until I can't place valid words. +1 pt per word, -1 per blank, +1 for J, Q, W, X, Z appearing in 2 words. M/W and N/Z are the same face. Turn 1!

rulebook is now up on BGG for anyone who's been wondering, "how the hell did she make a Belinda Blinked game?" boardgamegeek.com/filepage/308...

New game day! cross4! Buy it or else. We have not determined what 'else' is yet, but you should buy it to be safe.

I haven't done a game design thread in a bit, and I just got the final proof cards for BELINDA'S BIG BONUS, so let's talk about the exclusives that come with the deluxe "Belinkers Edition". 🧵

The Aurora Plastics Corporation, later Aurora Products, was known for their slot cars and licensed model kits. But the publication of a board game would change everything. youtu.be/TH3QT05C25w

Cooling off.. 😅

now that we're clearing out the backlog, I've updated the schedule for the rest of the year, and am preparing for our first new release since May. Unfortunately Rayroads gets pushed to 2026 as a result but I promise it will be worth the wait.

Doubt is our Product changed the way I think about games forever. Nicaea is wild to bring out with people who have never played a Hollandspiele, and I'm sure the rest are awesome too. If you haven't tried one yet, now's a great time to jump in.

Nicaea is hilarious even if you never play it (guilty). Endurance is an amazing historical retelling. Doubt Is Our Product is not just a great commentary on the subject, but a really solid super-asymmetric.

Nine years of Hollandspiele! Thank you for supporting us. We're having a flash sale now through Sunday, offering a $9 discount on five of Amabel's games.

Hollandspiele is at this moment working on the backlog of orders for Amabel's City of Six Moons. Once we're caught up, we'll have a better idea of the exact release date for BELINDA'S BIG BONUS. But we expect it to be in September or October.

Our lids were sealed; but like the Duchess, we promised we'd come clean! Coming this fall;; BELINDA'S BIG BONUS - a BELINDA BLINKED game - is the first board game based on the books by @flintstonerocky.bsky.social enjoyed by "Belinkers" around the globe. 🧵for details 🧵

My Favorite Wargame Cards – A Look at Individual Cards from My Favorite Games – Card #41: Sarmatia from The Wars of Marcus Aurelius: Rome 170-180CE from @hollandspiele.bsky.social theplayersaid.com/2025/07/22/m...

Does your hat have a bit of an attitude? Does it think too highly of itself? Does your hat need to be taken down a peg or two? Just show it this photo, it will ruin your hat's self-worth. THIS is a hat. Jessie Matthews in the musical "Evergreen" (1930)

Czech poster for GODZILLA, 1956.

Our unboxing video for Comet: Allied Airman Rescue in World War II from @hollandspiele.bsky.social theplayersaid.com/2025/07/06/u...

Yesterday we had a fantastic game of Supply Lines of the American Revolution by @hollandspiele.bsky.social. In this game, as soon as the treaty of alliance is signed with France, the Patriot wins an immediate victory. #DidYouSayThankYouOnce?

Happy Independence Day! Gaming the American Revolution – Ranking the Games We Have Played – 2025 Edition with games from @gmtgames.bsky.social, @compassgamesllc, @Academy_Games, @worth2004, @hollandspiele.bsky.social RBM Studio and more. theplayersaid.com/2025/07/04/g...

Don’t know what to say about this review, other than I’m appreciative of people like Dan, who engage with games deeply. He words much about my game better than I ever could have. I especially love this line: “This one is angry, polemical, slapdash, and wholly on-point.”

Sykes-Picot is a trick-taker and area control game from @rollplusfun.bsky.social and @amabel.bsky.social. As a trick-taker, it has some stark limitations — but those limitations are also what makes it sing as a historical corrective. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/06/16/s...

City of Six Moons, a game whose explicit intention is for you to play it wrong many times before (maybe) playing it correctly, was made with me as its target audience. Thank you @hollandspiele.bsky.social

Our video review for Striking Flint: The 1937 UAW Sit-Down Strike in Flint, Michigan from @hollandspiele.bsky.social theplayersaid.com/2025/06/15/v...

By random chance I decided to put an order to Second Chance Games 2 days before the @shutupshow.bsky.social video dropped. I count myself lucky. Also I am really really excited for Eyelet, I think I was lucky to get the last copy. Great stuff from @hollandspiele.bsky.social and @amabel.bsky.social.

I hope to gosh people actually see this on the page, I can't make it any larger lol

The baker is on her way! 📹 ig: peachie.cass

Check out Sykes-Picot, by @rollplusfun.bsky.social, published by @hollandspiele.bsky.social!

#OTD 1700 years ago, the Council of Nicaea began. If you ever wanted to decide if God the Father and God the Son are the same in essence, which Sunday Easter falls on, and if to pray kneeling or standing until Pentecost, play #Nicaea by @amabel.bsky.social @hollandspiele.bsky.social!

Our unboxing video for Beware the Ides of March: The Liberator’s Civil War from @hollandspiele.bsky.social theplayersaid.com/2025/05/31/u...

it's new game day buy my game please if I sell enough of them today, I will buy myself a treat hollandspiele.com/products/a-b...

We are now taking orders for a game whose title doesn't play nice with bluesky's character limit! 24 scenarios both famous and obscure - Bouvines! Hastings! Agincourt! The Battle on the Ice! Celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Shields & Swords series. hollandspiele.com/products/a-b...

We are now taking orders for a game whose title doesn't play nice with bluesky's character limit! 24 scenarios both famous and obscure - Bouvines! Hastings! Agincourt! The Battle on the Ice! Celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Shields & Swords series. hollandspiele.com/products/a-b...

This is Chili. He got a special Chili-sized couch a few months ago. Pleased to report that naps are even cozier in a place of your very own. 13/10

Amabel gives us a quick look at her upcoming Shields & Swords anniversary collection, “A Battle, Furious, Bloody, Repulsive, Crimson, Gory, Boisterous, Manly, Rough, Fierce, Unmerciful, and Hostile.”

For RPG Limit Break 2025, I am bringing Nicaea by Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social @hollandspiele.bsky.social to play with the speedrun community. Excited to play it, since I love Amabel's humor, and I know it is a very thoughtful design from talking with her last year on the podcast.

Hey, why not have a fascinating read via the designer diary of Sykes-Picot, a board game designed by @rollplusfun.bsky.social and published by @hollandspiele.bsky.social. You'll enjoy it, I promise. #boardgames #gamedesign 🎲✂️

Quite the feeling to hold the final product of something you created! Thanks to @amabel.bsky.social and @hollandspiele.bsky.social for taking a chance on me as a new designer. Pleased to have this be my first published game. Now back to the game design! 🎲✂️

Let's ruin the world, together, shall we? Join us as we play the brand new #SykesPicot from @hollandspiele.bsky.social & @rollplusfun.bsky.social LIVE at 1115 EDT today www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnXV...

One round into Sykes-Picot by @rollplusfun.bsky.social and @hollandspiele.bsky.social Already feeling like my wife has gifted me shit territory over tea

Tonight's game, simple fun hex and counter from @hollandspiele.bsky.social that I finally got around to playing, about the Thai attempt to seize their lost provinces from French Indochina This would be a good intro to hex and counter, as it is true hex and counter style but plays in a couple hours

I spent a year trying to find out who designed a fifty year old board game. Here’s what I found out.

It occurs to me that if I was pressed to define a "board game", the answer would change from day to day, but the definition I am most interested in, is a physical object designed to be engaged with in a way that requires or foregrounds gaining understanding of its rules

How we roll at the Met Gala.