Played some great #boardgames this afternoon that I found via recommendations from others. Here Lies by @dvcgames.bsky.social is an incredible co-op deduction game and Cheese Thief from Jolly Thinkers is a very silly social deduction game with a squishy foam cheese.

World news today got us discussing such fun things at work like could the entire College of Cardinals win a fight against one gorilla?

Mostly played ourselves for June because Origins prep.

Read some nice things about our newer games, courtesy of the guy who hung out with me when I was about to cry from getting lost at Origins.

Getting better at displaying our growing catalogue with limited booth space.

messing with ‘coins’

I think if we made games to chase trends we wouldn’t exist. So there is something to be said about what is possible vs. what is mandatory. @marcelineleiman.bsky.social covers it better than I

Let’s play a round of Playthings together!

and Jasper Beatrix's heart grew three times larger that day

Collective member Phil Gross has been working on this behemoth for a while, and it is so stellar to see it in all its glory.

Got to play DUST end-to-end again today. Latest tweaks are *chef’s kiss* Kudos to Josh for such great work on the near-final art pass.

It is nice to create something with a thesis we care deeply about; it is so much more to see someone recognize and engage with it so eloquently. This one was designed by a bunch of forever children. May play never die.

Thank you for this! We saw Inkwell hit really well at Origins, with folks coming to the booth the next day talking about how much they enjoyed it. It really seems to connect with a really broad range of people who want a simple, puzzle-y experience!

I've had my eye on Corvids since Pax Unplugged last year. @dvcgames.bsky.social told me "buy the games you're going to play", so I immediately bought it first thing at Origins and played it that night. We had a delightful time picking up trinkets and will be getting this out again next weekend.

i almost forgot that origins is so fun i think 70% of my favorite con encounters/conversations in a year happen at origins

raising our first child while living in the current media environment means i have had such fun crossover dreams as “wiggles open for bad bunny” and “blippi finds the backrooms”

the prototype is only getting prettier

please come hang out with me and talk about the nuances of here lies 2 and pacts 2 content

Okay, so uh, Origins is next week and we are soft releasing our 10th and 11th games. Which puts us... 6 games ahead of the schedule we originally had two years ago when this was 'just a random little thing we did'. So, I wanted to sift through some data, and give some rankings to contemplate.

This is a really fair assessment- Inkwell does sit between a lot of inspirations, and that seems to create an interesting divide for those that love it and those that don’t. It’s great as a game because it is so loved by our own crew, but also a learning experience- how art interacts with the world.

Been testing this game for so long with cardboard blanks that I almost forget it is supposed to be pretty. Time to agonize over cut lines.

Upgraded my freaky “dice”

something on my mind sonce @timclare.bsky.social ‘s book shook up my brain: do dice have to be square???

@bobbywest.bsky.social and I playtest Photo Club

And finally, along with Photo Club and Thieves' Cant, I do get to work on this! Which, technically, was mostly done a while ago. Tuning new cards and cases is all that is left.

Even more progress on things: Thieves' Cant is getting figured out for early 2027! Here is a pass where we are still going back and forth about placement of text and other elements.

I tried Pacts because of @danthurot.bsky.social's lovely review and I am completely smitten. What a thinky knife fight of a game.

Today's work: drafting possible layouts for Photo Club. And also, we got some are from Teena, and we love it.

Joey and I made a ‘trendy’ unboxing video and mostly realized we have no idea what we are doing & showed nothing of value about the game except BELLS

A game after our own hearts. Check it out! Absolutely!

Today’s Playtest: Blind exploration of a cave system.

If you are doing UKGE, check out our buds at Zatu. They got, like, all our games. Pass the word along to your UK friends!

I'll be throwing this in various emails to our retailer friends, but if you are a retailer, or you have a favorite brick-and-mortar store, this is a good summary on how DVC can be available more locally: dvc.games/pages/retail...

Because lil Remi likes the Wiggles, a sizable percentage of the Jasper Beatrix collective has developed strong opinions on members, lore, and songs. Tsehay has the lead as team favorite, as well as the cover of the song Rattlin’ Bog. That is all.

Sixth cribbage-based game pitch since November. Y’all playing more cribbage than me.

We wanted DUST to evoke a lot of feelings. It has that choose-your-way approach to storytelling, with the top-down maps of early adventure games, plus a graphic novel of cutscenes and a bunch of memorable characters. It is truly a handcrafted adventure. We hope y'all will like it as much as we do.

Aight so I want to be sure I am not missing out on anything cool going on: Name an innovative designer working now and one of their games you found innovative?

Today’s playtest: Climb the mountain, steal fire from the gods

If you hadn’t heard, Pacts is in testing on BGA. Which is neat! But I do jump into random match-ups with folks and mercilessly cook most of them, so I do feel bad that the first impression of the game is getting decimated…

Got folks playing DUST almost every day this week.

It was super fun to tune in and watch y'all play! And you are right... we gotta cook up Pacts 2. Or, at least, put it out there... it is pretty much finished.

I mean we really try to fit it all ain’t we :D Last quality checks before final assembly and shipping for Playthings, Rosetta, and *gasp* reprints of the Corvids promos.

If you had to show someone one tabletop game - boardgame, card game, ttrpg, etc - to demonstrate that games are or can be art, which game would you choose? & why? I'd really like to hear folks' thoughts on this. Obviously I have some opinions, but what are you picking?

My heart!!! We love it!

Tell me about a board game that you believe has a soul.

10 points: 2x jays dragonfly + butterfly field (fall effect, in very back) camera touching table (winter effect)

I think? Let's go? Let's go!

A beautiful day to sponsor LGBTQ Awareness Day at our local zoo!

all i can think is ‘oh dear lord how is it tomorrow tomorrow?’

An old friend will be coming back at Gen Con this summer. If you were a fan of Signal or Here Lies, this is where it all began.