👀 @mistergross.bsky.social thursday.... www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwq6...

Please reply and recommend your top 🎲✂️ related Gen Con events for 2026!

So much 🎲✂️ discourse is about the tactics of game design, e.g. clever ideas, weird techniques. But most of what you need to be successful at game design is strategy e.g. a schedule for iterations, a system for getting honest feedback, a commitment to not calling it done until it's actually great.

Hey friends Please meet my big nasty baby 🥰 I’m honored to work with PHG on this. Happy Friday!

Many hours later that post is still up, the photos are still up, and the only clarification is in the comments. Seems like they're happy to let less plugged in backers still take these photos at face value. Pretty scummy IMO.

Stream time twitch.tv/plaidhatgames swo tourney finals

Streaming a coding afternoon at twitch.tv/joepinion . Starting soon!

Coding stream, come say hi: twitch.tv/joepinion

If you're into deep dives of game balance, check out the stream starting in a sec: twitch.tv/joepinion 🎲✂️

The thing that we all ACTUALLY want from AI is a sci-fi phone/computer assistant that we can just talk to casually and it opens files and moves folders around and does all that boring shit for us. So far the attempts, like Gemini on my phone, are beyond pathetic far WORSE than old google assistant.

I hope Josh Hutcherson doesn't regret going for it with this faceplant of a segment, because us fans of TI4 still really loved it. XD youtu.be/XtcPqkNW8vY?...

Whoops, our power went out. Hopefully it returns soon

Playing some Summoner Wars Online live in 15 minutes... with dragons! Will give away some digital decks during the stream.

Testing a @mistergross.bsky.social game at our local design meetup...

There's just nothing like fresh eyes on a 🎲✂️ prototype. For ourselves (and the people playing with us regularly), we all have too much of what the game wants to be or has been in our heads. There just is no way to think your way out of it, you have to see what a new player sees.

My newest 🎲✂️ experiment: trying to design a regular-ass worker placement game. My games tend to have weird innovations in them, which involve a ridiculous amount of work and a lot of games that are dead ends. What will happen if I try something more contained?

Journalists/editors, please, I am begging you to stop making articles out of bs quotes by AI company CEOs, unless it's to make fun of them. They will literally say anything to make their valuation go up by .1%.

Oof, Dice Tower misunderstood the basic rules of Propolis, which is a lovely game, AND said several times that the rule they're playing wrong is the biggest problem with the game. Publisher and fans in the comments clarifying. Embarrassing, they should really take it down.

Commentating on a live SW game right now! www.twitch.tv/cherezsw

why is it so fun to brainstorm with others about iterating on a game design? 🎲✂️ it's one of the most energy-rich interactions you can have and i don't know why exactly.

Quick self-brag... Managed to finish couch to 5k (for the 3rd time in my life) this morning. Running 3mi (5k) 3 days per week in 30 minutes. Hoping to pick up the pace slightly then ramp up toward 5 miles. Haven't lost weight but I truly don't give an eff about that. Good to be somewhat in shape.

Starting a new 🎲✂️ meetup in Ashland, Ohio this Tuesday! Hoping to build more of a design community around here to engage with.

I can't stop thinking about how many content creators just didn't say anything about the Ace of Spades art. That art was so over the top it belonged in a Key and Peele sketch about a racist card game. I am dumbfounded. Did people just think, "Trump's back, we don't have to worry about that anymore"?

Apologies aside, a direct homage to a movie character is a lazy ass way to do art direction and world building in your game. Use some imagination.

"They needed to hire a sensitivity consultant" dude my racist West Virginia ancestors coulda told you that card art was racist.

Took a picture with a giant golem character at #gencon. Yes there is a person with not enough points of articulation inside there.

Alright, for 🎲✂️ folks doing cold pitches at Gen Con booths: 1. be very patient, there's a lot going on. 2. look into the publisher's catalog beforehand and decide if your game is a good fit. if it is, make sure to make that fit part of the pitch. Fit is more important than ever. 3. make it brief.

Very tired from packing #GenCon truck. Uh oh, much manual labor ahead.

Anybody know if there are vendors at #gencon who sell Undertale merchandise? Asking for an offspring.

Joe's #gencon shopping list (or, at least look at these and consider buying). 1. Beer Mug Dice. Older game getting its first English edition. Simple push-your-luck game where you roll actual barrels and see how many land standing up. Booth #2663.

Have an ear infection for the first time in my adult life. Damn it's annoying. Ended up staying home from work to try to recover (along with prescribed antibiotics). But, good to get this stuff outta the way before the Gen Con trip I guess.

hey we just announced our newest game. I'll be demoing it a lot of the week at Gen Con booth 2229. We're all huge fans of Super Auto Pets so this was a dream project. www.kickstarter.com/projects/pla...

My thoughts: The core of game design 🎲✂️ is that magical mysterious dose of uncertainty in the gameplay. It's hard to find, it almost has to be discovered rather than invented. That's the most important job of the game designer. Everything else overlaps with the developer.

I have my thoughts, but would be interested in hearing from all the 🎲✂️ peeps here: Besides the obvious, what is the difference between the roles of game designer and game developer? What are the divergences in skill? What are the overlaps?

Most of my 🎲✂️ time is spent as a developer, so I focus on smoothing out, simplifying, balancing, cutting, cleaning up. Not sure how to reconcile that with the fact that many of the most loved games - even ones I worked one! - are messy as hell. (Looking at you, Dead of Winter and Forgotten Waters.)

90% of 🎲✂️ that gets to the prototype stage dies after the first play. Because those first plays all suck. The core of successful game design is just the ability to take a couple days off, shake the dust off, then get back on the horse with the next version. (Again and again and again.)

Need a 🎲✂️ name for the gap between how simple I think my game design is and how complex it feels to players. I can cut things out, play multi-handed, and feel SURE the game is way too simple, but somehow 2 seconds into the playtest, it's clear there's WAY too much going on for the players to track.

Slay the Spire is better than social media.

How much do you all value novel/innovative ideas in your 🎲✂️ pursuits? To me, it's essential, but I've noticed that most players don't care about it, and don't complain when a game is a direct "take" on another design or a pastiche of well-worn mechanisms.

We all joke about having tons of 🎲✂️ ideas on ice, but sometimes after a playtest, a design needs some time in cold storage so that you can get some distance. When you finally come back, the solutions are a lot closer than they would've been in the immediate aftermath.

Remember that pitching and product design are not a required aspect of 🎲✂️. You can design a game just for you and your circle, or for you and the weird things that interest you.

Yo #GenCon is coming soon so I'm tiptoeing back onto this little corner of social media. Having 0 social media has been very good for me, but don't want to miss out on the Gen Con happenings and fun. Let me know if you wanna game ! :)

Streaming filth/trees soon on the phg twitch!

Tomorrow's launch list for the Filth and Chosen Grove on Summoner Wars Online. (Would it be better if it said "lunch list," Kevin??)

Summoner Wars Online Update! boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/165...

Never have I ever opened the correct authenticator app on the first try. It's like the new USB2.0.

Dropped into the Old Bad Place after the debate to see reactions and such. Man that place continues to just spiral into trash. The "for you" tab is horrifying. Hoping this place is still cool.

Streaming soon! About to go live

A little birdie told me PHG is launching our first crowdfunding campaign later today. Give it a follow if you have the chance. www.kickstarter.com/projects/pla...

Heading to origins today with my Kirby shirt, trucker hat, and old lady glasses string. Say hi if you see me!