This weekend I'll be at Spellenspektakel, the biggest Dutch tabletop game convention. Come play a game of L'Oaf at booth 41, Hall 11!

Jason Gamber, the artist for L'oaf, just launched his new game on kickstarter. It's a game about zodiac signs but not about horoscopes. It's also a trick taker but kinda not. It's hard to explain. Anyway, just go check it out because Jason always does cool stuff. www.kickstarter.com/projects/red...

Anyone across the pond going to Pax Unplugged this year? My Game L'Oaf will be playable at their First Look section. boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/366...

I wrote a thing (I was planning to write this before Essen, but only managed after, like a true loaf): boardgamegeek.com/thread/36030...

My top Spiel moments: - Meeting @semicoop.bsky.social and demo'ing L'Oaf for them - Getting interviewed by @thehungrymeeple.bsky.social for their excellent podcast about food and games - Chatting with @petewiss.bsky.social about games, losing our voices, and the @decisionspace.bsky.social podcast

Becoming a father has changed my shopping behaviour at Essen Spiel considerably. This baby boar from @lookoutgames.bsky.social was my biggest purchase.

We went to Wulfhorn Games where @bartgamedesign.bsky.social demo'ed his game L'oaf. Who knew playing a bunch of lazy bakers who do just enough work to get not get in trouble is such a good time! We also talked briefly with @zhoekstra.bsky.social about his game Canal Houses (Foreshadowed!)

Finally arrived at Essen! Come say hi in Hall 3 at booth U130, if you want to see me try to explain L'Oaf while totally overwhelmed by all the noise and probably also slowly losing my voice

Me reading all the Essen posts, knowing that I'll only be there Saturday and Sunday:

New comic! ⏳ Ever wonder why a ‘60-minute game’ takes all evening? 😅 Based on careful observation of our last few game nights, we present our findings! What would you add (or remove) from it? You can read this week's blog post at semicoop.com/comic/game-time-breakdown/ #gamenight

I've had the chance to play several itterations of PACT over the last few years. it was a unique experience the first time around, and it has only improved since then. So excited for the 2026 release. I highly recommend checking it out!

I spotted L'Oaf in the wild for the first time yesterday! Always a magical moment when an idea I've worked on for years is suddenly an actual thing people can buy and play. Goblin Laundromat and Medievallons are awesome games as well, definitely worth checking out at Wulfhorn Games' Essen booth!

Excited that the news is finally out on Rattlesnake. I got to playtest it a couple of times with Michael during its development, it's a tense 1vs1 shootout with exceptional art by @rolandsrevenge.bsky.social. Definitely worth checking out at Essen!

New comic! Every year, we tell ourselves we're going to SPIEL just to “see friends.” Every year, our suitcase says otherwise. 😅 What board games are you most excited to check out at #SPIEL this year? 🎲 You can read this week's blog post at semicoop.com/comic/be-honest/ #boardgames

Today I GM'ed a simplified TTRPG for my twenty 4th and 5th graders (between 7 and 9 years old). This week is the Dutch "Week of the Children's Book", and the theme is "full of adventure". So naturally I decided to design a simple adventure game we could play in class. It was an absolute blast!

🎲✂️ Exactly five years ago, I playtested a very first version of what was going to be Soap Box Race. This might be the longest I've worked on one design, though much of that time I spent going around in circles because I was a novice designer. What's the design you've been working on longest?

The publisher received the first copies of L'Oaf today, and it's getting very real now. I can't wait for the release at Essen, but at the same time my impostor syndrome is acting up like crazy. Its telling me all these nice things like 'what if people will hate it?',

🎲✂️ So I decided to join this years Hippodice competition with my design Soap Box Race. It's a game that tries to capture the childhood excitement and imagination of building the awesomest soap box car and racing it down a hill (and probably crashing it in the process)

The most liberating part of my ADHD diagnosis was realising that I didn't have to listen to all the 'good advice' that wasn't working for me. I can have my own way to do things, and if people comment on it I can just say "my brain is weird and this is what works for it so sod off."

The level design in Silksong is terrible: platforms too high to reach, inaccessible levers behind closed doors, resources hidden in corners where the casual player could easily miss them. Incredibly sloppy stuff

For what it's worth, a tabletop writer who talks about game components or mechanics or strategy is engaging just as deeply with the game as someone who writes about theme or history or uses a game as a jumping off point for a personal essay. Tactility *is* the game. Colour is the game. Sound. Smell.

I talked a bit with Keith about how I use board games in my classroom. So interesting to read how educators in different fields and at different levels of education use games as a teaching tool!

Toilet thought: making art is quite like going to the toilet. Sometimes you're pushing hard and very little comes out, other times you sit down and it just starts flowing effortlessly. Regardless of how it went though, when you look at what you produced, it's all shit

Random 🎲 thought: sports, just like board games, can be divided into abstracts and thematics. Tennis is an abstract, while fencing is thematic.

🎲✂️ Question: What are lessons you've learned to keep a healthy work ethic? I'm working on a game about sentient robots with ADD, who struggle with the work they have to do. Their goal is to achieve a healthy work ethic through new insights. interested in all answers, not just for dealing with ADD.

What changed the most in my progression as a designer is the intentionality with which I start a design. It used to be "Oh a game about X would be cool!" and then I'd start prototyping. I would get stuck a lot because there where so many unanswered questions.

Just in case CGE is hoping that we will forget, let's make sure we don't forget.

It's the Amsterdam Pride canal parade today, and backers of the Amsterdam Board Game Design - Season 2 will receive a set Pride promo cards for each of the three games to celebrate. Here's the ones for L'Oaf:

This is extremely cool. GOG is taking a stand against payment processors caving to fundamentalist religious groups and is offering a bunch of "banned" games for free. freedomtobuy.games

Reviewers including No Pun Included and Shut Up & Sit Down are boycotting Codenames publisher CGE for releasing a new Harry Potter-themed game while ignoring JK Rowling’s anti-trans rhetoric: boardgamewire.com/index.php/20...

The leadership of the Tabletop Game Designers Association was disappointed to see the publisher CGE touting Codenames: Back to Hogwarts, a new Harry Potter-themed version of Codenames.

Great timing for CGE to amplify super-TERF Jay Kay Rowling w/HP Codenames days before heading to GenCon. For those in Indy, a productive way to counter CGE's online stonewalling of (trans) board gamers & content creators is to visit them in person & respectfully tell them how you feel.

It is my firm belief that good art is the best marketing for a game. With the amazing job that Jason Gamber did, it's no surprise that L'Oaf was given a spot on the cover image for the Essen '25 preview.

Two days left! An excellent set of games from a group and publisher worth supporting! (And not just because I'm part of it)

Game designers! Please enlighten me about your games that will be released this year! Why did you make them? What are your wildest dreams for them? 🎲✂️

Last weekend someone said they liked Bable because it manages to get all players frustrated within 15 minutes, and I'm so happy that there's an audience for this type of experience.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/abg... And we're live!

Tomorrow marks the launch of Amsterdam Board Game Design's second kickstarter campaign. My game L'Oaf is one of the three games on offer. Go check it out of you want to support indie game designers in the Netherlands, and get three awesome games to boot! www.kickstarter.com/projects/abg...

Someone on BGG described my game Bable as "A language-based memory game that's not quite as good as Gibberers but still very fun!" I looked up Gibberers, and they're probably right. Still taking it as a compliment.

I'll be at UKGE next week! Friday afternoon I will be demoing my upcoming game L'Oaf at the playtest zone. See you there?

Elevated tariffs continue to threaten the board game industry despite a 90-day ‘truce’ between the US and China – with publishers now facing a spike in shipping prices and a battle for container space as businesses race to take advantage of the lower-tariff window: boardgamewire.com/index.php/20...

My playtest session for tonight got cancelled, so I joined a regular game evening instead. Most games we played were outside of my normal zone of interest. It was a nice reminder of how inspiring it can be to look beyond my own interest, to see what others enjoy in games that don't 'do it' for me.

1/7 Game designers are weirdly wonderful.

Inspiration for a game can come from many places. Sometimes its other games, but for me its often other artforms. Here's a few things that inspired my upcoming game L'Oaf:

youtu.be/MQUpQJMAJQc?... L’Oaf prototype unboxing (in Dutch)

TTGDA and @gamaofficial.bsky.social have released a white paper on tariffs to answer a lot of frequently asked questions, like how the declared cost is calculated, country of origin determined, and more. Please spread to help us combat disinformation. www.ttgda.org/press

The artist (Jason Gamber) and graphic designer (Ruud Nederpelt) are working hard to bring my next game L'Oaf to life. Its such an amazing process to see them take my ugly prototype and turn it into something so pretty. And this isn't even its final form!