This is Harvest. I had heard great things, but it didn't really do anything for me. It feels like a casual phone-game.

My personal thoughts are that if an expansion design is obvious (beyond content expansions), then the original game probably lacked something. 🎲✂️

Vikings! A fantastic earlier example of the "take and make" genre. Each turn, you get a viking meeple and an island tile, and have to add them to your grid - each viking type scores in different ways. Fun!

If you would like one of these, I can bring copies to Essen. So just 10 EUR for a bit of history!

My last year has been full of burnout, and my design efforts (which are a hobby!) have been much reduced. But I'm still headed to Essen! I have new designs, but I won't be pitching like normal or doing anything stressful - just meeting friends and playing games!

I know this is a bit old-fashioned, but I still really really enjoy "pure" deckbuilding games. Have there been any stand-out ones from the past couple of years that I might have missed?

Stephenson's Rocket is Knizia's train game... and it's awesome. On the surface, it feels like a lot of other train games, but the route building is savage!

I have gotten rid of games, unplayed, because of colour choices. I want to play them, but it's impossible. 🎲✂️

Playtesting Milk - a game about buying and selling city districts for milk delivery companies. It's really simple, but testers always seem to enjoy it. After you wrangle prices for 30 minutes, the game finishes with a puzzle and reveal. 2 maps so far - Pittsburgh and Dublin. Needs a publisher!

"Feel good" is valuable, but can only exist in contrast to other emotional moments. 🎲✂️

I quite like the mechanisms for Fancy Feathers, but I think the variable decks actually work to the detriment of it. You pick 6 out of 15 or so possible decks each game - some of those combinations are fantastic, while some lead to some really dull games.

We played a little Rummy. I do enjoy this game and had to account for a few German rules nuances I hadn't seen before. One player didn't know Rummy and it was very interesting to see just how hard it is to teach to a new player...

Kreta was a charity-shop find... but what a find!! Tense and mean, players don't need to dominate the map to win, but just spot and scoring opportunities. When you trigger scoring, you basically lose your turn, so it has very simple minor catch-up mechanism.

Please Write Death Name is great! Players secretly write names on cards and draft them, trying to keep the cards that will be in a specific position when they're arranged alphabetically. It's very very simple, but works very well. Look at all those negative points!

🎲✂️ The first game I designed died a death of a thousand cuts. It had patches on top of patches, fixing issues those other patches caused. Keep going back to your core loop.

Blowing up cars and crashing into helicopters, as nature intended.

🎲✂️ As a designer most interested in mechanical hooks, this is something I need to work on!

🎲✂️ One of the most memorable prototypes I ever played was a "fixed" version of Snakes and Ladders (Chutes and Ladders).

Oh dear!

🎲✂️ Power Grid is a master class in this. Players FIGHT to be in second place!

🎲✂️ Every exception in your rules must fight for survival - they suck energy out of the game!

Up or Down is a simple enough card drafting game, which I enjoyed quite a bit. An interesting twist is that you can't keep the cards in your hand, but it's so easy to forget that, and then get repeatedly sad about it!

🎲✂️ (Think about how players line up their trains while waiting for Ticket to Ride to begin...)

🎲✂️ If something detracts from your hook, maybe cut that thing. Your hook will be what sets your game apart.

Innovation is the GOAT.

🎲✂️ Play more games to develop your mechanical literacy.

🎲✂️ This is why phone numbers are generally chunked into groups of 5 digits.

🎲✂️ If everything is balanced, then it doesn't matter what I do... right?

This is a great game design thread on mass-market titles. 🎲✂️

This puzzle for 6-year-olds is making me feel kind of stupid right now... You can only rotate the pieces - not flip them.

Zuuli is lovely! Draft cards with a pick-and-pass mechanism, to put them in your zoo. That's it! Keep an eye on other players, but don't get too stressed! It could use some more interesting combos though.

🎲✂️

🎲✂️ I'm sure I'll be playing Power Grid USA and Ticket to Ride: Europe until I'm an old man.

This one is gonna be goooood!

Gibberers was amazing. It took 2 nights to play, was stupendously hard, and rewarding, and frustrating, and funny. I think I'll never play it again. Everyone should play it.

🎲✂️ We've all fallen for that trap - "the game is boring, so let's throw in an event deck!"

🎲✂️ I'd rather play on a well-designed and intentional map than on a randomised set of tiles.

Canopy: Evergreen is excellent. Really, the draft is so simple and clever, and means you get stacks of cards - it feels like a Las Vegas fruit machine!

🎲✂️ Create a "minimal viable product", so that you can be sure the core loop works at all.

🎲✂️ I think that it's fine to have different rules for different player counts (for example, to make sure a two player game remains tense). I approach single-player design more like puzzle design - personal preference, but I don't see the point in emulating human players.

We played Innovation with 2 expansions and it took almost 2 hours! I enjoyed it in a kind of masochistic way. It's so broken in every manner, that it goes all the way around and becomes a work of twisted genius. It willingly breaks every "good design" rule.

🎲✂️ The real problem with end-game scoring is that a five-minute accounting session runs a serious risk of dissipating any built-up tension. Be careful!

🎲✂️ This isn't to say you should curtail the game's climax! If you're making a race, let it happen, but would it be as good with a slightly shorter course?

The Hippodice Competition has gone live for 2026! I had a game come second place in 2018 and it was immediately signed with a publisher, so it's worth checking out! 🎲✂️ hippodice-competition.net/en/info-part...

This is very interesting - I had no idea reverse tests like this existed. To me, the number is clear-as-day.

I've ended up making a bunch of copies of this by hand. I sent the first batch out yesterday! If you want one, send me a message! €10 each + shipping from Germany.

As a true Knizia design, Money lives in the scoring twist. If you don't collect enough in a single suit, you lose a load of points. I like it!

🎲✂️ Things have improved enormously for colourblind players in recent years. Now let's start casting a wider net - think of all the potential players who are excluded...

"5 Lessons Learned from 15 Years of Ascension" is an excellent read for game designers. 🎲✂️ boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogp...

🎲✂️ As designers, we often default to cards, tokens, and cubes, but as players, we want so much more.