Gosh, so many good games in November! @wulfhorngames.bsky.social is two for two with L'oaf and Goblin Laundromat both being small & great. The new General Orders is very good, we're obssed with Koi Koi. Deckers is probably the co-op game of the year and Pick 'n Packers is another Oink hit. #bgstats

I've updated the PACT 🎲✂️ screentop with all the latest rules, cards, and graphic design! screentop.gg/@zhoekstra/p...

🎲✂️ IYO, which of these three would be the most striking when seen on a box in the game store?

Nobody asked, but: I think the biggest pitfall of sci-fi/fantasy storytelling, especially for worldbuilders, in the infodump. You're (rightfully) just so proud of all the work you put into creating a cohesive setting that you just wanna PUKE it all over readers/watchers on page one. (thread)

🎲✂️ Something I'm trying with the Pact rulebook is providing in-universe comments attached to the dryer, more clinical wargame rules, both as a contextual clue as to what this part of the system represents as well as a strategic hint for players.

🎲✂️ idea, a highly detailed two-player aerial dog fighting game similar to blue max, but you're actually two seagulls fighting over a bag of french fries

Today in "things my toddler thinks are high crimes against the crown": I asked him if he wanted an orange, and he said no. But I did want an orange, so instead of putting the orange away I opened and ate it

I'm not the one being asked this, but genuinely if you have an appreciation for Trick Takers, Ambition by Mike Church is an underplayed gem. boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16... If anyone in the New York design scene happens to know him, let me know, I'd love to talk to him

@amabel.bsky.social I'm looking to pick up Table Battles 2nd edition 1x expansion for the upcoming sale. Problem is, I can't decide what expansion I should get. Which of the expansions would you recommend the most for someone likely to keep it historical but also try and play with non-wargamers?

In 2006 a high school English teacher asked students to write to a famous author & ask for advice. KURT VONNEGUT - born 103yrs ago today - was the only one to respond. His reply was a doozy.

I got to set pact up at spiel, but having it at spellenspektakl was amazing. At this point I can confirm that the graphic design and layout is attracting people that will enjoy the game for what it is.

I'm looking forward to having to explain to every single Dutch games journalist why my last name is Hoekstra yet I speak Dutch like a 2 year old

Outside the Utrecht train station and amid the pile of pop up tents selling Oliebollen and other greasy Christmas treats was a American Corndog seller. I am skeptical but will try for scientific purposes. This was $7 btw

Prepping for the PACT kickstarter, and all the effort to give this 🎲✂️ prototype a glow-up has really been paying off!

This song is stuck in my head but for some reason I'm not able to find anything else in the genre "Toxic Lesbian Country Murder Ballad". Man it's not like there's not an audience for this stuff, right?

You ever notice how every major corporation has to cut a bunch of people right before Christmas? It's because that's usually when end of year bonuses are paid out and executives are looking for big savings they can enact so that they get rewarded.

In a hopeless attempt to get our 3 1/2 year old to understand that the toilet is good for more than sitting on it while watching fun videos, we are trying a no-pants weekend. God help us.

Grachtenpand wouldn't be where it was today without the dedicated talent of Jason Gamber, who has a unique talent for identifying and replicating exactly the vibe you need for any game. This man needs more work from board game publishers, STAT www.instagram.com/jason_gamber

And that's a wrap on SPIEL! More analysis to come later, but Wulfhorn games got some good press and good reactions from everyone. Expect to hear more cool things next year, either through us or our partners!

Going through the German train system with a heavy duffel bag of games is certainly a fun experience

Me: "This $50 game entertains 5 people over 3 hours. At a cost ratio of $3 per player-hour, this game is a steal!" *Proceeds to punch and then never play said game*

Let's go Spiel!

Wulfhorn games mentioned!

If you had told me 5 years ago that there was an Essen booth with not one but two of my games, I would not have believed you

If you had told me 5 years ago that there was an Essen booth with not one but two of my games, I would not have believed you

Most of my last month was spent getting 🦋Pact up to tippy top shape, so I never got the time to research and send pitch emails for 🌲Guiding Lights, my coop programmed movement game. If you know a publisher at Essen that might be interested in this, let me know so I can drop them a sellsheet!

So outside of 🎲✂️ I am a GM that likes to build his own lived-in worlds, and so for 🦋🗡️Pact the real trick was to drip in fun background lore I had come up with and not blast it at the players like a Star Wars movie crawl.

Okay, people want to now, how did I make a highly detailed sticker sheet for my 🎲✂️? You need 1️⃣a pipeline to make 🖼️ with transparent backgrounds 2️⃣A Cricut Maker 3 and Cricut Design Space 3️⃣Full page label 📃 and a 🖨️

144 12mm stickers to cut. All I can say is thank God I figured out a good 🎲✂️ workflow for making these with some label paper and a cricut (Full page label paper,a little bit of extra spray glue to help secure the paper, and the Washi Tape Light setting)

It was an important right of passage for kids in those days to find an image that we really wanted to see, but had to watch it slowly load line by line over the course of 5 minutes

The problem with every post-Millennial generation is they got to go straight to high speed internet. Of course you'll get computer madness that way. Make them start with those old screeching modems and work their way up

🎲✂️ Join me at #essenspiel for a sneak peak at a game about big politics in a tiny kingdom! Play the prototype, and give your feedback for the final release! Booth #3U310 Thursday 10:00am - 1:30pm Friday 1:30pm - 6:00 pm

Being an experienced GM and also playing in a game is a bit like being a magician watching another act, because you see how they do their tricks, and also share in their frustration when the audience chooses to do anything but what you want them to do. (private dm during game attached)

Doing some PACT prep work, and making some standees for pieces my graphic designer wont be able to get to. I'm curious to hear if people can identify the pieces without needing text. Can you guess which of these pieces is which? 💠Labor Strike 💠Current Player 💠Executed 💠Radicalization

I enjoy playing Ark Nova on BGA, but it seems like every time I play against anyone rated 250+ I'm happily building my little zoo and ready to play my second/third animal when I look up and they're at 67+ points and accelerating. I don't know how people get such consistently good starts

The term I've been using lately is super specifically nerdy and it's "Hanlon's Macuahuitl" "Unfortunately these days, you can usually attribute things to both malice *and* stupidity"

Today's video was a hard one for me to make - I wanted to talk about my experiences going through burnout in the last year or so as a game designer, and aspects of the wider tabletop industry that contribute to that. youtu.be/D2rC_8F10R8 🎲✂️

Have you been watching my design posts of PACT with anticipation? Are you going to SPIEL Essen this year? Well I'm setting up the game at booth 3U130 Thursday Morning and Friday Afternoon! Stop by! Play! Ask questions! questions like "Is this Silksong: The Board Game?"

🎲✂️ I love that James here honestly tells everybody at this lecture "you will have a hard time making abstracts a product, but it's fun and interesting to design them anyways" youtu.be/qFxZ4cL6UJM?...

I feel required to share this RPG about bugs being little bugs in a big world. It's quite a bit more optimistic than my take. Plus you can build a base on a fox that carries you around, and I love it felixisaacs.itch.io/pico-core-bo...

Hanlon's Macuahuitl "Unfortunately these days, you can usually attribute things to malice *and* stupidity"

How dare you say that about my favorite genre, Pagan Vaporpop Punkhop

🎲✂️ We're starting work on iconography and cards, in the hopes of having something to show off at Essen Spiel.

*after this is all said and done and people are looting the Oval Office. Hey, this shit is all just spray-painted plastic.

Idle 🎲✂️ thought: a tabletop game utilizing a "sailing with the wind" where wind direction is inherently coded into the base of every miniature.

Goddamn softplay places are anxiety inducing as a parent. My son loves slides, and when he entered he locked onto the big two story tall spiral slide. With an a minute he was gone, lost in a maze of climbing structures I couldn't easily follow him into.

Oh gee wow the rich people paper thinks that eliminating capital gains (the one tax they still have to pay) will help the middle class When we sold our house in CO, almost every hour for we got was contingent on the buyer selling their house.

Here's a tip to class up your breakfast routine. Mix equal parts Monster White and orange juice in a champagne glass for the ultimate morning get up and go! It's called a monstrosa.