Dawn is approaching! The colony is scattered across the valley - seven fast clicks, a long pause, two slow - Half the table believes you flew to the heart, some think the key. Players work together between waypoints and rounds to improve the click language to get more bats back to the Cave in time.

Dice have no memory. I wanted to change that so I put them in a queue. If the roll is successful the die is placed. If it fails the die goes to the end of the queue. The probability of placement is dependent on queue position and success rate. Memory dice! 😉

Work on Black Ruth of Dogtown continues! Jane Kenn @jane__artss is creating evocative cover art. Also, many people have asked for sigil stones instead of cards ... I've got some ideas for that! A small handmade run should be available by the end of the year.

The games I brought to the beach. Happy 4th!

COINTELPRO: The Assassination of Fred Hampton has been selected for the SDHistCon Summit 2026 Night Market! It is an asymmetric 2-player abstract that connects players to the US government using law enforcement and intel tools not to protect citizens but to manage and suppress political dissent.

Here is my entry for the 2026 Deck Hand Games Design Contest, Relic Hunter. It's a one-player, pulp-adventure, side-scrolling game that uses a standard deck of playing cards. Inspired by the classic arcade game, Pitfall, the episodic solo board game, Final Girl, and the Indiana Jones film series.

PLAYTESTERS WANTED: “Man with an Axe” is a solo poker journaling RPG inspired by the minimalist fiction of Raymond Carver. The journaling is driven by a 5 card stud variation that uses a stripper deck.

Games for tonight!

It's Unpub at Origins Game Fair! Come find us in Hall C, booth 2132, to playtest some games. We'll be here until 11:30pm! Browse available games: https://f.mtr.cool/hiuibtzwkb #origins

I'm working my way towards playtesting with @breakmygame.com. The goal for today was to make an isometric screentop.gg version of my game, Mansard's Roof. The game involves stacking discs and counting stacks, which doesn't work with the typical top-down view.

BGG 2026 Children's Game Print & Play Game Design Contest Winner: - Best Children's Game - Best Rulebook Print and play available on itch.io

Print and play now available on itch.io

I'm paying the price. I busted my hump for a solid 24 hours taking part in Pam Walls' 24 Hour Mystery Box Board Game Jam. But I'm very happy with the results. This historical fold-or-call route builder is off to a good start. Check it out! - Video Overview - Rulebook - Screentop Implementation

Vote for my 2-player trick-taker, where your lead decides what your opponent plays and how won cards score on Game Crafter.

Playing Pocket Wars from @terriblegames.bsky.social my “Curio” is a frying pan. If I roll Brainstorm the person I'm pointing at sautés two dice and rolls for damage, potentially taking two damage.

“Excuse Me, Bear!” Overview

Play my entry for the 2026 Bad Comet Design Contest, Chocolate Sea Salt Caramels screentop.gg/@kdonaldson/... Core Mechanisms: Press Your Luck, Set Collection, Selective Drafting

Who are they?

On the table today at PAX East Unpub is Boogie Monsters Picky Nose. You win by collecting eight Snot Globs before the other team.

You win by placing five bears on your Honey Line in ascending order. First to 5 wins. You can only place one bear per turn, and it must be the next number in your sequence. If you have bears 1 and 2 on your board, you need a 3. Nothing else works. You can’t skip ahead, you can’t place out of order.

Nailed it! I’m not sure how no one knew it was Skrillex.

Peek at a bears number, but use your manners. Say "Excuse me, Bear!" first!  Find and place bears in ascending order to practice memory, numeracy, and etiquette.

Shipping my first prototype overseas was a traumatic experience. USPS would ship for $40 but didn’t have a clue about how customs charges are handled. FedEx wanted $400 to ship the same box. In the end I went with USPS and prayer. It made it Studiogiochi for Premio Archimede 2027. God is good!

The more experienced designers always seem to have another game at the ready to throw down at a playtest. I’m trying to follow suite.

The second 2026 Cardboard Edison Award finalist to arrive is Black Ruth of Dogtown by @kddgames.bsky.social! It was handed off to us in person at Unpub this past weekend! Details at cardboardedison.com/award

One more prototype … Freak Phenomics

Binding on a budget … looking for people to try my solo scrapbooking game, “The Interval.” I'll have copies at Unpub.

New skill unlocked: making neoprene playmat prototypes

Can you quantify/predict how fun a boardgame is? A quick lit review shows folks looking at flow and engagement as measures, which I don't think I can squeeze out of a Monte Carlo simulation.

True believer

I need a seminar on taking product shots … feeling janky.

My boardgame design, Black Ruth of Dogtown, was selected as a finalist in the 2026 Cardboard Edison competition! You can learn more here: cardboardedison.com/award linktr.ee/kddgames

Who wants to see some awesome-looking game pitches? These are the finalists for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award!!! cardboardedison.com/award

Casino Gaunlet is a speculative wagering game driven by hand management and market manipulation, where the calculated race to deplete one's hand is disrupted by a push-your-luck event system that introduces high-variance volatility into the lane rankings. linktr.ee/kddgames

Unbreaking News is a timeline game, where a bell curve scoring system creates a push-your-luck dynamic by linking the value of specific placement slots to point deductions for failure, transforming recall into informational confidence and timing-based risk management. linktr.ee/kddgames

Castellum Aquae is a tight two-player area enclosure game with a shared-pawn and hand management, where players must weigh efficiency against the strategic cost of inadvertently fueling their opponent’s card economy through shared wall contributions. linktr.ee/kddgames

Black Ruth of Dogtown is a procedural oracle system driven by a circular mancala drafting mechanism, where players construct a three-by-three grid to optimize set collection and speculative scoring in service of a final narrative divination resolution. linktr.ee/kddgames

Would love your feedback on this daily puzzle app I developed playunbreakingdaily.news to accompany my news trivia game, Unbreaking News.

It was a pleasure to learn Jason Schneider's barking and game-teaching techniques at the PAX East @happycampergames.bsky.social booth.

Look at those triple-layered player boards!!! It's super cool to see folks playing my game, Bearden. I'm looking forward to the feedback.

I'd like to thank @cardboardedison.com for the motivation to keep playtesting. 💪