The D.I.C.E. awards just announced their finalists. I hesitate to rag on video game awards too much but it is nuts to me how many of the nomination categories pull from the same 6-7 games, and just list them in a slightly different order.

I remember when Putin invaded Ukraine being blown away how a world leader would just treat geopolitics like a game of fucking Civilization, like a thing you "win". And boy it sucks to be thinking that for a second time.

Took some time to unpack a few thoughts on Expedition 33. Watching what I thought was a "pretty good" game get transformed into A Cultural Object has been disheartening. So I have some thoughts on glitz, glamour, and respectability... transgamerthoughts.com/post/8027631...

We got to play This is Not a Game About a Pipe at BGG.CON thanks to @wericmartin.bsky.social. Fell in love right away so we frantically texted friends who’d be at PAXU, where it was being sold. Thanks to @panda8ngel.bsky.social and Jon H for nabbing four copies for [email protected]

I remember in Dan's review he talked about how Superpowers often have alternative motives in helping smaller nations, and I'm really happy how Taylor's board took that idea and ran with it. The Oil giving Superpowers an alternative consideration really does a good job in mixing up the game.

In honor of the one year-ish anniversary of the IGNM, and by extension the one year anniversary of Propaganda, I've decided to release an expansion for Propaganda! If you didn't get a chance to grab a physical copy it also includes everything in the base version. chrislawrence.itch.io/propaganda

I had a great (but tiring) time at PAX Unplugged this past weekend! I pretty much spent all of Friday and Saturday running around, and then all of Saturday night at the IGNM. It was amazing seeing everything, and being able to meet so many cool people. Hopefully next year will be just as cool!

The Indie Games Night Market starts in an hour! Come grab a copy of Coupon Clipper and Fold & Fly from me and @drawnonward.bsky.social.

✨ Reminder!! ✨ Indie Games Night Market is tonight @ 7pm!! When the Expo Hall closes, come down to Hall C to buy the freshest indie games!! “More even than last year, these games seem like they’re pushing boundaries. They capture the spirit of what it means to be ‘indie.‘“ @danthurot.bsky.social

Pax Unplugged is right around the corner!! Looking back at all the IGNM coverage—I’m so proud and impressed at how much our community came together to promote these awesome indie works! There’s a game for everyone in this lot! Here’s a thread of all the incredible coverage of IGNM 2025: 🧵 🎲✂️

I've been doing a lot of printing.

Today I investigate three more indie games, all of which are ambitious and explorative of what games can accomplish. These are good'uns. spacebiff.com/2025/11/18/h...

I'm so glad Dan liked Coupon Clipper! (And I appreciate the six-year-old's sacrifice.) I've also played Fold & Fly! a bunch of times and can vouch for it, it's great silly fun. Both'll have copies sold at the IGNM this Saturday at PAXU. (And yes Coupon Clipper comes with scissors!)

Any rule in a board game can & will be missed or forgotten by someone. So increasingly when deciding whether to add a rule, I consider whether it "fails gracefully." If you forget that rule, does the whole game halt or break? Or does it continue functioning (albeit with a minor loss in quality)?

All of the scissors that are going to go into copies of Coupon Clipper! It's worth noting all of the blades are less than 4 inches, so all of the scissors are carry-on safe.

The more I think about it, I consider this a publisher’s mishandling of design process. From a product POV bad feelings make a bad product. Who wants to buy a banana filled with razor blades? Games are weird because if they don’t bind us or challenge us in some way, they aren’t doing good games.

Coupon Clipper is up on the PAX Unplugged Preview list! I was a bit late to the party, so if you have a chance give it some love. boardgamegeek.com/geekpreview/...

Coupon Clipper is going to be at PAXU! Copies of it'll be sold at the Indie Games Night Market, alongside @drawnonward.bsky.social's Fold & Fly! The game has had a very rocky life, but I'm excited that at least a handful of copies will be able to reach people.

The Midnight Market is live. The night is for indie games. 🌖 lunarpunk.games/midnightmarket

I increasingly wonder if I should've made Propaganda a TTRPG. Every time I play it with new players everyone's laughing and having a great time, but it's mostly because of what the players themselves bring to the table. The rules help facilitate that, but don't really cause it directly.

Next up is local friend Mike Trias. His first game was Upstaged, and now he is crowdfunding DJ Icon. The turntable mechanism has always been a highlight and players can use real vinyl to play the game! www.kickstarter.com/projects/koa...

Playtesting in Santa Monica! We got 6 or 7 games to the table so it was a pretty successful afternoon.

I've had a drop in attendance for a couple playtesting groups I run, and I've been trying to figure out if it's part of a larger trend or just a natural rhythm (maybe the holiday season started early?).

I appreciate BlueSky getting rid of the algorithm, but it does feel like when you post now matters a lot.

We're closing! Last chance to get our games. Thanks yall! www.zeruagames.com/shop

I was always pretty happy with how the cover to Propaganda came out. I made it by taking a couple different photos and "rotoscoping" them together. My one regret is using toy pieces, since some people thought they were in the game. I could've probably found a different "model".

Ran a playtest of Propaganda on Saturday! This board has a zone that scores only to whoever has the highest sum of dice in it. (If it's a little off center it's because I was the superpower and had to close my eyes while they played lol.)

In one of my recent games there was a hard card to score - just 2 pts per set of A and B, but counting it was awful. I changed it to a table so now you just count the pairs and then check the table, and it feels so much better. I think a big part of design is psychology and how players see things.

If you're boycotting a company because of an action they took, you need to go back to supporting them if they then reverse course. A boycott is to make it clear they will get your money only when they do the right thing. But if you refuse to support them ever again, they have no reason to listen.

New boards for Propaganda! Including one designed by the lovely @neilk-design.bsky.social and one by @drawnonward.bsky.social. I'm trying out a few different things and playtesting to get things just right, but hopefully they'll be in peoples' hands soon.

I thought about making a board game called "Monopoly On Violence" and then realized I might run into some trademark issues there. (Which would be a little funny given how unrelated the content would be.)

I'm loving the interconnectivity in Silksong so far. I feel like every area has at least 2 ways to reach it, and then a bunch more paths back to earlier areas.

Photos of Propaganda from playtesting this past weekend. There are new things in the works...

Played a lot of FlipToons last month. I enjoy the game and quite like the random "I hope I get lucky" feel from it, but it's hard to really give your deck an identity. Part of me wonders if it's best on BGA where you can probably just knock out 20 games in an hour.

Purging the ol' game collection a little bit. It's rough because I liked playing all these games but ultimately when choosing what to play I never looked at them and went "oh man I want to play this one".

I kinda wish I didn't ping-pong back and forth between "too tired to do anything" and "too excited to sit still" and actually had more of a middle period to get stuff done lol.

THIS. I'm already seeing comedy skits that are recycling anti-Black stereotypes and racism using robots/androids etc... as a poorly pallette swapped analogues. Rebranding racism in fictional scenarios/content only reinforces it in reality by normalizing the behaviour.

Just backed Wanted Wombats. I played the original Japanese version a couple years ago and really liked it. It reminds me a lot of Flip 7; it's a dead simple push-your-luck game that just works.

Interestingly Team Fortress 2 and one of the Left 4 Dead 2's were gift copies. If I included only games I purchased for myself Everquest (which I've played 10 minutes of) and Torchlight would be added. It's funny how much overlap people have. It really shows you how small Steam was back then.

I know board gaming bsky hasn't really been talking about what's going on with Steam/itch (for logical reasons), but holy shit it's getting bad out there.

Got a chance to play Nature last week. I really enjoyed it, which isn't surprising since I think Evolution's one of the best designed games out there. We played with Jungles and Disasters, and I like how the modules change how you should play each game. Like due to an event, Tusks were very good.

I would probably shrink the timespan, but lesson 1 is also really good for board game design.

I've always been a little sad over how while consoles have gotten plenty of games made in their style (like being solid green to mimic the Game Boy), you don't really see any games based on the old PC aesthetics. There's something about the bright colors and chunky pixel art I just really like.

I think mine would be: 2020: Hades 2021: Cruelty Squad 2022: Signalis 2023: Backpack Hero 2024: Path of Achra Though 2020 was rough, a lot of good games that year.

I’m really excited to announce a new live show I’m starting that mixes standup comedy with gaming! It will be one of the most unique nights of laughter out there. Our first one is Sunday, July 6th at the world famous Comedy Store in Hollywood! Tickets here: www.showclix.com/event/green-...

Yesterday I went to a new convention in LA called LFG Con, and played a bunch of games, including Hot Streak. Hot Streak was alotta fun, the chaos was great and there's a real reaction from players when someone is knocked down or squeaks over the finish line.

Recently during a playtest the designer was asked why the playtests in our group have all gone so differently compared to his other ones. Normally the game is much more adversarial but with us it often became group hug, as it is a multivictor game after all. He said that I was the anomalous player

Knowing where a ttrpg mechanics comes from is important for two reasons. One, history. It’s cool to know how things were built and how they’ve evolved. From this, design ideas can grow and not repeat mistakes. Second, credits. Acknowledging another designers work in a mark of respect.

Watching Magic the Gathering put out so many licensed sets is kinda funny because while the 5-colors work amazingly well when you build a world from scratch with them in mind, almost every other property has to awkwardly be shoehorned into them.

I've been coming across various clips of 90s-era animation on social media, and an interesting thing I've found is just how often things are set at night. Combined with that era of animation in general it creates a unique aesthetic you don't really see anymore, one that I quite appreciate.