It's #CraftWednesday! Do you have a game-related crafting project in progress? It could be a prototype, print and play, upgrading the components of a favourite game, making an accessory or even something larger like a table or games room. Share a picture and join in! Please RP!

🎲✂️ Tonight at a special time of 10:15 PM ET (UTC -5), @senfoonglim.bsky.social and Hafiz talk to Amy and Dusty of Dux Somnium (Botany) about exploring uncharted waters in terms of themes. Join us live in the chat at facebook.com/MeepleSyrup or youtube.com/MeepleSyrup!

Today's 🎲✂️ observation after judging 10 @cardboardedison.com entries: Strive for high coherence across your components, mechanics, and theme. When all 3 align, the mechanics are easier to learn, it's satisfying to use the components, and players feel immersed in the world.

Games vs. puzzles: considering what makes them distinct—and what they have in common, via @boardgamebeat.bsky.social

The next Bristol Friday daytime playtesting event is on 27th February! Any type of board game welcome, playtesters with no game even more so. Sign up on Meetup if you want to come along: www.meetup.com/playtest/eve... @playtestuk.bsky.social

Iello is seeking dice games

🎲✂️ s/o to those who entered this year's @cardboardedison.com competition. I'm helping judge the first round and just wanted to remind folks that entering is a win in itself. I remeber how much work it was last year. Excited to see all of the awesome games!!

Today's 15s Board Game Design 🎲 Tip for the Day continues our self-publishing with measuring demand with an art house version of your game: youtube.com/shorts/a_XCo... #gamepublisher #boardgame #boardgamedesign #gamedesign #tabletopgames #lgbtq #gamepublisher

🎲 Calling all analog game designers! 🎲 Panda Game Manufacturing is hosting an exclusive giveaway just for analog/tabletop creators. There will be 2 chances to win $1000 Game Manufacturing Credit! Sign up now 👉 buff.ly/7k0G5Ux

I'm a judge for Cardboard Edison this year. After every 5 entries that I review, I'll post an observation. Here's the first: Get specific with your theme. Set your game in a particular time, place, and/or culture (which may be fictional) and give it an overarching tone.

Two quick tips for how to make sure your board game’s box stands out on stores shelves and in online stories

No video today as I've just finished moving house... In the meantime, if you have a topic for a video you would like me to cover, let me know!

I will be at GDC this year! I have a talk at 10:30 AM on Tuesday March 10th, Room 3016, West Hall. (link below) I will also be demoing my Lord of the Rings Trick-Taking Games on Wednesday night. (more details to come) If you have a board game to pitch or want to meetup, let me know!

🚨 New Meetup Alert 🚨 Are you looking for a new place in #boston to test your mettle, show off your latest #prototype or just play cool new games? Then hit up Tavern of Tales on Tues 3/3 Let's continue to prove that #boardgamedesign is alive and well in the Boston region. meetu.ps/e/PQj2h/ZXbQ...

Today's 15s Board Game Design 🎲 Tip for the Day continues our self-publishing discussion with the top trap that people fall into: youtube.com/shorts/tHqBU... #boardgame #boardgamedesign #tabletopgames #gamedesign #lgbtq #gamepublisher #selfpublish

Calling all new designers! Submissions are open now through Feb 15th for the New Designer Showcase and Mentorship Program! Read more and submit here: www.tabletopgamealliance.org/fog26-showca...

Let's start!

The stats are in: We got 396 submissions to this year's Cardboard Edison Award from 35 countries! (For comparison, last year saw 348 entries from 27 countries.) Judging begins soon! Keep an eye on cardboardedison.com/award in the coming weeks!

It's the FINAL DAY FOR CARDBOARD EDISON AWARD SUBMISSIONS! We'll have a final count tomorrow, but let's just say we and our judges will be quite busy in the coming weeks! cardboardedison.com/award

How many publishers do y'all pitch to simultaneously for the same game before receiving feedback (or assuming you've been ghosted)? I've been going with 5, when I force myself to do the pitch thing. 🎲✂️

Let me be a lazy judge and DON'T enter this contest! ...Just kidding, show us what you made!!! 🎂

A conversation digging into all the ins and outs of submitting to board game design contests… like the Cardboard Edison Award, via @meeplesyrupshow.bsky.social

And while you're at it, be sure to check out our new Best Practices book, filled with articles and interviews about the entire process of game design! drive.google.com/file/d/14DuH...

It's the FINAL DAY FOR CARDBOARD EDISON AWARD SUBMISSIONS! We'll have a final count tomorrow, but let's just say we and our judges will be quite busy in the coming weeks! cardboardedison.com/award

Today's 35s Board Game Design 🎲 Tip of the Day wraps up our discussion on prototypes and announces February's topic! youtube.com/shorts/E7yzh... #boardgame #gamedesign #tabletopgames #lgbtq #gamepublisher #boardgamedesign

A counterintuitive tactic for new board game designers: trying to make an intentionally bad game, via @matthewdunstan.bsky.social

If you have any interest in making games, playing games, or just like to think about games... this is a very fun event. I went last year for the first time and was really impressed with both the panels and the playtesting. Happy to be going back again this year.

Tabletop designers! Many in-person sites for Global Game Jam welcome boardgame designers alongside videogame developers. Share your love of all things game and make cool stuff! Start time is Friday, 5pm local time. 🎲✂️ In the ♦️🎲 DMV, this includes Baltimore and Timonium MD ☺️

Unpub Festival 2026 is soon!! 🎲✂️ Meet award-winning game designers 🎲✂️ Play games in development with an inclusive community 🎲✂️ Give feedback on games that will be on your table in the future https://f.mtr.cool/phpmyzrwtk

A conversation about a tricky aspect of designing a multivictor game: balancing it to accommodate both cooperative and competitive play, via @lunarpunk.games

It's #CraftWednesday! Do you have a game-related crafting project in progress? It could be a prototype, print and play, upgrading the components of a favourite game, making an accessory or even something larger like a table or games room. Share a picture and join in! Please RP!

🎲✂️ Tonight on the Meeple Syrup Show at 9 PM ET (UTC-5), @senfoonglim.bsky.social and Hafiz discuss entering game design contests with Pam Walls, from submission to decision. Join us live in the chat at facebook.com/MeepleSyrup or youtube.com/MeepleSyrup

Talking to some game design students tomorrow... here's the final slide of my deck:

Contemplating intentionality today. Why that mechanism to tell that story? Why that rule? That behavior? I encounter a lot of design that has not dug deeper, even as an intellectual exercise. What is the lore behind all your choices as a designer? What is its infinite soul?

Getting a board game to your crowdfunding backers: what to do after you manufacture your game, from warehousing to freight shipping to customs to delivery and more

As a game designer, you may have to fall in love with what you're making to make it well. But then remember there's a broad distribution of opinion about each game, and now you're likely on its positive tail. Now you're at risk of going blind to what folks elsewhere in the distribution think. 🎲✂️

Rulebooks are often read out loud. This sounds obvious but make sure when writing yours you put all the stuff you actually want to be heard in the main text that *looks* like it should be read. Otherwise, the people not reading the rulebook (and probably the reader) are going to skip it.

Just a few days left to submit your board game design to the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award! Submissions are open through January 31! cardboardedison.com/award

Board Game Beat is officially launched & loaded with content...with more to come as I report on Spielwarenmesse! If you're into independent board game journalism—articles, videos, interviews, news, reviews & more—please check it out and share. www.wericmartin.com #boardgame #spielwarenmesse

In Memoriam 2025 Designers build on the creativity and hard work of those who came before. TTGDA would like to recognize those in the tabletop industry who we lost last year. We are deeply grateful for their contributions, and are diminished by their loss. irp.cdn-website.com/2b6905d0/fil...

We've updated and EXPANDED the back-issue bundles of our weekly Omnibus newsletter! cardboardedison.com/newsletter ALSO, we've added a new one: Indie Markets, chronicling our experience making a small-batch game! cardboardedison.com/shop/omnibus...

There’s almost exactly ONE WEEK LEFT to submit your unpublished board game design to this year’s Cardboard Edison Award! cardboardedison.com/award

Who's new to writing/talking/posting about board game design that we should be paying attention to?

A pair of short videos from @gamesbymondo.bsky.social with quick tips for making two essential elements for pitching a game design to publishers: How to make a pitch video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkqg... How to make a sell sheet: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uan_...

Designing your first game? Here are 5 types of games that are ideal for beginning game designers to try making, via @matthewdunstan.bsky.social

Protospiel Cleveland next Friday to Sunday at Recess Games in North Olmstead! 🎲 ✂️

We've officially surpassed the sample size of our previous survey! But we want to fill some gaps: --designers outside the U.S., especially in Asia, Africa and Australia --games that were signed between 2021 and 2024 If you know a designer that fits the bill, please send them our way!

Tabletop Game Designers Association urges Legendary series publisher Upper Deck not to make a Harry Potter board game after company celebrates licensing deal: boardgamewire.com/index.php/20... @ttgda.bsky.social @upperdeckent.bsky.social @marcelineleiman.bsky.social

Nick's Game Design Tip of the Day. Stuck on something in your game? Write the rules for that part, even if it's broken, or even if you haven't designed it yet. Sometimes just writing in the area of a problem gives your brain the means to solve it. 🎲✂️

We've officially surpassed the sample size of our previous survey! But we want to fill some gaps: --designers outside the U.S., especially in Asia, Africa and Australia --games that were signed between 2021 and 2024 If you know a designer that fits the bill, please send them our way!