Father’s Day involved Dutch “pancakes” and a nice bike ride to a local swimming area, complete with beach, zip lines, and water slides. It was a good one! @colewehrle.bsky.social couldn’t help but think of what you told me about the pancakes over here.

Inaugural blog post.

I LOVE designing boardgames. But there's this phase in the process when the problems are these tiny, niggling details that must be addressed, and it's the most tedious. I enjoy the testing and coming up with solutions. I enjoy trying them out. I hate changing all the assets to do those tests... 🎲✂️

Big company announcement.

It’s happening! I landed in Amsterdam at 7:20am Sunday morning. It feels odd knowing I won’t be returning stateside for a long time. This is home now. There’s still a ton to do to get settled but we’re here and that’s huge.

This whole thing is fucked up and I’m glad this person has been removed from a position of influence. However, there remains a significant tension between BGG as the main repository for board game information and the fact it is a privately owned company with little oversight of its practices or bias

I just announced Hawk & Dove’s first game! If you too want to get these newsletters, come subscribe at www.hawkanddovegames.com Thanks!

Two of my favorite designers putting on a clinic! www.buzzsprout.com/1993070/epis...

Could not be more pleased to receive Penitent by @danbullock.bsky.social! More games like this need to exist - small batch, biting, passionate. I can’t wait to dig into it soon.

This conversation with Liz was, as always, a delight!

A week from today, we'll be flying to attend Circle DC, hosted by @fortcircle.bsky.social! Looking forward to seeing everyone and especially checking out all the games that are still in development.

Very cool story

If you're interested in the journey of a small new historical publisher, come check us out!

If you don't know @drawnonward.bsky.social, you're missing out. He's a riot. And Liz is amazing, as always. Give a listen and back this game!

This is a great video by Matthew. Check it out. Most of what Big Pasti mentions is publisher choice. The design process should be rooted in each individual game and what it needs to express itself best. That may include eliminating players, roll and move, or any other supposedly "bad" choices.

At #Unpub, I finally started getting some testing done on Threed (nee Triptych by @rollplusfun.bsky.social). Threed is a trick-taking slide puzzle game, and it is a real brain-melter. The rules are short, the gameplay is simple, and it will scorch your psyche. I had... 🧵 1 of #boardgames 🎲✂️

A few standouts I played were Sneaky Squirrels by Joe Kell and Threed by @rollplusfun.bsky.social. Sneaky Squirrels is a tactical risk assessment and memory game. Threed is a wonderfully brain burning trick taker/sliding image puzzle. Both were incredibly clever. I can't stop thinking about them.

CW: Opioids Anyone safe to do so should really experience @rollplusfun.bsky.social 's Painkillers. A very thoughtful presentation of the actions and mindset leading to the American opioid addiction epidemic where you play as the Pharma CEOs cashing in while addiction reigns.

Go check out this very cool game by a very cool designer!

I got all six games tested at @unpub.org this year. Thanks to the organizers and playtesters who make this possible! 🎲✂️

Painkillers on the table. It’s kind of a beast. Proud of where this one is in its development, and looking forward to seeing it out in the world eventually. #unpub 🎲✂️

This is an interesting thread. At first assessment, I agree with a lot of it. Gen AI (at least in the way it’s being applied most often now) is a blight that is stealing people’s abilities to think, know, and wonder.

Here's a preview of the other five games I'm bringing to Unpub this year. Check 'em out if you want! Spindletop is the most developed. It's an economic hand management game based on Texas Hold 'Em poker mechanisms and the Texas oil boom of the early 20th century. Plus, it has Texagons!

This is one of six of my games that’ll be at @unpub.org this year. That’s a ridiculous number of games, I know. Whatcha gonna do?

New board game idea...

A while back, I posted about my move to the Netherlands later this year. As part of that move, my family is also venturing into the world of tabletop game publishing through Hawk and Dove. I'd be honored if you would check us out and follow along on our journey!

Happy to be part of the “dry erase era” of Hollandspiele’s history!

Go get this very cool and very weird and very thought-provoking game! Limited print run in this one.

This is the kind of personalization you can only get with small batch print runs. An amazing little detail from someone putting in an incredible amount of thought to how each game presents itself.

I've been working on a free, open source (FOSS) virtual tabletop program aimed at designers (using Godot). Over the last few months I've been focusing on component creation. I'm looking for feedback and collaborators - please consider joining the team! youtu.be/f3gy7jlzHdk?...

This is GREAT news! Leder made the right choice here. Happy for Liz, Leder Games, and all the people who will get awesome games out of this.

Cole makes a very important point. My only addition here would be that I personally believe what turns people off about the traditionally complex Euro-style games I think Eric is referencing here is not the complexity itself but the lack of connection players feel. Mini 🧵

Dan is making some of the most interesting games in the hobby. You should check this one out!

Big personal update! My little family is going on a massive adventure and relocating to the Netherlands soon. We’re leaving in April or May, and we couldn’t be more excited! There’s a lot to do in a short time, but we wanna gtfoh, ya know? There’s related professional news, but that’ll come later 😉

We are calling for an immediate stop to all purchases from Upper Deck. Their total lack of communication is distressing—so we call upon everyone to help us escalate. No purchases from Upper Deck. No media coverage or posts of their games. Upper Deck will only respond when it hurts their wallets.

A reminder that anything HP related puts money in the pockets of a billionaire actively working to eradicate trans people from existence. Your money will go straight toward funding bigotry and hate. Please make your voice heard.

✉️ If you're interested in what The Seahorse & The Hummingbird did, does, is doing and/or will do, join The Core Loop. You can sign up for the quarterly newsletter and a small handful of announcements when cool stuff happens. No more than 8 emails per year. I respect your inbox. #boardgames

Happy to see this starting to take shape!

I have found a lot of my most recent board game design ideas involve trying to pull subjectivity into them. I seem to be interested in the interplay between traditionally individualistic experiential phenomena and the mechanical necessity of board games. 🎲✂️

🎇 #boardgames 🎆

Better sentiments tonight, about 2025. My year in game design has been amazing! I set out with some ambitious goals and I have largely achieved them (and more)! Best of all, my first game came out in April! Sykes-Picot from Hollandspiele. Check it out! hollandspiele.com/products/syk...

What a fucking year this has been, huh? I mostly talk about game design on here, and that part of my life has gone well in 2025 (more on that later). But the rest of this year? Let's leave it in the bin. It's been a complete shitshow, especially in the United States.

This is dumb policy-making being used to justify unnecessary and illegal aggression. But does this mean I need to rename Painkillers? It's apparently now a game about WMDs.

If you suddenly made a whole bunch on your board game designs (maybe from a @shutupshow.bsky.social spotlight), what would you name the yacht you buy with your fuck you money? 🎲✂️

Okay. The Seahorse & The Hummingbird is once again open for business after a SERIOUS redesign. It's not perfect, but I gotta move forward. If any of y'all wouldn't mind giving the site a good, hearty look, I'm in the market for feedback of the following variety: 🧵 1 of 2 #boardgames 🎲✂️

As always, go read Dan’s writing! But even more importantly, go support @xoe.gay’s work! I have persuasion on the way from Hollandspiele now!

Happy to see this. Historical gaming will be all the better for this! Candice is so great and deserves the best.

The furnace broke. It's very cold, so we're having a sale on an appropriately chilly game!

Hey friends who read! Looking for an alternative to Audible for audiobooks. Any good options?

This was the most affecting board game experience of my life, and I don’t see that ever changing. Although I know each person at the table had their own unique response, Dan does an incredible job here of putting words to it.