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.

Hollandays ends tomorrow night. Let's take a look at our best-selling games during this year's sale! (1) City of Six Moons (2024, Holland) Probably not a surprise, our bestselling game of all time continues to sell strong during the sale. hollandspiele.com/products/cit...

Love to see a deep dive history thread that counters revisionism.

Good luck to all the 🎲✂️ folks at PAXU this weekend! Hope your testing goes well and your pitches succeed!

Tough to choose but probably: Pax Pamir Lisboa War of the Ring Age of Steam Maria Chess Axis and Allies Arcs Spades Nemesis

The sale is on! Obviously, I think you should pick up a copy of my game. But also there are so many other cool things to check out. Do yourself a favor and peruse the catalog of one of the most interesting publishers in gaming!

This past weekend, I was delighted to attend @sdhistcon.bsky.social, where on Saturday I played not one, not two, but three games about selling opium. It was quite the day. Read about it here: spacebiff.com/2025/11/13/s...

If you’ve been waiting to pick up Sykes-Picot, this is a great time to do it! Definitely check out Persuasion by @xoe.gay!! Or Oblique or Table Battles or or or so many other great games from Hollandspiele!

And now that I've had a decent night's sleep, a more in-depth recap of my time in San Diego this past weekend at #SDHistCon. It was only my second time there, and I got even more out of it than I did the first one. This convention is consistently excellent in what it delivers.

#SDHistCon was as great as ever this year. Flying home today after an incredibly enriching experience. I’m always grateful for the opportunity to meet new people, to see old friends, and especially to check out all the cool games people have in the works! Thanks to @sdhistcon.bsky.social as always!

When you realize on the plane to the convention that you forgot to update your cards and ask the hotel to print them for you and borrow their scissors… 🎲✂️

On my way to SDHistCon today. It’s such a great place to catch up with friends, see games in development, and just get some stuff played! Can’t wait

A really great read. I'd argue that what we're witnessing in the United States right now is a concentrated effort to reshape the national mythos to serve cruel and dangerous ends. This is what makes it feel so much like 1930s Germany.

Go back this folks!!! A fun bundle from an indie creator doing interesting things. Only needs a little more help! 🎲✂️ #boardgames

I wrote a thing. Check it out.

I’m very pleased to see this one begin to come together. It was the first design I ever brought to playtesting, and it’s had quite a journey! Threed has a unique ambiguous trick taking system with a spatial puzzle that tickles the right parts of the brain. I’ve got a soft spot for it. Check it out!

Chilled with my gnomey at the pumpkin fest this weekend.

As soon as I found out this game existed, I went to pre-order it. I’m fascinated by the history of urban “development” and NBS has accomplished something important and fascinating here. Can’t wait to get this one to a table soon.

Been on a bit of a game design hiatus the past 2-3 months. Life got big and needed tending. Slowly working my way back into things now, and it feels...rusty. But also a bit like getting back on a bicycle. I still love it though. 🎲✂️

Just found a review for Sykes-Picot in @senetmagazine.bsky.social! That was unexpected! Thanks to @meeplelady.bsky.social for the review.

New game day! cross4! Buy it or else. We have not determined what 'else' is yet, but you should buy it to be safe.

A few things: Nate has an interesting thing going on here. A unique format and approach to be sure. Can confirm Pyrotechnics is good - check it out when you get the chance! A lil' nugget at the end about Sykes-Picot and the possibility of serving your conscience through this game. Give a listen!

Trans people are people. What they do with their very own bodies ain't nobody's business but their own. Trans rights are human rights. Full stop.

This is an appropriate reaction to Kirk’s assassination and legacy. He was not a paragon of civil discourse but a mouthpiece for white Christian nationalism, and all the awful bigotry that entails. He did not deserve to be murdered. Nor does he deserve to be treated like a martyr of American ideals

What a fantastic slate of nominees! Congratulations to @danthurot.bsky.social @amabel.bsky.social @charlietheel.bsky.social and @fredserval.bsky.social for facilitating meaningful discourse about the culture of historical games.

The best storytelling out there folks. Go get some!

Circle DC 2026 will be held on April 10-12, 2026 here in lovely Washington, DC. The convention will be capped at 250 attendees and we have opened up badge registration this morning. tabletop.events/conventions/...

In my long ramble last night I had this thread in mind - so many great projects in the works that are pushing gaming boundaries in interesting ways, and asking different things of players than what currently dominates the market. I’m excited to see these emerge over time!

Lots of interesting board game and TTRPG discourse this week! I’ve really enjoyed seeing various voices chime in from all over the place to weigh in. It all kicked off (from what I saw) with an exchange about the perception of board games as optimization engines. I have thoughts. 🧵

How do you learn more about these games, get involved in their development, or sign one? Follow @lunarpunk.games. Join the @breakmygame.com Discord. Attend a @protospielo.bsky.social event. Talk to designers who hang out in those places. You're missing the games because you're in the wrong place!

🎲✂️ Historical board game idea: a collection of games published as an anthology or edited volume, similar to what you see in academic treatments of complex topics. Like 5-6 designers take on a beefy historical topic or era and each make their own game about one part of it.

@gengelstein.bsky.social - friends and I are discussing a game design problem that I think you might find interesting. Or maybe you've dealt with it in a GameTek at some point. 4+ players. Each player secretly assigned an "ally". Cannot be assigned yourself. 1/2

I am a huge proponent of digital prototyping and playtesting. Protospiel online is an incredibly useful event, for rapid playtesting and iteration, for exposure to a global design community unlike any other, and for an inclusive and welcoming community. Go get a badge!

Sykes-Picot was the game of the week on the Breakup Gaming Society podcast - if you like games, drinks, and hip hope, have a listen! Thanks to @natewarren.bsky.social for spotlighting it! www.breakupgamingsociety.com/episodes/syk...