Protospiel Madison is officially sold out! We will still have plenty of room today and Sunday. To the rest of you, thanks for pre-registering! We look forward to seeing all of you starting at 9am today!

Full color printed faces on a meeple of your choice. For thousands of years people have been making game pieces and dice for their games, but you can do it for your game without all the whittling knowledge. https://www.thegamecrafter.com/make/products/CustomPrintedMeeple

UNPUB @ PAX Unplugged is coming up! Nov 21-23, 2025. We will be sponsoring a table with prototyping materials this year, so make sure to grab some of those when you attend. https://www.unpub.org/upcoming-events/unpub-at-pax-unplugged-2025

The UnderQuest Crowd Sale by Grey Gnome Games has been temporarily canceled. It will be under construction for a little bit. Once it goes live again, we will let you know!

For this Designer Spotlight, we are joined by a team, Eric & CC Hyland. We gave them our Spotlight questions, see what they had to say https://www.tumblr.com/tgcnews/799577606949421056/designer-spotlight-eric-cc-hyland?source=share

Jackson Lin was inducted into TGC Hall of Fame for winning the Geo Facts contest. You can read their design journey here: https://www.tumblr.com/tgcnews/799487015398850560/jackson-lin-inducted-into-tgc-hall-of-fame?source=share

Protospiel Madison is right around the corner. Don't forget to add any games you are bringing to the prototype list on Tabletop Events. There are only 47 badges left to be sold, so if you haven't gotten yours yet, make sure to snag is now. https://tabletop.events/conventions/protospiel-madison-2025

Congratulations to the Geo Facts Challenge contest winner Round Trip: Taiwan. The judge shared their feedback on the finalists here: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/contests/geo-facts-challenge#FinalsRubric

JT sits down with the guys from FunProblems to talk about the newest version of Component Studio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqZnFTxZ6nM

The Cast of Characters Challenge Finalists have been announced! https://www.thegamecrafter.com/contests/cast-of-characters-challenge

FLAG CON is right around the corner - Nov 6-9, 2025. If you are in the area stop by and say high to Chris from The Mint Tin Guys and Rampage Games as he will be hosting a table there with games and components from us on his table. https://www.flagconithaca.com/

Games by Mondo discusses ways to move forward when you're feeling stuck as a game designer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yjYywuqJBM

Custom Small Punchout - Build whatever your imagination can dream up. You may mix and match up to 10 types of these items per sheet. They fit in our Small Pro and Small Stout boxes. https://www.thegamecrafter.com/make/products?menu%5Bcategory%5D=Punchouts

Get yourself a month of advertising on FatherGeek.com by winning this auction. https://www.thegamecrafter.com/auction/0318BD1A-B1E1-11F0-95EF-1A3C740A2C37 Happy bidding!

Matthew Dunstan goes over 5 different common game design problems and offers a number of suggestions for overcoming each one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSaNKMjlHSM

Joe Slack compares Tabletop Publishers Dossier and CRM System Review, and shares his thoughts. https://boardgamedesigncourse.com/tabletop-publishers-dossier-and-crm-system-review/

Joe (Allplay) and Nick (Bitewing Games) discuss all things marketing board games, incuding revealing a new game , Kickstarter marketing, paid marketing and marketing after release. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZoSEACOw9E

The Michigan DNR has been working on their new game "Michigan State Parks Card Game". They were showing it off at Grand Con, and we are excited to see this game grow.

Jessie Chom compares two versions of their deck "Lost In Autumn Oracle". One from Make Playing Cards and the other from us, The Game Crafter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rpJtpNfgPM We love seeing honest comparisons.

Check out this awesome pumpkin carving from a fan of Tin Realms We'd love to see any game related pumpkins you may be carving this year! Share them with us, and we would be happy to share them across our socials.

CAST OF CHARACTERS CHALLENGE semi-finalist have been announced, head over to the contest to view them. https://www.thegamecrafter.com/contests/cast-of-characters-challenge

Mystery Box Board Game Jam Winners Announced! Congratulations to these winners: People's Choice Award: Guarding Atlantis by Aaron Goss Designer's Choice Award: XenoArcheologists by Joel Davis Pam's Pick: Trick or Treasure by Aaron L. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5VYE7Z8W9k

Protospiel Madison has just a few rooms left in our room block, and they've convinced the hotel to hold on to the room block reservation for another week. So if you need a hotel room for Protospiel Madison then book that room today. https://ow.ly/u0J750Xc8lA

This insightful article by Jon Spike over on Gamestorm EDU gives a look into how games can help teach communication. https://gamestormedu.com/2025/09/29/how-board-and-card-games-can-teach-healthy-discourse/

The Game Crafter is a sponsor of the Board Game days that’s happening on October 16-19th, 2025. We received badges to the event and wanted to share these with the community! We made 2 different auctions and the highest bidder for each gets 1, 3-day pass. https://www.thegamecrafter.com/auctions

New Designer Spotlight featuring Cassie Friedman https://www.tumblr.com/tgcnews/797308907537203200/designer-spotlight-cassie-friedman?source=share

The Game Crafter is excited to announce our new community tabletop game design contest. Introducing the Pool Builder Challenge! Learn more at: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/contests/pool-builder-challenge

The 2025 Hasbro Women Innovators of Play Design Challenge is open! Submit your toy or game idea for a chance to win $10K, mentorship from Hasbro’s top women leaders, and a trip to HQ. This year, Hasbro is especially seeking new toy ideas. https://ow.ly/V4lg50Xa0Zj

In this article, Joe Slack shares 3 great ways to balance your tabletop game. https://boardgamedesigncourse.com/3-great-ways-to-balance-your-game/

Hasbro announced that on Oct 9, 2025 they’ll host the 2025 Women Innovators of Play virtual conference (10:00AM–11:30AM ET) streaming on Hasbro’s HasbroLife YouTube channel. The conference has a stellar lineup of speakers. Register here: https://na.eventscloud.com/ereg/index.php?eventid=845862

We will be sponsoring a table with Rampage Games LLC at Flag Con this year, so make sure to stop by their table, say hi and grab some fun game bits! FLAG Con is a tabletop gaming convention for everyone. https://tabletop.events/conventions/flag-con-2025

VOTE for the winner of the 24 Hour Mystery Box Board Game Jam! https://forms.gle/BqvEmipJDPXvYt3m9 While the contest is over, you can still get the Game Jam kit, just for fun here. https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/mystery-box-board-game-jam-kit

We'll be supporting MAD Con this year. Travel down the rabbit hole and have a wonderfully mad time in Fort Wayne Indiana for the first ever MadCon on Oct 25 & 26! Join them for an amazing time, in a fantastic venue playing games with friends and strangers. https://tabletop.events/conventions/madcon

The Cast of Characters Challenge has come to and end and has entered the community voting phase. Head over to the contest and vote for your favorite games. https://www.thegamecrafter.com/contests/cast-of-characters-challenge

Lucas McWhirter hosted a TGC Designer Table at BGG Con and featured his game, Acres. Lucas has designed several games and is passionate about using The Game Crafter. He was able to demo his game to lots of people and be a great representative for The Game Crafter community.

The Game Crafter is proud to sponsor Board Game Days, 4 days of board gaming and design in Knoxville, Tennessee. It's a great event for game designers. Play prototypes, checkout games from the library, participate in play-to-win events and daily giveaways. https://www.bgdknx.com/

Each year, we sponsor 60–70 events and educators who use game design to inspire creativity. Recently, we sent prototyping supplies to Michelle’s class in Albuquerque, and the kids built their own games! Thanks to your support, we’re able to give back to the game design community we love.

🎲Will Call pickup at Protospiel Madison. 🎲 Place an order with an estimated completion no later than Nov 12, 2025. Put “Protospiel Madison” in the notes and choose “Will Call,” at checkout. We’ll deliver it to the event for FREE, just pick it up at registration!✅

We are sponsoring PROTOrlando— a one-day board game design convention on October 11th, 2025, where creators playtest, pitch, and improve their games alongside an amazing community of designers and players! https://gamingcaravan.com/

In this article, Joe Slack shares the top 5 components you need for making new tabletop game prototypes. https://boardgamedesigncourse.com/the-top-5-components-you-need-for-making-prototypes/

In this video, Matthew Dunstan shares some tips for entering game design contests. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxdvaTGtLCo

Canada Post launched a national strike as of September 25, 2025 and their operations are shut down. This affects millions of Canadians and it also limits the available shipping options to Canada for The Game Crafter. Please read our official announcement at news.thegamecrafter.com/post/7957846...

Going to Protospiel Madison this year and wondering where to get some good eats? Let’s cover a few that are within walking distance. https://news.thegamecrafter.com/post/795768801566294016/protospiel-madison-the-eats

Featured Product: Medium Pro Box A professional box that is printed in full color and rigidly constructed by The Game Crafter. Learn more at www.thegamecrafter.com/make/product...

There are only 5 days left to submit games to the Cast of Characters Challenge at The Game Crafter. Chris Williams is judging the contest and shared some additional context and a reminder that there are 4 honorable mention categories. Read the details at news.thegamecrafter.com/post/7955875...

Advice: Get feedback from pro tier designers at Protospiel Madison 2025. Every year we have designers in attendance who have many published titles. Get your designs in front them & they can share some valuable insights & perspective. Join us on Nov 14-16, 2025. Details: protospiel-madison.org

The Young Inventor Challenge® (YIC) is for kids ages 6-18 to develop & pitch inventions to toy/game companies. YIC is funded through generous donations from people like you! Details at www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUC3... The Game Crafter is happy to support this great event for new toy & game makers. 😀🎲

Our Finish Sample Pack features all 7 of our card options. These include Printed (no add-on options), UV, Linen, UV + Linen, Clear PVC, Foil, and Blank. These cards will help you decide which card finish will work best for your game(s). www.thegamecrafter.com/parts/finish...

Check out this how to play video by Game Knight for Hercules 3000. Hercules 3000 is a mint tin solo game available at The Game Crafter. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hwn...

In this video, Blue Beard Entertainment explores the concept of childishly simple games and how it applies to creating elegant games that seem effortlessly simple but also offer depth. www.youtube.com/watch?v=syYq...