Ten years ago, I sat down to teach myself a new programming framework, and wanted a project to power that learning along, so I set about building a 4X game inspired by the likes of Pax Imperia, Master of Orion, and all that. I stood up a beta version of…
Category: Games
Big News 2019!
Holy shit y’all there was so much exciting news in the last few months I totally forgot to even post about it here! Here’s the update: Last summer, I got two games under contract — I wasn’t totally clear on what the rules were about discussing what and with whom,…
Game Design by “Particles”
Something I’ve been toying with lately, is the idea of game design I’ve been calling “particles”; different than when Gil Hova describes gameplay in terms of “atoms”, where a discrete unit of play can’t be split; but a game design system perhaps orthogonal to the ideas of theme-first / mechanics-first,…
Designing from the Road: The Box of Bits
I’m spending 2019 traveling, but committed to continue to design tabletop games while doing so, with the thought that constraints might lead to some good systematization and process habits. The first thing I felt I needed in order to keep designing on the road was a way to transport and…
Component Studio is Dope
I have many weaknesses when it comes to game design, but perhaps most severe among them is an allergy to making cards. They’re such an incredibly powerful component… an arbitrary-odds randomizer, plus hidden information, plus ‘multiple use’ item, plus… plus… plus… 🤯) but the idea of designing, balancing and laying out,…
Harris Hawk Designer Diary
I think often about an older post I wrote called ‘getting out of the game room‘, and the value that comes along with doing so for a tabletop game, in order to gather experiences from the real world to draw on. A frequent travel stop for Andrea and I (owing…
Radiolab episode about finding inspiration
I recently heard an episode of Radiolab where one of their producers interviewed their top reporter on how he finds some of the more ‘out there’ stories they broadcast, and, of course, (everything seems to…) got me thinking about board game themes and mechanics. Take a second and listen to…
The Big Move
On the first of the year, Andrea and I are packing up for a year abroad — we’re going to check out a few places we’ve enjoyed visiting and see what it’s like to ‘live there’ for a bit (6 weeks in most places). I’ll still be working on game…
Thingvalley Designer Diary #1
I’m working on a game I came up with on a trip to Iceland (it’s getting to the point that I can’t even leave Boulder without coming up with some kind of game concept. If you need some ideas, hmu), after visiting the Þingvellir — a valley between the two…
Origins Game Fair: A first-timer’s strategy guide
Origins Game Fair is a really great convention, especially for designers and aspiring designers — nearly every publisher you can think of has a presence there, and many (most!) are willing to talk to just about anyone about their publishing process, what kind of things they are looking for, and…