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…
FarkleBot: An experiment in tabletop game AI
A favorite activity for my partner and I is visiting brewery taprooms; often, we’ll combine a trip with some kind of casual game, (usually Odin’s Ravens 2e) but we don’t always haul that out with us. A few years ago we grabbed a game off the shelf at Denver Beer…
Potemkin Empire Designer Dairy #3
I finished a round of edits and cleanup on the Potemkin Empire rules last night — it’s still testing really well; every group to play it ends up getting into the sarcastic tone, and preposterousness of the theme, though I must say, when I first put pen to paper for this,…
“Award Winning” Game Designer
Once, in a group of other game designers working to get our first designs signed by publishers (i.e.: unpublished designers), someone asked “what do you all call yourselves, since you’re not published? I’m struggling with what to call myself when people ask.” Ever the smartass, I quipped “I think all of…
“Hidden Mechanics” in Video Games — and in Tabletop Games?
Last week, a video game designer I’ve been following on Twitter for a while now, Jennifer Scheurle posted asking game developers to post tricks they use to optimize for fun, versus coding a perfect simulation of an environment: Hey #gamedev, tell me about some brilliant mechanics in games that are…
Potemkin Empire Designer Diary #2
Potemkin Empire was one of the designs I took with me to Protospiel Ann Arbor earlier this summer; one of my newer designs. It’s been on the table a few times in a previous iteration that crashed and burned spectacularly. After rebuilding essentially from the ground up, I felt it…
Protospiel Ann Arbor 2017
Protospiel Ann Arbor, the testing event that launched a thousand other testing events, is an easy stop on the annual circuit for me, (though I sometimes end up missing the anniversary party for one of my favorite Colorado breweries 😟), since I can combine with a visit to my hometown and…