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 publishingRead more → Origins Game Fair: A first-timer’s strategy guide
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 agoRead more → FarkleBot: An experiment in tabletop game AI
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 mustRead more → Potemkin Empire Designer Dairy #3
“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Once, in a group of other game designers working to get our first designs signed by publishers (i.e.: unpublished designers), someone asked “what do you all call yourselves, since you’re not published?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 peopleRead more → “Award Winning” Game Designer
“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,Read more → “Hidden Mechanics” in Video Games — and in Tabletop Games?
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.Read more → Potemkin Empire Designer Diary #2
Bandwidth
What’s the ideal number of designs to be working on at a time? There’s a lot of wisdom in focusing on one single thing at a time, making it amazing, completing it, then using the completed project as a pillarRead more → Bandwidth
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 😟), sinceRead more → Protospiel Ann Arbor 2017
Designer Diary: Potemkin Empire
As I continue to grind Valour down into a polished gem ready for publishing, I’m occasionally working in some time on a few smaller designs; it’s nice to have a distraction that feels productive. One of these new designs, I’mRead more → Designer Diary: Potemkin Empire
Origins 2017 Roundup
I got back from Columbus (a tough destination for a Wolverine alumnus…) last week from the Origins Game Fair. Earlier in 2016, I set some ambitious goals for Origins with regards to ‘designs ready to pitch’. I didn’t hit everyRead more → Origins 2017 Roundup