There’s a lot to learn about making amazing tabletop games. Here’s where I share what I’ve learned about game design.
Designer Diary: Around the World in 10-15 Minutes: How Much, and How Little, Has Changed From the Very First Version
I love all my babies, naturally, but there's something that genuinely excites me about playing Around the World in 10-15 Minutes. It's our third game from No Box Games, meaning it's a print and play with no assembly required. It's also the first title where I felt...
The Ultimate Guide to Co-Designing a Board Game
Co-designing a board game is a wonderful opportunity to bounce ideas around, work with another designer, and of course make something you can be proud of. I've worked on almost a dozen games with co-designers as of this post, and I've been privileged to tap their...
How to Write a Rulebook for Your Board Game
Rules can feel hard to write. They have to make a game feel understandable to the reader, clarify your intentions, and make sure players feel like they know what they're doing. It's a weird blend of technical writing that shouldn't sound like technical writing. In...
When Should You Shelve a game? 8 Questions To Ask Yourself
Whether the last few playtests have been discouraging or it just feels like the game's not working the way you want it to, you're probably wondering if it's time to shelve a game. Take heart - almost anyone that's been designing games for a little while has a shelved...
New Board Game Terms To Add To Your Vocabulary
I learn new board game terms all the time, usually from other game designers. Here are some of the terms I've heard recently. ...
Help, My Design is Too Complicated!
So you've been working on a game for awhile. It's changed themes, mechanics, and rules more times than you can count... OR... You're working on a game, and it's a 'kitchen sink' sort of game. You've thrown everything you can think of into the game... By the time you...
The Ultimate Guide to Spreadsheets for Board Game Designers
Spreadsheets - a word that drives terror or delight into the heart of many a game designer. I was a Business major in college, and it was a class on entrepreneurship where I got to be really comfortable in spreadsheets. While it took some time to find the best way to...
10 design lessons from classic board games
Part of making the future of board games means knowing where the industry has been. I'm of the firm belief that each and every game you can play can teach you something, no matter how old it is, whether it's a game you like or not, and so on. All 10 of these games are...
About mechanical competency, strategic competency, and competitive competency
Most of the time when you sit down to play a game for the first time, a few things happen, more or less in a set order: You read the rules (or have them taught to you in some way) You set up the game, board, cards, dice, pieces, etc. You learn the goal of the game,...
Pecha Kucha Kon 2021 – learn from some amazing people, 20 seconds per slide
So the Meeple Syrup community made a thing - introducing Pecha Kucha Kon 2021, all about board game design from many different perspectives. For those hearing the term 'Pecha Kucha' for the first time, it's basically a presentation format where you have exactly 20...