After only a few plays a new deck of high end playing cards is showing substantial crackling on its varnish. We dive into how playing cards are made, and compare a few decks of cards, along with examining what may have gone wrong.

As we dive into community playtesting I highlight what we are looking for from playtesting, who our play testers are, and the kinds of questions and feedback we’ll be querying.

We take a look at the Galactic Cruise upcoming Kickstarter campaign (coming early 2024), and pick apart the massive early success and traction the creators are seeing. 6 months ahead of launch they already have over 3,000 page followers, and an active Facebook community.

Finding playtesters for your board game can be an intimidating task for newer designers. But, it doesn’t have to be. We break down where to find playtesters (with links!), as well as how to think through who should be playtesting your game, and what you are looking for at each stage of playtesting.

We continue on our Froggy Bazaar diaries and identify the game’s target gamer profile and market comps.

Looking at the overall project will help us identify its target MSRP, complexity, and art direction. This will trickle down into every choice we make developing the game such like component skew, box size, rules complexity, and illustration.

Tips & tricks for the four stages of board game prototyping for your board game: Pen & Paper, Arts & Crafts & Digital, Sourced Components, and Manufacturer Prototypes.

We launch into a new series on the blog where we follow a board game from an idea all the way to publication and beyond. We’ll cover topics from market positioning, component choices, development, hiring an illustrator, finding a manufacturer, breaking into distribution and so much more.

Join us in our first installment of Froggy Bazaar where we talk about the game genesis and early playtesting goals.

Last week Farms Race by Medium Brow Games was taken off of Kickstarter due to an IP dispute with Stonemaier Games. We dig into what happened, who was in the wrong, and what it means for the future of the game.

Whether pitching your game to a publisher or looking to make more sales at a convention it all comes back to the demo. We dive into what makes a great board game demo and how to pitch your game at a convention.

Sigil is live on Kickstarter today! It’s a monumental moment for us, and the culmination of a game that has been in the works for nearly 15 years. The game’s long journey inspires me to keep at it with those finicky designs, and I’m honored to be a part of bringing this game to life.

I had a couple of lessons over the past week in the power and importance of tone in communication. We look at two cases where publishers mastered the tone of their communications, turning what could have been a negative event into a fun or even instructive experience for their communities.

We take a closer look at the process of manufacturing a board game. From file proofing, to printing, climatization, and freight - everything you need to know about how board games are made.

We take a look at IV Studio’s non-traditional approach to stretch goals in their campaign Fractured Sky. We dig into what stretch goals are, why they are useful to a campaign, and when to do something a little different.

We take a look at all the kinds of 3rd party content is available for you as a games designer/publisher. From reviews, to roundups and unboxings. The difference between paid & unpaid content, and how to find and reach out to content creators.

We take a look at some Kickstarter page best practices, from how to transition images, image sizing, and how to format your stretch goals.

Fulfillment is the process of getting your games from a local distribution center into your consumers’ hands. It entails taking delivery of a shipment, picking and packing games, and managing returns.

We walk through the process of finding a fulfillment provider and key considerations like their technology platform and duty paid (DTC) shipping options.

Take your Kickstarter to the next level with tools to calculate your Unit Economics, Break Evens, Ad & Review Campaign ROAS, and Organic Marketing Reach.

The models are Google Sheets based, so feel free to save them to your drive and play around with them.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend and industry professional around the challenges of running a Kickstarter and launching a board game. He had an insight on the idea of prescriptive tasks as compared to less-well-defined workflows. When we develop a process to make a task prescriptive it becomes easier to tackle and iterate on. A lot of my growth as a publisher has been in this process of developing processes for publishing a game.

We take a closer look at premium pledge tiers and add-on components, and why you should consider them for your next Kickstarter campaign. From faster funding and campaign momentum to giving backers what they want.

We break down our game submission review process. How games flow through our pipeline and ultimately how we rely on our community to help us find our best next game.

Let us know if you’d like to be a Pine Island Playtester!