We sit down with Emily Willix to talk about community building, sustainability, and showcase two awesome opportunities for designers: The Small Box Challenge, and Holiday Game Book.

Even gaming veterans sometimes mess up the rules. How can we design games to account for user error?

After getting my butt kicked in a game of CLANK! I parse over the dos and don'ts of player elimination mechanics. We touch on common design reasons for payer elimination, and puzzle out why it works in a gateway game like CLANK!.

A work in progress board game box design (for Beards and Booty) inspires us to take a closer look at what illustration, graphic design and component design tells us about the games we play. What do our design choices communicate, and when are our expectations subverted.

Pine Island Games is officially accepting board game design submissions. Learn more about us, our expectations and expertise. If you have a game that would be a good fit, we’d love to hear more.

I sit down with clinical psychologist Dr. Julia Martin Burch to talk about mental health and game design. She provides actionable advice for game designers, entrepreneurs, and just about everybody else.

Direwolf publishing is putting their money where their mouth is to support friendly local game stores (flgs) with pre-order exclusives. We take a look at the distribution chain and economics of retail exclusives.

New editions of Terraforming Mars are shipping in some regions with plastic corner protectors. We take a look at the economics and intangibles of premium packaging options.

The Automatons are taking over!! It is always exciting to stumble upon an interesting and unusual game concept. I speak with Glenn Ford about his game Turing (based on the test) which asks players to be more human than the game AI. Seems easy? I have a feeling that it isn’t.

I am settling in for a week in the countryside and thinking about what board games inspire us in different settings. Here are three (maybe unexpected) games that I want to be playing right now… who am I kidding, I am playing these as soon as I finish writing this post.

A comprehensive guide to finding, and hiring an illustrator for tabletop games. What you can expect on pricing, where you can look to connect with the right people, and how to source more affordable game artwork.

A fourteen year tradition reminds me of the importance of community. Beer Olympics has helped hold a group of friends together as geography and life has gotten in the way. It reminds us that community requires intentionality and consistency.

Some games elicit specific emotions through their mechanics and design. They allow us to feel love, fear, anxiety, in a controlled microcosm. The best games couple strong thematic elements with mechanical choices to elicit these emotions - whether it is a hike through parks, calm tile laying, or mad scramble to survive the zombie apocalypse.

TikTok is a surprisingly rich platform for board game content. We get you started with some hidden gems on the platform in this incomplete list of Board Game TikTokers I’m following.

On a morning walk I happened upon a (seemingly) abandoned baby robin. My unintentional meddling drives home the importance of educating ourselves ahead of making business decisions.

We take a look at the unique scoring method of Fossil Canyon. Rather than fiddly end of game accounting, Fossil Canyon gives us a dinosaur track - a tactile method of scoring as we go.

Games and literature are happy bedfellows with a long tradition of shared inspiration. But what makes an author a game designer, and a game designer an author. What is the shared creative drive and the principals that bond these two traditons?

It is daunting to break into the field of board game illustration and graphic design. Having recently completed a search for illustrators and designers, we break down common mistakes less professionally developed aspirants are making. This is the view from the other side of the table - steps to take to become a professional.