The End of Flash: As I Lay Dying!

With Adobe ending support for Flash in just a couple of days (!), I’m finishing up my series on the Flash games I’ve developed today with As I Lay Dying! The previous two articles can be found here and here. As I Lay Dying! was a radical departure from my previous games, and that wasn’t […]

The End of Flash: Xaat Disi

With the imminent end of support for Flash by Adobe, I’ve decided to revisit my old Flash games before they disappear. After my last article about Arachnophilia, some friends kindly suggested that the games might not be lost after all, as stand alone Flash players will still be available and some websites, such as Armor […]

The End of Flash: Arachnophilia

Most of you probably know me as a board game designer. But I actually got my start making small Flash games. Back then I basically did it all: design, programming, and even art, for better or worse. With Adobe ending support of Flash at the end of this year, I decided it was time to […]

Second Chances

For those of us who got our starts in digital games in the age of the internet, there’s something strangely final about printing a board game. With digital games, if you make a mistake or there’s a little bug you missed, you update the code and assets, submit a patch, and pretend like nothing ever […]

Designing Under Constraints

People start designing games for many reasons, but a big one is freedom. You see all sorts of games, but notice a striking omission, and think you could make it yourself! Throughout the tabletop hobby there’s a view that a new game is a totally blank slate and that game design is a liberating creative […]

Board Game Design Basics: Playtesting! Part III

Almost three years ago I wrote a two part article on playtesting. (Read Part I and Part II.) Today I turn the series into a trilogy. Why? Well, one of my patrons asked about playtesting. But when it comes to playtesting, there’s a lot to talk about. As a game designer, playtesting is how you […]

Robot Invasion

It will be a surprise to absolutely no one that technology is slowly creeping into the world of tabletop games, just as it has in every other facet of life. What might actually be surprising is how slowly the creep is. Especially considering the wild success of mobile games and the ubiquity of smart phones, […]

Component Considerations

How do publishers decide which components to use for a game? These days, the possibilities are almost limitless, with many factories having a huge range of in-house products and the ability to outsource for unusual components when necessary. With such an enormous blank slate, how do you even start deciding which components will work for […]

Kickstarter Videos

To those of us who follow Kickstarter, it’s no surprise that having a good game does not guarantee funding. Bad games get funded all the time, and more significantly, good games often do not reach their goals. There are many reasons this can happen, but it often boils down to potential players not being able […]

Graphic Design in Tabletop Games

Today I’m going to discuss an often misunderstood topic, graphic design. I’ll get into more details below, but very quickly: Graphic design is the conveying of information visually. Given that tabletop games are almost completely visual, it shouldn’t be surprising that graphic design is essential to a successful game. But graphic design is a subtle […]