Playtesting Board Games: 12 Lessons I’ve Learned
March 22, 2025
Lessons I’ve learned from over two years designing and playtesting board games. Takeaways for playtesting your games.
Game Design
Category: Game Design
Fuzzy Logic: Why Genre Classifications Are Impossible
March 11, 2025
An analysis of genre classifications in tabletop board and roleplaying games, and how we can think about hybrid designs in useful ways.
Experience vs. Memory: How We Remember Games
March 6, 2025
An analysis of how and why we remember certain experiences more vividly than others, and how this applies to games.
Endowment Theory, Consumerism and Engagement in Games
March 1, 2025
Endowment effect and divestiture aversion as it relates to playing and designing tabletop games.
Writing a Great Board Game Rulebook
February 8, 2025
Writing a great game rulebook can be hard. Here are some considerations as you create your own.
Clarity, Brevity and Respect: On Rulebook Creation for Games
February 1, 2025
Rulebook design in games can be difficult. Here are three principles to help guide your rulebook creation.
Games: Agency as Art, Book Review
January 22, 2025
Games: Agency as Art is a book by author C. Thi Nguyen. It analyzes gaming as a mode of art and posits a theory of what games deliver to players that is unique and distinct from other media.
Games as Learning in Raph Koster’s Theory of Fun for Game Design
January 15, 2025
Theory of Fun for Game Design is a book by longtime game designer Raph Koster, who analyzes learning and design systems in gaming.
Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design Book Review
January 8, 2025
The Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design is a book written by Isaac Shalev and Geoffrey Engelstein, aimed at game designers looking to expand their knowledge of gaming mechanisms.
Gametek Book Review
January 1, 2025
Gametek is a book on tabletop gaming by author Georffrey Engelstein. It covers a wide variety of topics including the math and history underscoring games and game design.
Holding the Lead: King of the Hill in Combative Board Games
February 22, 2024
Holding the Lead: King of the Hill in Combative Board Games By MARK WILSON One of the more controversial elements of some of my favorite
Open Information and Game Flow: How Game Design Incentivizes Analysis Paralysis
January 22, 2024
Open Information and Game Flow: How Game Design Incentivizes Analysis Paralysis By MARK WILSON Chess is a perfect information game. While it’s become popular to
Thematic Games and Role Differentation
January 8, 2024
Thematic Games and Role Differentiation By MARK WILSON I don’t think it’s terribly controversial to say that so-called “thematic” board games – as loosely defined
Sidetracked: Incorporating Meaningful Side Quests Into Campaigns
February 9, 2020
Sidetracked: Incorporating Meaningful Side Quests Into Campaigns By MARK WILSON Ah yes, the side quest. Proverbial bastion of endless possibility, and a break from the
Jaquaysing a Dungeon
August 26, 2019
Jaquaysing a Dungeon Learning from the best dungeons of yore By MARK WILSON Historical Note: This article refers to a coined term that references now-deceased
“Make It Your Own” – Stealing & Adapting non-RPG Elements Into Your Game
December 28, 2018
Make It Your Own Stealing & Adapting non-RPG Elements Into Your Game By MARK WILSON Adapting Media into RPGs This article will focus on stealing