How some kinds of components can be essential to gameplay in certain designs—and what that means for the designers and publishers working with them:

https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2026/11/03/material-matters-when-components-become-mechanisms-topic-discussion/

How “doing the opposite” can be a creative tactic to spark game design ideas:

https://www.mojo-nation.com/think-the-opposite-mojo-nations-deej-johnson-explores-the-creative-power-of-doing-things-differently/

Considering some ways the psychological phenomenon of loss aversion is relevant to game design (audio):

https://genesisoflegend.podbean.com/e/episode-393-loss-aversion-and-player-psychology/

Magic: The Gathering’s head designer explains why he doesn’t think Magic will run out of design space and lays out a process for building out a complex game’s mechanics (audio):

https://share.transistor.fm/s/7f69f937

A look at board game publishers’ position in the industry: how they’re set up, the types of workers they rely on, the financial math they need to make work, and more:

https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2026/10/27/small-world-the-business-behind-the-board-game-boom-topic-discussion/

The latest installment in our series on board game publishing contracts is out now! We've been running these reports for more than 10 years, and this new report focuses on how the process of signing a game has changed over the years:

https://cardboardedison.com/reports

This site lets board game designers set up feedback forms and solicit responses from playtesters:

https://meepleloop.com/

How to make your crowdfunding campaign page easy for potential backers to understand—plus a free graphic design template you can modify for your own use:

https://updates.kickstarter.com/design-for-the-scroll-how-to-make-your-kickstarter-page-easy-to-understand/

How to make the most of board game conventions as a designer (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wN6TuAwqYc

How board games can be designed—and how rulebooks can be written—to help new players understand the game:

https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2026/10/20/teaching-matters-designing-games-for-the-first-play-topic-discussion/

The math behind expected values and high-variance strategies, and the game design decisions that determine whether players are rewarded for steady progress or taking big swings:

https://gametek.substack.com/p/horse-race

Three publishers discuss how they find and serve customers, manage overhead, plan for growth, and more (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic3YQ75mRWs

It may not be that the game is unfun—here are some common reasons a publisher might reject a game they’re pitched:

https://www.dmrcreativegroup.com/post/overused-ideas-overlooked-reasons-pitches-get-rejected

A deep dive into magnetism and the many ways magnets are used in games (audio):

https://thespiel.net/node/1415

(heard while prototyping our own magnetic game, Mini Discus!)

5 questions to ask after each playtest:

https://pamwallsgamedesign.substack.com/p/5-questions-to-ask-each-playtest

Complexity in board games: what it adds and what it costs:

https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2026/10/13/costly-complexity-the-limits-of-complexity-in-board-games-topic-discussion/

Should co-designers have similar approaches or complementary skills? A Bluesky board game designers discussion:

https://bsky.app/profile/tzartzam.bsky.social/post/3mxbhtxs6m22h

Making board games not for publishers or crowdfunding, but just for the fun of it (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INwS7l8fNVE

What makes for a good rulebook? Or a bad rulebook? A Bluesky board gamers discussion:

https://bsky.app/profile/cardboardherald.bsky.social/post/3mxftjlfcek2c

Basics of probability theory for game designers: dice, betting, balance, and more (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo3QHqwbtCY