Why balance is overrated—and what board game designers should focus on instead (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fpbTsZI3EI

Thoughts on what games offer us—a chance to feel something that we don’t usually experience all that often:

https://stonemaiergames.com/the-essential-human-problem-solved-by-games/

Expectation value in board game design: how to use some simple mathematical modeling to inform balance and other design decisions:

https://gametek.substack.com/p/great-expectations

Games vs. puzzles: considering what makes them distinct—and what they have in common:

https://www.wericmartin.com/games-puzzles-and-everything-in-between/

A conversation about a tricky aspect of designing a multivictor game: balancing it to accommodate both cooperative and competitive play (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjFR6lWrGWc

Notes on efficiency and chunking in scoring, and how they can shape player experiences in sports and games:

https://gametek.substack.com/p/game-set-match

Our annual Cardboard Edison Best Practices booklet, filled with board game design tips and resources for every step of the process, is back!

In this edition, you’ll find:

• How to make the most of a playtest group

• What should be in a pitch video—and what shouldn’t

• Mistakes to avoid with your prototype’s art

• Onboarding players more smoothly

• How to prepare for indie game markets

…and lots more!

Thoughts on how the players themselves affect the gameplay experience—and what that means for designers:

https://tabletopgamesblog.com/2025/12/30/socially-afflicted-how-people-affect-gameplay-experience-topic-discussion/

Considering the differences between maps that use hexes vs. maps that use connected points:

https://www.skeletoncodemachine.com/p/everything-is-pointcrawl

An introduction to casino games: how common gambling games are designed, the odds behind them, and how casinos use them to their benefit (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDrisK5N6l8

Suggested terms to discuss different types of “randomness” in games:

https://keithburgun.net/randomness/

The Daniel.games game design advice website has been updated with new and revised articles:

https://daniel.games/

Tips for designing board games with strong narratives (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJmJ1IALfGc

Fragile mechanics: what makes a game mechanic particularly fragile?

http://www.sjgames.com/ill/a/2025-10-12

When making a historical game, how to decide what to include and what to leave out? A Bluesky board game designers discussion:

https://bsky.app/profile/biffybeans.bsky.social/post/3m2d575y6mk2y

Player psychographics: how archetypes of different players and what they want from games can help designers make better design decisions (video):

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

Games that hold scoring until the end can leave players unclear about what their goals are. Here are some fixes to give players earlier, clearer feedback (video):

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

Designing traditional and abstract board games (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFxZ4cL6UJM

Common game design problems and suggestions for overcoming them: being stuck on a mechanic, downtime, overwhelmed players, lack of interaction, and when the game just isn't great (video):

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

This chat with a game designer and developer considers what makes a game “cozy” and what makes it a good product (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux_BOmq9WCY