major arcana game Strength: a game about agency, waiting This is something of a "fertilizer" game -- it kind of stinks, is a spontaneous syncretization of many ideas, and will create a fertile ground upon which to base future designs.
game design Jersey Gore: a game for Four or Six players I've been thinking a lot about immersion lately, and tried to prioritize it in my entry to this year's 200 Word RPG Challenge. The game itself is about vampire guidos, but that's just
game design A Grin Hack: variable outcomes and tension in miniature Jump to the new rules, and skip the pretentious bologna. Today we look at the elegantly simple survival horror game Grin, and describe a hack of the rules to allow for variable outcomes
advent calendar Gentry: a game about charm, wit, and agency A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. Admittedly late, but I'm sure we'll all live. I've been watching a lot of Poldark lately, and had the pleasure of watching Pride
advent calendar Salado: a game about the conflict between past and future A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. The picture above is of Laguna Honda, a salt lake in Bolivia. It got me thinking about the Great Salt Lake in Utah,
advent calendar Kairos: a game about dying and growing A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. This game is about dying, and transformation. The whole butterfly chrysalis thing (I know it's a moth, and pupates underground) was inspirational, and
advent calendar Godot: a game about embodied cognition A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. People are really interesting. And they're people! How cool is that. This game is about people watching, and people understanding, and people being.
advent calendar Chimera: a game about slapdash collaboration A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. How would you describe hummingbirds to someone who'd never seen them? "It's uh...it's a bird, but it flies around like a bee.
advent calendar Make Believe: a game about the epic in the mundane A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. The idea in this game is to, essentially, play two separate games simultaneously and see how they affect one another. One is normal,
advent calendar Egregore: a game about being the conspiracy A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. That picture is a seagull. On a plain blue sky. That's it. I mean for real, it's like Wikimedia doesn't want me to
advent calendar Kiru: a game about the person between memories A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. This is a game about shells, in that it has nothing to do with shells. In my defense this was a very difficult
advent calendar Justiz: a game about spies in revolt A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. This picture...this is cool. We see here the Palace of Justice in Munich, where the Nazis sentenced the members of the White
advent calendar Elementary: a game about druidic Power Rangers A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. The full, uncropped prompt-picture. It depicts Chuquicamata, the largest open pit copper mine in the world by excavated volume. This immediately brought to
advent calendar Reminiscence: a game about storytelling A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. This picture made me feel lonely, and a bit adrift in a pleasant way. Imagine adventuring across this land, and living your life
advent calendar Common Defence: a game about hatred A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. The spider Hersilia in the picture above "has an interesting way of capturing prey. Rather than making a web that captures prey directly,
advent calendar The Wastes: a game about the arid emptiness of life A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. When I first saw the prompt, I thought someone had ripped a truck in half and built a little cement-lined space in the
advent calendar Toms on Toms: a game about the true adventures of Thomas Jefferson A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. The picture above is of Monticello, the charming but kinda-ostentatious home of Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson, renowned for being a Renaissance man, was
advent calendar Foreign & Domestic: a game about Viking work/life balance A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. This game is about Vikings, at home and abroad. The goal is to have character activity at home affect activity abroad, and vice
advent calendar Bang Bang: a game for road trips A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. At first I saw that picture and thought "Sci fi? On a moon? Or something?"...but then I saw the road. And then
advent calendar Abelian: a game of rising and falling action A toy game from the 2016 game design advent calendar. This is a game paced by the magic of self-organized criticality, a personal fascination. Each cell of the boards has some number of
advent calendar Good Tidings of Not-So-Great Design! The games made so far are listed here. The latest: Gentry: a game about charm, wit, and agency. Today is a momentous day. A day I begin an adventure, the likes of which