Love the love for the 'grandmother' to Signal and Here Lies, now in a second edition printing. Also my joy when a reviewer has finally seen the use of radicals, as I am half Japanese and it was a cornerstone of the design that misses most folks conceptually (and part of why I made it for my dad).

Andrew Jackson Lynch@whatsforlynch.bsky.social · 22h ago

And Rosetta from @dvcgames.bsky.social, a great and challenging language game that any fledgling etymologist would do well to seek out. I hope you like learning about radicals, because this review is all about radicals. www.meeplemountain.com/reviews/rose...

Recently was submitted a game that has been testing well, but we know nothing about the designer as a person. We feel that signing a game is also a collaborative act, and that getting to know the designer does matter to us. Does anyone have thoughts on this? In the age of art vs. the artist.

And squeezing in this mini-Euro prototype (Dogado) before going home.

Time to play Here Lies Volume II every day this week.

How things are going.

I certainly misspent my focus today on making a full, nice print-and-play file for our DVC-sized Euro game experiment. But now I can send it to the Jaspers who don’t live in Syracuse!

Listen anywhere🎧 In this episode of TPTOC, we take a deep dive into the fascinating science and history of The Rosetta Stone. We then look at the game Rosetta: The Lost Language, and dive into the components, rules, mechanisms, and rate it on our thematic scale! @dvcgames.bsky.social #boardgames

Testing two new modules. Maybe I’ll finally win (I haven’t yet)

Not sure when this started but if, like me, you've been itching to get DVC games in the UK they are indeed all available on Zatu!

DVC Games 🔜 PAXU@dvcgames.bsky.social · last wk.

Zatu imports them for the UK audience! And if they don't have something in stock, feel free to bug them for us...

I think the fine folks at @dvcgames.bsky.social have the best submission guidelines that I've seen in the industry. It lays out everything you'd want to know: what they are looking for, how to contact them, and goes over specific-to-them requirements. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Bookmark Series Style Guide 2026

Bookmark Series VISION STATEMENT 2026 If you have any questions, we turned on commenting. The DVC Pitching Golden Rule Our tastes as players and as business owners change and adapt over time. A quic...

docs.google.com

BREAKING NEWS Pile of leaves wins our local game night costume contest

First tutorial play of Here Lies by @dvcgames.bsky.social . Photo is upside to obscure spoilers. Just a really neat deduction game.

Cooking up a horror game that requires a good deal of trust that the ghost is not cheating. It reminds me that I often get questions about how to 'verify' other players aren't cheating and it always makes me worry: Y'all playing with people who can't be trusted?

So the catch with this ‘worker placement’ so far is two-fold. 1) Your workers stay put, and the tallest stack of pieces scores points for that space. 2) Spaces are non-exclusive. So technically it is an auction game, where each token you bid gives an action.

Sending out the monthly email today, because we have not technically 'announced' Photo Club? It is strange since I have been posting testing photos here for ages now, so it is hard to forget that you should 'officially' say something. Literal photography game! Each turn is a puzzle! It's neat!

We got a dozen copies left of Signal, and we aren't reprinting it anytime soon. But that is for a somewhat strategic reason? Another company bought the rights to produce an international second edition with better onboarding, new puzzles, and lots of small tweaks to make it perfect...

Today’s test was centered on modularity- how can a given worker placement space function differently and still keep the game humming along. Overall, totally worked. Trying to see how modular it can become?

My very normal solution to how often I may contradict myself or seem to have an odd perspective in a conversation at work.

Another good test! Truing to tune everything to a specific level, then invite in some modularity in set-up.

Lunchtime game of @enzyshade.bsky.social designed Pacts with my amazing wife. What a perfect game. I can see why @cjeggett.co.uk gave it a MUST-PLAY in Tabletop Gaming mag this month. Thoroughly deserved. Every round hinges on an interesting, difficult decision. Cannot WAIT to play again!

Another good test of Serenissima! It’s a medium Euro with a ton going on… but pretty much anyone who plays it has a great time with it so far. And it is smaller box-space-wise than Inkwell? Okay so if I made it very pretty, is that within our wheelhouse as a publisher? It is heavier than the rest!

Continued success in this little engine that could. Main feedback ‘It was surprising, with everything going on, how easy it was to take a turn’. Trying to fit that Euro crunch and friction in the tiniest space possible.

An improvement! Surprisingly playable!!

It's a bit quiet at work since both DUST and Photo Club are finally moved forward in their own ways. There is a sad satisfaction to seeing something that consumed so much time and energy for so long sort-of disappear. But the final results are pretty nice I think!

Eventually the prototypes do get prettier and prettier.

Area control… worker placement? Surprisingly engaging first test.

Sad there is a game named Serenissima because I’d love to name this Serenissima.

Fir Bolg vs Dragons at RGC giant Pacts time

A question today that has provided some debate: How can you relate tactical and political gameplay that supports both? As you provide levers for player autonomy and control, do you take away the desire or need to lean on someone else to get your way? Or vice-versa? Examples of games would help too.

Rigged a copy of DUST for our photographer. Other than key ‘low spoiler’ cards, nearly everything was swapped out for blank cards so that there wouldn’t be mistakes or confusion in snapping those photos. But also, funny you know that, in the final pictures, those decks are basically empty.