Maslow's Hierarchy of Playtesting
The great sun of Catan rises over Indianapolis, and we are once more gathered to the summit of The Hobby. Cower good friends, for GenCon...
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This is the blog of a first time game designer trying to figure out what the heck he's doing.
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jjonquill
- Feb 28
- 4 min
The Island of **** it!
My latest board game design has be torturing me a bit. I've been under the hood trying to maximize every last aspect, and get it running...
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jjonquill
- Dec 14, 2023
- 5 min
Seven months or five years...
Working onsite at a job usually involves a lot of “hurry up and wait.” There’s a lot of rushing around for a couple hours, manically...
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jjonquill
- Mar 14, 2023
- 6 min
To All the Games I've Loved Before
Almost exactly nine years ago, I got sick. I had a wicked fever, and I needed to call out for most of a week. Isolated, bored, and...
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jjonquill
- Mar 7, 2023
- 4 min
"7/10" is a Genre!
Here’s another one I’m going to frame carefully. My goal, and I think almost every game designer’s goal, is to make someone’s favorite...
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jjonquill
- Feb 28, 2023
- 5 min
The Roughest Playtest
I’m not entirely sure if this is controversial or not, but as intense as playtesting is, I don’t think it’s half as hard as pitching. And...
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jjonquill
- Feb 14, 2023
- 4 min
What's the Ante?
So, here’s a thing that keeps me up at night. Anyone who’s hosted a house game of poker has had to answer what I think might be the most...
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jjonquill
- Feb 7, 2023
- 4 min
Gencon: A Unity of Strangers
This is mainly the story of a not terribly smart, and relatively expensive marketing decision I made for my little indie board game...
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jjonquill
- Jan 31, 2023
- 4 min
Even in shrink, they’re not abandoned
So, people in every branch of the cultural tree have been bandying about the phrase “Art is never finished, it is only abandoned” for...
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jjonquill
- Jan 24, 2023
- 4 min
My LIttle Brother, Ozymandias
After I got out of the subway, I ran into the first bodega I could find. The rain was coming down in these rhythmic sheets thanks to the...
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jjonquill
- Jan 17, 2023
- 3 min
A Theater Kid in with the Engineers
This one is going to get me in trouble, though I'm not sure with whom. The world of game design is ensconced with numbers. When you...
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jjonquill
- Jan 10, 2023
- 4 min
The First Test in Someone Else's Basement
I’m not sure I’m ever going to know what any game I design will end up being. They keep kicking me in different directions than I expect....
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jjonquill
- Jan 3, 2023
- 4 min
The House Rules
Whenever I tell anyone outside the hobby that I’m trying to make a board game, I get some variation of the same question. “How’d you even...
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