The Board Game Secret Show

Support my work and join my community: https://crdbrd.app/Koltin Thompson took a sick day from teaching fourth grade to launch his Kickstarter. It did $300,000 in the first 24 hours. He went back to work the next morning anyway — state testing was coming — and his co-workers wanted to know what on earth he was doing there. That game was 🚀 GALACTIC CRUISE, and it just won Dice Tower Game of the Year. T.K. King, Dennis Northcott and Koltin of Kinson Key Games came on to tell the whole story.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:🏆 Three Dice Tower awards in one night — and why Game of the Year was the one T.K. was watching for😭 Turning in a resignation, tears in the school bathroom, and going full-time into board games🤒 The sick day that launched a $300,000 Kickstarter — and the co-workers who asked why he came in🚀 "I'm calling it Galactic Cruise for now" — the placeholder name that never went away🧟 The Frankenstein prototype, and a first version that was wider and shallower than the game you know📋 Who actually made that player aid — the one people call the best they've ever seen🎨 Getting to Ian O'Toole: "you have to meet 20 people before you meet Ian"🛸 EXCURSIONS — why it's a whole new game and not an expansion━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 LINKS🛸 Excursions — a Galactic Cruise Game (launching soon on Kickstarter)▶ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kinsonkeygames/excursions-a-galactic-cruise-game🚀 Galactic Cruise▶ https://kinsonkeygames.com/galactic-cruise🎮 Kinson Key Games▶ https://www.kinsonkeygames.com/💬 Kinson Key Games on Discord▶ https://discord.gg/ZSCRGYJfUC📺 Kinson Key Games on YouTube▶ https://www.youtube.com/@kinsonkeygames3478❤️ Support My Work — Join Cardboard▶ https://crdbrd.app/━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎧 TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST!🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4🔵 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ CHAPTERS00:00 - Cold open00:43 - Who are Kinson Key Games?04:39 - Three Dice Tower awards in one night07:10 - How two friends started making games14:32 - Dennis finds them at Proto ATL22:30 - Going all in on the first day of 202327:22 - Doing the math on quitting a salary28:51 - The resignation, and a $300,000 launch32:42 - "I am calling it Galactic Cruise for now"34:38 - The first version was wider and shallower35:18 - The Frankenstein prototype45:09 - Why T.K. loves worker placement48:32 - Where Developments came from56:37 - Building the Progress Track58:25 - Teaching people how it scores1:01:40 - Achievements and Advancements1:08:59 - The top-ranked player in the world1:14:25 - The player aid everyone remembers1:22:43 - Landing the art on a debut game1:34:10 - Pitching the Achievements expansion1:40:18 - Excursions - and why it is not an expansion1:56:45 - Publishing other designers2:01:59 - Weight, box size and delivery dates#cardboard #bgss #galacticcruise

Does Cola Wars match your taste? :https://crdbrd.app/hub/game/682109fe-a66d-402c-a141-f4f9cf13c2d6Matthew Meeple took his first game to Gen Con, put six people on it at once, and found out mid-demo that it literally could not be won. He raised $476,000 on it anyway. He's the founder of One More Turn Games — publisher of ⚔️ ASCENDANCY and the upcoming 🥤 COLA WARS — and he quit his job to do all of it.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:🎲 A working cardboard vending machine that rolls your dice — no batteries, just a wooden dowel📦 The box fight: hundreds of backers arguing over a retro 1985 box nobody can fit in a Kallax😰 The delay email he was "terrified" to send — and why the replies changed how he runs campaigns🕹️ "We actually can't win the game" — the Gen Con demo that sent ASCENDANCY back to the drawing board🥤 How he saw an 80s nostalgia game in Cameron Fleming's prototype from the title alone🧠 Two battlefields — "mind share" in the consumer's head, "shelf share" in the aisles of Thirst City💼 Hire executives, fire them for the salary savings, and send interns to file TPS reports━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 LINKS🥤 Cola Wars on Gamefound▶ https://gamefound.com/en/projects/onemoreturngames/cola-wars🎮 One More Turn Games▶ https://onemoreturngames.com/pages/cola-wars📺 One More Turn Games on YouTube▶ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMpadGN6IfX_gt5WhTFdytg❤️ Support My Work — Join Cardboard▶ https://crdbrd.app/━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎧 TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST!🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4🔵 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ CHAPTERS00:00 - Cold open00:40 - Who is Matthew Meeple?01:59 - He quit his job to go all-in on One More Turn Games03:41 - ASCENDANCY funded fast - would he do it again?07:15 - Why his FIRST game was a huge asymmetric 4X08:33 - What the first campaign actually taught him12:00 - Never missing an update - ethics or compulsion?13:48 - The box fight: retro and unstorable, or shelf-friendly?18:33 - Will COLA WARS go retail?20:35 - The update he was terrified to send22:51 - Is crowdfunding oversaturated?31:35 - The crazy vending machine dice tower34:23 - Publisher trust, and the CMON problem39:15 - Why he switched from Kickstarter to Gamefound41:09 - The Gen Con demo where nobody could win the game50:42 - Cutting the scope to actually ship1:00:23 - ASCENDANCY is going digital1:01:33 - The crafting game he still wants to make1:03:45 - Finding Cameron Fleming at Gen Con1:07:33 - What 20 years in advertising brought to the mechanics1:09:53 - Shelf space: fast food to fine dining1:12:48 - How a cardboard vending machine rolls dice1:14:30 - Market research: buying your way out of bad luck1:20:59 - Why your mind share halves every year1:23:20 - Vice presidents, and the Ari Gold problem1:25:31 - Hiring executives - and interns who ruin everything1:32:11 - What is in store for the campaign#cardboard #bgss #colawars

Chad DeShon ran a million-dollar Kickstarter, added another half million in add-ons, and made basically nothing — then turned that wreckage into one of the busiest publishers in board games. He's the founder of 🎲 ALLPLAY, formerly 🪑 BOARDGAMETABLES.COM, and he runs the whole thing out of a limestone mine.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:🕳️ The Allplay warehouse is inside a decommissioned limestone mine — down the road from 750,000 square feet of federal documents🪑 2014: he emails a stranger about a furniture order and ends up selling board game tables with zero woodworking experience📦 THE DUCHESS lands at $499 against a $4,000 market and funds in minutes — then 25 containers arrive damaged💸 "Everybody had to get their table, or the whole business just went away"🎲 He played QE, emailed the designer to ask if he could publish it, and accidentally became a publisher🏷️ Every review started "this is QE by BoardGameTables.com" — the naming problem that forced the ALLPLAY rebrand🧲 His pitch advice for designers: whatever is unique about your game has to be in the first two sentences━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 LINKS🎲 Allplay▶ https://www.allplay.com/❤️ Support My Work — Join Cardboard▶ https://crdbrd.app/━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎧 TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST!🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4🔵 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ CHAPTERS00:00 - Cold open00:57 - Who is Chad DeShon?01:04 - His office is inside a limestone mine03:42 - The founder story starts with a furniture order07:40 - The first table sells the day after the website goes live09:59 - The Duchess: gamers touch the table and walk away12:18 - Cold-emailing furniture factories in China13:18 - $499 against a $4,000 market — funded in minutes18:00 - 25 containers of tables arrive damaged20:20 - A $1M campaign that made basically no money24:37 - Redesigning the table around the UPS weight limit27:24 - Dropping table parts in his basement to test the boxes32:11 - What he learned watching Geek Chic go under36:19 - Moving production out of China42:37 - Why BoardGameTables.com became Allplay46:38 - On Tour, then QE — how he became a publisher50:27 - Rescuing Container and Through the Desert56:01 - The nine-game Kickstarter, and what went wrong1:00:14 - About 20 games a year, and why that number stops here1:05:21 - Things in Rings, and still waiting on their Wingspan1:12:27 - COVID, containers, and forecasting the impossible1:18:59 - Why QE was never re-themed with animals1:23:51 - Enchanted Ivy, their first solo game1:30:58 - The convention booth as a marketing machine1:34:59 - Jibber Jabble at Gen Con1:42:04 - Mountain Goats Legacy and Sail Legacy1:48:20 - Rapid fire: one table, one game forever#cardboard #bgss #allplay#cardboard #bgss #dicethrone #wroth

Manny Trembly had never designed a board game when he made 🎲 DICE THRONE — he was a comic artist who'd just been laid off. Ten years, 40+ heroes and a Marvel licence later, he still draws it, designs it, and now runs his own studio inside Chip Theory building ⚔️ WROTH.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:💼 Laid off ten years ago this week — a prototype in Nate's kitchen two days later✏️ Comic artist first — an Eisner nod for PX, 3D models for MYST🎲 "Too asymmetrical, too many dice" — everyone told him it wouldn't work⚔️ Gavin Brown, Roxley, and the absurd EXCALIBUR box🌈 WROTH — built in 24 hours with his kids🔮 NEXUS and DICE THRONE DIGITAL are coming━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 LINKS🎲 Dice Throne▶ https://dicethrone.com/⚔️ Wroth & Neon Knight Games▶ https://chiptheorygames.com/⚔️ Wreck▶ https://gamefound.com/en/projects/chip-theory-games/wroth-reprint--wreck-expansion❤️ Support My Work — Join Cardboard▶ https://crdbrd.app/━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎧 TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST!🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4🔵 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ CHAPTERS00:00 - Cold open00:32 - Who is Manny Trembly?01:27 - Fresh off Gen Con10:20 - Why the small booths are where the magic is11:53 - Winning a Dice Tower Award for Tanglewood16:38 - A Jim Lee comic and the two-page spread that started it21:32 - PX, the Eisner nomination, and dropping the E23:00 - Myst, Cyan Worlds, and 'grandpa who fought in WWII'26:05 - Meeting Nate — and getting laid off the same week30:34 - 'What if we just translate this sucker into a board game?'34:00 - Roxley, Gavin Brown, and the Excalibur box40:25 - 'What you're doing is cool, but it's not going to work'46:32 - The art: what Manny draws vs what Nick Malara draws57:00 - Why dice make better stories1:10:44 - Neon Reign — art that predates Dice Throne1:15:40 - Joining Chip Theory and starting Neon Knight1:28:13 - Wroth: fixing what keeps people off Root1:47:20 - Wreck: boats, cannon dice, and the Exodus2:04:30 - What WROTH actually stands for2:26:11 - Manny's favourite hero of all time2:30:40 - Nexus, Dice Throne Digital, and what's next#cardboard #bgss #dicethrone #wroth

Helaina Cappel turned down more games than she published — and that's why KTBG and Burnt Island look the way they do. Teacher, publisher, and the one who rescued ⚓ ENDEAVOR off Z-Man's shelf and steered it into 🌊 DEEP SEA.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:🎓 Teacher to publisher — FOODFIGHTERS at the kitchen table⚓ A year convincing Jarratt & Carl to hand her ENDEAVOR🌊 Leaving the colonization theme behind for DEEP SEA🌱 Zero plastic — "but it's flammable"🗝️ LAIRS: $33, three print runs, all sold out🔮 Ten more years of Endeavor━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 LINKS🎲 Kids Table Board Gaming & Burnt Island Games▶ https://www.kidstablebg.com/❤️ Support My Work — Join Cardboard▶ https://crdbrd.app/━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎧 TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST!🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4🔵 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ CHAPTERS00:00 - Cold open00:33 - Intro — who is Helaina Cappel01:45 - Before we started rolling02:24 - The teacher, Josh, and Foodfighters08:53 - Funding on day 31 — Kickstarter in 201513:23 - "When did KTBG become a business?"20:08 - Catan, Carcassonne, Caylus — becoming a gamer22:53 - The KTBG DNA: fun, and scalable26:13 - The "family weight" problem32:23 - Cystic fibrosis — an unexpected connection37:03 - Why Burnt Island exists39:38 - Endeavor: from Z-Man's shelf to a year of convincing44:43 - Decolonising Endeavor into Deep Sea53:53 - Zero plastic: the bagasse insert fight59:23 - Age of Sail is out of print for good1:02:53 - Fall of the Mountain King — the one that should have hit1:08:23 - Killing the print ads1:13:23 - "New is better" — the treadmill1:17:23 - Tariffs, Play the North, looking past the US1:25:43 - Lairs — the $33 game she can't print fast enough1:42:23 - How Lairs found her — an Eric Lang post1:47:43 - Gen Con and Essen slate1:49:33 - The future of Endeavor — ten games in ten years1:56:48 - Advice: ask every single question#cardboard #bgss #endeavor #kidstableboardgaming #burntisland

He won a Magic: The Gathering national championship at 17 — the youngest ever — and got the cards he won with banned. Then he built Ascension in 18 months, bet his life savings on 10,000 copies, and sold out at Gen Con. Justin Gary of Stone Blade Entertainment opens up 15 years of design secrets: why balance is a misnomer, how the One Ring broke his game (and the story moment that fixed it), and what's coming in Ascension: The Lord of the Rings.Guest: Justin Gary — https://x.com/Justin_GaryStone Blade Entertainment: https://stoneblade.comJustin's podcast & book: Think Like a Game DesignerLord of the Rings Ascension Campaign: https://gamefound.com/en/projects/stoneblade/the-lord-of-the-rings-ascension#/section/project-storyTIMESTAMPS0:00 Cold open & guest intro1:07 Welcome + the Tim Ferriss DM story13:53 The Magic pro years & the hacker mentality14:54 $30,000 and two banned cards25:59 Dominion & the deckbuilding boom29:25 Building Ascension: 18 months, 10,000 copies46:35 "Balance is a misnomer"1:07:07 Lord of the Rings Ascension1:24:03 Taming the One Ring1:28:33 Favorite set + what's next1:38:37 The crowdfund + where to find JustinGAMES IN THIS EPISODEMagic: The Gathering — https://crdbrd.app/hub/game/4dd82420-e5a0-4cc4-afaa-3b7d2b60ce97Ascension: Deckbuilding Game — https://crdbrd.app/hub/game/077eee6c-9a23-4f10-b72b-776c45514d2aDominion — https://crdbrd.app/hub/game/0b300d7c-f019-4594-8d4b-ef94c0e26585SolForge Fusion — https://crdbrd.app/hub/game/874e3f7f-413f-47df-bc57-8b603d33937bDiscover every game mentioned on the show: https://crdbrd.app#cardboard #bgss #ascension

He invented card crafting — and he may have just reinvented deck building. John D. Clair designed 🚀 SPACE BASE, 🏴‍☠️ DEAD RECKONING, 🎲 CUBITOS, 🐎 READY SET BET, and 🔮 MYSTIC VALE — and his new "momentum" system in ⚔️ UNSTOPPABLE is the engine behind the smash-hit 👑 DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL board game. In this one, I review Unstoppable to the designer's face for the very first time.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE, WE GO DEEP:🧒 Designing his first game at 9 (thanks, Mom)💰 Quitting the day job — royalties, risk & the AEG deal🃏 Dominion, Ascension & why deck building is a design "cheat code"✂️ Card crafting — why it never spawned a genre⚡ Momentum deck building & the 2009 prototype that waited a decade🎲 Luck vs. agency — why new players blame the dice🌶️ The BGG comments he SAVES & the review that stung🗞️ BREAKING: Floors 5 & 6 in the works for Dungeon Crawler Carl🔮 What's next — Stormlight Archive, Mystic Lands & Electrify👉 If you want to get inside the mind of the most inventive card game designer working today, this one's a masterclass.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 LINKS⚔️ Unstoppable — Renegade Game Studios▶ https://renegadegamestudios.com/unstoppable/👑 Dungeon Crawler Carl: Unstoppable + RPG▶ https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/renegade-game-studios/dungeon-crawler-carl-rpg-unstoppable❤️ Support My Work — Join Cardboard▶ https://crdbrd.app/━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎧 TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST!🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4🔵 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ CHAPTERS00:00 - Intro — who is John D. Clair00:52 - Designing his first game at 9 (Monster Cards)05:19 - Maze books & gamifying mazes as a kid13:24 - Going full-time in 2018 & the AEG deal16:52 - Why Unstoppable went to Renegade — the IP bet18:52 - The games he loves (and the two kinds he doesn't)22:59 - Inspiration & giving credit to other designers27:12 - Playing Dominion for the first time30:46 - Why deck building is so addicting34:38 - Ascension's influence & Dead Reckoning's 2D market38:52 - Card crafting — a lateral evolution, not a genre42:16 - The deck building problem card crafting solves46:05 - Deck-driven board games — Dune: Imperium & Arnak47:35 - Unstoppable & momentum deck building50:45 - The 2009 prototype behind Unstoppable58:04 - The magic moment — two dead cards into a combo1:00:27 - Difficulty & learning to pump the brakes1:08:08 - Luck, agency & why new players blame the dice1:17:48 - How many plays before Unstoppable clicks?1:18:46 - What do reviewers owe designers?1:22:03 - BGG comments, Space Base's two bad cards & the review that stung1:31:36 - Fixing the card market — six levels, straight to hand1:41:44 - Has momentum transcended deck building?1:46:01 - The bosses & designing variety1:52:26 - My gripes — sleeving and that theme1:55:06 - The IP vision & the future of the Unstoppable line1:56:36 - Patching a physical game & the new co-op rule2:00:35 - Dungeon Crawler Carl's campaign mode2:04:47 - BREAKING — Floors 5 & 6 expansion in the works2:05:54 - What's new in DCC — looming bosses, races & mana2:13:39 - The "Unbeatable" difficulty & how John playtests2:15:17 - Stormlight Archive: War of Roshar (September)2:17:14 - Mystic Lands & the art problem of card crafting2:21:03 - Mistborn expansion, Electrify & a 2027 auto-battler2:23:01 - Wrap-up━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#boardgames #boardgamedesign #unstoppable #dungeoncrawlercarl #deckbuilding #tabletop #renegadegamestudios #boardgamepodcast

One of the most storied résumés in the entire board game industry. Zev founded Z-Man Games, published 🦠 PANDEMIC and the first English 🌾 AGRICOLA (and basically invented the "animeeple" by deluxing it), signed the original ENDEAVOR, spent seven years exploding the WizKids catalog with ~100 games, and now runs his own publisher — ✨ PLAY TO Z.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE, WE GO DEEP:💰 The real economics of conventions🏆 Why Origins beats GenCon for a premiere🃏 The CCG days & Shadow Fist🤝 Betting on co-op when NOBODY wanted it📦 Under-printing Pandemic🌶️ His (spicy) take on expansions📜 IP licensing headaches & the Middle-earth project🚀 Crowdfunding, paid previews vs. review copies🔮 What's next for Play to Z👉 If you care at all about how the board game industry ACTUALLY works, this one's a masterclass.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 LINKS⚔️ Siege Perilous — LIVE on Gamefound now (through July 14)▶ https://gamefound.com/en/projects/play-to-z/siege-perilous✨ Everything Play to Z has going▶ https://www.playtozgames.com/❤️ Support My Work — Join Cardboard▶ https://crdbrd.app/━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🎧 TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST!🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4🔵 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⏱️ CHAPTERS00:00 ▸ Intro — who is Zev Schlasinger00:39 ▸ Origins & how the con has changed03:04 ▸ Why publisher attendance is dropping04:15 ▸ Conventions are marketing — money is gravy05:03 ▸ The ROI secret: premiere something new06:56 ▸ Why release at Origins instead of GenCon🃏 THE CCG YEARS09:07 ▸ From CCGs to board games — the Z-Man origin09:53 ▸ Always a gamer: wargames, Magic & judging11:31 ▸ Grave Robbers From Outer Space changes everything13:16 ▸ Breaking into board games & the "Rio Grande wall"16:40 ▸ How you found games to sign back then18:33 ▸ Selling off Shadow Fist / leaving CCGs23:38 ▸ Would he ever do a CCG again?📈 BUILDING Z-MAN24:49 ▸ When did Z-Man feel like a success? ("one disaster from bankruptcy")28:21 ▸ Under-printing Pandemic & Agricola / print runs33:04 ▸ Lead times then vs. now / the Soothsayers reprint🦠 THE BIG HITS36:01 ▸ Meeting Matt Leacock & signing Pandemic38:03 ▸ Betting on co-op when nobody wanted it42:22 ▸ Play to Z's philosophy: engaging & different43:31 ▸ Signing Agricola, the $70 euro risk & animeeples48:48 ▸ Publishing the very first Endeavor52:40 ▸ Zev's honest take on expansions🏢 Z-MAN, WIZKIDS & IP1:05:00 ▸ Why he sold Z-Man (and kept working there)1:07:28 ▸ The WizKids years — 100 games in 71:11:47 ▸ The reality of working with IP & licensing1:20:54 ▸ The Middle-earth game & Asmodee's curation✨ PLAY TO Z & THE INDUSTRY TODAY1:27:08 ▸ Why start Play to Z — hitting the ground running1:29:40 ▸ Crowdfunding — why he resisted it for so long1:33:02 ▸ Crowdfunding vs. bank loans & publisher risk1:39:37 ▸ Paid previews, review copies & marketing ROI1:47:27 ▸ Social media & staying transparent with the community1:52:29 ▸ Board games vs. digital / BGA & the tactile future🎯 WHAT TO PLAY NOW1:54:40 ▸ Play to Z's lineup — Siege Perilous, 23 Knives & more1:56:52 ▸ The most slept-on Play to Z game2:00:45 ▸ Late-year releases — Dogs of War, Soul Journey2:03:21 ▸ Where to find Siege Perilous & wrap-up━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━#boardgames #boardgamedesign #zmangames #pandemic #agricola #tabletop #playtoz #boardgamepodcast

Board game designer Peter Hayward (Rolling Deep, Things & Rings, That Time You Killed Me) sits down for a wide-ranging, 3-hour conversation about what actually makes a game fun, why he's stepping back from designing to chase screenwriting, and how he reverse-engineered the feeling of Balatro into a tabletop roguelike.We get into the apex of game design, the difference between fun, satisfaction, and winning, why Flip Seven sparked a friendly fight, the $120k debt that nearly ended it all, the "offer he couldn't refuse," and the absurd timeline that took Rolling Deep from first prototype to Kickstarter in under six months.🎲 Rolling Deep hits Kickstarter June 23rd: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bitewinggamesnick/rolling-deep-and-eureka-dice-adventure-roguelike-and-campaign⏱️ CHAPTERS0:00 Cold open0:42 Designer vs. salesman: the dream nobody warns you about1:37 The real daily grind of a working designer3:02 Willow, his sisters & "external processing"5:27 23 Slack channels with his sister8:44 How does Peter have fun?9:07 Fun vs. satisfaction vs. winning11:02 The apex of game design11:48 Making "dumb apes feel clever"12:32 Puzzles, Sudoku & writing sitcoms15:47 Intrinsic vs. extrinsic joy22:20 Breaking So Clover (and co-op games)23:59 Is Flip Seven even a game?25:29 The threshold of agency26:03 Why Flip Seven might be a top design of 20 years30:34 Being a board game "sommelier"32:30 The Candyland question33:40 Why he's ending the Fun Problems podcast34:50 The screenwriting dream & getting into the US39:02 A "typical" day & external obligations43:12 $120k of debt to a net worth of zero44:32 The offer he couldn't refuse50:14 The ridiculous Rolling Deep timeline51:36 The Cuphead artist & the cover53:42 Why Peter designs mechanics-first55:05 The three hooks: mechanical, component, thematic1:08:42 Falling in love with Balatro1:09:31 What Balatro actually is1:24:08 So what is Rolling Deep?1:30:39 Translating planet cards into mushrooms1:33:08 Turning interest into a real decision1:38:13 Bosses & engine destroyers1:43:41 Jokers become tableau rows1:48:13 Broken combos: feature or bug?1:55:21 "Use the paints already on the tray"2:04:48 Custom dice faces & the rules budget2:19:11 Discovery cards2:28:35 Achievements & roguelike unlocks3:02:00 Going full-time: fuck around and find out3:07:45 Peter's other income streams3:09:40 Building an "engine" on YouTube3:11:17 Wrap up#boardgames #gamedesign #rollingdeep #kickstarter #tabletop #balatro

I need your help to keep this going. The #1 way you can support me is join my community here: https://crdbrd.app/Zeshawn from Board and Shield has played over 500 board games — and he's just as deep in the book world as the board game one. In this episode of the Board Game Secret Show we go all the way down the rabbit hole: how a Game of Thrones version of Risk pulled him into the hobby, why he merged books and board games onto one account, the narrative campaign games worth your table (Dragon Eclipse, Oathsworn, Spire's End), a hot take that might get him canceled (Castles of Burgundy is overrated), and his complete all-time Top 10 — including why Black Rose Wars will NEVER leave the #1 spot.We also cover the board-game-to-book pipeline: what to read if you love Blood Rage, the cozy parallel to CozyStickerville, and the standalone novels every gamer should pick up.🎲 Follow Zeshawn here:@ZeBoardandShield https://www.instagram.com/boardandshield/https://www.tiktok.com/@boardandshieldThe #1 way you can support me is join my community here: https://crdbrd.app/—————————————————⏱️ TIMESTAMPS—————————————————0:00 — Cold open / teaser0:30 — Who is Zeeshan & Board and Shield1:03 — How we connected on TikTok2:34 — Cross-posting TikTok / IG / YouTube + why he hates editing5:08 — Being authentic beats high production6:07 — His first videos: nerves, photos → talking to camera7:53 — Will we ever get long-form? The monthly-recap idea9:29 — The origin story: Game of Thrones Risk changed everything13:08 — Champions of Midgard & his first worker placement14:31 — Getting people into the hobby (the gateway-game problem)16:13 — Top 10 lists & the YouTubers that hooked him18:26 — Books or board games — which came first?18:53 — Between Two Fires: a horror book deep dive21:57 — His reading journey & the deluxe-edition parallel to board games25:01 — Why he merged books + board games onto one account27:21 — Niching down vs. being yourself (and dealing with haters)29:13 — Booktok creators worth following — and how huge that world is31:39 — The golden age of Lord of the Rings board games33:35 — There and Back Again & the "cozy" debate34:22 — Cozy Stickerville obsession37:15 — Corey Konieczka (Twilight Imperium → Cozy Stickerville) & Vantage41:33 — Narrative campaign games: Dragon Eclipse & Oathsworn44:04 — Dragon Eclipse as an arena battler ("I wish it were Pokémon")47:03 — Can board game writing ever match a real novel?48:32 — Tainted Grail & the Spire's End games53:08 — Sponsor break: Cardboard54:01 — Getting board gamers INTO books56:08 — Legends & Lattes: the cozy book pick57:06 — Can a book capture the *feeling* of a board game?59:36 — Standalone book recs (The Sword of Kaigen, Blood Over Bright Haven)1:00:21 — The paid-content & publisher journey1:03:36 — Staying selective + the one publisher he hasn't worked with (Awaken Realms)1:04:40 — Auto-buy publishers & designers: Board & Dice + Stefan Feld1:05:41 — HOT TAKE: Castles of Burgundy is overrated1:08:38 — Favorite Board & Dice game (Teotihuacan)1:09:46 — Windmill Valley & Danny Garcia1:11:20 — More hot takes: Ark Nova & Viticulture1:14:07 — THE ALL-TIME TOP 10 — #10 Marvel Champions1:17:36 — #9 Avalon1:19:09 — #8 Nusfjord1:21:13 — #7 Blood Rage1:22:23 — #6 Primal: The Awakening1:23:31 — #5 Dominion1:26:36 — #4 Santorini1:29:30 — #3 Inis1:30:57 — #2 Spirit Island (is it really cozy?)1:33:01 — #1 Black Rose Wars (the forever #1)1:38:09 — Breaking into the list: Grimm Coven1:44:15 — The future of Board and Shield & where to follow him1:45:20 — How he finds time for all of it1:46:37 — Closing thoughts: the stories behind the hobby#boardgames #boardgamecommunity #tabletopgames #booktok #blackrosewars