In mid-2024, I had a hankering to design an asymmetric dueling game. However, I was daunted by the task of essentially designing two different games that existed in the same world and could have meaningful overlapping tensions. I quickly realized the obvious: Scythe and Expeditions are already different games that exist in the same alternate history and already have overlapping elements.

I then got really excited about the idea: The kid in me who debated which superheroes would win in a fight now wondered the same thing about Scythe’s engine building, hordes of units, and combat focus vs Expeditions’ hand management, 1 single giant mech, and abundance of actions. Who would win in a duel?

However, there was a branding problem: We make games that scale from at least 1-5 players at Stonemaier Games. We’re missing players 3, 4, and 5 in a 1-2 player dueling game.

Fortunately, we’ve had some experience in that realm thanks to Wingspan Asia, which is a 1-2 player standalone game that also expands Wingspan. Its position as an expansion solves the player count branding issue.

Duel of Meloch is a 1-2 player standalone game, and it expands both Scythe (including its new faction and player mat, completely new deck of 60 combat cards, 3 new Factory cards, and 6 new encounter cards) and Expeditions (including its new mech, character, companion, and 30 new discovery cards).

Wingspan Asia also accomplishes something more subtle: If you own other Wingspan stuff, you already own expansions to Wingspan Asia. We’re adding utility to products that customers already have.

Could we do the same thing with Duel of Meloch for two different games, both Scythe and Expeditions?

As it turns out, we can! All existing Scythe factions, player mats, encounter cards, and factory cards are compatible with Duel of Meloch, as are all existing Expeditions mechs, characters, companions, and discovery cards (items, meteorites, and half of the quests). There are only 10 locations in Duel of Meloch’s smaller map, so if you’ve shuffled in your Expeditions cards and draw a quest for locations 11-20, you just discard it and draw another.

In this way, if you already own Scythe and/or Expeditions, you already have a bunch of expansion content for Duel of Meloch. You don’t need any of that–everything you need to play the game is included in Duel of Meloch–but it adds more utility to stuff you may already have. Plus, if you have Scythe, you can even play Scythe vs Scythe duels (same with Expeditions vs Expeditions).

The only sacrifice is that I couldn’t add any Scythe components that specifically reference elements unique to Expeditions (like corruption), and vice versa (like objectives). Fortunately, there’s a lot of overlapping iconology between Scythe and Expeditions, so even with that design constraint there are many areas of tension in Duel of Meloch as you race to place 4 stars:

The Map: I wanted the map to be small enough that players would almost constantly play cat-and-mouse with each other (while still having a little space for engine building). So I designed two map layouts, each set in a new region–specific to the new characters–with 10 locations and 2 lakes. It’s a natural rubber playmat that fits perfectly in the game box.

Triumph Track: I love tug-of-war elements in dueling games, and my version of this is in the new double-sided Triumph Track. Each side has 8 categories like combat, coins, power, etc, along with some that are related but not exactly the same between Scythe and Expeditions (e.g., upgrades vs melded meteorites). So while the Scythe player is racing to, for example, reach 10 popularity, the Expeditions player is racing to solve 3 quests. If you see that I’m pulling ahead in a certain category, you may try to get in my way or bluff that it’s important to you, or you might just let me pursue that category while you focus on others.

Encounters: Scythe and Expeditions use encounters in different ways. There are 9 map tokens in Duel of Meloch, with 6 random tokens used each game. If Scythe gets to a token first, they use it to draw an encounter card; if the Expeditions mech gets there first, they flip it over and gain the benefit on the back.

Other Tracks: Both players might see a few cards (encounter or discovery) that force the opponent to decrease each token on tracks by 1. The Scythe player has a popularity and a power token on a track; the Expeditions player tracks power and guile on their mech mat.

Combat: This isn’t purely a combat game, but fights can break out! Scythe has the upper hand in that they can play 1 combat card per combat unit; however, the Expeditions mech (which can only play 1 combat card) has a movement range of 3 locations, so they can swing in for an unexpected combat. The combat cards are also much more versatile now, with combat abilities that create parity and non-combat discard benefits.

Meloch Cards: When one player places a star on the Triumph Track, the opponent gets to draw a Meloch card and gains a small bonus from it (a choice of two). They actually place the card on top of previously revealed Meloch cards to gain 1 or more small bonuses. In this way, if you’re somehow running away with the game, I get bigger and bigger boosts as I try to catch up.

I’m really excited about the versality and cross-compatibility of Duel of Meloch, and I’d love to hear your thoughts about the concept. It will be on our webstore on July 15 with shipping to follow later in July (along with copies at Gen Con and a retail release later in August).

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The biggest reason Stonemaier Games hasn’t returned to crowdfunding is the gap between asking customers for payment and actually delivering the product to those customers. Even if a game is 99% production ready leading into the campaign, roughly 6 months are needed for pre-production, production, and freight shipping.

So I’m always fascinated when publishers employ creative methods to close that gap in service of their customers (and also as a marketing tool). Some publishers offer a demo version of the game digitally, Earthborne Games and Covenant offered free preview decks of Hubworld Aidalon, and the recent campaign for The Old King’s Crown started production on the first reprint before the campaign via Gamefound’s “express crowdfunding” option, allowing some backers to receive the pre-printed games just a few months after the campaign’s conclusion. There are also the options to demo games at conventions and even game stores before their release or to offer partial print-and-play copies of the game for people to try at home.

Let’s jump forward to early May 2026, when I saw a Facebook ad for an upcoming crowdfunding project, Cataclysm Arcade. It featured some intriguing mechanisms, so normally I would have just clicked the prelaunch “follow” button and waited for a launch notification (especially as a trading card game).

However, Cataclysm Arcade combined two elements in the ad that made me pull out my wallet: One, it offered curious customers the option of buying a few booster packs before the campaign for $5 each. Two, as long as each player has a booster pack, that’s all you need to play a game of Cataclysm Arcade!

I want to call this “try before you buy,” but it isn’t exactly that, as I literally spent $10 to buy two packs. It felt that way, though. The real hook for me was the ability to play a full game using just 1 booster pack per player. Cataclysm Arcade accomplishes this by using a modern deckbuilding mechanism: If you run out of cards in your deck to draw, simply shuffle your discard pile to form a fresh deck.

Not only was this a player-friendly sneak preview, but it was also great marketing: It had me actively thinking about the game before the Kickstarter project, it showed that the game was fully designed and ready to print, it gave potential backers a chance to try the game before backing it, and it gave content creators a timely way to talk about the game (as I did on our channel).

As I mentioned in last year’s article about free preview decks, this method won’t work for most games. Small packs of cards are incredibly cost-effective, so you need a cards-only game where you can play the game with a small subset of the cards while still leaving players wanting more. Yet it’s a pretty cool tool to consider during the design and marketing process.

Do you have an example of a game you were able to try on the table well before crowdfunding fulfillment? How did it impact your experience with the game? Did you end up backing the project?

If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content! You can also listen to posts like this in the audio version of the blog.

In the 9 years since we launched the submission form on our website, we have received nearly 3,000 game submissions, many of which were eligible based on our guidelines.

Alan reviews all submissions and shares some with me, and if I’m intrigued, we request a prototype and interact a little with the designer to see how they communicate. Finally, if we both think the game could be a Stonemaier game, we share it with the rest of the team (conceptually and on the table) to make sure we’re not overlooking anything.

Of those games, how exactly do we decide which games to publish?

It boils down to a series of questions we ask ourselves:

• Will this game bring joy to tabletops worldwide? This is our mission statement. It’s a broad question, but it helps us try to picture the game on different types of tables worldwide.
• Do we love the game? We spend a lot of time, energy, and resources on every game we publish, so there’s a high bar for how we feel about it from the start.
• Does it feel like a Stonemaier game? There’s a certain vibe captured by our games, largely described in the 12 tenets. Just because we love a game doesn’t mean that it feels like a Stonemaier game.
• Do we already publish a similar game (mechanically or thematically)? If someone submitted a winemaking game to us, even if we really liked it, it would be incredibly difficult for us to decide to publish it since we already make Viticulture.
• Has another publisher already made a close facsimile to this game? Or, asked another way: If this game shares a core mechanism with another game (but with a twist), would we choose this game over the existing game?
• Does it have the potential of being a big hit with evergreen potential? This is, in some ways, an unfair question. There are many games I love that have only sold a few thousand copies. But given that we average less than 2 game releases per year and that we invest heavily in every game we make, we want it to have the potential of being a big hit. This question includes the value proposition (the game’s estimated price versus what price it would need to have to be successful).
• Are we excited to teach and share this game over and over? Something I learned in the early days of Stonemaier Games is that I don’t actually get to play the published versions of our games all that much. Instead, most of my involvement with our games is teaching them and talking about them. So even from the start, we try to envision ourselves doing that over and over to ensure this is a game for which we can maintain a high level of excitement.

Importantly, these questions also apply to games I try to design. There are multiple checkpoints throughout my design process when I share the status of a design (through video and playtests) with my team, and if we don’t answer the above questions affirmatively, the game does not get published.

Keep in mind that these questions are in addition to all the guidelines and tenets listed on our submission page. Many games check the submission boxes, but in the end it’s a very subjective decision. We’ve passed on games that went on to be successful with other publishers, and I’m always happy to see that they found the right home.

Also, in full transparency, I think we’ve been “wrong” about some games we’ve published in that at least one of the answers to these questions wasn’t as much of a full “yes” as we originally thought. I don’t regret publishing them, but those misses are a good opportunity for me to evaluate the process and the questions asked along the way.

What do you think of these questions? If you’re a publisher, how exactly do you decide which games to publish?

Also read: How to Pitch (and Not Pitch) Your Game to Stonemaier Games

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When I’m scrolling through Facebook, there’s a specific type of image that frequently catches my eye. It’s used the most by digital game news outlets: An evocative image plus a few descriptive lines of white and orange text on a black background.

I like this format so much that I recently decided to apply it to our games. In fact, I made two versions for each game: One using art and thematic vibes; the other using a photo of the game on the table and a few stats:

Despite having an active Facebook page for Stonemaier Games, I rarely use it to post about our games. So I’ve started posting one of these images once per week.

While I would prefer to equally showcase each of the two images per game, I think this type of image has the biggest impact when it’s alone. So for the first 25 posts I’ll use the thematic image and post the photo version in the comments with a link to the game’s page; after I get through every game, I’ll switch the two.

The most surprising result after doing this for Vantage and Apiary is the number of people who have commented on the posts (despite there not being a question or prompt). Some have shared their love of the game, others have asked questions. A rare few have even decided that this is the right place to share how they dislike the game.

But I love that a simple image has generated conversation and sense of community outside of our Facebook groups. Given that, I may also post these images on Instagram and Bluesky in the future.

What do you think about this approach? Are there other eye-catching image formats on social media that pique your interest (without being clickbait)?

If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content! You can also listen to posts like this in the audio version of the blog.

For years I’ve written a cautionary tale about the pros and cons of being the face of a brand or company. Yet it wasn’t really until this year that we started to act on the potential perils–more on that in a minute.

This topic came to mind because I recently received an email from Emily in marketing at Alkem Gear (which I mentioned in this article). A lot of what Emily shared was centered around Tim, the founder and creator of Alkem, yet I saw very little of Tim on Alkem’s website or the Kickstarter project. So I asked this:

“How does Tim remain closely connected to the campaign despite partnering with others–like you–for public-facing roles?“

Tim himself wrote back with a detailed answer; here are the two key quotes:

“One thing I believe is really important as a founder is understanding my own limitations. My background is in engineering and product development, not marketing, so I’ve always believed the best way to build something meaningful is to surround yourself with people who are genuinely better than you in certain areas. My role is to help set the vision, establish the values behind the brand, and make sure every decision stays aligned with the kind of community we want to build.

At the same time, I’m intentional about not making the brand revolve around me personally. I’m happy to do interviews, demos, podcasts, or community discussions, but my goal isn’t to become the face of the brand. I want Alkem to have its own identity, one built around service, humility, quality, and community. I want something that can outgrow any one individual.”

This is a really solid answer. I’ve talked in past articles about the power and appeal of a creator sharing themselves with backers during a crowdfunding campaign (opposed to outsourcing to other people or marketing services); see links at the end of this article. However, as someone with 7 coworkers, I also understand the value of delegating to people who are far better at their jobs than I am (or was, as I once wore nearly every hat here). I admire Tim for wanting Alkem to have its own identity.

Despite that, it’s still me (Jamey) writing these articles, replying to questions on social media and email, posting on Instagram, writing newsletters, recording the podcast, running the livecast, and recording YouTube videos. There’s plenty of upside to this personal touch, but the downside is that if you don’t like Jamey, if Jamey is hit by a bus, or if Jamey is no longer part of Stonemaier Games, it would be an abrupt transition to suddenly see someone else appear in my place on social media.

So a few months ago I talked to my coworker, Erica, to see if she would be interested in joining me on some YouTube videos. Not only does it put another face to Stonemaier Games, but you also get to hear from someone else who cares passionately about the tabletop hobby. Our latest video just posted yesterday, and it delves into a subject that was dear to Erica when she worked at a local game store.

Also, I would be remiss to point out that I’m far from the only face or name you’ll see if you have different experiences with Stonemaier Games. If you attend a convention, you’ll probably see Dave or Alex. If you’re a retailer, you’ve probably talked to Susannah. If you’ve had a customer service request, you’ve likely corresponded with Joe. And if you’ve submitted a game to us, you may have heard back from Alan. There’s also Christine (graphic design), but that’s truly a behind-the scenes role.

There’s still room for more versatility, but I really appreciate Erica for joining me as another friendly face on the YouTube channel. She’s also very active in the comments of our shared videos. She and Susannah have also stepped up for the livecast when I’ve traveled (I think Alex may have been on one of those too).

What are your thoughts about the delicate balance between making a company approachable, personable, and relatable without putting all your eggs in the same face?

Also read:

• Cult of the You
• Who Do You Root For?
• Should You Hire Someone Else to Run Your Crowdfunding Project for You?
• The Psychological Benefit of Showing Your Face
• What’s Your Hit by a Bus Plan?

If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content! You can also listen to posts like this in the audio version of the blog.

“Stonemaier Games does not, has not, and will not use any form of AI to replace or augment creative work. If we’re creating something, we want it built from the ground up by talented people from different backgrounds, perspectives, and cultures, not an algorithm.”

I wrote this in April 2024, and after 2 more years of the generative AI onslaught, I thought I’d revisit the topic to see what, if anything, has changed between now and then.

Thanks to most of the science fiction I’ve read and watched over my life, leading up to the modern era I actually had an optimistic view of AI as something that could solve the problems that humans are unable to solve (or would otherwise take hundreds of years). Cure cancer, invent teleportation, end world hunger, and so on.

Maybe that’s where it’ll eventually lead–I’ll hold onto that optimism. In the meantime, instead of achieving the impossible, generative AI seems has become an output device to replace creative endeavors that are already quite possible. Enter a prompt, and the machine spits out an article or image.

Now, if you’re passionate about AI, I’m truly not here to shame you. I try to keep an open mind as the world changes, which is why I’m revisiting this topic today.

There are even elements of AI that aren’t as bad as I thought: For example, check out this episode of Science Vs about the water consumption from data centers. I’ve personally found AI summaries to be unavoidable when searching on Google, though I always try to look at the sources. Also, as much as I loathe the idea of AI replacing humans in any capacity, that’s somewhat inherent to technological advances (e.g., the excellent movie Hidden Figures shows how humans literally were computers until machine computational capacity improved).

In fact, I’ll admit that I accidentally used a logo for our podcast that was generated by AI (not by me). I didn’t realize it at first, then I realized it and wasn’t comfortable saying something, and finally I just decided to pay a graphic designer to create a new logo. I feel much better about it now.

Here’s my truth: I continue to not be interested in generative AI. The process of creativity is key to me as a person. I want to write these articles and film my videos from scratch. I want to come up with my own game ideas and put in the work to bring them to life. I want to read, research, think critically, and seek out sources, not rely on AI summaries. I want to embrace the process. I want to learn from my mistakes and share those lessons with you.

Likewise, I’m more passionate than ever about working with creative people and paying for their time and talent. The only difference now is that it’s in our contracts for artists, designers, third-party accessory creators, and digital developers that we don’t permit the use of generative AI. Similarly, we’ve added “human made: no generative AI” to the back of our game boxes, as we seem to have reached a tipping point when people are unabashedly quick to assume you are using AI unless you specifically indicate otherwise.

Last, I support creators and companies that pay my fellow humans for creative work. I’m only interested in games (and other media) that were designed by people, written by people, and illustrated by people. At the same time, I’m not going to spend my time, energy, or social currency shaming or bashing people who use generative AI. I choose to elevate, not denigrate.

I know that this is a sensitive topic, so while I genuinely want to hear your thoughts in the comments, I ask that you approach the conversation with an open mind and respect for your fellow humans. Let’s be good to each other. If you have hot take, please support it with a specific example or evidence. Thank you!

UPDATE: I realized after writing this article that even though I talked about being open-minded, I didn’t actually revisit the 2024 quote to see if it has changed in mid-2026. While I’m not interested in generative AI, it is possible that there will be uses of ethical AI in the future as related to Stonemaier Games that do interest me–we’ll see!

Stonemaier Games does not use, has not used, and does not plan to knowingly use generative AI for creative work (text, art, videos, etc). If we’re creating something, we want it built from the ground up by talented people from different backgrounds, perspectives, and cultures. We believe that the process is integral to our output, and it allows human creativity to shine. We do not actively use other forms of AI in our workflow either, but it is becoming so engrained in common technology that we acknowledge its passive use may become unavoidable.

Also read: Generative AI? Not for Us!

If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content! You can also listen to posts like this in the audio version of the blog.

If you have a missing or damaged component inside your English-language Stonemaier Games product–no matter where or when you bought it or how long you’ve been playing it–you can fill out this form and we’ll send you what you need.* We use software called Jira to manage this process, as we have 7 replacement parts helpers in 5 different regions around the world.

Serving our customers this way is incredibly important to us, but we can serve them even better if replacement parts (and replacement parts requests) aren’t needed in the first place. Recently I talked to a few people connected to this process at Stonemaier Games, and we compiled a list of product design mistakes that resulted in quite a few replacement parts.

We learned these lessons the hard way, so I’m hoping this will help you avoid these mistakes from the start. Some of these are as simple as packing components in a way that makes them easy for the customer to identify.

1. Meeples and Minis with Protrusions: Some of our most common requests are for broken meeples or mechs where we got a little too detailed, and those little details snapped off in transit or gameplay. Whenever I get sample meeples or mechs, I try to snap off any protrusion–if I can, I either remove it from the design or bulk up its connection point.
2. Missing Tokens and Clasps: It is common when we’re including either a lot of the same type of token–50 glass beads or clasps for dials–that 1 is missing in production or 1 goes missing later. So we often include an extra token, but we list the lower quantity: We make 51 tokens but say that there are 50. So even if 1 is missing, you still have the “correct” amount (though, honestly, for these types of tokens, it’s incredibly rare in gameplay that the full quantity is needed).
3. Matching the Insert: In Libertalia–a 6-player game where each player has their own deck of cards–the cards are packed in 5 card bricks. When opening a new game, you see 5 bricks of cards in 5 of 6 slots in the insert, and 5 of the 6 player colors happen to be visible in each brick. This leads to assumptions that the entire green deck is missing before opening the cards. Something similar happens in Scythe, a game that can only ever feature combat between 2 players, so we only included 2 combat dials–players assume the other 3 are missing (partially because the 2 included dials have specific faction colors).
4. Matching the Trays: The first few printings of Wingspan included 4 clamshell trays (2 for an assortment of eggs and 2 for an assortment of food). There’s no need for each type of food token to be kept in a separate compartment, but we soon learned that many people assumed that the trays were only for food and that a tray was missing (there are 5 types of food in the core game and only 4 trays).
5. Packing Choices: We hear from customers that they think they’re missing the action cubes in Wingspan Asia, as those cubes are packed in the same bags as larger tokens of the same color. Similarly, some customers struggle to find the gray temporary worker in Viticulture, as it’s packed in the same bag as some of the player tokens (it previously came in a separate bag with the first player token).
6. “Missing” Cards: In the solo mode for Libertalia and Scythe: The Wind Gambit, there are “missing” cards that aren’t actually missing. For example, there is no Automa card 37 in Libertalia for design reasons. This is explained in the rules, but when looking through the cards, it’s a common mistake for people to see cards 36 and 38 and assume they’re missing card 37.
7. “Missing” Components: In Scythe: The Rise of Fenris, there’s a big warning label when you open the box that tells people not to look inside the spoiler tuckboxes. However, it happens all the time! One of the tuckboxes has a “missing” component that’s actually in one of the other tuckboxes–oddly, people seem to open that tuckbox but not the others; if they did, they would find that “missing” component.
8. Dents in Boards and Mats: I learned early on with Viticulture that if sharper components (like meeples) are packed next to a board or mat, they might press into the cardboard over time, leaving lots of little dings and dents. Instead, we now pack them elsewhere in the box or we fold the mats inward, with the gameplay elements on the inside. However, this also leads to the occasional confusion from customers who don’t know the mats are folded–they see the faux leather illustration on the outside of a Wingspan or Wyrmspan mat and think they received a misprint.
9. Card Sorting: It’s inevitable that customers will lose or damage cards over time if they play a game frequently, and we’re here to help. With Wingspan, we originally didn’t have any type of card sorting system, so if a customer requested a Peregrine Falcon, our replacement parts helpers had to look through every card to find it. In reprints we alphabetized the cards, which significantly sped up this process. In games where cards don’t have a name, we number the cards and sort them as such.
10. Publisher Assumption: When we were working on the Pie in the Sky expansion for My Little Scythe, I didn’t go through the component list with the right mindset, and it resulted in me never asking our manufacturer to include faction-specific tokens for the 2 new factions (everything else was there, including the minis). This was before we sent pre-production copies first to the designer and to my coworker, so no one caught the mistake until everything was printed and shipped. We tried to fix it after the fact by making a pack of the missing tokens for our webstore, retailers, and distributors, but we still hear from customers all the time who buy the expansion from a retailer and don’t get the tokens. It was an important wake-up call for me to never assume anything and to add as many checks-and-balances as possible during the pre-production process.

Hopefully this list will help you avoid the same mistakes; there are even some we still need to address better at Stonemaier Games. If you have any insights about replacement part requests, please let me know in the comments!

*Box Dings and Dents: If you ordered a game from Stonemaier Games and the box arrived with dings and dents, we’re truly sorry. You paid for a mint-condition product, and we didn’t deliver. That’s on us. For some people, a dented corner won’t impact the fun they have playing the game. For others, it will. A replacement box for a dented corner is actually a replacement for the entire game, a process that involves having you send your game to a reviewer of our choice–we provide the label–and we send you another copy of the game. If you would like to go through that process for a game ordered from our webstore, please email your order number to contact@stonemaier.com. Photos of the packaging and damage help us share feedback with our fulfillment centers.

Also read:

• Replacement Parts
• Replacement Parts: Why Would (or Wouldn’t) a Company Offer This Service?
• 10 Production Secrets for Tabletop Games

If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content! You can also listen to posts like this in the audio version of the blog.

For a game I rarely play, I think a lot about Magic the Gathering. It’s particularly been on my mind recently due to a combination of the new Covenant podcast/livecast, the excellent Distraction Makers YouTube channel, and some correspondence with the creator of the Alkem series of gear and bags designed to hold trading card games.

Magic recently opened sales for a Secret Lair Goblin Storm Commander deck with special art by Dakota Cates. Within 34 minutes, the entire print run had sold out (I’ve only seen speculation as to the quantity made, not confirmed numbers, with estimates ranging from a few thousand to 50,000).

I can see why people are really frustrated by this. They’re passionate about a game, and they want a chance to buy that game. This is why I’m so against crowdfunding exclusives: If you’re making a game to withstand the test of time, why would you limit your ability to make and sell any portion of it to the first few people who learn about it?

However, rarity and scarcity are also core to Magic’s existence. The reason they can consistently sell 15 slim pieces of cardboard for $5 is because of the chance a card is worth a lot more than $5 on the secondary market (whether or not you actually sell that card). This is why it’s exciting to open a booster pack or even to own a limited edition goblin art pack.

I’m not justifying this model. At Stonemaier Games, we’re specifically not selling scarcity. If a product is out of stock and there appears to be demand for us to make more, we’ll happily make more. This is how we serve our customers.

What’s interesting to me is that because Magic is inherently about selling rarity and scarcity, I can see how they believe they are serving customers by making a limited quantity of Goblin Storm Secret Lair sets. I also understand that they, like any publisher, have to make production quantity decisions many months before they know how many people will actually pay for the product.

I think there may be a better way, though, even within Magic’s constraints of selling scarcity. In discussing this topic on yesterday’s livecast, @redwlfjsc shared an idea that I modified just a touch: Magic could make, say, 10,000 units of a Secret Lair and put them on their webstore for 3 weeks. If the product sells out within that time period, their order system switches to preorders for a single reprint of that Secret Lair on which they will start production after the 3-week period ends.

This is exactly what Gamefound offers with Express Crowdfunding. It serves those who want the product right away while leaving a limited door open for those who are willing to wait a bit. It respects collectors and players without losing control to bots and quick flippers.

Magic’s model is so successful that entire brands have been created specifically to serve those who play Magic and other TCGs (casually, at local game stores, and at tournaments). I heard recently from the team at Alkem Gear about their product launch Kickstarter. Our conversation led in a few different directions that you’ll see in some upcoming posts, but I wanted to briefly mention it today because it demonstrates both the value of user-focused design and that even 30-year-old games still have room to improve.

This is from Tim Heck, the founder of Alkem:

“After moving to Riverside, California, I became deeply involved in communities centered around D&D, board games, and trading card games like Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon. One thing I noticed immediately was that people were carrying thousands of dollars’ worth of cards and gear in setups that felt like an afterthought. A lot of the products marketed toward TCG players seemed to be repurposed camera bags or generic storage solutions. That was really the starting point for Alkem.

Our products are intentionally built around the way gamers actually travel and play. The backpack, for example, was designed specifically around deck box dimensions and gaming accessories. The vault section fits six deck boxes or roughly 1,200 cards, while the upper compartment can hold an additional 1,800 cards. At the same time, we didn’t want the bag to only serve card players, so the internal geometry is intentionally square and structured to also accommodate board games, D&D books, dice trays, playmats, notebooks, snacks, and other essentials people bring to game nights and conventions.”

After spending time designing flexible storage solutions like the Wingspan Nesting Box and Viticulture’s Wine Crate, I have a high level of appreciation for what Tim has created at Alkem.

Just so it’s perfectly clear, Alkem has not sponsored this post and I have no connection to them other than a pleasant and informative email conversation. I hear from creators all the time, and if they share interesting stories that are relevant to topics I’m covering, I sometimes include them in these articles.

What do you think about how a company that sells rarity and scarcity in a game like Magic can best serve customers?

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My favorite way to market our products is to facilitate and encourage them to get to the table more often. Your table, my table, the tables of reviewers, ambassadors, etc–any table will do. The more our products get to the table, the more they’re exposed to people, and hopefully the more fun people can have with them.

One of my favorite ways to accomplish this goal is through play-and-win donations for game conventions and 100+ person gaming events.

Play-and-win is a convention concept where people can check out a game, play it, and then enter their name in a lottery to win that specific game at the end of the convention. If I donate a play-and-win game to a convention, it can be experienced by dozens and dozens of people in a short amount of time. Only one of those people will win it, so if other people liked the game, they’re now informed in their decision to purchase it later.

The play-and-win room at the recent Geekway to the West convention was a bustle of activity right until the end of the convention. Geekway solicited and invested in over 140 different play-and-win titles, each with multiple copies. In total, these games had nearly 15,000 reported plays over the course of 4 days.

Geekway does play-and-win exceptionally well, but they aren’t alone. There are over 250 conventions listed on the 2026 tab of the play-and-win Google Sheet I maintain, so publishers have lots of options when choosing events to target. But which games should you send to these conventions?

Geekway play-and-win coordinator Jeff Hiatt was very kind to send me the data from the Geekway 2026 play-and-win, and he gave me permission to share and analyze it. The sheet is here. I’ll focus on the first four columns, but you’re welcome to contribute your thoughts to any data in the comments.

I’ve highlighted the most-played games in blue (1-30), the highest “desire to win ratio” in yellow, and the crossovers in green.

Number of Plays

The top 5 games that were played the most were Hot Streak, Magical Athlete, Bomb Busters, Moon Colony Bloodbath, and Hummingbirds. All of the games in the top 10 were released in the last year.

For this and the other categories I’ll discuss, I’m hesitant to draw blanket conclusions or stretch to find commonalities among the top 5. For example, there are 2 racing games here, but not every racing game will garner 250+ plays at a convention.

Average Player Count

Around half of the games with the highest average player count are among those that reported high numbers of plays: Hot Streak, Magical Athlete, French Toast, Bomb Busters, Trinket Trove, and Spooktacular.

However, sorting the data this way doesn’t seem to indicate that higher player counts equate to more convention plays. I think player count flexibility is more indicative of a game’s popularity at an event like Geekway–if you grab a game off the shelf, it’s nice if you can just play it with one other person or if you can invite a few others to join too.

Desire to Win

I calculated this by dividing the number of player who wanted to win a game by the total number of plays, indicating that people had a great time with the game. The top 5 were Hot Streak, Magical Athlete, Pinched, 12 Rivers, and Spooktacular. Some games with fewer plays but a high level of desirability were Sprocketforge, Mission: Red Planet, Rebirth, and Pergola.

The main pattern I see here is great table presence, whether it’s component hooks like in 12 Rivers or Sprocketforge or eye-catching art.

Rating Delta

This is perhaps my favorite data point. Which games rate significantly higher at a convention than their BoardGameGeek rating suggests? I think this is so important to pay attention to, as the top-rated games BGG would lead us to believe that people value heavy, complex, long games over everything else. But a vast variety of games bring joy to tabletops, including lighter games.

The top 5 rating delta games were French Toast, Purrramid, Tembo, Australis, and Catan.

Granted, the boisterous environment of a convention is atypical for gaming. Some games shine at events and may not have the same luster when it’s just you and a few friends at home. Also, you might take a look at the games that actually left a worse impression at Geekway than their BGG rating would indicate. Those are the types of games a publisher might avoid contributing to play-and-win (I mostly see longer, heavier games here).

Anecdotal Analysis and Conclusions

Here I’ll look at the games with the both the most plays AND the highest desire to win ratio:

1. Hot Streak
2. Magical Athlete
3. Bomb Busters
4. Moon Colony Bloodbath
5. Trinket Trove
6. Formaggio
7. Fate of the Fellowship
8. 12 Rivers
9. Spooktacular
10. French Toast
11. Sanctuary

• ease of learning: Most of these games skew towards easy to learn and teach.
• game length: Most of these games are played in under an hour.
• game weight: Most of these games are on the lighter side.
• price: Most of these games are less than $50.

Overall, the types of games I see exceling in play-and-win are those released in the last year, have player count flexibility, feature great table presence, and are on the lighter side.

Despite those patterns, I still think it’s completely fine to send a variety of games to play-and-win conventions. Take a look at the Google Sheet and you’ll see games of all shapes, sizes, weights, prices, player counts, etc. I think this speaks to the diversity of gamers at events like Geekway.

What did you learn from this data? Are there certain types of games you seek out at conventions?

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Yesterday I heard some huge news from Panda Game Manufacturing: For the next 12 months, they are accepting submissions for indie game designers to win between $2,000 and $20,000 in manufacturing credits.

I’ll break down this opportunity today, but first a disclaimer: I’ve worked with Panda, a Canadian company with their main facility in Shenzhen, as the sole manufacturer for Stonemaier Games over the last 14 years. I consider them a close partner. However, I have no connection at all to p20–I learned about it yesterday just like anyone else. That said, I probably wouldn’t write this if I couldn’t personally vouch for how great it is to work with Panda.

Here’s the deal: If you have two or fewer tabletop games published, you are eligible to enter exactly one game as your p20 submission. You own the game, not Panda. It’s free to enter, and it’s open to anyone worldwide.

Crucially, you have an entire year to make your submission. I think this is a really smart choice by Panda. Game design, playtesting, and development take time. This is a great chance to actually do something with that game idea you’ve thought about.

However, it’s also important to note that there is a critical gap between game design and manufacturing, and that gap is bridged by a publisher (whether it’s an existing game publisher or you as a self-publisher). The intent of p20 appears to be for the designer to self-publish the game (the submission form reads, “I am, or intend to be, the self-publisher of this game.”), which involves a lot of responsibility beyond design.

Panda confirmed with me that the manufacturing credit could potentially be passed on to a publisher, though the credit stays specifically with the designer and the game they submitted. The FAQ says this about signing with a publisher during the design process, “Tell us. We handle it case by case. We’re not in the business of penalizing good news.”

At the very least, p20 seems like a no-risk chance to hone your pitch. Panda asks for a sell sheet, a short video, and a blind playtested rulebook. These are all things you would need no matter how you seek to publish your game.

I’ve reached out to Panda to get clarity on my one other question: What if you also want to crowdfund your game? It seems reasonable that a new, indie designer looking to self-publish their game would use a crowdfunding platform to market the game, build community, improve the game, optimize freight shipping, and gauge demand. The game needs to be unpublished at the time of submission to qualify for the manufacturing sponsorship, so I’m guessing the crowdfunding campaign would need to happen after the final selections are made (Gen Con 2027).

UPDATE: Panda responded to say, “Yes, someone can submit for p20 and also run crowdfunding, as long as the crowdfunding happens after they apply for the program. As far as timing – it would be preferable if these campaigns ran later in the year/early next year/closer to the end date of the p20 program, but as long as they keep us informed of their plans, it is no problem to run a crowdfunding campaign especially if it is party of their larger marketing plans for their game/start up publishing company – we like to see what their vision is for the future.”

One other highlight of p20 is that there isn’t just one winner. Instead, twenty indie game designers will win! That’s huge. To put these credits in perspective, a typical minimum order quantity (MOQ) is 1,000 units, and a basic card game like Flip7 costs around $2 to manufacture (e.g., a total minimum cost of $2,000). If you’re looking to make a more complex game with custom meeples, trays, dice, etc, you’re probably looking at the $8-$12 range and a potential increase in MOQ to 1500 units (e.g., a total minimum cost of $15,000). This doesn’t account for all the other costs required to make a game (art, graphic design, freight shipping, etc).

Overall, if you’re interested in self-publishing a game you’re passionate about, I think p20 is an excellent opportunity. Even if you’re not one of the twenty winners in the end, it’s still a motivation to do the work and make your game idea a reality over the next year (and learn how to effectively pitch it in the process).

I’d love to hear what you think about Panda’s p20 sponsorship. Are you going to try it?

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I spent the last 4 days at Geekway to the West, an absolutely incredible game convention in St. Louis. Today I’ll share some of my highlights and observations through three lenses: Jamey as a publisher, designer, and gamer.

Publisher Jamey

Stonemaier Games participates in a few ways at Geekway: We donate a lot of games to their play-and-win section, which has proven year after year to be a great way to share our games with people who haven’t tried them.

We also have a booth in their vendor hall (Geekway primarily focuses on casual gaming, but they do have vendor space too) run by my coworker Dave and staffed by an amazingly generous demo team. Our main intent at the booth is simply for people to have fun and learn about our games, and it’s a nice bonus if we sell some games too (this year it looks like our booth revenue was around $16k, and people could also place orders on our webstore and pick up their order at Geekway since our warehouse is located in St. Louis).

I like that Geekway provides publishers a lot of different options. You can have a booth if you want, but you could also have a demo table through Double Exposure, you could just put games in play-and-win, or you can just wander around and connect with people (or scout games to potentially publish).

I’ll also add that having several years of t-shirt and hoodie sales provides a really nice way for me to look around any room at Geekway and identify people who know Stonemaier Games. The warm hoodies were particularly helpful, as the main hall at Geekway was quite cold this year.

Designer Jamey

There are two sides to Designer Jamey at conventions: past and future. For games I’ve already designed, it’s immensely gratifying to see people playing them. I don’t think I’m alone, as I saw other designers checking in on people playing their games (this happened to me while playing the card game Oopsy Poopsy). I taught and played Euphoria Essential and Origin Story, and I had a great time learning the game Dark Heists from the designer, Moe Poplar.

Then there are the games I have yet to to design. I love playing a variety of published games at Geekway to learn from them. This year I played 14 new-to-me games and 6 games I already knew (it’s nice to revisit games to look at them from a fresh perspective).

Geekway provides several opportunities for designers to get feedback about unpublished games, including the clever Playtest to Win area.

Last, I’m so grateful for everyone who either played a game with me or just came up to me to say hi. Those moments and that time means the world to me. As someone who has social anxiety about approaching people, seeing others do it to me gives me the courage to do the same for others. Thank you for the inspiration!

Gamer Jamey

While Geekway is part work for me, it’s also part play. I love playing games with delightful people, and Geekway is full of them. In total I played 20 different games at Geekway (plus a round of disc golf) with around 60 people. I spent most of my time in a smaller ballroom in the first floor of the connected hotel–it was a much quieter in there (and warmer) than the main convention hall. Thanks to everyone who took the time to play with me!

I appreciate play-and-win as a gamer too, as it helps me narrow down which games to play out of so many options (though I did also check out both Blood Rage and The King Is Dead from the main library to revisit them). Without play-and-win, I wouldn’t have discovered the delightful game 3 Chapters, experienced the whimsy of the cat game Oopsy Poopsy, or delved into the strategic cleverness of Galileo Galilei.

While Geekway does have a few events people can sign up for, the vast majority of the convention is casual gaming. This, I’ve found, is my preferred structure for a convention, as I like the fluid nature of going from game to game at my own pace, remaining flexible as to what I play and how long I play. I’m grateful to Geekway for embracing this format, and I’m always open to suggestions for other similar conventions!

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If you were at Geekway to the West this weekend (or you’ve attended a gaming event in 2026), I’d love to hear a few of your highlights!

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I feel like I learn something every day from another game publisher, whether it’s game design, operations, product design, marketing, etc. Today I thought I’d highlight some of the things our panelists love about other publishers–the types of things they want to see more publishers emulate.

Also, before we hear from our panelists, we just launched two major products on the Stonemaier Games webstore! Finspan: Sharks & Reefs and Euphoria Essential Edition (or the update pack if you already have the game and expansion) are ready to ship to you now: https://store.stonemaiergames.com/collections/latest

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Plaid Hat Games (Dillon’s pick): I like how Plaid Hat’s games often have either a subscription or continual, mostly optional content, for their game systems. It’s basically just a living card game model, but it keeps me engaged with the games. In terms of what I’d like to see others emulate, it doesn’t necessarily need to be constant new content, but in the hobby, it can often feel like we’re constantly hurrying to check out what’s new. So something to keep a game feeling alive is valuable. As a side example, I think Stonemaier does this in a different way by representing their games as different “Worlds” and by keeping their amount of releases fairly lean. [JAMEY: I previously highlighted some things related to this that Plaid Hat is doing with print on demand.]

Restoration Games (Garrett’s pick): While our hobby is often fixated on the new, I’d love to see more publishers emulate Restoration Games’ mission of breathing new life into forgotten or underrated classics. It’s incredibly refreshing to see a company look backward to ensure great legacy designs get their well-deserved flowers, combining modern production quality and mechanical updates with genuine reverence for the past. Even though this is Restoration’s core business model, seeing other publishers take a stab at this could increase the output of lovingly remastered titles that honor our hobby’s history. [JAMEY: I also think 25th Century Games does this well.]

Stonemaier Games (Aryn’s pick): I went back and forth on this a lot. But, ultimately, I’d be picking nits if I chose another thing a publisher does that I wanted other publishers to take note. So here I am writing to other publishers, take note of what Stonemaier Games is doing. Hire a team to craft a solo mode for your games. I understand not all games can have a solo mode. It’s hard to have a party game for one, for instance. I also understand this costs money, but please consider it. Stonemaier Games’ relationship with The Automa Factory is why I got into Stonemaier Games. I can play all these wonderful games that Stonemaier puts out without having to worry about another person’s availability. I can dive into the design of a game more in depth when I am able to get it to the table more often. Am I about to teach a game? I play the solo mode to further enforce the rules before I teach the game to others. [JAMEY: I am truly grateful for Automa Factory’s involvement over the years.]

Kaitlyn also chimed in with a general comment that she attributed to Stonemaier Games, but honestly I see other publishers doing this better. Check out Endeavor Deep Sea by Burnt Island Games for a great example of how you can achieve high quality with fully sustainable components. Kaitlyn says: I love seeing publishers use eco-friendly packaging. I think Stonemaier does their best; I first noticed it with Wingspan, but I think most, if not all, Stonemaier games are packaged in an eco-friendly way.

We’ll close with Skiler, who mentions several publishers and examples.

I love consistent components throughout many of a publisher’s games.  For example, I believe Garphill Games offers custom metal coins designed specifically for the North Sea, West Kingdom, and South Tigris trilogies. Instead of unique currency for every game, the coins are compatible across every title in a series. I would love to see this with resources and other components in more games. They also often have consistency with their iconography across their games which makes learning new games by them way simpler. I really appreciate this!

I love the trend of missions in games, that are not legacy, but have optional progression. For example, Deep Sea Endeavor (Burnt Island Games): I absolutely love that we can play through different missions, but not feel constrained by the parameters that a legacy game inherently comes with. This isn’t necessarily new, but it feels more common and I welcome it!

I love the trend of cozy games with great art. The gameplay still very much matters, but a cozy theme with great art will get me every time. More please! (Examples of this would be Harmonies by Libellud or Creature Comforts by Kids Table Board Games.)

I love that learn-as-you-play tutorials are becoming more common. (An example of this would be Stonemaier’s Quick Start cards in Wyrmspan.)

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Huge thanks to Dillon, Garrett, Kaitlyn, Aryn, and Skiler for sharing these things they love about a variety of publishers. One thing I’ll add to the list is that I have a continued and growing appreciation for publishers who focus on one game at most every year or so. That level of focus and time spent getting it right is a luxury that not everyone has, but I admire those who are able to do it.

What’s something a publisher is doing that you love (and would like to see others emulate)?

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On the final full day of our recent Ireland trip, we walked across Dublin to the Guinness Storehouse self-guided tour experience. You start at the base of a massive circular interior (it’s shaped like a pint of Guinness) and work your way up level by level, learning about Guinness–the beer, the company, and the brand–as you go. Here are a few standout business insights I learned along the way:

Quality Control (and the Veneer Thereof)

Before we even entered the building, we saw a van parked outside that read, “Guinness Quality Team: Dedicated to delivering beautiful Guinness everytime everywhere”. Right from the start, Guinness was communicating that they have a continual focus on providing the best version of their product. This is later reinforced during the tour when they talk about the “smellers” who ensure the barrels are working optimally.

This really got me thinking about more ways we can improve quality control at Stonemaier Games and how we can share the variety of systems we have already have in place, as I always want the first printing of any product to be perfect.

Branding Is Constantly Evolving

I associate Guinness with a specific can, so I was struck by the sheer variety of bottles displayed at the beginning of the tour. While the label has stayed mostly the same over the years, the size and shape of a Guinness bottle has vastly varied.

This made me think of game boxes. There really is no standard game box–modern manufacturers can make any size. While I understand the visual appeal of having games that align cleanly on a shelf, the box is ultimately a delivery vehicle for the contents within. I never want to limit what a game can be (or make a box that is much too big) based on box size consistency.

Longevity Is a Selling Point

The current Guinness label has “EST. 1759” on the iconic harp. It was interesting to see that most of the previous harps didn’t have that date, as it seems like a huge selling point to convey that the product is so good that it has lasted nearly 300 years.

Recently I’ve thought a lot about how longevity is such a great selling point for Magic the Gathering. It isn’t just about Magic lasting over 30 years; it’s also about how they tie old cards to new sets, adding depth and nostalgia to the world they’ve fostered for so long. I think there’s huge value in having a singular, long-lasting product that reminds people of its history.

It’s Okay to Revisit a Tried-and-True Formula

When I think of the Guinness beer, I think of a dark brew topped by thick foam. I assumed that was always the case, but that’s apparently not true: The “creamy white head” wasn’t introduced until 1959.

There’s constant innovation in nearly every industry and we’re always learning, so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with revisiting older games to apply those innovations and lessons learned over the years. That’s what I tried to do in the upcoming Euphoria Essential Edition.

The World Isn’t Stagnant, and Neither Are We

Prominently featured at the Guinness Storehouse is Guinness 0.0, an alcohol-free version of their beer that tastes remarkably similar. I asked a Guinness employee about this version of the beer, which was released around 3 years ago, and they said that it is already a success in reducing drunk driving in Ireland and beyond. It also has a positive impact on public health, as alcohol can lead directly to liver disease.

I think there’s something about human nature that can make us a bit stubborn about changing our worldview, but the world is always changing. I know so much more about accessibility and environmental sustainability than I did a few years ago, and while meaningful sustainable change takes time to implement, I believe it’s worth constantly pursuing.

Those are just a few takeaways from my experience at the Guinness Storehouse. I’d love to hear your thoughts about Guinness or similar behind-the-scenes tours. How do they apply to the tabletop game industry and community?

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Read about my customer service experiences in Ireland.

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I’m constantly trying to learn about customer service practices so I can better serve our customers at Stonemaier Games. I spent the last week traveling across Ireland with family, and I thought I’d share some quick notes about customer service (mostly very good).

• Tullamore Distillery: We walked in here with only around 30 minutes to spare, which we mentioned to the person working the main desk. Within seconds, she offered us a 30-minute whiskey tasting, and we had a wonderful time learning about Tullamore from her.
• Sean’s Bar: The proprietor sat down with us for 5 minutes to share the history of Ireland’s oldest bar and the story of Irish coffee. He later gave a similar speech to a bigger group in the same room, and I noticed he intentionally changed the wording since we were within earshot.
• Linnane’s Lobster Bar (Newquay): We got a little messy eating crab, lobster, oysters, and mussels here, and an attentive server–not even our primary server–noticed and offered us a bowl of water with lemon to rinse our fingers.
• Oscar’s (Galway): We had a late dinner, and the server was keen to alert us to the exact remaining quantity of a specific dish before it was gone.
• Sheridan’s Cheesemongers (Galway): The person behind the counter was incredibly helpful in recommending three made-in-Ireland dishes that complemented each other (two cheeses, one cracker, and chutney).
• Midleton Distillery (Midleton): The young tour guide frequently invited questions and called back to previous questions, yet he kept things moving along.
• Manna Cafe (Killarney): Each of us ordered a different coffee drink at breakfast here (which was ample and delicious), and to help us tell the difference, each came in a different type of glass with a unique design on the foam.
• Table 45 (Dublin): When we arrived fairly late in the evening, the manager warmly let us know that the kitchen was only open for 25 minutes but that we were welcome to sit down and order tapas (which we did).
• Sweet Salt (Dublin): When we showed up at this highly rated cafe for 6 coffee orders, multiple members of the team swiftly shifted into barista mode.
• Guinness Storehouse (Dublin): This is a superbly designed self-guided tour that consistently moves people from one area to the next (with the one exception at the end of the tour where the free pint of Guinness takes people so long to drink that the room is very, very crowded).
• Fish Shop (Dublin): We ended up here after searching for the best fish and chips in Dublin, and despite initially being told that we needed a reservation, the owner invited us back inside after seeing scrambling on our phones to find an alternative.
• Gamers World (Dublin): After hearing my American accent, the person working the register discounted the game I bought by 10% (not because I’m American; it’s something related to taxes and duties). Also, it was neat to see them carrying many Stonemaier games, for which I thanked them.
• Cafe Nero (Dublin): I ordered a ristretto without knowing what it was, and after seeing us puzzled over meager contents of the cup, the manager offered to give us any other drink. We assured him it was fine–I wanted to try something new, and now I know! (It’s a very condensed shot of espresso.)

Many of these experiences are small, but they can have a big impact on the overall experience. What’s a minor-yet-impactful positive customer service experience you had recently?

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I recently had an excellent, candid, meandering chat with Peter Vaughan (Cardboard Alchemy), facilitated by Will from the Hungry Gamer YouTube channel. Peter highlighted some really important reasons that publishers–even experienced publishers–consider crowdfunding, including a revelation about changes in distribution and localization.

I believe that crowdfunding remains an incredible tool for all types of publishers, especially newer creators, established publishers who are undergoing an important change, and publishers who want to offer super deluxe version priced beyond the limits of retailers. Here’s a quick checklist of considerations for new creators considering crowdfunding.

There isn’t just one way to serve customers, and I love seeing publishers trying and refining different methods to accomplish that goal, even if their methods are different than ours (we wait until our products are ready to ship before launching them on our webstore, like with the upcoming Finspan: Sharks & Reefs and Euphoria Essential, both on May 13).

Feel free to check out our 35-minute chat if this is a topic that interests you or that you’ve been debating. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

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I’m fascinated by–and in awe of–the Savannah Bananas.

The Banana Ball League, which started in Savannah, is a new type of baseball where the entire focus is on entertaining fans. In fact, Fans First is the title of the book written by founder Jesse Cole, and across several examples it’s clear the extent to which he applies this ideology.

Here are my top 4 takeaways from Cole’s recent chat with Simon Sinek on the A Bit of Optimism podcast:

1. Every game might be someone’s first game. The Bananas have an incredibly long wait list to watch them play–over 4 million people. So when someone attends a Bananas game, there’s a good chance it is their first game. Knowing this, the Bananas approach every game like their first (and perhaps only) chance for every fan to have a great time. I think that’s a neat approach to tabletop games too: What if my game is someone’s first game? Or it ends up being the only game they play for a long time?
2. Fans can impact the outcome of the game. One of my favorite rules twists in Banana Ball is that if a fan catches a foul ball, it’s an out. In some ways, this is akin to crowdfunding, where backers can have a direct impact on a game’s final form. In others, it’s more like a game being a living entity that fans shape over time via fan-made content (like Wingspan’s promo birds) or lore-driven decisions (like what Thundergryph is doing with Etherstone).
3. The fan experience is prioritized over the sanctity of the game. I love sports, but I think sometimes long-standing, classic sports forget that they are ultimately a form of entertainment, and that means evolving with the times. A brilliant example from the Bananas is this rule: After a game reaches the 2-hour mark, no new inning can begin. This effectively puts a time limit on a sport that is notorious for dragging on, instead prioritizing the fan experience.
4. Look at the game through the eyes of the customer. The Bananas travel around the US to a variety of baseball stadiums, and whenever they arrive at a new place, the first thing they do is walk through the stadium and look at the field from various perspectives, including the most distant seats. They do this to see the game through the eyes of every fan, as they want to make sure they aren’t just serving those in the first few rows. I love this mentality, and it’s a great reminder for me to approach our platforms in a customer’s shoes (the content we create, our website, webstores, how our games appear at local retailers, etc).

Have you been to a Savannah Bananas game? I’m hoping to go someday, and I’d love to hear about your experience.

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Yesterday I announced the Euphoria Essential Edition, which combines the core game with the expansion and includes some revised rules/components, particularly the board layout. It will be on the Stonemaier Games webstore, ready to ship, starting on May 13.

While discussing the game on yesterday’s livecast, I started to reflect on the factors that result in us considering an “essential” version of an existing game (e.g., Viticulture, Between Two Cities, Between Two Castles, and now Euphoria). I mentioned a few then, and I’ve added a few more to this list:

1. The game only has 1 expansion, and we can combine the expansion with the game without significantly increasing the price of the essential version compared the original game’s price. This is critical, as we are always focused on price accessibility. If a $60 game and a $30 expansion combined together would still be close to $90 due to the manufacturing cost, we might as well keep them separate. But if the combination leads to some production optimization for a new price of $65, that’s great.
2. The combined game plus expansion is still accessible to newcomers. Any first expansion of a Stonemaier game is at least partially the result of learning from what people say about the game. Many–but not all–first expansions offer seamless additions rather than new elements that make the game more complex, making them prime for essential editions.
3. The game and the expansion have successfully been on the market for years. I like to give our games the time to find their audience and thrive in the wild for a long time before revisiting them before considering an essential edition (opposed to releasing the game and then creating a new edition right away).
4. The game is out of stock but still in demand. For us and the amazing retailers who support our games, we wouldn’t want to create a new edition of a game while there’s still ample inventory of the previous version. We also only consider games with continual sales month-to-month.
5. We are excited to revisit the game to offer the best version. Even if we’re literally just combining the core game and the expansion, there’s a lot of work involved, especially for the rulebook (but also potentially the box, reference cards, punchboards, etc). And sometimes–like with Euphoria–it’s even more work, as it’s an opportunity to improve the original. I spent a lot of time redesigning the board to make the order of operations and interconnected elements much easier to understand, learn, and teach, and artist Jacqui Davis completely remade the art to match the revised design. We’re passionate about all of our products, but there needs to be a special spark to revisit something that was deemed final for so long.
6. If there are changes, they do not negate the investment of anyone who already owns the game and the expansion. This is really important to me, and it’s why we created an update pack for Euphoria that includes the new board, updated rulebooks, and the smaller artifact cards. It’s for this reason that I try to be very intentional while weighing the importance of making gameplay changes opposed to just seamlessly combining the game and expansion.

What do you think about these reasons? Is there anything else you would like me to consider for future essential editions (none of which are in the works)?

If you’re curious to learn more about the inception of Euphoria Essential, I’ve included the latest design diary post below.

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April 23: The Inception of Euphoria Essential Edition

In March 2025, almost exactly 13 years after finishing the design for Euphoria, it was time to reprint the game. We’ve reprinted Euphoria a number of times over the years–a reprint is simply printing more of the same exact game–but this time I reached out to Morten (who had designed the Ignorance Is Bliss expansion) with the idea of updating Euphoria with everything I’ve learned about the game over the last decade.

Here’s what I proposed to Morten: 

• Player mats and big tokens: Remember the tiles in Euphoria that let you quickly adjust token quantities (1x, 2x, 3x, etc)? I’m thinking we could update the player mats to have those tracks, allowing us to remove the big wooden tokens.
• Board and bazaar: The inclusion of the player mats allows us to use the area of the game board currently occupied by tracks for the bazaar. It might be just a little tight, though–maybe decrease the size of artifact cards? Also, I would like to offer a double-sided board (bringing back the grayscale look of the original version on one side).
• Recruits: I would love to offer a single set of recruits instead of telling players to use only the new or original recruits. To accomplish this goal, I’m open to removing some of the original recruits that aren’t balanced well for the expansion changes. I would also prefer to remove the factionless recruits. They’re clever, but by nature they are exceptions to standard recruit rules.
• Markets: I feel similarly about the markets–I just want to shuffle them all together. If we need to remove some markets to accomplish this, that’s fine.
• Gameplay: There are 4 elements of Euphoria that I don’t fully love: It’s difficult to teach despite its weight, I’m not sure the ethical dilemmas are necessary, it feels really bad to lose a worker due to a knowledge check (or even to see someone else lose a worker), and it feels impossible to catch up once someone has 9 stars and you’re behind. I’m not necessarily saying that anything needs to change to address these issues, but this is an opportunity to do so if we choose.

[end of message to Morten]

I’ll cut to the chase on a few of these elements: The final result was that we  consolidated information onto player mats, we combined all recruits (102 total: asymmetric abilities that each player has), and we combined all market tiles (34 total: worker-placement actions to construct on the board). This essentially results in Euphoria plus the Ignorance Is Bliss expansion, offering a ton of variability with everything seamlessly integrated into a single box.

What do you think about this inception story? Join us tomorrow to dive into the core elements of the Essential Edition’s board, including a few minor-but-impactful rule changes! You can also click here to get a May 13 launch notification (followed by shipping later in May).

I made a huge intentional shift in my life in 2011. I’m now 45 years old, and looking back I realize how distinctly different my life was before and after my 30th year (mostly for the better).

If I had the chance to speak to my 30-year-old self, here are a few things I might say:

1. Creativity thrives in the small windows of free time, not the big ones. For most of my 20s I hoped for big gaps in time that were completely clear of other responsibilities–weeks and months–when I could write a novel. But the two times I had a big gap of time (the summer after college and when I was between jobs), I mostly just played and procrastinated. When I turned 30, I decided to spend 2 hours every night writing the novel, and I was done in 2 months while still maintaining my day job, friendships, and other hobbies. Realizing I could do that motivated me to also spend those small windows of time to design a game, Viticulture. This is one of the biggest changes I’ve ever made in my life, and my career with Stonemaier Games wouldn’t exist without this shift.

2. A change in location won’t make me a different person. I’m an introvert with a rather crippling social anxiety regarding approaching people. I romanticized the idea of going somewhere completely new by myself to see if a different, fearless version of Jamey would emerge, so I booked a solo trip to Ireland for a few days in 2011. Not only did I learn that I much prefer to travel with at least one other person, but also found that I’m still myself–for better or worse–even in a different country where everyone is a stranger. Another way to put this is: For the things about myself that I most want to work on, there’s no magic bullet.

3. There is so much to learn after formal education. I’m incredibly grateful for the all the teachers and professors who guided me from kindergarten through college. But there’s a whole world of knowledge outside of the classroom. I’ve learned so much about game design, for example, by listening to podcasts, reading articles, and watching videos (along with actually playing and designing games).

4. Healthy living starts to take effort after a certain age. I’ve been physically active my entire life, and I was blessed with a great metabolism, so for many years I didn’t feel the need to eat with intention. That was all fine and dandy until I started running Stonemaier Games in my early 30s, a job that often involves sitting at a desk for 12 hours a day. I was no longer playing sports as regularly, yet my diet was the same as ever (and it wasn’t even terrible–I ate fruits and vegetables every day). My body changed incrementally, and before I knew it, I was 20 lbs heavier than I’d ever been. Fortunately I realized it’s never too late to change, but I wish I could tell myself what I was doing to my body and how even 20 minutes of exercise every day can make a huge difference.

5. I don’t want kids, and I’m not alone. For most of my life, I thought I wanted to have kids–I never questioned doing the same thing my parents did (I have a brother and sister). It wasn’t until my early 30s that started to realize that the creative, nurturing, and compassionate sides of myself were fulfilled and challenged better in other ways (game design, friends, cats, etc). But when my siblings and college friends started to have kids, I struggled sometimes to feel like an “adult.” But then I started to make some wonderful friends who were just as happy not having kids as I was–and I found a partner in Megan who also doesn’t want kids–and I’m so grateful for those relationships (they even helped the relationships I had with friends and family who do have kids).

6. Money well spent makes a big difference. For the longest time, if I wanted a chocolate bar, I’d spend $0.50 at checkout at the grocery store. But one day I was shopping with a friend, and they said, “You love chocolate, right? If you love something, it’s worth paying for the best.” So I shelled out for a $5 chocolate bar, and it was amazing. This isn’t to say that I don’t still enjoy a Snickers, Kit-Kat, or Hersheys Almond from time to time. But I give myself permission to spend money on the things I love. Similarly, I’ve learned to pay for things that last–I have shoes and jeans that have lasted over a decade.

7. Every job before my career was a good use of time. I think there was a time when I didn’t believe this; I wished I could have found my path earlier in life. But whether it was waiting tables, project managing medical textbooks, or managing a nonprofit staff and fundraiser, I was learning indispensable skills and habits that have had a direct impact on Stonemaier Games’ success.

8. Loving a pet requires compassionate discipline. I adopted my beloved cat Biddy in 2007 when he was a tiny kitten, and raising him from beginning to end is one of the greatest joys of my life. Biddy loved to eat, and I gave him open access to cat food (and sometimes human food). At one point he tipped the scales at 20 lbs. He developed diabetes and required twice-daily insulin shots for the rest of his life. He died of intestinal cancer when he was 16 years old. While I don’t know if I could prevented any of Biddy’s ailments, I wish I had known earlier that I could have made Biddy’s life better overall by denying him a portion of the thing he wanted the most (kibble). Not enabling someone’s worst habit is a core part of loving them. I would truly do anything to have another month or year with Biddy–I miss him every day.

9. There is no rule that says everything must remain the way it’s always been. This applies to relationships, habits, routines, beliefs, hobbies, diet, behaviors, even our bodies. For example, for as long as I can remember, I had large protruding mole at the base of my back. I didn’t like it, but I figured it was too close to my spine to be removed. But then I asked a dermatologist about it, and she said, “Oh, sure, we can remove that right now.” Five minutes later, something that had bothered me for years was gone forever. I wish I could have known earlier that if there is any persistent element in my life that I could cut or add that would make me happier (and those around me), it’s never too late to choose to make that change.

10. Try a lot of different things to continually discover new passions. At 30, I thought I only enjoyed specific types of games and that I didn’t like party games…until I tried Telestrations, Just One, So Clover, Blob Party, and Caution Signs. At 30, I thought I enjoyed blogging as my only form of content creation…until I filmed a “my favorite mechanism” video for YouTube, tried a Facebook livecast, posted an Instagram photo, or recorded a podcast. At 30, I thought ultimate frisbee was the only disc-related sport I enjoyed…until I started playing disc golf during the pandemic and now play every week. The world is full of potential passions I have yet to try, and I won’t know if they’re for me until I actually try them!

I wasn’t sure where this list would take me, but I appreciate the opportunity to share. I’d love to hear if any of these resonate with you or if there’s something you wish you knew before you turned 30.

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Also read/watch:

• The 10 Best and Worst Decisions I’ve Ever Made
• 10 Harsh YouTube Lessons We Wish We Knew at 20 and 40 Year Olds Share Advice for Younger Self (both inspiration for this article)

If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content! You can also listen to posts like this in the audio version of the blog.