by Bert Hardeman

I have always loved playing games, and at some point, I thought: "Maybe I could design one myself." So, I sat down one evening, whipped up a prototype, and tried it by myself. It was a terrible game. I quickly realized that game design isn’t as easy as it looks. Since I didn't know where to start, I decided to do my homework. I read almost every article about game design on the internet and listened to countless podcasts. Still, I was waiting for that one spark—a truly original idea.

The Spark
At a convention, I played Rotterdam, a game about boats entering the port of Rotterdam. It features a unique mechanism where you call out a color, and then everyone must move on that color. I thought it was a clever system, but I wondered if I could extend it by making the routes variable. What if you could change the routes themselves? How much fun would that be?

To test this quickly, I grabbed Ticket to Ride: Europe because it already had routes and trains. My initial solo tests revealed plenty of problems; for one, the routes often required more than one "stick." I needed a map with better-spaced cities, so I tried Iberia using the trains from Ticket to Ride. That map had its own issues, so the next step was to create my own. I started with the Netherlands, but it felt a bit too small, so I expanded it to include Belgium and Luxembourg.

The Pivot to ...
I tested this version with my wife. She isn’t a fan of confrontational games and suggested a major change: only the active player should move on their turn instead of everyone. By now, the rules were: draw a random stick from a bag, play one of your three sticks, and return the used stick to the bag. You would then travel as far as possible along that color.

The biggest hurdle was the goal. If players were given random destination cities, some inevitably had better combinations than others. I tried changing the goal to a sequence of cities that everyone had to visit in order, but it felt like a difficult variant of Bingo — it all came down to whether you drew the right color stick. Even after increasing the variety to six colors, a race to random locations just didn't feel right.

The solution?

Making the game cooperative! I re-themed it: you were now trying to prevent cats from escaping a city after breaking out of a shelter. This worked! One thing I discovered during this phase was that people hated drawing random sticks when they needed a specific color. I changed it so that when you remove a stick from the board, you keep it. Now, if you don't have the colors you need, it's a result of your own planning.

Back to the Race
One day, while playing around with the sticks from the cooperative prototype, I arranged them into an arena of spokes. It looked exactly like a racing track. "Let’s make this a game about chariot racing," I thought.

To balance the movement, I initially let players choose all six colors at the start, switching one out each turn. However, this gave players too much freedom; everyone ended up on the same routes, which became overcrowded. I decided to limit players to only the next three sticks in their personal row. To avoid the "end of the line" problem, I arranged those sticks in a circle. It looked just like the spokes of a wheel—and that is how the title Spokes was born.

From Abstract to Thematic
The first playtest on Tabletop Simulator was quite positive. I initially described Spokes as an abstract racing game, but a playtester who knew about track cycling remarked that the game felt surprisingly thematic. From that moment on, I stopped calling it abstract. I tried to lean into the theme by adding movement limit, but the game was actually more fun without them. I also experimented with a "sur place" rule (standing still to gain an advantage), but since it was rarely used, I eventually scrapped it.

The competition
I entered Spokes into the Cardboard Edison competition. It was a great experience, and the game finished as a runner-up! I half-expected publishers to start begging to publish it right then and there, but that didn't happen.

The feedback from the contest was welcome: they noted that if a group was "mean," the game could become frustratingly cutthroat. Advanced players could block a winner simply by changing a stick in front of them. I solved this by making it mandatory to travel on the stick you just placed. You can still block people if the stars align, but it’s no longer something you can do constantly without consequence.

Finding a Home
I continued pitching to publishers, but many were hesitant, especially regarding the production cost of so many sticks. Eventually, I received an email from Mark at Radical 8 Games. Someone who had playtested the game recommended it to him. Mark watched my Cardboard Edison video, liked what he saw, and after a few weeks and testing a physical prototype, he signed the game!

Mark helped develop the game even further. He introduced the slipstreaming action, which removed the need for a clunky rule about not moving over the stick you just placed. He also streamlined the starting phase, which used to be the hardest part to teach. Finally, the artist Rusembell came on board and made the game look absolutely beautiful.

It has been a long journey from boats and cats to the velodrome, and I can't wait for you to experience it. Have fun playing!

by ilgiocointavolo

GURPS at 40: Steve Jackson Reflects on Building Gaming's Most Ambitious System
When I told Steve Jackson that three of my gaming buddies started arguing about GURPS combat mechanics just from hearing I'd be interviewing him, he laughed. "That sounds about right," he said from his home in Atlanta. After four decades in game design, Jackson has heard it all when it comes to GURPS: the love, the hate, and everything in between.

It was 1986 when Steve Jackson Games launched GURPS (Generic Universal RolePlaying System), making a promise that seemed impossible: one system for every game. Now, with hundreds of supplements and a devoted global fanbase, GURPS has arguably delivered on that promise. But how do you actually build something universal? And what would Jackson change if he started over today?

"I Thought Polyhedra Were Unnecessarily Complex"
The heart of GURPS is its 3d6 roll-under system, which was pretty radical back in the mid-80s. While other designers were embracing weird dice and complex mechanics, Jackson went the opposite direction.
"I thought that polyhedra were unnecessarily complex," he tells me, and then adds: "I still think that."
It's a surprisingly firm stance from someone whose system has grown to accommodate everything from space opera to medieval fantasy. But Jackson's logic is sound; "There are some very good systems that use polyhedra, but they use them in simple ways."
The 3d6 choice wasn't just about simplicity—it was about accessibility. Jackson wanted something that felt natural to players without requiring a math degree. "The core rules are very straightforward," he insists. "If we just wanted to sit down and go through a dungeon in GURPS? Oh, I could have you running in 30 minutes."

Thirty minutes. For a system that's notorious for being crunchy. Jackson seems to enjoy this contradiction.

The Complexity Guy Who Built Something Simple
Here's where Jackson gets interesting. "I'm a complexity guy," he admits without hesitation. "I like wheels within wheels. And when I write a game, the first draft is always longer than the final draft."
So how does someone who loves complexity create something that can teach new players in half an hour? Jackson's secret is layers.

"GURPS is a crunchy system," he says, completely matter-of-fact about it. "Completely fair. It's not as crunchy as some people want to make out, because the core rules are very straightforward. But there are specialist rules for many, many subjects. And those can get really crunchy."

The genius is in the modularity. You don't need to know the vehicle design rules to fight goblins. You don't need the time travel mechanics to run a detective story. But if you want to design a custom starship or solve temporal paradoxes, the rules are there.

Jackson calls it a "Catch-22 effect". "Now that there are that many supplements, people think it has to be crunchy", he states. The system's success created its own reputation problem.

"Eventually They Shut Up"
When GURPS launched, Jackson faced the obvious question: how can one supplement cover "every game"? His response captures his dry sense of humor perfectly:

"It was very funny when the game first came out, people said: 'Well there's only one supplement, how can it be for every game?' And then a couple of years later: 'Well there are only six supplements, how can it be for every game?' And then a couple of years later: 'Well there are only twenty supplements, how can it be for every world?' But eventually they shut up."

The proof was in the execution. GURPS didn't just promise universality—it delivered, supplement by supplement. Each new book stress-tested the core system against different genres and scenarios.

Jackson lights up when talking about GURPS Time Travel, which he co-wrote with John M. Ford. "He was a wonderful man to work with. And it came out very, very well. Much of it is an homage to the work of H. Beam Piper, one of my favorite science fiction authors."

It's these personal touches that make GURPS more than just a mechanical exercise. Each supplement reflects genuine passion for its subject matter.

Learning from SPI (and Translating to English)
GURPS didn't emerge from nowhere—it built on the tradition of detailed simulation games, particularly those from Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI). But Jackson learned from SPI's biggest weakness.

"The Ogre rules are very heavily influenced by SPI," he explains. "But they are translated to English, which makes a difference." That last bit gets a laugh out of both of us. Anyone who's wrestled with SPI rulebooks knows exactly what he means. "SPI's rules were famously difficult to interpret," Jackson continues. "I have no idea how many hours I spent on their games when I was in college."

Those frustrating hours became Jackson's design school. He took SPI's mechanical sophistication but wrapped it in clear, unambiguous language. It's a lesson more game designers should learn.

What He'd Change Today
After nearly forty years, Jackson has clear thoughts on where GURPS could improve. When I ask what he'd simplify in a ground-up redesign, his answer comes immediately: "Character creation. Social skill interaction. I think those are the big ones."

Character creation in GURPS is incredibly flexible, but it can overwhelm newcomers with options. Social mechanics, despite multiple supplement treatments, never quite achieved the elegance of combat resolution.

But Jackson isn't rushing into a fifth edition. "I don't like to do a revision until it's time," he says. "There are games that are revised every few years. And sometimes that's because the first job was sloppy and sometimes it's because there's a grab for money. I would rather people not say either of those things about me."

Italian Fans and Global Appeal
Jackson has fond memories of visiting Lucca Comics & Games years ago, where he met dedicated Italian GURPS fans. "The Lucca show is just overwhelming," he recalls. These days, Lucca has grown even more massive, but Jackson's experience there highlighted something important about GURPS: its international appeal.

Italian GURPS fans are "extremely dedicated," as I can personally attest. There's something about the system's comprehensive approach that resonates with European gaming culture, where detailed simulation games have always found appreciative audiences. Jackson's relationship with global gaming communities shows how GURPS succeeded not by being generically universal, but by providing tools flexible enough for any group's specific needs.

The Long Game
When I ask about GURPS' future, Jackson stays characteristically measured: "I'm never going to say no to a Fifth Edition. But I certainly can't say yes right now. As long as people are playing GURPS, there's new ideas coming up."

It's this patience that has kept GURPS stable while other systems chase trends through frequent revisions. Jackson built something that could grow organically rather than requiring constant overhauls.

Looking back on our conversation, what strikes me most is Jackson's consistency. The same design philosophy that drove the original 3d6 decision still guides GURPS today: build something simple enough to learn but powerful enough to handle whatever players throw at it. "I try to look at my own work and figure out what I did," Jackson reflects when discussing GURPS' enduring success. After forty years, he's still figuring it out, and that curiosity might be the real secret behind GURPS' longevity.

This article includes exclusive materials from the Museum of Games Ireland and Steve Jackson Games archives. All images and documents used with permission and proper attribution included.
www.mogi.ie

This interview was conducted for Il Gioco in Tavolo podcast. Full video available at Youtube Video

by Steph Hodge

I recently had the chance to sit down with The Op Games and get the detailed lineup of 2026 titles! I believe I counted 16 games, which don't even include the long list of Co-Branded Mass Market titles. Here are some highlights.


▪️ To kick it off, Flip 7: With A Vengeance just released. With the massive success of Flip 7 and Flip 7, we should expect to see a whole lot more flavors of this hit game.

The deck of cards now spans to thirteen 13's in Vengeance. You will also find new special cards, including steal, swap, discard, flip four, and more.





▪️ Also expected this Q1 2026, is TEMBO: Survival on the Savanna. The partnership with Sidekick Games (AQUA: Biodiversity in the Oceans & HUTAN: Life in the Rainforest) continues and delivers us a cooperative game this time.

▪️ Frenzy Falls is planned for a Q2 2026 release. From designer Randy Flynn (Cascadia) and Joseph Z. Chen (Fantastic Factories).




▪️ Get ready to test your dexterity skills in Cats Knocking Things Off Ledges. Not only are you building a tower of ledges, but you are knocking off your cat toys from them. Two separate instances where you will have to demonstrate your dexterous techniques. This game has already been released.


[ImageID=9286877 mediumrep]
(photo uploaded by Alexander Varela, The Op)



▪️ Winter chill got you down? Hummingbirds will lift you up with its colorful table presence. Already available for sale.

Hidden sand timers in Hummingbirds are how players will score points. Without the use of a clock to track time, you have to gauge how long each timer has been running before using your hummingbird to look at it. If the timer has expired, you are good to collect points for that color timer. If you look and the timer is still running, you will lose your positioning and a point token from your stash.

Time is on your side. Better to be safe than sorry!

(photo uploaded by Alexander Varela, The Op)

This has been only a small handful of games that The Op is releasing in 2026. Several hobby games are planned, and even more family and party games are on the horizon to be excited for.