Cole 🔜 GDC

Not this year. Maybe I'll get lucky next year !

That's the plan. This year I'll be at Fort Circle, PLAY Con in Australia, Gen Con, Essen, and Pax Unplugged. I'm also doing a fair bit of travel for academic lectures/conferences. For this reason, I might be skipping San Diego Hist Con in November, to keep my sanity intact (and AIT on schedule!).

If you're at #GDC this year, come join me for a game of Molly House or Arcs and see some of the new things we have in the works! schedule.gdconf.com/session/play...

I'd say there's a very good chance!

An Illuminating Game | Ortus Regni How this review will be different from most of my reviews: After following the discussion here on BGG and reading the rules, I requested a review copy from Jon Sunbury, which he graciously provided. ...

I adore Ortus and even wrote a review 12 years ago! (An Illuminating Game | BoardGameGeek share.google/88xIc68FxBG4... ).

This game is very different and is much more like Dominion and Ascension (but I think better than both)

In terms of theme and flow of play, I think it is better than Res. I love Res for its utter compactness, but it can feel pretty constricted. I think it might be his best since Race. Dice Realms is also up there for me. Now, I just need him to return to a second edition of Time Agent!

You'll love it. The way it folds some lovely math into its storytelling is very clever. Things are initially straightforward, but after a few plays you will find yourself building increasingly chaotic, suboptimal decks as you block your rivals and juggle your obligations to the darkness.

We're really enjoying @tomlehmann.bsky.social's latest game Dark Pact. It manages to do everything I want to see in a deck builder in half the time and with half the cards. If you want a deck builder with lots of playful engine building and surprisingly resonate thematic application, check it out.

Come to SDHistCon North! I'll be there!

For the Student Who Said Grammar Doesn’t Matter When People Are Dying What can kill is unclarity. The misplaced modifier, for instance: Having no hope, the wind didn’t move him. Did the wind have no hope? Clearly the writer meant, Having no hope, he wasn’t moved by the wind. But someone no doubt had told the writer about the passive voice, to avoid it at all costs, like passion, and the writer, feeling with a chill how costly life can be when we are passive (the lover’s last knock unanswered at the door), opted for this construction. Having no hope, the wind didn’t move him. The difference is between mystery and confusion, between the wind’s stillness and a soul that won’t be opened. And why not? Why can’t the wind hope? I don’t know. I just know it matters. Everything matters. What is erasing what. Who is bombing whom. It took me all day to misunderstand correctly: Forgetting their children, the conquerors destroyed them. —Joseph Fasano

It matters.

A bunch of the Buried Giant crew are at this year's GAMA, come find us at Booth 1049 and hear about what we're up to!

We ask top designers how to make board games about the worst parts of human history Board game designers Cole Wehrle and Amabel Holland talk about designing distressing historical games - and whether to make them at all.

A long read from me today, about the delicate task of designing respectful historical board games. Massive thanks to @amabel.bsky.social and @colewehrle.bsky.social for talking to me about their design approaches. www.wargamer.com/board-games/...

Working in entertainment and arts, it’s easy to dismiss what you do, but in dark times, there is still something magical about the ability to change a person’s context just enough to see how the world could be, instead of the way that it is.

So is there any situation where the bottom of this card would trigger?

After this its off to GDC, UNC Greensboro, @asecsoffice.bsky.social, and @fortcircle.bsky.social 's Circle DC. It's a busy spring!

And, if you're not getting there until later in the week, @d20plusmodifier.bsky.social and I will be holding office hours in the Creator event space (ballroom E) from 1-3 Tuesday and Wednesday.

Finally, Monday afternoon, I'll be talking about product design with Matt Paquette and Christopher Chan. That's in M102 at 5pm.

Then on Monday I'll be with an all-star panel chatting about design diaries both as a practice in transparency and as a component of a game's marketing. You can find us at 9am in M111. @gamesbymondo.bsky.social ondo.bsky.social @pinktigergames.com @marcelineleiman.bsky.social

On Sunday, I'll be giving a talk in M109 on Community-Driven Development. Some of this will be an adaptation of my previous talk with Josh on Arcs from last year's GDC, but with a lot more about the history tabletop design.

If you're heading to Gama next week, stop by the Buried Giant booth (#1049). And, if you're there early, you can come find me at a few events I'll be helping with during the education summit (little schedule 🧵) @buriedgiantstudios.bsky.social

It's the last day for late pledges! If you haven't made up your mind yet, now's the time. We're celebrating by posting game two of our internal chronicle. Come see if I can still hold this fledging kingdom together.

GAMA EXPO PANEL SCHEDULE DESIGN DIARIES AND ADVERTORIAL CONTENT CREATION Mon, March 2 | 9:00 - 9:50am | Room M111 In the tabletop industry content creation means more than just social media posts. Design diaries offer genuine engagement as fans feel part of the process and/or struggle that the designer is experiencing. Tutorials and personal stories are becoming more popular and are proving to be effective for engagement and growing your personal brand Speakers: Mondo Davis, Ami Baio, Marceline Leiman, Cole Wehrle

Will you be at GAMA EXPO next week?

I’ll be a panelist talking on design diaries with some amazing, inspiring speakers!
@gamesbymondo.bsky.social @pinktigergames.com @colewehrle.bsky.social

Come say hello to me on Sunday or Monday while I’m around! 🎲✂️

They have been watching a lot of Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd since they were little, so it was primed for a good reception. (I think Safety First might be the most watched movie in our house)

It almost gives one hope, all of these kiddos sharing such a movie in darkened basements long after the parents have gone to bed.

I took my oldest (12) to this movie at a screening for his birthday and it was one of my favorite moments in a theater. There's just something so special about that many folks hollering with laughter. We picked up the disc too and he's been taking it with him to sleepovers to spread the good word.

Come see Oath: New Foundations in action! Game two will be out a little later this week. We might even keep the chronicle rolling until we get our pre-production copy in the mail if there's interest.

Enthusiasm**** Jeeze that's what I get for knocking off a message during another meeting!

Officially releases also create a responsibly for some support from the team (rules questions for editorial, advertising the kit for marketing, etc). These aren't big asks but they add up. Dave's initiative got around all of these problems. Bravo!

Normally we have to stop maintaining public PnPs during these last few months just because there is so much work to do and every chain of exports steals time and attention from the same folks on the team who are badly needed elsewhere.

Dave's PnP kit builder has been such a boon to the Oath community who have been rapidly assembling and updating their kits (and providing feedback and enthuastim) over the past month while the team takes the game through prepress.