I’m diving into what I believe/hope is the last iterative adjustments to the TCG model I’ve built for a project with David Freeman; we look to use the feedback from our two models into one final build in the next couple of weeks.
Even knowing what I’m changing, it’s hard to know where to start.
If I was going to trust anyone to covertly know my future, they seem like good stewards.
Emerald City Comic Con checklist item #1: met @gailsimone.bsky.social and her husband. They knew who I was! Am? Is!
There’s something really gratifying about seeing someone else start playing with a game you built and create new things with it.
The game isn’t quite done yet, but the bones on this iteration are really good. Lots to play with that’ll inform our final model, which I think we’re really close to.
FIVE DECKS built for weekend demos of the TCG David Freeman and I are building. Usually there’s four, but yesterday friend and playtester Travis Schneider brewed up a deck of his own in the digital prototype and sent me his list.
Smalls and I spent the morning rewriting Christmas carols to be about farts and dog poop, and I can’t express how proud I am of the results.
Ping me any time. I do nearly all of my prototyping online these days, so you can play from just about anywhere.
(You’re also welcome at the house any weekend.)
Morning! Enjoy the traditional seasonal damp grayness and the daylight savings shift! We planned them especially for you.
Just putting it out there that I’m pretty excited for Emerald City Comic Con this weekend. Plans include finally meeting Gail Simone, seeing a Gravity falls panel, and playtesting the TCG I’m working on with David Freeman and author Ryan Cahill.
This is gonna be wicked rad.
Apathetic birthday.
Paper prototyping. Again.
While I love a good in-person playtest, paper prototyping a TCG has got to be the least efficient process in any game I’ve ever designed or developed.
Think of the trees and ink cartridges…
If you can do it digitally, do it digitally.
Who do I know that’ll be at Emerald City Comic Con next Saturday?
So for anyone I’m not also connected to on Facebook, this is the author I’m designing a trading card game for.
Seems like his books are doing pretty well. 😄
Another article so soon? Sometimes new thoughts about game design happen fast. Today I muse on the place where patches in games stop covering holes and become the feature.
(For TCG fans, it’s about good cards supporting the structure as much as they rest on it.)
discocandybar.com/2026/02/26/s...
The ongoing tale of two game designers, a fantasy author, eight to fifteen(ish) playtesters, three game models, an online gaming setup, and the mutt of a dog it’s all led up to.
discocandybar.com/2026/02/25/t...
When I show up with $18 and ask for change at ECCC, you better be ready.
Dude, I’m Gen X, and even I know that reference.
I mean, I have a 10yo kid who binge watched P&F for three years solid, but still…
WUT? 😮
I can’t even wrap my head around this dude’s angles.
I made my living as a professional graphic designer a good 10 years before I started making games. My own take on how hard to lean into those skills when prototyping?
Learning/testing a new game has inherent barriers to entry. Visual noise should not be one of them. Purposeful minimalism is key.
We’re building our prototypes digitally as well, and have found that the majority of our actionable feedback comes from Tabletop Simulator demos. If you know TCGs well and would like to try out this one in its mid-development stages, drop me a line!
Paper prototyping for a new iteration of an original TCG. Fellow Seattle designer Dave Freeman and I have been working on this one for a short while now: a trading card game based on Ryan Cahill’s *The Bound and the Broken* novels. This model merges two earlier versions in some pretty cool ways.
Tonight’s family game night event: Diced Veggies. Fairly quick and light, with just enough puzzle-y bits to guarantee we’ll get plenty more plays in.
I made Chicago Dogs.
Anyway, the whole thing is built in eight 30-ish minute episodes, so it can easily be binged in about 5 hours or less. Just go watch it. Even if you’ve never paid attention to the Marvel movies, this is just fantastic TV.
Even Josh Gad would agree.
Simon *wants* to be Wonder Man. Simon can eventually *be* Wonder Man (okay, maybe a little spoiler, but again, very telegraphed). But it’s clear from the start that Simon has work to do to get there, and he can’t do it alone. He just doesn’t understand what he needs. He’s human like that.
Wonder Man does not adhere to the original source material. And while that can often be a cardinal sin in making a film or show based on an established character, I think it works so well here. This isn’t the story of comics-accurate Wonder Man’s adventures. It’s the story of a Simon Williams.
In an age where show premises have to be ultra-edgy or inconceivably clever, this one is just human. It hangs the lampshade here too; being about the entertainment industry, there are jokes that specifically call out those other approaches, but do so without mocking them.
The aesthetic of the show is a quiet, introspective lo-fi, with a constant nod to TV and films of the 70’s and 80’s; before Simon was even born, and likely the peak of Trevor’s career. It works so well, especially given the current backlash-climate around high-budget blockbuster superhero films.
It makes him that much more attuned to understanding Simon and his internal challenges (played amazingly by Yahya Abdul-Mateen). Between the two, we see two phenomenal actors playing with characters who may not always be great actors themselves, becoming more complete people, and they nail it.
And Trevor Slattery (surprisingly, what might be one of Sir Ben Kingsley’s most engaging roles; he’s fucking brilliant) plays the teacher so well for Simon. Trevor is all over the place, but he knows it. He knows the highs of his career, he knows the lows (The Mandarin). He owns it all.
The only character with any question as to what comes next is Simon, and as much as you’d expect a show called “Wonder Man” to tell the story through his eyes, it doesn’t. We watch and feel Simon’s struggles, but we’re never really surprised by them. He’s an open book, but only to us (and Trevor).
