Bart de Jong 🔜 Spiel 2025

Het voordeel van minder zoetigheid eten is dat je hartstikke gezond bezig bent dus dan mag je best af en toe wat zoetigheid eten

Well that's just surreal.

Pagan Vaporpop Punkhop is sooo August 2025, Creole Dronewave Fiddlejazz is where it's at

Oh that's a shame! Depending on what time I leave home I might be there friday end of the afternoon, will let you know if that's the case.

Thank you, that means a lot! L’Oaf is a different type of design, so I'm hoping it will receive a similar positive response. I'll be at Essen the saturday and sunday, would love to meet you there!

Unfortunately, as they tried to leave the cave, they discovered it had caved in due to the heavy battle. Next time we play, they'll have to find their way out.

In the end, they managed to slay the dragon with only a few casualties (though they were easily revived with a help action), and there were cheers all around. It was such an awesome (and somewhat choatic) experience, and almost all kids were excited to play it again.

It was great to see the cooperation and tactics that occured. Some kids dedicated themselves to helping others, others rushed forward to deal the most damage. There were kids calling for help when they were low on health, and there was a big push from everyone when the dragon was almost down

On the kids turn (they all performed their turn simultaneously), they could move to an adjacent spot, and then either attack the dragon or heal another kid. To attack they would roll their one die, and if they were close to the dragon they could reroll once and use the highest roll.

The classroom was our battle map, with each group of tables being a spot the kids could move to. The dragon would randomly attack 2-3 spots on its turn, with spots closer to the dragon receiving more damage.

The kids had to slay a dragon threatening their city, who was sleeping in a nearby cave. Each kid chose 1 of 4 characters (wizard/knight/ranger/paladin), with a health stat, an attack die (d6, d8, d10 or d12), and a help ability (heal another player).

Today I GM'ed a simplified TTRPG for my twenty 4th and 5th graders (between 7 and 9 years old). This week is the Dutch "Week of the Children's Book", and the theme is "full of adventure". So naturally I decided to design a simple adventure game we could play in class. It was an absolute blast!

Yes! I love this style of design, and how it informs play. I feel the decision space is both clearer and deeper if you have six paths that all influence a core mechanism, than if you have the same six paths which at the end of the game give you X points each and that's it.

First Paper and pencil prototype of my board game design Soap Box Race

🎲✂️ Exactly five years ago, I playtested a very first version of what was going to be Soap Box Race. This might be the longest I've worked on one design, though much of that time I spent going around in circles because I was a novice designer. What's the design you've been working on longest?

This sounds awesome. I love the hero/villain idea, can't wait to try it!

Sounds like the beginning of an origin story already!

Damn Scandinavians have been teaching us how to follow language independent instructions ever since we were kids

Eerst deze test doorkomen, dan krijg je hem

a cake sits on a table in front of a sign that says aperture ALT: a cake sits on a table in front of a sign that says aperture

Fijne taart dag!

That's a nice way to turn it around! I should make an innocent spelling error or two in my next rulebook. Then at least I know that there's a mistake in there so I don't have to worry about it, and players can feel smart when they find one 😅

That's exactly it. I know there will be something, I know its probably insignificant, yet it still has me so nervous. Thanks for sharing and letting me know I'm not alone in this 🙂

Awesome! Glad to have helped. Rian (whose games I added) is a member of our local design group, and she's a great designer and person. My own games wouldn't have been as good without her feedback. She deserves the recognition, and I'm sure every designer on this list does!

May your hunt be succesful

If you absolutely have to satisfy this urge then I suggest the mosquito

Thank you, that's very sweet! Hope to see you there 🙂

I will see a copy before, but my mind doesn't trust my own judgement in these cases so I don't think it will help much. I have reconciled myself with the fact that my brain needs some outside convincing to believe I did something good, so I'll just wait it out. I guess to create is to doubt 😅

'are you sure there's no mistakes anywhere in the rulebook?', 'what if there's some issues we missed during development?'. I know it's all bogus my mind is making up, but I also know these thoughts will be there until I see it being played and enjoyed by people.

The publisher received the first copies of L'Oaf today, and it's getting very real now. I can't wait for the release at Essen, but at the same time my impostor syndrome is acting up like crazy. Its telling me all these nice things like 'what if people will hate it?',

Such an incredible band. I highly recommend watching their film Heima, a recording of several outdoor concerts they did across Iceland. The combination of the landscape and their music is just perfect.

I couldn't agree more. I started my first few games doing that and none of those got anywhere. I just had no idea what direction to take and ended up going in circles. Coincidentally, the first design that I started with a clear vision was also my first to get published.