Anthony Howgego

Great vid. My 2C:

The rise of small card games, and reduction in output from publishers, are both responses to how saturated the market has become. The recent reprint trend is also a part of this - publishers trying to cut through the noise by redoing games that have already stood the test of time.

YouTube video by Matthew Dunstan The state of the board game industry for designers in 2025

My first video looking back at 2025 - this one focussed on the state of the board game industry and what it means for designers.

A very happy holiday season to everyone!

youtu.be/XH4o2alaNoA

🎲✂️

Excellent productions from very talented designers. Bitewing are a hugely impressive outfit.

It's worth US designers reaching out to UK publishers, as we're mostly still taking submissions, but yeah, it's rough out there.

SU&SD recommends My Favourite Things - "For my money the best game on this list"

Lets-a-go!

Might be a good time to grab a copy from our website as we've only got a few hundred left and no reprint on the way because of orange man.

From the Norwich community on Reddit: ZATU Games! Anti Employment action group. Explore this post and more from the Norwich community

Ooft. No more buying boardgames from Zatu for me. www.reddit.com/r/Norwich/co...

I should have clarified that the publishers I work with only sell in English language markets!

I've not encountered anything with 30% or less US sales across the hundreds of titles I've seen sales data on, except for games when supply issues or rights disputes have specifically disrupted US sales.

Lots of small publishers will need to pivot back from retail releases to crowdfunding to survive, as the margins are higher. Covering prototype games ahead of crowdfunding campaigns (even just providing pull quotes or podcast chat) would be helpful.

First impression was that it'll be hard to play while also being funny, unlike games that ask you to come up with prompts to fit a given category (Wavelength). If a party game isn't funny, it needs to be a) deeply interesting or b) create emotional investment quickly. Ideally both - as in Codenames.

This is real. At a boardgame retreat right now and I don't really want to play a game. My advice would be listen to those instincts, don't force it, find other stuff to do, and the passion will come back in time.

YouTube video by Matthew Dunstan Can you make a living from game design?

New video is out! Discussing the topic of earning a living designing board games - why is it so difficult?

youtu.be/wy9g2o5WqHU?...

Eye My Favorite Things and Can’t Stop were both big hits with the fam tonight. I’m getting really good at curating games to play at family gatherings - to the point that they now ask me to bring games!

I feel like there were about two years where this was the only game anyone was trying to make.

Howgego Development

🫡 Freelance developer here.

Work with lots of people in the UK and EU. Keen to work with some more US publishers. My portfolio and references can be found here:

www.howgegodev.com

One to add here :)

bsky.app/profile/play...

Welcome to all the new boardgame folks :)

Them 'being better' would help :) But I don't think waiting around for young men to be better is going to reverse any electoral trends.

Don't think you can look at the crisis in unemployment and mental health amongst Gen Z men and reasonably conclude the solution is for them to 'be better.' That's just another version of the 'pull yourself up by the bootstraps' line that has been used to dismiss people who are struggling for decades

I think hiring a develop for a short playthrough/consult can be worthwhile. Wouldn't hire one for an extended period because of the risk of the title still not getting picked up.

Good effort! Glad you got to try My Favourite Things.

It'll definitely be available on the pledge manager. I appreciate your support!

We were at Airecon last year, demoing it ahead of this KS :)

:)

www.kickstarter.com/projects/pla...

Hi all, making a tentative first post on this platform to announce two games I've been pouring my heart and soul into are now live on Kickstarter. I started out in 2019 with the intention of making games that were really different, and if nothing else, I think these games are that. Link in comments.