Michael O’Connell - Finspan Guy

Yeah, I would have to order this. Basically, if you call something a flight, I will get it.

YouTube video by Stonemaier Games Stable Times: My Favorite Mechanism

@kristenmott.bsky.social, my co-designer on an upcoming game, was featured on Jamey’s “My Favorite Mechanism” for her game, Stable Times. So excited for her!

youtu.be/Jr9fheVoX9c

The women in the photo were clearly mesmerized by it…

@gamefaery.bsky.social Did you see I wore the fish you made me?!?

I tend to get lost in those types of games.

How did it go?

For me, it’s mostly whether or not the more opaque aspects of a game seem like a development miss. I expect each game I engage with to take the onboarding wins that it “should have.”

I come across a lot of well-designed games that have been underdeveloped.

I didn't expect this new board game to become my summer obsession, but now I've dropped everything else Finspan has my full attention

I somehow missed this…

www.gamesradar.com/games/board-...

One of my favorite movie exchanges. People want to be the thing that doing a thing represents, but they don’t want to actually do the thing.

I've definitely dealt with publishers who would listen to literally anyone else other than the designer. One playtester in one playtest out of thirty? We'd better get on that. Reddit? Absolutely. Someone who wandered in off the street? Tell us more, oh wise one! Game designer? Pft, what do you know?

I have worked with 5 different marine biologists on Finspan. This pressure is real.

Yeah, this sort of groupthink is common in boardgaming too. Players often hear an opinion voiced at the gaming table, and that becomes the truth for that table. They'll ignore or miss built-in tools to handle a situation, they'll experience a weird statistical anomaly, and then that's it.

This is deep wisdom. I think the most pernicious is when the opinion comes from an external source, and it infects many, many tables. Like a whisper campaign.

Finspan made the list!

Some close friends to be get a little frustrated in my tendency to priortise luck in my own career, as they know how I work. I try to explain that work just is buying a lottery ticket. It's necessary, but certainly not sufficient. I know many folks who've worked as hard but the dice have been cruel.

I still don't have everything shelved. I need to keep stripping down. And, yeah, I pick up a lot of games with giant boxes. But they go over well with my family.

I've started just leaving games at my local game stores' game libraries. I get too many new games to reasonably sell old games as needed.

Yeah, that was fun! Did you sell what you wanted to sell? And buy what you wanted to buy?

Me, clearly talking too much and too loudly to three attendees at the Finspan demo table at PAX Unplugged

Man at PAX Unplugged going on and on about board games and fish!

A shot from the Stonemaier area at Essen (with the Finspan banner).

Nope.

A graphic made with word art that shows Danny’s pax unplugged 2025 schedule Br00TaL DaN aka Danny Quach FRIDAY TWO TABLES & A MIMIC [HOST] SPONSORED BY 12 SIDED STUDIOS, PHILLY LARP SOCIETY (PLS) AND RED BULL • 4PM - 6PM ET | THE WINGED BULL TAVERN BIG GAY DINNER [SOCIAL] SPONSORED BY ROSE GAUNTLET FOUNDATION • 6:30PM - 7:30PM ET OOPS! ALL HIMBOS - BLUNDER ROAD [PLAYER] SPONSORED BY NINTH LEVEL GAMES' THUNDER ROAD: VENDETTA • 8:30PM - 10:30PM ET | MAIN THEATRE (GRAND BALLROOM B) Saturday! FOR GAMES AND SHENANIGANS AND GOING TO READING TERMINAL AND THE CHRISTMAS MARKET MSG ME IF YOU WANNA HANG XOXOXXXX] awawinning HUG5 SUNDAY OOPS! ALL HIMBOS [SIGNING] MEET & GREET ME AND YOUR FAVS WITH PICTURES AND CHATS AND HUGS • 12:30PM - 2PM ET | AUTOGRAPHING AREA (QUEUE HALL) TAKING THE SPOTLIGHT [PANELIST] A ROUNDTABLE FOR MARGINALIZED CREATORS IN GAMES • 3:30PM - 4:30PM | MOTHMAN THEATRE GRAND BALLROOM A)

Good morning to all appreciators of passionate about graphic design xoxo

Here’s my pax unplugged schedule, leave a comment if you have any critiques on my layout skills!!!! x

Just a few more days and this will be happening!! Don’t miss the preview so you know what games to look out for~

I'm holding in my left hand my 3-day Pax Unplugged 2025 badge. My manicure is still holding up; I got it last weekend at Beauty Bar in the East Village, where they have a late-night manicurist on site at their bar where you can buy a drink + manicure special. Blurred background is one of my board game shelves, full-to-bursting. The most prominent blurred title is the beige fat box that is Darwin's Journey.

One month away and it feels more real now! #paxunplugged #paxu

A 3D rendered layout of the prototype board game Match Hatchery.

Heyyo! If you're going to be at #PAXUnplugged, come find me on the exhibition floor at the Origami Whale Games booth where I'll be demonstrating my game, Match Hatchery!
#boardgames 🎲✂️ #paxu

Printing, cutting, and assembly is complete on all three prototypes for #PAXU! Ready to go!

I'll be bringing...

- The first physical iteration of the brand new board layout for #CampCharmwood
- #OarDeal, a trick taker/shedder about a canoe trip
- #Saros, an 18 card game about the sun and moon

Look at this line up! Amazing! 👀 😍 #PAXU

Do we follow each other on here and want to meet up at PAXU?

No promises, but we can try! I made a Google Form to try to form order from chaos (i.e. clicking available times).

DM me for the link.

#PAXU #PAXUnplugged

A stack of rulebooks that read “Resilience” in large letters sits on a light wood table. Orange and light blue dice sit on the books, and cardboard tubes are visible in the background.

Rulebooks are printed and stapled, game sheets are laminated, gonna spend the weekend filling tubes with dice, dry-erase markers, rulebooks, and game sheets for the Resilience deluxe kit! #🎲✂️

Get it (and/or the PNP version) at Indie Games Night Market #IGNM at #PAXU!

Let’s go to #paxu