Karl Lange

That's a good question, I've been making more family / gateway+ games which have been much faster to iterate. Primarily digital testing for the first half of a design saves tons of time physically prototyping, & doing more co-designs (4/12) to have a more finished product at pitch stage.

Just signed my 12th board game contract!
Currently have 2 games out of print, 2 released 2025, 3 releasing direct to retail 2026 + 3 to kickstarter in 2026, 1 direct to retail in 2027 and one direct to retail 2028!

Last day of @paxaus.bsky.social is kicking off in less than 2 hours! Come find me in Collabratory demoing Fragged Cosmos @fraggedempire.bsky.social

Home made box for Fragged Cosmos

Home made player boards (ships) and central "Haven System" boards for Fragged Cosmos

Stack of over 600 cards for Fragged Cosmos prototype

Various components packed into the box for Fragged Cosmos

3 games in 3 days! I'll be demoing Fragged Cosmos at @paxaus #Collaboratory Friday arvo and Sunday morning! I have been working on this one for close to 3 years and we're nearing completion with crowdfunding by Fragged Empire RPG planned for 2026 #boardgames #prototype #design

Photo of playing cards, and cardboard water & salmon tiles for my game Salmon Run, sitting on a green cutting board. Some tiles are still to be cut out and a metal ruler and craft knife are sitting waiting for me to finish this post.

Another day another #prototype ! One more game I am showing at #DevCon on Thursday - Salmon Run.
Using programmed movement, players move salmon up the river, and position their bears to hopefully eat them before others get to them!
#boardgames #design

Photo of cards from prototype game A Walk on the Beach in the process of being cut by guillotine

Photo of cards from prototype game A Walk on the Beach laid out on a table

First time in a few months to actually make a physical prototype - this one is: A Walk on the Beach - for the @buttonshy.bsky.social Cosy Game contest.
I will be testing it at #DevCon by #TGDA in the lead up to @paxaus.bsky.social
#boardgames #design #prototype

Great spot! I'll get a better photo for you, didn't even know they were doing it until I got my copies!

6 games, designed by Karl Lange. From left to right: • Mythic Baths, coming March 2026 • Fragged Cosmos, coming to crowdfunding second half 2026 • Under the Mango Tree, released 2025 • Jabberwocky, released 2020 • A peaceful Garden, released 2024 • Octocube, released 2025

My shelf is growing - 6 of my released and upcoming games!

Coming soon: OCTOCUBE – The Magnetic Cubes from the Ocean Depths Carefully choose the tiles you collect with your magnetic cube 🐙 deep beneath the sea. Includes three game levels. US-only campaign.

For my American friends, Sit Down will be running a Kickstarter campaign to bring Octocube to the American market - this is one of my earliest designs and one I'm very proud of - please follow along to see when it goes live!

Great day today working on Tiny Homes board game and Fragged Cosmos board game, both coming to Kickstarter in the next 12 months!

For people in Melbs @meepleuniversity.bsky.social is hosting the Tabletop Takeover at Big Games Night Out at Fed Square. They'll be playing a life size version of Octocube by @thearkangell.bsky.social This sounds so FUN! Oct 9, 4 pm til late.
www.biggamesnightout.com/tabletop-tak...

Designer Diary: Octocube | BoardGameGeek News

Well if this isn't exciting I don't know what is: my designer diary for Octocube is on the front page of @boardgamegeek.com! 🤩

boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogp...

Me standing in front of the main GenCon entrance sign

My standing in front of a large banner of the game Cytress, a game I did the development work on and designed the solo mode for.

Cosplayers lined up inside the GenCon hall for photos.

Moose Games networking event. From left to right, me, Beneeta, and Stella (photo courtesy Stella)

Day 4 of GenCon is about to begin! Crazy couple of days so far pitching, playing & buying games, and meeting lovely people!

About to board my flight to Indie, GenCon2025 here I come!

Of my released games I am most proud of the simplicity and depth in Under the Mango tree and it was great to go back through the past versions during the writing of the diary and see its progression 🦜

Deep Print Games has published my designer diary for Under the Mango Tree on their website where I go through my creative process and the changes that each element went through from idea to final game 🙂

YouTube video by Meeple University Get READY To WIN Big with Board Game Designers Strategies

A few days late, but I was invited to be in Meeple University's April Fools video this year 🤩 Come and join myself and other designers as you learn how to win every board game 😉

Welp, there's a @semicoop.bsky.social comic of one of my games 😶

Crowdfunding will probably be toward the end of the year :)

Fragged Cosmos universe made up of Haven (our solar system) and 3 of 5 additional systems, each with their own sets of missions and stories to discover.

A players ship with various resources, ship upgrade modules, completed missions, and crew

A second players ship with upgrades, missions, crew, credits, and destroyed pirates

One project that I have been committing a substantial amount of time to over the last 3 years is Fragged Cosmos - a non-destructive legacy sandbox game based on the Fragged Empire RPG universe.
We are coming to the pointy end of the project with a crowdfunding hopefully toward the end of 2025

Great day meeting people, networking and demoing Octocube at the Melbourne Toy Fair. I even found a copy of my upcoming game Mythic Baths at the Good Games booth (coming Q3 2025) 😃

At the Australian Toy Fair today!
Always interesting to check out new products and latest trends in the retail space.
I'll be demoing my latest game Octocube at the VR Distribution booth later today too - if you're here come say hi!

Another play of Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle Earth.
Really enjoying it, I'm surprised how much just having a theme I'm invested in makes the game so much more engaging.

Completed landscape in Harmonies

First game of Harmonies (that I was gifted for Christmas) great little thinky game. I just cracked 100 points. Very satisfying token arranging and lots of competing objectives.
It's interesting it gets compared to Cascadia as it is completely different in play and feel.

Had a great time playing through the first 4 chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring trick taking game.
Playing as the characters is great & the goals attached to them match their personalities & general intents well. Knowing the IP helps but to me it does feel like we are stepping through the story.

Photo of prototype Rolling with the Waves high interaction roll and write. On the left is a dry erase marker, followed by a completed player board. On the right is the player screen with a score of 38 on the back and the dice allocation board with 3 dice sitting on it.

Photo mid game of Mythic Baths to be released middle 2025 by Good Games Publishing. Photo shows a row of skinny ingredient cards above 5 naturally occuring bath tiles each with a mythical creature bathing in them. Artwork is by Emily Hancock.

Completed Cascadia player board with landscape and creatures.

Have had a great few days at cancon, playing games and testing prototypes.
Favourite game so far has been Cascadia, and some great feedback on 5 prototypes so far :D

Ok cool, I'll add it to my rainy day experience. I'm a big fan of the books / movies / world and of theatre.
Have you listened to "The Unfinished Spelling Errors of Bolkien"? It's a comedic "if LotR was a musical" show / CD an Aussie comedian wrote. I'd be interested to know how it compares.

Ok what's it like?

Photo of the board game diatoms showing diatoms arranged in an artistic pattern, with a first place ribbon shown to the right.

Another great game of Diatoms by @sabrinac.bsky.social cracked 300 points!

The game plays 2-5 players in 30 - 45 minutes and has plenty of suspenseful moments and multiple yays to do everything (do you add more of your crew to the dice pool or earn more infamy to steal others crew, do you increase your hull or bury your treasure etc) with a great arc as you come to the end