John Zinser

At GAMA this week. When I’m not showing games, I’m hunting sparks. New partnerships. Smart collaborations. Big swings that could turn into something real.

If you’re building, dreaming, or plotting something interesting, let’s talk.

Putting the finishing touches on my GAMA packing can’t wait to see friends play lots of games and talk business next week. See you at The Galt House.

Taylor is one of
My favorite people and a great designer. He is an original #Larkstone alumni. I cannot wait for this game.

As AEG moves into its next chapter, leadership alignment and clarity matter more than ever. This transition reflects that reality.
Our commitment to our designers, partners, retailers, and players remains unchanged. We will continue building great games through collaboration, creativity, and trust.

Today I want to share that Ryan Dancey and AEG have parted ways.
This is not an easy post to write. Ryan has been a significant part of AEG’s story, and I am personally grateful for the years of work, passion, and intensity he brought to the company. We have built a lot together.

There’s been conversation today about AI and game design.

I want to be clear where I stand. For 30+ years, AEG has worked with human designers to bring games to life. That creative partnership, the collaboration, the shared spark, is what makes tabletop special. That is not changing.

Relearning AEG’s systems and I keep hitting small annoyances.

Not big failures. Just friction.

The tension is real:
Focus on the big levers… or fix the tiny things so they stop draining energy?

Maybe the rule is simple:
If it steals my attention twice, it earns a fix.

I used to think, “Why don’t we just do what they’re doing?”

Turns out the thing they’re doing isn’t the trick. It’s the judgment behind it.

The taste. The confidence. The timing.

Simple is earned.

Great photos. Thanks for sharing.

I am an early riser. Moving to the east coast has really messed up my work flow. If I am up and working at 4AM that means I have worked a full day by the time my company’s standard day starts at 9AM PST. The result so far many many 12-14 hour work days. Unsustainable and a priority to fix.

A few items made it with me to play on Vacation. Play is not work right?

I love antique boxes and desks with cubby holes and lots of character but I am such an out of sight out of mind person. Solutions like this do not make it to the useful stage for me. I am tossing out drawers of started organization ideas that failed to get past the pretty package it is stored in.

Wrapped up hands-on work a few weeks ago on the games I have been developing inside of AEG.

The last couple of weeks have been handoff and press approvals, a lot more detail work than I’m used to.

Today is the day.

I love that my wife’s guilty pleasure movie is Underworld.

The BoardGameGeek Hall of Fame 2026 - Day 4 Inductee | BoardGameGeek News

boardgamegeek.com/blog/1/blogp... Love Letter was inducted into the BGG hall of fame today. It is a wonderfully deserving game.

I thought it would be an in the same family move for our printing partners to find a plush printing partner for The JumbleJack doll. Turns out they are at best distant cousins. At deadline so this is my obsession for the next few days.

I am in a learn by doing phase at AEG. It’s amazing how much work I did not understand that goes into the day to day at my game company. #JumbleJack #AEG #DingDing

I missed the end of the Bears game last night!! I miss good Mexican food and donuts on every corner, I miss my mom, I miss the weather, I miss my gaming group, I miss my awesome barber, but most of all I miss reasonable start and end times for football games. #missingLA

Yesterday I had a small issue with my G Hub not opening to allow me to fix my camera lighting. That ended up with me down a rabbit hole of updates and restarts and ultimately a complete system reset. I think my computer is running better now but it did not fix the problem. :) Back down the hole.

My plan to work shorter days starting in January has not survived contact with all of my new exciting ideas.

2025 film festivals and markets calendar: latest dates Bookmark this page to keep track of all the latest festival dates.

I would really love to attend one of these film festivals in a year when movies are great again. www.screendaily.com/news/2025-fi...

Fantastic graphic. That is an amazing year of gaming. I am working on a
Cover for a new game and just looking at these games at this size is helping with my final decision. Thanks for that and the amazing content.

We won’t have anyone up in that area in January but we will be seeing quite a few more games in 2026. The Hunt for big game night 2027 games starts in January. I am on the East Coast now so I expect to be doing some traveling for gaming in 2026.

Woodstock is my spirit animal. I wake up every day with this thought as my core default. It only gets better if we make it better.

This year lots of Running Man. The Schwarzenegger and the new Running Man movies I liked them both. Also finished the book and liked it more than both of the movie adaptions. Glen Powell’s Ben Richard’s was very close to the book. I don’t know why they felt the need to change the things they did

I have never once in 32 years figured out how one of our products will best fit in its box. This week I am learning just how hard that is. Building boxes for #WordWipe #Assemble and #JumbleJack. For #BigGameNight 2026

Last official workday of the year. Caffeinated,hydrated, and the team is ready.

Delivery delayed on the materials for a Word Wipe box experiment.

Right now the idea works perfectly because it only exists in my head.

Execution begins the moment reality is allowed to disagree.

I know ideas. I know play. I know brand building.

But I am not Bo Jackson

I don’t know the unglamorous execution: laying out files, building spreadsheets, social media, checking proofs, ordering art, managing production.

I’m finally learning the hard part of how ideas become real games. It’s fun.