Matthew Dunstan

Cartoon image of a lightbulb with a yellow meeple as the filament, on a brown base which reads Cardboard Edison. The award is surrounded by light and dark orange lines radiating from the centre. Logo for the Cardboard Edison Award for unpublished games.

Head and upper body of a bearded man sitting at a table, constructing a castle from magnetic tiles. StrongHolds by Nelson de Castro, one of this year's Cardboard Edison Award finalists.

A black and white photo of a woman wearing glasses, and with long hair swept either side of her forehead. Suzanne Zinsli, co-founder of Cardboard Edison.

Wooden animal playing pieces in the shape of pink pigs, white sheep and brown cows, on a green and blue mat representing fields, forests and a river with a bridge. A blue string lasso is surrounding some of the animals. Braggin’ Wranglers by Luke Wolyncewicz, one of this year’s Cardboard Edison Award finalists.

“It’s crazy how it has grown globally”: unpublished board game design award Cardboard Edison unveils new finalists as entries more than double since 2020:

boardgamewire.com/index.php/20...

@cardboardedison.com

I absolutely have to remember this!

GDC is coming up, which means it’s almost time for #WhatAGameDevLooksLike! Every year this lights up my socials and it’s such a lovely and celebratory time full of belonging and joy. And every year I keep getting reminded of how much we need it as things in the industry get worse lol

Yes, it just shows the limitations of a format like this - and a reminder that even a game that doesn't do well in a competition can still be published and be sucessful!

YouTube video by Matthew Dunstan How to do better at game design competitions

In today's video I share some insights from judging entries from this year's @cardboardedison.com award, and some tips that you can apply to your own games, whether you enter them in a contest or not!

youtu.be/9_5Wv6CaHKY

🎲✂️

Q-Workshop webstore showing a search for “Harry Potter”, showing 17 results. The top result being a Griffendor Dice Bag.

Q-Workshop, known for their dice products, has released 17 Harry Potter products seemingly overnight and no prior announcement

DO NOT PURCHASE PRODUCTS FROM Q-WORKSHOP

Don’t support those who support megalomaniac transphobes by any means necessary 🎲✂️

For me - and I suspect most tabletop game designers 🎲✂️ - it's not about money or notoriety. It's about a making entertaining experiences for people who *really* get what you are doing.

This review is just a delight. Punchy, quick, and insightful, not to mention flattering. Thank you so much Alex!

Expedition 33 shares a foundational principle with modern board games, and it's one of my favorite things about it.

In virtually every board game I've played, something pushes the players to perform a different action from turn to turn to keep the game interesting. 🎲✂️ 🧵(1/5)

Coming soon: Walkable City - the Urban Planning Boardgame Asymmetric Cooperative boardgame about building a city without cars.

Announcing Walkable City - a 2-4 player coop game published by Fowers Games and designed by me!

Build out public infrastructure as different modes of transit - Waling, Biking, Bus & Light Rail - get denizens where they want to go. Follow the project below!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/fow...

Looks like I'm falling down the Jetlag: The Game rabbit hole...expect some game design commentary in approximately 6 months when I am done watching all the seasons :p

A note titled "Shenanigans" that reads: Name ideas: Shenanigans Bonkers Runes (play on "runs," plus each card could be a rune). Minor Gods Maybe each color has a theme. Germanic runes Alchemical Astrology Celtic knots Theban script Enochian script Celestial script Rosslyn Chapel stone symbols Each color can have a focus Card draw triggers Specific number effects Color rule breaking and triggers Run finishing triggers Play extra cards triggers The purest form of "relic" or ability-based gameplay.

I started a new design and have a playable version and clear next steps—I'm going to walk through my process here 🎲✂️

Step 1: Quick brainstorming in a digital note. Core gameplay is that each player creates runs of cards in front of them to play "ability" cards, which are also points. ~1 hour.

I so feel the exhaustion from being the one in at least 50% of my relationship with publishers having to keep up communication, or have to drag out a response with 3+ emails. It is very tiring.

Something I've been mulling over lately is the level of self-advocacy needed as a game designer.

There is no guarantee that publishers will notice your awesome work. None at all.

In a perfect world that might happen, but in reality publishers will just choose from the games sent to them.

For designers at the start/early of a game, it’s important to look at prototypes of signed games and really internalize how utterly plain and in-fancy your prototypes can and should be, and still be pitch-ready.

Many prototypes are overdeveloped, when you can save time on preparing your pitch! 🎲✂️

A piece of paper showing a 4x4 grid mostly filled with drawings of buildings. Next to the grid are building names next to polyomino shapes with squares of different colors.

I make games because I love every step of the process—the initial idea, the scrappy first prototype, the first playtest filled with glee and failure and hope.

Here’s my scrappy first prototype of Tiny Towns. [1/6]

I think a lot board gamers underestimate the depth of light games and overestimate the depth of heavy games. More moving parts does not necessarily mean a game has more strategy. It often just means there's more noisiness obscuring the impact of your decisions.

Board Game Icons Tips on designing board game icons.

I studied a bunch of icons from various published board games while preparing a rule book for Cardboard Edison, with a particular focus on Ian O'Toole.

For those who come after, this article captures what I learned 🎲✂️

rossongames.com/icons

#BoardGameDesign

At the nick of time, I finished my @cardboardedison.com Award judging for 2026! 🎲✂️

It's always a pleasure to be trusted with so many games from so many people around the world, and I hope that my feedbacks can help improve those projects.

That said, 6 general tips I can give for next year:

Thanks Jackson :)

YouTube video by Matthew Dunstan How much money I made as a game designer in 2025

In today's video I go over what I earnt as a full time game designer in 2025, comparing my income over the past few years and how it varies from game to game.

My aim has always been to increase transparency in the industry and help newer designers with what to expect.

youtu.be/avLL2siSmyc

🎲✂️

I've been thinking about game budgets a lot over the past couple of years. There are big chunks of the tabletop market that are able to support publishers and designers, and mostly I think its because of a combination of strong crowdfunding communities + cheap dev costs (often less than 50k). 🧵

That's a really interesting insight! I'm trying to impart interesting and useful knowledge on Youtube, but also want to improve how I'm doing it - but yes its hard to find other Youtube education channels that share this aim.

I completely get that folks should be compensated for their knowledge, it just seems profoundly icky to me in the instance it is set up in this space.

Head and shoulders photo of a man with short brown hair and black rimmed glasses, wearing a white shirt with faint grey/black patterns on. Board game designer Matt Leacock, creator of Pandemic and Daybreak.

Pandemic creator Matt Leacock on fighting for designers’ rights, working with developers effectively and his publisher ‘pet peeves’:

boardgamewire.com/index.php/20...

@mattleacock.bsky.social

Does the world of Youtube education feel a lot like a Pyramid scheme? The moment any creator in the space gets a bit of traction, they immediately launch a course to teach others. Often these are so expensive the only way for those who get the course is to then set up courses themselves! And so on.

Probably a testing thing really - I find it hard to design moments intentionally, and find it easier to observe when a design is creating them organically and then refining for that.

No one should be creating partnerships with HP at this point given the ways JK Rowling is spending her money to actively harm our trans friends.

Hopefully Avalon Hill, a game studio within Hasbro, will steer free of this nonsense. I'll reach out to them and put in my 2 cents.

YouTube video by Matthew Dunstan Game balance is overrated - do this instead

Today I delve into the topic of balance in games, and discuss why there might be some much more important things to do than optimising for a perfectly balanced game. I also look at feelings that players might ascribe to imbalance, but that are actually caused elsewhere.

youtu.be/7fpbTsZI3EI

🎲✂️

I've wrapped up 11/25 reviews in @cardboardedison.com contest judging, and I'll add to @jeffgrisenthwaite.bsky.social's running list of 🎲✂️ advice with my own:

SHOW, don't just tell.
Yes, give an overview of the game and mechanics.
Yes, give me the vibes.
Then walk me through a turn and

1/▶️

Today's 🎲✂️ observation after judging 10 @cardboardedison.com entries:

Strive for high coherence across your components, mechanics, and theme.

When all 3 align, the mechanics are easier to learn, it's satisfying to use the components, and players feel immersed in the world.