Geoff Engelstein - The Universe Explained with Cookie out now!

I do not, sorry.

Why is everyone younger than me now?

In the moment I enjoyed the Fantastic Four movie more than Superman. But I've thought about Superman frequently, whereas I barely remember anything about FF.

Find out which of your friends need serious help in this wild party game of risk, reward & ridiculousness.

I'm posting this too late, and it feels bizarre to be saying this, but:

I have a game going up on Kickstarter tomorrow. reserve.ferretfrenzy.com

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As a tester on the changes (which were made by Paolo FWIW), I think they are definite improvements. But I completely understand that some people will prefer the older versions.

The Dogs of War campaign is over six figures! Check out this amazing design from the designer of Libertalia (one of my absolute faves).

As an importer, we subscribe to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule. We just got the 24th Revision of 2025, which is - a lot. Every time there's a new version we need to update all of our costing and import tables.

To get an idea of how extreme this is, I MADE A GRAPH. This is # of revs per year.

I don't know if ratings are even a thing anymore, but the ratings on this are going to be nuts.

@senfoonglim.bsky.social helped me distill the whole thesis of my documentary into a 35 second sound bite. So, thanks, Sen! And thank you, @ludologypod.bsky.social for this wonderful chat!

THIS IS A GREAT GAME.

I played Dogs of War for the first time earlier this year and have been thinking about it ever since. The tug of war mechanism and game arc are just wonderful, as I wrote about here: www.skeletoncodemachine.com/p/10-more-le...

Glad I can finally get a copy of my own!

#boardgames #dogsofwar

Dogs of War by Play to Z A shattered realm. Six feuding Houses. You, a Dog of War, shift battles, forge betrayals, and seize glory to rise as the ultimate victor.

The campaign for the new edition of the legendary Paolo Mori's Dogs of War is live!

This is the next game in the @shutupshow.bsky.social Presents line, in partnership with @playtozgames.bsky.social (in which I am a partner).

I'm a huge Mori fan and am very excited.

gamefound.com/en/projects/...

You are awarded bonuses for the second race based on your position in the first. Finishing first gives you a strong position in the final escape.

SAD!!

(via The Economist)

Jerry from Ben & Jerry's has resigned after 47 years after Unilever silenced their politcal activism.

Anyway, that's the story! I'm sure if I hadn't purchased Magical Athlete in Tokyo 20 years ago it still would have gone global. Quality always breaks through.

But I'm tickled I had a small role in its success.

We also shortened the game from MAs four races to only two. And most importantly (IMO), the winner of the game is simply the player that wins that second race.

In Magical Athlete you earn points each race, and the player with the most points wins. I think the win condition in Breakout is more fun.

Interestingly both we and Garfield ditched the original MA draft mechanism. He went with a snake draft, we deal five Villains to each player, and you choose two pairs from that (plus an option to swap out). Both streamline that part of the game to focus on the chaotic fun of the race.

And here we are 20 years later with a fancy new version, given love by Richard Garfield of all people.

Plus, it was the inspiration for our new DC Breakout Game - but I think our game is better than MA as you run two characters per race as a team. So you create your own combos.

Magical Athlete was a staple with our group. Then I was chatting with Zev at Z-Man games and showed it to him and suggested he try to get the rights for an English-language version. He also fell in love with the game, and was able to make it happen.

When I got home I was able to get it to the table to play with the kids, and, against all odds, it was an absolute blast. The core was super simple - roll a die and move that number of spaces. But the way the abilities ricocheted off each other was endlessly entertaining.

I bought it, having no idea what it was about. Everything was in Japanese, but eventually I was able to find a rules translation (probably on Ken Tidwell's Game Cabinet - the go to resource for translations back then).

My hopes were not high - draft a few characters then a basic roll and move race.

A lot of what they had was Japanese localizations of European or American games, but I tried to find something from a Japanese designer.

For some reason Magical Athlete caught my eye. The title was english but everything else was in Japanese.

About 20 years ago I was on business in Japan, and I went to a game store in the Akihabara in Tokyo called Yellow Submarine - which was probably the best store in the city at the time.

yellowsubmarine.co.jp

Fun fact! I had a big role in Magical Athlete coming to the US.

Here's the story:

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Stakeout: A 1930s Detective Dice Game Embark on a thrilling investigation in this competitive 1-4 player game of stakeouts, wiretaps, and case-solving action.

Step into the shadowy world of 1930's private detectives in Stakeout by completing investigations and closing cases.

This game by TTGDA member @esisgm.bsky.social and Lamplight Games currently funding on @kickstarter.com through October 16.

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

It was a big inspiration for DC Breakout! Can't wait for people to get their hands on it and see (again) how much fun roll and move can be.

Game Design Lessons From... The Emmy Awards? Incentivizing Behavior and Emotion

Game Design Lessons from the Emmy Awards!

gametek.substack.com/p/game-desig...

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Might want to clarify James T Kirk vs Charlie Kirk.

On the left is a render of the game, including game pieces placed as the track, character standees, and cards showing various characters, all in the unique art style. On the right is the box for the game showing off the front box art. The top has the DC Break Out Arkham Asylum logo, as well as details about the game: 30-35 minutes, Ages 8+, 2-6 Players. The bottom text reads “PRE-ORDER NOW!” 

DC Breakout: Arkham Asylum is a thrilling race to freedom designed by Geoff Englestein and his children, Brian and Sydney. Get friends together to play as iconic Villains from your favorite Batman series in a dash out of Arkham Asylum!

Watch our interview with the designers: youtu.be/6K-N9JlV7c8