Kyle Cushman

Honored that you asked me to help sell Adulting at IGNM this year :) It's a great game and I think a lot of people saw it as the fun and charming package it is.

The leadership of the Tabletop Game Designers Association was disappointed to see the publisher CGE touting Codenames: Back to Hogwarts, a new Harry Potter-themed version of Codenames.

Got feedback from @cardboardedison.com and I'm incredibly happy with what was said about Chainbreakers, even if it's not a winner

I got some work to streamline the game more (isn't that always true?) but knowing that the core foundation of the game is a solid experience is worth its weight in gold.

Very cool. Something tangible to make not-real-words real. Idio-gram-sens-ical!

What are the chevrons used for?

I’ll mail you the box when I get it back from CE! And then give you a copy whenever it’s published :)

I feel like I’ve already won — and getting feedback from the judges to make a great game even better? Incredible.

Way cool to see Chainbreakers played in the wild!!

YouTube video by BMG Pitch Online and Get Signed - with Jeff Grisenthwaite

🎲✂️ Learn my secrets to get your game signed with a publisher (without spending $$$ to go to a Con) in this @breakmygame.com webinar recording! www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ew5...

It’s always a good learning experience when you get to playtest with folks who aren’t designers or otherwise immersed in the hobby. A lot of folks don’t have the experience to fill in gaps and correctly assume how a mechanic works.

What are some learning experiences you’ve had with non-designers?

Four orange cards with black writing and ancient greek designs to the left, a black and orange circle with ancient Green-style pottery designs featuring gods, monsters, pillars to the right

A box with seven white numbers inside on an orange background, with human written on top in orange. Another box is facing away with alien written on in blue. To the right are pieces of paper with nuclear atom symbols and empty white and black spaces

Reconstruct ancient Greek pottery, decode an alien language and watch your money burn in real time: Cardboard Edison nominees revealed as unpublished games award celebrates 10th year:

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

@cardboardedison.com

Ahh thank you!!

Wild that I’ve been coming to PO for a couple years now. Thank you for being a wonderful event filled with wonderful humans!

Thank you!!

I didn’t realize how much I would feel validated by this process. It’s great, but Chainbreakers wouldn’t be half the game it is without all the people who’ve shared their thoughts over the last 6 months.

Thank you!!

Hopefully it goes to a publisher next haha. I’ve loved working on Chainbreakers, but my part in its journey is rapidly coming to a close.

Thank you!! I’m really happy folks enjoy the theme so much.

a group of men wearing red white and blue lightning bolt pants ALT: a group of men wearing red white and blue lightning bolt pants

Sweep sweep sweep

So excited to share that Chainbreakers is a finalist for the Cardboard Edison Award!!

I’m even more stoked, though, that about half the games were put through the wringer with @breakmygame.com and @protospielo.bsky.social.

It takes a community to build great games, and I’m grateful for mine ❤️

I'm so excited to see what these folks come up with.

From playing their games over the past year, I'm inspired to make some unranked, narrative-focused designs.

I hate making sizzle reels for games. It’s a big reason I haven’t done much pitching. It’s a thing I have to do which gives me zero joy.

Does anyone have advice on pushing thru this process?

A rotating bike wheel to draft cards from!

A 5 player game of Queen Bee with all 5th graders the teacher ran.

Last is “Queen Bee” a tile shedding spelling game. Players start with a CVC word then must use their cards (Add, Change, and Remove) to alter the word and be the first to have no tiles remaining.

Worked the best with 5th grade.

A short solo test at my desk before putting it in front of a group of 3rd and 4th graders

“Word Mountain” is a game about phonemes. Players have to match one side of a cube with the onset, median, or rime sounds to collectively build a mountain and be the first player to reach the summit.

Really stretches their brain as all sides are unique words, even with basic CVC

A 3 player game of Witch of the Words halfway done

An almost complete 4 player game. Players have different forest friends with special abilities that help players collect the right ingredients for their potions

Witch of the Words is a “say-and-move” game in which players, as witches, must move around the forest to collect ingredients, make forest friends, and brew potions.

Players draw a card with 3 words on it and say one of them to move 1-3 spaces and then take the action of the space they land on.

Oh got it! Mine are designed for elementary students.

I’ll go over the 3 games in a few posts!

OPINION Brian Thompson, Not Luigi Mangione, Is the Real Working-Class Hero Dec. 12, 2024 By Bret Stephens Opinion Columnist

You don't have enough contempt for the New York Times.

The imagined time-savings by removing (or preventing) separate bike lanes on the road kills people. The imagined comfort of drivers doesn’t take precedence over the lives of cyclists and pedestrians.

One lane is enough.

YouTube video by Not Just Bikes The World's Dumbest Bike Lane Law Just Passed in Canada

Bike lanes don’t slow down traffic: intersections do. Segregated bike lanes save lives.

In my city of Madison, WI — considered among the most bikeable — I cycle past multiple ghost bikes every day.

More and bigger cars aren’t the answer. Stroads aren’t the answer. I want transportation to be safe.

Why Does the UnitedHealthcare CEO'S Death Matter More Jordan Neely's? The difference in media treatment, and in punishment, for killing seems to depend on how much money the person was worth.

wrote about the media frenzy following Daniel Penny's acquittal for murdering Jordan Neely, and the disparity in the NYPD's reaction to finding Luigi Mangione, vs the stabbing of 17-year-old Yeremi Colino—about a country making some lives more valuable than others. @teenvogue.bsky.social

Any company and industry wants a sure bet to make money, and it often comes at a cost of something more “soulful” if you will.

I always think of folks like Horkheimer and Habermas that capitalism necessarily pushes homogenization of art and culture. The freedom to choose things that feel the same.

I suppose, for me, things won’t change until we change them. If we create fun games that are outside the current “marketability” paradigm, then things will shift as people buy them — look at how well the IGNM did at PAXU!

➡️