Eric Dittmore

This design was heavily inspired by @mildamatildagames.bsky.social’s Pax Penning. I love the victory-stealing ending in that game, and was inspired to design a more casual game based entirely around that mechanism.

Got my submission in just under the wire! Love this contest. I’m looking forward to some feedback on my game Secrets, Secrets.

We are calling for an immediate stop to all purchases from Upper Deck.

Their total lack of communication is distressing—so we call upon everyone to help us escalate.

No purchases from Upper Deck. No media coverage or posts of their games.

Upper Deck will only respond when it hurts their wallets.

I love the caveat that progress doesn’t always mean moving forward. A lot of my game design feels like I’m fishing around for the right mechanic/card effect/turn structure. Those searches don’t always feel like steps forward, but they are progress!

A hand of cards from Tax the Rich, there are 4 different coloured suits running from 1-12 representing different social ranks.

A hand of attitude cards from Adulting - including Stress, Caring and Fun cards which you play to activate self-care and complete chore cards.

Got some exciting games to the table. Tax the Rich by @kostby.bsky.social - thematic trick-taking with dynamic teams, plenty of gotcha moments too. Adulting by @ericdittmore.bsky.social - multi-victor semi-coop deck building, which was a really collaborative experience in our first game #boardgames

YIKES.

Upper Deck (Marvel Legendary) just announced a CCG using the Harry Potter license.

Fans of UD are rallying against this decision. Like the CGE situation last year, I’m asking for your help.

Join us. Share your disgust and frustration, and help us push UD to retract their awful decision. 🎲✂️

It has been done! There is now an A4 size file as well. Let me know if there are any issues with it and I'll get them fixed ASAP!

Game boxes of Pacts and Persuasion

Great game night tonight! Got Pacts and Persuasion to the table. I was blown away by both designs. So fresh and fluid. What a time to be a gamer!
@xoe.gay
@hollandspiele.bsky.social
@enzyshade.bsky.social
@dvcgames.bsky.social

Yes, that makes sense. I think maybe it’s because I’ve been working on a lot of games with hidden information, and I struggle to pretend like I don’t know what I know. It’s also an attention thing. I just lose attention after a turn or two and struggle to really analyze a game when I’m in this mode.

Sure! I’ll work on that this weekend and reply here when it’s done.

I really struggle to playtest games multi-handed. I admire designers who say they are able to play as multiple different players with varying strategies.

I think that when you test something new and janky, you need to be hyperaware of how the players are feeling and prepared to end the test early. I make it clear that it is an early-stage prototype and might fall apart. In a test like that, I’ve usually seen what I need to see a few turns in anyways.

In honor of the @cardboardedison.com 🎲✂️ contest, here are my 2-min. pitch video tips:
🪝 Push the hook(s) from the beginning
🧀 Be cheesily excited about your game
🫴 Show and tell, but mostly show
😲 Highlight the emotional highs
🪝 Keep everything connected to the hook(s)

Script template below...

I’m excited to see what you’re cooking up! This is an exciting area of game design. I’d love to see more games that encourage the player to really think about what the mechanics mean, and to allow that to be up to interpretation.

Love to see Adulting paired with some self-care drinks! These folks get it.

Pyrotechnics - The Seahorse and The Hummingbird Pyrotechnics is a fast, two-player card duel packed with strategy and sparks—easy to learn, quick to play, and endlessly replayable.

🎆 Pyrotechnics is officially available for sale!

Start 2026 with a bang! Pyrotechnics is a two-player head-to-head card game that's quick and easy with just the right spark of strategy.

#boardgames

I highly recommend submitting a game to this contest. It was a great motivator to tighten up my rulebook for Adulting last year and resulted in some great feedback that helped me make the game what it is today. And if you subscribe to their patreon, you get 1 free game submission each year!

Well worth the wait. Thanks for making such amazing games, and for working around the holidays during a time of rest so that we could get them! Very excited to play Pacts.

It’s so awesome that the folks @cardboardherald.bsky.social are covering indie and self-published games now!!

Go support them and show them you want more of this content by watching their thing, liking the thing, subscribing to the thing—do the thing!! ✨

It’s really blowing my mind to see Adulting listed alongside games by @xoe.gay and @connor.alwaysawake.games. Since when did my game design idols become my peers? Unreal.

What an amazing list of games! I’ve had the pleasure of playing most of these titles and am honored to see Adulting amongst such esteemed company.

Logo for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award

Hey board game designers! Just SIX DAYS left until submissions for next year's Cardboard Edison Award open! Get your pitches and prototypes ready! cardboardedison.com/award

So excited for my copy to arrive! My wife and I are gonna play the heck out of this game.

Thanks Bobby, I’m glad you liked it!

So cool to see Adulting being played by the DVC Games crew! And side-by-side with a Taylor Shuss game no less. Someone pinch me!

I’m glad to see the “socialize” card resonated with you. I generally tried to be inclusive, but that card really gives away that this game was made by an introvert.

Cowards…

Yup, exactly.

This was a big lesson I learned while designing Adulting. I got a lot of feedback that chores were boring and needed to be made more distinct from self-care. But I wanted chores to be boring! That’s the point! After I tuned some other knobs in the game I stopped getting that feedback.

Game boxes for the games Adulting and Chasing Shadows.

Cards from the game Adulting on a table in the middle of a game.

Cards from the game Chasing Shadows on a table in the middle of a game.

Adulting and Chasing Shadows, both great games by fellow IGNM alums @ericdittmore.bsky.social and @vawcer.bsky.social. So much fun!