Chris Backe

How Do Publishers Think About Game Design? 5 examples to help you craft your your own design philosophy

Ever wondered how publishers think about #gamedesign? Obviously every publisher is different, but a few have talked about their design thought process publicly.

How Do Publishers Think About Game Design?
open.substack.com/pub/entrogam...

YouTube video by Board Game Binge Episode 366: Chris Backe, Tabletop Publishers

It was an honor to chat to James over at the #BoardGameBinge!

We got into my origin story and a fair bit about #TabletopPublishers, especially a lot about the 4 new tools in our toolbox: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E7U...

Destination: Playfest London 2025 and lessons learned A full day of playtesting, anyone?

Last weekend was the Playfest in London - an all day playtesting event, and a great chance to catch up with friends. How did it go? Go have a read:

Destination: Playfest London 2025 and lessons learned
open.substack.com/pub/entrogam...

#playtesting #playtestuk

Cabriole A queue-based worker placement board game about furniture-making in late 18th-century London for 1-4 players.

It's always great when you see a game you had a small hand in on Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/dou...

Cabriole is a gateway-plus worker placement game about building furniture in 18th century London. Some fun mechanical stuff happening in the game, and I'm a big fan of the art style.

YouTube video by Tabletop Publishers Tabletop Publishers overview

It took more of the morning (and afternoon) than I thought it would, but I've made several videos taking everyone on a tour through Tabletop Publishers. If you're brand new to the site, start here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXLr...

Enjoy!

#gamedesign #tabletopdesign

Great article about being intentional with your design choices: www.whatifgames.co.uk/choices-feel...

In search of a #cofounder for Puzzlerun - you are ideally a runner in the UK with a talent for organizing, working with people, and/or marketing. PM or @ me :) #putitoutthere

YouTube video by Swedish Annual Game-design Awards SAGA Session Chris Backe Tabletop Publishers

Two videos to share today:

First, I gave a talk about Tabletop Publishers a little while ago: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjY...

Second, we got a nice review of Around the World in 15 Minutes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF1G...

#gamedesign #gamedesigner #review

How to Keep Up Momentum on Your Game to Make Progress The lifeblood of any project

Or, how games *really* get made. My newest blog post is about keeping momentum going to get your game done:

entrogames.substack.com/p/how-to-kee...

#momentum #gamedesign #boardgamedesign #tabletopdesign

Entro Games | Chris Backe | Substack It's time to make some amazing board games. Keep reading for posts to help you do just that. Click to read Entro Games, by Chris Backe, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.

Tomorrow's post will be about momentum, and keeping it up as you develop your game...

Want to get it in your inbox? Go sign up for the free newsletter / Substack now: entrogames.substack.com

Around the World in 15 Minutes - pnptime.com Game review: Around the World in Fifteen Minutes, a casual, replayable print-and-play vacation full of strategy, travel, and adventure!

Great review of my game Around the World in 15 Minutes on Kickstarter now:
pnptime.com/around-the-w...

#pnp #printandplay #travelgame

Just signed up for my first marathon.

YouTube video by Shiny Pigeon Games Around the World in 15 Minutes Playthrough | South America Map

Go watch a playthrough of our newest map, South America!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYQm...

#pnp #printandplay #crowdfunding #wildlife #southamerica

Around the World in 15 Minutes (Print & Play Vacation Game) Travel the world, explore cities, and collect souvenirs in the second edition of this print & play vacation game! ✈️🌎

2nd edition of Around the World in 15 Minutes is LIVE!
Travel, Explore, and Collect souvenirs #PnP

What's new in the second edition?
* Explore South America and snap pics of up to 10 different animals
* A new sheet to track turns for solo and party play

www.kickstarter.com/projects/189...

Tabletop Publishers Get access to a live list of over 570 game publishers that you can use to guide and speed up your game pitching process.

Worth noting: this is NOT a 'vibe-coded' project that's magically come together in a few prompts. It's been close to a year of working with a trio of flesh-and-blood humans, the lead of which used to work at Apple. It's well-tested, secure, and lightning fast.

Have a look: tabletoppublishers.com

My goal with Tabletop Publishers is a best-in-class tool to help designers organize and pitch their games effectively.

If you'd like to review the site in a blog post or video, please reach out (PM or chrisbacke@gmail.com) 😊

* My Leads: a shortlist of publishers you want to pitch - take private notes and refer to them anytime, anywhere
* My Pitches: track who you pitched, what games you pitched them
* My Follow-ups: visible on your Dashboard and color-coded to make it easier to follow-up.

Along with a tech team, we've recently finished building four new features, all of which work in sync with each other:
* My Games: track your games and their status on a single dashboard you can see and update from anywhere

When I launched Tabletop Publishers a couple of years ago, that's what it was - the Dossier of over 500 publishers that were actively looking at submissions or had worked with outside designers in the past. Today, it's that and more.

#boardgamedesign #pitchyourgame #pitching

Tabletop Publishers Get access to a live list of over 570 game publishers that you can use to guide and speed up your game pitching process.

It's been almost a year in the making, but here it is...
Presenting Tabletop Publishers, a database of board game publishers here to help designers pitch their games better, save time researching, and find the best publishers for their games. Learn more at tabletoppublishers.com 🧵 #gamedesigners

The 18-Card Challenge: Cozy Games We play games for many reasons: to challenge our brains, to entertain ourselves, or to socialize with loved ones. One of the biggest reasons, of course, is to relax. Amid the chaos of our busy day-to-...

Looking for an excuse to make a #cozygame? @buttonshy.bsky.social's newest contest is to make a cozy game:
buttonshygames.com/blogs/news-1...

The Legend of the Keyhole A new way to regard any creative industry.

My newest blog post is live! I decided to write out something I've shared a couple of times and gave it a fancy name: The Legend of the Keyhole...
open.substack.com/pub/entrogam...

War Bosses Control and write board game for 1 to 4 players ispired by MOBA videogames.

A shoutout to Lis Luna and her game War Bosses - a print-and-play Control and write board game for 1 to 4 players inspired by MOBA videogames. Some cool-sounding arena battles happening here!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/pul...

Really excited to announce...!

YouTube video by Marblr Portal, but the portal surfaces are inverted

If you've played Portal, this'll make a lot more sense... but if you haven't, this guy basically turns a careful puzzle structure on its head by swapping the properties of the materials in the game (good explanation at the start):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTGD...

The Ultimate Guide to Self-Playtesting Self-playtesting is your secret weapon. Here’s why it's non-negotiable.

Part of the design journey is #playtesting - a subject I’ve written the book on.

Self-playtesting means trying your game out on your own.

It’s a great way to catch as much of the low-hanging fruit as you can before showing it to other testers.

Read on: entrogames.substack.com/p/the-ultima...

Tabletop Publishers Get access to a live list of over 570 game publishers that you can use to guide and speed up your game pitching process.

Try it out for $10/month or a discounted early-bird price of $69/year (will become $99/year in time): tabletoppublishers.com

Questions welcomed!

* Sort, search, and filter your way - want to see who's going to Essen, or which publishers are looking for kid's games? It takes seconds to filter hundreds down to the right fits.
* (COMING SOON - targeting end of August) Track your games and your pitches in an intuitive, simple way

It's the same research I'm using in my own pitches, and I'm out to make it a best-in-class tool.

For you, fellow designer?
* It'll save you many hours of research and dead-ends
* Make a shortlist of the publishers you want to pitch
* Take notes on each publisher as you pitch
🧵

Tabletop Publishers has over 500 publishers, and my goal has been to check every listing at least twice a year. This is manual, time-consuming research - I have yet to discover the AI that can do this - and even after hundreds of hours of research / work on the site, I'm proud of it. 🧵