Practical Tim

Just realized that sorcerers are basically vibe coders and that's why wizards (frontend engineers) hate them so much.

YouTube video by Tim Mierz Tim's Game Den | First Thoughts | GenCon 2025 Part 1

Some mini reviews of games I got from GenCon, including Compile: Main 2, Beasts, and more: youtu.be/BVRxskww92Q?...

Compile 2, Xylotar, Xylotar Unhinged, Roaring 20s, Beasts, Sand Art, Jurata, Time to Panic, Massive-Verse Team Up, Massive-Verse Starter, Matchstick Tycoon, Digit Code, Typeset, Corvids, Durian, Vivo

My GenCon haul! Which would you try first?

A screenshot of the Dominion app telling me that Journeyman has Chameleonized

Journeyman has Chameleonized

Most experts acknowledge that a takeover by artificial intelligence is coming for the video game industry within the next five years, and executives have already started preparing to restructure their companies in anticipation. After all, it was one of the first sectors to deploy A.I. programming in the 1980s, with the four ghosts who chase Pac-Man each responding differently to the player's real-time movements.

This is an insane thing to write about game development. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/a...

Xylotar, Rebel Princess, Beasts, Maskmen, Dying Message, Roaring 20s, 12 Rvcers, Sand Art, No Loose Ends, Vivo, Puerto Bananas, Time to Panic, Pocket Paragons, Space Lion, Digit Code, Kinfire Council, Moirai, Rosetta, Bouba Kiki, Pass, Compile 2, Typeset

Some of what I’m excited to check out at GenCon this week! What would you add?

TIL that "Living Whist" was a popular event in the late 19th/early 20th c. People would dress up as playing cards and, well, shuffle.

“Chuck Mangione cause of death: Jazz ...”

It would be sad if jazz was in fact the thing that killed Chuck Mangione.

I was just reviewing a ‘50s word game yesterday and thought about your Uncredited video after I couldn’t find the creator of Bali. That person definitely deserves some credit!

YouTube video by Tim Mierz Tim's Game Den - Hidden Gems #3 - Bali

I mostly play board games from this century, so why do I still play this 70+ year old card game? Check out my Hidden Gems review on Bali! youtu.be/hVz9NH9_PYM?...

The task flow chart showing tasks going from NZ to various other franchises, including NZ

When I’m back on desktop I’m going to have to figure out what tasks were adapted from NZ to NZ!

The opening to a Season 49 episode of The Price Is Right, with socially distanced One Bid podiums and the audience section “paved over” with empty floor

Looking back at The Price Is Right when they came back from the first Covid wave, the set was so oddly empty, and they pumped in fake crowd noise. “Come on down” came from a backstage curtain, no audience. Huge empty spaces between everyone. Almost as weird as empty-stadium NFL games.

I did listen to Screen Violence yesterday and greatly enjoyed it. I’ll look into the other two, thanks!

I’m trying to find great rock/electronic/pop albums from 2021. Know of any?

YouTube video by Tim Mierz Tim's Game Den - Hidden Gems #2 - Hibernation

A deck building game where you start with no deck and never have a hand of cards? Watch my review of this Hidden Gem, Hibernation! youtu.be/HntnoiBcNRs

That sounds bizarre yet enticing. Wish I knew about these 17 years ago.

I enjoyed the game. But I loved translating the manual.

Where would I buy a green screen that’s not Amazon?

Halfway through the year, there are 6 games I’ve played at least 10 times:
- LotR Duel for Middle-earth
- Fellowship of the Ring Trick Taking Game
- Dominion
- Phantom Ink
- So Clover
- Klask

Of the seven others I’ve played at least 5 times, only two aren’t party or word games (Compile and Scout).

Baby Budnick!

A sandwich board reading “We will salad-ize anything!”

I don’t believe this sign outside the deli. I have to imagine they’d refuse to salad-ize tons of stuff. A lacrosse stick. David Letterman. Let’s Make a Deal. Saturn’s rings. Two bullfrogs. Birthday party cheesecake jellybean boom. The list goes on.

the real world is melting but it’s ok, i’m jacked in to an endless feed of uncanny fake dogs with too many folds frolicking happily in the ghost of a world we burnt to make them

I’ve never paid much attention to Joan Baez, but I’ve been listening to a lot of acclaimed records from 1960 the last few days and her music stands out tremendously. A clear, strong performance, pared down and clean, with a lovely voice and guitar paired with dark folk songs. A big surprise!

Living intentionally is so difficult. It’s so easy to fall into ruts, into traps. The guardrails you make for yourself deteriorate without proper care. A change shaking things up can just settle right back to where it had been. Unexamined lives just letting the current take them.

Thanks for teaching T&E, it was great to finally experience it!

It smells of someone having no interests outside of games.

A first draft logo for my new word-based deduction board game, ABCDetective. Who doesn’t love a good yellow legal pad?

YouTube video by Tim Mierz Hidden Gems 1 | Fellowships of Fate Board Game Review

Check out my review of an obscure Japanese card game, Fellowships of Fate! Hopefully my first of many cozy reviews of hidden tabletop gems. youtu.be/OuBAj3gMNuY

Please make a bad drawing, draft a poor text, leave your emails unread.

Take a flat picture, butcher a melody, run out of ideas.

Build a game no-one plays, a website no-one visits; a zero-downloads app.

Please be bad, and fail and fail and fail and fail and fail and fail and grow, damn you.