Mandela F-G

An image with the Osprey Games logo and the title of the board game Ayar framing various interlocking slices filled with close-up photos of the game board: differently coloured wooden meeple moving along various paths, other wooden pieces placed behind them, cardboard tokens arranged around a board depicting a lake, and a player board with various resources and scoring conditions.

📢 Ayar – from @flopiano.bsky.social, @mandelafg.bsky.social & @ianotoole.bsky.social – is out 1 week today: https://bit.ly/4oFvT0y

🌽 Compete for area majority farming maize
⚱️ Collect sets crafting pottery
🧵 Build your pattern weaving carpets
🛶 Traverse the lake board learning reed bundling

Yes, that is all my co-designer, Denholm, to credit for that. Was a brilliant idea to start from.

That bear is just not capable of attacking anyone. Look at its little face.

It was a buzz, thanks again for organising.

A screengrab of Jonathan Cox from Getting Games from his tutorial video for Ayar: Children of the Sun.

A screengrab from the tutorial video showing a fully set up game with a main board and player boards with various wooden and cardboard pieces arranged around them.

☀️ The official Ayar: Children of the Sun tutorial from Getting Games is here: https://bit.ly/4nRLppj

Learn to play this hot new eurogame from the creators of Merv & Sankoré @flopiano.bsky.social @mandelafg.bsky.social @ianotoole.bsky.social

// 16th OCT UK // 14th OCT US // https://bit.ly/4oFvT0y

A photo of the board game box for Ayar: Children of the Sun stood in front of a careful arrangement of different coloured wooden meeples from the game and cardboard score trackers shaped like elaborate golden idols. In the back ground, out of focus, are the board games Merv and Sankoré on a shelf.

Learn how to play ! 🧐🧐

The Ayar rulebook is now available on the game's @boardgamegeek.com page and our website gaming resources page: https://bit.ly/4miX3YE

Get a head start before release and demos @spielessen.bsky.social next month...

October 16th UK / 14th US: https://bit.ly/4oFvT0y

A photo of the board game box for Ayar: Children of the Sun stood behind a fully set-up game: a large central board, 4 player boards and 1 side board, all covered with various wooden meeples and cardboard tokens.

Ayar photos are on @boardgamegeek.com!

Get a sneak peek at the eurogame from the creators of Merv and Sankoré ahead of release @flopiano.bsky.social @mandelafg.bsky.social @ianotoole.bsky.social

📸 boardgameshots

// 16th October UK // 14th October US // https://bit.ly/4n7je5c

I've been talking to Matthew Dunstan about building and maintaining relationships with publishers. We discuss:
📬 Making first contact
🔁 Balancing persistence & pressure
💬 Positive publisher experiences
🧩 When publisher ties still matter in self-publishing

thegamedesignroundtable.com/episode/btc-...

A close-up photo of a side board alongside the main game board in Ayar, depicting a lake with various cardboard tokens and coloured wooden pieces placed around it.

A close-up photo of a player board next to the main game board in Ayar, surrounded with reference cards, a score tracker and various cardboard tokens, and split into different sections with all sorts of wooden meeple placed around it.

In our hot new eurogame Ayar you'll balance different minigames with their own rules & benefits as your player clan learns the essentials of Incan life...

🌾Farming
⚱️Pottery
🧵Weaving
🛶Reed bundling

OCTOBER: https://bit.ly/4oFvT0y

@flopiano.bsky.social @mandelafg.bsky.social @ianotoole.bsky.social

A close-up photo of the board of a set-up game of Ayar: Children of the Sun. The board is illustrated with a map with various paths across it, and various different coloured wooden pieces are placed round it. In focus are meeples of robed figures with crowns and details picked out in gold.

Another close-up showing a different area of the board where two of the meeples have been placed together, fitting perfectly as if clasping hands.

Here's your first peek at the beautiful meeples from our hot new eurogame Ayar!

In the game you'll be playing as the first clans of the Inca following in the Ayar's footsteps & influencing their journeys...

OCT: https://bit.ly/4oFvT0y

📸 boardgameshots

@flopiano.bsky.social @mandelafg.bsky.social

A game of Ayar in progress.

A segment of Ayar’s main board.

Tonight we are mostly following Incan demi-gods around, in Ayar: Children of the Sun.

Cards showing doughnuts laid out on a train tray table with scissors. Stickers have been cut and added to some cards.

Some last minute prototyping 🎲✂️ on my way to @manorcon.bsky.social. Will be my first time. Look forward to demoing Ayar, hopefully some playtesting, and lots of playing new games.

Feel free to stop me if you fancy some playtesting.

A game prototype being played by four smiling playtesters

A small space themed prototype in the middle of a playtest.

Three playtesters enjoying a game prototype with a pirate theme.

A game design prototype with lovely components with two playtesters and the designer.

Great turnout for the London weekend Playtest meetup last
Sunday. 3 full tables of prototypes across 3+ sessions. From pandas to pirate mutinies to the Zodiac to epic snail adventures. The creativity is always astounding. Search out your local friendly Playtest meetup here: www.meetup.com/Playtest

Rewild: South America A card-driven, engine-building board game for 1-4 players, entirely dedicated to the complex ecosystem of South America.

This campaign is from a former mentee of mine, Bruno Ligouri Sia. It was great to guide him through those first steps to published design and now see one of his games, about his homeland, with such lavish and vibrant production.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/mar...

YouTube video by Matthew Dunstan Do these 10 things to improve your games

Today's video is about 10 common ways to improve your game design, things I find myself giving as playtesting feedback again and again :)

youtu.be/px1sdjwL-z4

🎲✂️

Wooden game pieces on a game board. They are a male and female figure nestled together, both in traditional Inca attire.

Elation for some and consternation for others as another Ayar retires and is reunited with his partner.

@ospreygames.bsky.social @flopiano.bsky.social @ianotoole.bsky.social

A standard set of playing cards showing lots of pretty insect illustrations. Common names for each are provided along with binomial names and some stats - size in mm, lifespan in days, and the no. of eggs.

And here's some of those pretty playing cards.

Playing card box titled 'Brilliant Bugs Playing Cards'

Back of box crediting illustrations to Kelsey Oseid and text to Mandela Fernandez-Grandon

Showing slide out of box and a small information booklet.

Details from within booklet crediting illustrator and author.

Received 'Brilliant Bugs' insect cards from Quarto/Kaddo. I was a consultant entomologist for these. A fun wee job where I got to choose some cool insects for the game, did some fact checking, and text wrote for the accompanying booklet. It came out very nicely.

A new episode of Behind the Cardboard landed last week - I'm late to share it. In the show I talk to my co-designer @mandelafg.bsky.social about co-designing! We cover the benefits & process of co-design, co-design challenges and how to get a co-designer.
thegamedesignroundtable.com/episode/btc-...

YouTube video by Matthew Dunstan How I became a full time board game designer

In this week's video, I take a look back at the steps that led to me becoming a full time game designer, starting some 15 years ago!

youtu.be/Q0-5qr6lhfc

🎲 ✂️

Some nice insight, with numbers, into 11 years of design from a great ambassador of the UK design community.

Sometimes the most fun tests.

Glad to hear. If you find the right partner, co-designing can really be a lot of fun and a great way to hone your design skills.

Image showing Mandela and details of the episode as follows: Ellie Dix is joined by Mandela Grandon, designer of Glasgow, Overstocked, and The Shakespeare Game. They talk about the benefits and process of co-design, the difficulties in working with another person, and how to even get a co-designer. They also discuss the finer points, like how to address experience gaps, outline goals and partnership structure, and when it doesn’t work out.

If you're interested in hearing some thoughts and tips 🎲✂️ from me and @thedarkimp.bsky.social about co-designing, please have a listen here as I was treated to be being a guest on her excellent podcast series:
thegamedesignroundtable.com/episode/btc-...

Wonderful day spent playtesting and sketching out new design ideas with @thedarkimp.bsky.social in the delightful Wellcome reading rooms.

3 new games to prototype, 3 cleaned up for pitching/playtesting. 🎲✂️

I designed a game called Adventures in Friskies World for Purina. It's not often that you get flown across the Atlantic for a launch event... complete with visiting cats, crazy well-know influencers and life-size game components, or that your game gets an article in Cosmopolitan. Quite surreal.

Jane observation after a playtest 🎲✂️ session:

"Sometimes all the designers seem too focussed on 'designing' the game and forget that it should be fun"

Photo of classic-looking mid-weight Euro game.

Small dice-based racing game. Clearly a prototype.

I'll be at AireCon tomorrow and through the weekend. Don't know who is all going but will be nice to see some folks.

Will of course be carrying some prototypes 🎲✂️ (pictured) if anyone wants to test let me know. Always happy to playtest others' games.

Maybe even play some 'real' games.

Nice. I'll be there tomorrow, will be stopping by the demo zone to say hello.

Cutting about London carrying Torres and walked past someone clutching a copy of Carcassonne. Gave each other a mildly confused look then the slight nod of acknowledgement.