Mandela F-G

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.

Aye, in other designs I've often obfuscated the points or included a dynamic element to the scoring so it can't be determined until game end, however, this has been part of the challenge of making a race game and maintaining that cleaner victory condition.

The suet was delicious.

I think some rely too much on existing games for an 'off the shelf' solution to their design problem rather than at least having a crack at it first themselves, or at least trying to tailor it for the specific needs of their game. 🎲✂️

I think you're much more likely to design good games from having a wide experience of existing games but there is a very high risk approach of ignoring everything and in very rare cases this leads to outstanding and highly novel games.

Aye. I feel there are no absolutes in game design.

Incidentally, I'm currently designing a roll & move. A previous iteration included player elimination too but ultimately didn't work for the game.

It still faces a challenge common to race games; the winner can become clear before the game is over. I feel I can reduce the frequency of this but may never be able to eliminate it from the design while keeping the impact of good/bad turns meaningful. 🎲✂️

Half eaten meal in foreground, paper prototype of game with dice on table.

Steak and ale suet pudding with a spot of playtesting. I suggested pausing when food arrived but the request to play on feels like a good sign.

Clear improvement on the game with a new mechanism which means the more conservative your play, the more your opponent is rewarded.

Registration for the Playtest Zone @ UKGE2025 is now open Registration for the Playtest Zone at the UK Games Expo 2025 is now open. This event is for designers, who would like members of the g...

Playtest bookings are now open for UK Games Expo, as well as a call for volunteers (organised by @playtestuk.bsky.social). Have a look here... playtest-london.blogspot.com/2025/02/regi... 🎲✂️

It's not necessarily 'going anywhere' like publication but have to remind myself that if I, and the people I made it for, enjoy it, that should be enough. 🎲✂️

A few wooden people on cards with numbers in a circle and several small dice. Image of a Panda face on a token.

Day off work for a bit of fun travel and time for a wee playtest over a coffee break.

Have had this wee racing game for a while. Think this was the worst play of it so far...but also feel it sparked some solid good ideas that could give it life. Look forward to changing and testing.

Nice idea, suspect some may feel suitably invested by then.

Fun wee read. Like the idea of following along and then hopefully getting to test it at some point along the journey.