Ludoliminal

Uh Oh, Dino – Meeple Mountain Uh Oh, Dino is a cute and chaotic co-op game of stegos, earthquakes, and dino eggs, coming soon to Kickstarter. But you could enter to win a copy now! Join Meeple Mountain as we partner with…

Want a chance to win a copy of our adorable Dino co-op, Uh Oh, Dino!?
Check out the giveaway on Meeple Mountain for lots of ways to enter: www.meeplemountain.com/board-game-g...

Coming soon: Uh Oh, Dino! - Cute & Chaotic Co-op for 2-4 Players Shifting board, adorable dinos, and a drawbag of danger ☄️&🦖 Meteors & Meat-Eaters expansion ✨Limited 2025 Holiday Shipping Available!

"concerned dino" facial expression to reinforce the feeling of cute tension in the game. Now each dino's visual identity is its own adorable way of expressing "Uh Oh!"

This is another #Identity post for this week's #BoardGameProtoHype theme on instagram (3/3)

My Little Pony characters- heart, moon, clover, star. That was our "double-coding" to make each dino unique for color vision purposes as well. When we did the final aesthetic pass on the game, we decided instead to do different patterned shapes on the dino's backs and give each dino a unique (2/3)

A closeup photo of the pink and blue dinos in Uh Oh, Dino! with the box in the bottom left and the words "Team up as a herd of plucky concerned dinos to rescue your baby dino eggs! #Identity #BoardGameProtoHype" with photo by @boardgamecolor on instagram

In Uh Oh, Dino!, you are playing cooperatively as a herd of dinos trying to rescue your baby dino eggs. We really wanted your dino pawns to be tactilely fun and visually endearing. For a long time during the game's development, the dinos had unique butt "cutie marks" similar to (1/3)

This post inspired by this week’s #BoardGameProtoHype theme of #Identity www.instagram.com/boardgamepro...

You've got your trusty field notebook reference and you'll be arranging your diatoms on a board that's decorated like fancy papered slides of the Victorian era. These are just some of the ways the game uses form and function to invite you to take on a fantasy identity and play within that space.

To support that fantasy, we use the mechanics and components together. We ask you to "take water samples" from an algae pond by placing tiles then peering through an ornate lens to identify which algae species you've found. Then you collect those diatoms from little petri dishes.

Topdown view of Diatoms components laid out on a table with the Diatoms box in the lower left corner and the words "Follow the footsteps of Victorian naturalists to discover the unseen beauty hidden around you. #identity #boardgameprotohpye"

Every game makes you an offer:
Step into the magic circle and become... something...someone. In #DiatomsTheGame we wanted to offer you the chance to follow in the footsteps of Victorian naturalists who practiced an obscure artform- creating microscopic mosaics out of single-cell algae.

The evolution of Uh Oh, Dino!- our cute and chaotic dinosaur co-op!
The photos obviously show how the art has evolved. More subtly reflected in these images is how much gameplay iteration happened during development.

Uh Oh, Dino! Board game box next to the Kickstarter Projects We Love badge and a banner for the Meteors & Meat-Eaters expansion underneath

Our upcoming Uh Oh, Dino! project is officially a Kickstarter’s Projects We Love 💕
So excited to bring this new expansion to life and share Dino with more folks!
Signup to follow along at next.ludoliminal.com or on Kickstarter

#kickstarter #coming #boardgames #dinosaurs

Protospiel Online Attendee Highlights: Protospiel Online is always a personal and professional highlight. The community is like an amazing and supportive family of fellow creatives who truly understand the design journey. Plus, I'm always inspired by the quality of games and level of creativity that everyone brings to the digital table. I love being productive and getting fantastic, actionable feedback all while having oodles of fun. ~Kirsten Lunde

4 days until Protospiel Online August 2025! 🎲✂️

Get your badge and join Discord attendee only areas to get support from your team captain!

Doors open Friday Aug 22 at noon US Eastern for 60 solid hours of online playtesting.

A screenshot of the Uh Oh, Dino! Kickstarter prelaunch notify page.

Get ready! We are returning to Kickstarter this fall with an expansion for Uh Oh, Dino! that adds raptors and falling space rocks to the gameplay. We are beyond excited to share Dino with more people. Follow along!
next.ludoliminal.com
www.kickstarter.com/projects/lud...

Play new games by Pittsburgh game makers. Learn more and RSVP @ PittsburghPlaytest.com Sunday August 17th 1-3:30pm @ 5844 Forward Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15217 Free event! board Games * TTRPGs * Digital Games

Want to play some upcoming-but-as-yet-unpublished games from Pittsburgh game designers? You're invited to Pittsburgh Playtest, this Sunday, 1-3:30pm. Learn more and RSVP at PittsburghPlaytest.com.
We have a few slots open this Sunday for designers wanting to bring their games (digital or physical).

Sabrina talks boothing with Emily from @pinkhawkgames.bsky.social and JC from @howtoteach.bsky.social. Booth layout, banners, scheduling, merch, and other boothy things appear in this convo with Jason from the Building the Game podcast. buildingthegamepodcast.com/episode-688-...

Three small sheets of paper clearly torn from a notebook, each with a unique raptor drawing on it. Each one a unique, true masterpiece* *this might be an exaggeration

Working on something that I’m not quite ready to share yet but, lo, these are the best prototype cards 🎲✂️🎲 #finalart #shipit

This does make me feel like Origins could be a viable show for us. /
We've already signed up to return next year, in a combo booth with pinkhawkgames.bsky.social, and I've already made our draft budget for next year. The big takeaway: we need MORE INVENTORY if we want to hit our the 2x Costs goal.

A graphic showing bar charts for costs vs income at Origins Game Fair- 2025 predicted vs 2025 actual, and then 2026 predicted

Still, my goal for Origins sales was to pretend like we had to cover the full costs and see if we could make that work. So how did we do? This chart shows it - we hit that goal! We did it by selling every game copy we brought- selling out of Uh Oh, Dino! on Saturday morning and Diatoms on Sunday.

Here's where I point out that we are so thankful to be a GAMA Horizon Fellow this year- the program covered booth fee, hotel, transportation, and some material costs for GAMA Expo and Origins Game Fair. What peace-of-mind when planning as a first-time-exhibitor with no idea how much we might sell.

I've set a goal for our show appearances that to bring in twice our costs. For me right now, this is what I feel I'd want to see from a show outcome in order to justify doing that show again. With this in mind, I made a budget of expected costs for Origins and set our target revenue to double that.

I've heard differing thoughts about how much money a booth should bring in, from it's a marketing expense, no need to make money to you should at least break even to statements like you should be making a hefty profit if you're doing it right (I've particularly heard that about selling at GenCon.)

It's GenCon week in the board game world. We aren't there, but since it's a month past Origins, I've been reflecting on how that first booth experience went. We're sharing a few reflection posts on Origins 2025, starting with one of the juiciest ones- the financials!

Want to turn pressure into progress?
Learn how the fast-paced chaos of #GameJams can supercharge your team's creativity & output.
👉 Join @Autodesk and GGJ on August 5 & 7 for a live roundtable!
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A photo of the back end of a grey Prius with a Pennsylvania license plate that reads DIATOMS

This isn't mine.. but it does exist and yes I'm jealous.

Playtest new game concepts from Pittsburgh game makers 1-5pm Sunday July 20th. It's Pittsburgh Playtest @ Board Game Day: Steel Dice Gaming and Western PA Gaming are teaming up for game day at Cinderlands Beer Co. Sunday July 20, 2025 1pm-7pm at Cinderlands Beer Co. in the Strip District, 2601 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222. All welcome. Board games will be provided but feel free to bring your own. Gamers will be available to teach games as well. Learn more @ PittsburghPlaytest.com Board Games TTRPGS Digital Games

Come play new games being created by Pittsburgh game makers! This is part of a larger event with game-playing 1-7. Playtesting games will be split across two sessions, 1-3pm and 3-5pm. pittsburghplaytest.com

It is! In a list of other great games as well. What a lovely surprise shoutout 💜

Woah!

“Supporting GGJ means investing in future creators. Some of the best ideas come from jam weekends.”
— GGJ Sponsor

#WorldsLargestGameJam

Excited to announce our next Kickstarter coming later this summer.....new versions of two Knizia classics, both with art from Ian O'Toole: RA the Dice Game and Rheinlander!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/cha...

Hedge Mage board and box

Hedge Mage player board

Hedge Mage ( @floodgategames.bsky.social ) is a wild upcoming game in which you're placing tiles on your garden to block your opponent from stealing gnomes off your board, while simultaneously generating movement so that you can steal gnomes off of your neighbor's board.

"GGJ 2025 was my 40th game jam & my 9th time participating in GGJ. I don't ever want to miss a Global Game Jam. Year-to-year, it gets my blood pumping and makes my heartbeat. GGJ reminds me that making games is hard, but, gosh, is it satisfying and worth giving it your all."
- GGJ Jammer

#GameJam