Over the weekend I was printing and cutting some game prototypes, and I put the latest season finale of Welcome to Wrexham on in the background. I didn’t expect the confluence of those two activities to bring me to tears.

In this episode, the Wrexham football team is preparing for a game at the end of the season that will decide whether they are promoted to the second-highest level of English football. The team’s co-owner, Rob McElhenney, gives a speech inspired by a text conversation he had with some unnamed, highly successful athletes.

Here’s most of McElhenney’s speech, almost verbatim (thanks to this transcript). Also, if you have Hulu, I highly recommend watching the speech, as it’s brilliantly edited in a way that splices footage of the final game with the players during their childhood days.

“I want you to picture a time in your life. Maybe you’re eight, maybe you’re nine, maybe you’re ten, maybe you’re six, maybe you’re 12, but you’re out there and you’re playing football. You’re just kicking the ball around. You’re playing with your friends, your dad, your mom, your sisters, your brothers, your buddies. You’re just playing football.

And it’s fun. And you fell in love with that feeling.

Of course you’re grateful for the support that you’ve had along the way, your family, your friends, and everyone, but you’ve already honored that. From this point, the only person you owe something to is that ten-year-old kid who fell in love with football, who could not wait to be in the position that you’re in right now!

The point is, there is a moment or a series of moments in which you were in love with this game, and that is all that matters. I want you to go out there and play like you’re ten years old and have the time of your lives because I promise you that is the only thing you will remember.”

I’m watching this speech unfold while cutting and sorting prototype cards, something I also did as a 10-year-old. I played and created games then purely for the fun of it. Now I’m very fortunate to run a tabletop publishing company as my job, but sometimes I need the reminder that I do this for the love of games.

I also played soccer as my primary sport from a young age up until college, and I still occasionally play pickup games. Even though I never played at a high level, there was definitely a tonal difference between playing for fun with my friends and starting for my high school team. To practice for hours every day can feel like work, even though it’s a game.

So as I listened to McElhenney’s rousing speech, I found myself in tears. I was transported back to those days when there was no marketing and metrics and planning and budgeting and customer service and project management and proofreading. It was just me sitting on the floor in my bedroom, drawing maps, cutting cards, and writing rules. It was just me juggling the soccer ball outside at sunset with my late father.

This isn’t to bemoan any of the business aspects of my job. I genuinely enjoy them, and I appreciate the variety they offer. I like that game design is only a small part of my job.

But with all the complications we make for ourselves and that come with being adults, the speech was a helpful reminder that there is a child in all of us who once did it for the love of the game. It’s worth honoring that child by seeking and spreading joy.

This may not resonate with your career compared to your childhood passions, but perhaps you can still relate to the concept of doing something purely for the love of it you first discovered when you were young. What does this speech make you think about?

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Yesterday was our biggest launch day since Wyrmspan (just barely edging out Vantage’s first 24 hours), and the combination of Wingspan Americas and Viticulture: Bordeaux will soon start to ship to customers worldwide. The webstore launch discounts are available through Sunday.

Across our 5 webstores (US, Canada, Europe, Australia/NZ/Asia, and US retail), we’ve sold 14,692 copies of Wingspan Americas (along with 618 sets of vision-friendly cards) and 4,794 copies of Viticulture: Bordeaux in the last 24 hours, and our fulfillment centers are ready to ship them to Champions starting early next week.

One of the reasons I share these numbers is because they’re a good reminder that early adopters–whom we greatly appreciate–can be just the tip of the iceberg. Our forecasts for the first printing of these expansions (numbers determined from past data and distributor estimates) resulted in us making 100,000 Wingspan Americas and 25,000 Viticulture: Bordeaux to cover demand in the first half of 2026.

Ultimately, it isn’t sales numbers that determine the success of a Stonemaier game or expansion: All that matters to us is that we make something that brings joy to your tabletop. I love what designer Elizabeth Hargrave created with the new hummingbird mechanism in Americas, and I had so much fun reimagining the Viticulture board in Bordeaux with an “expert” upgrade for each action across 4 seasons of worker placement.

I truly hope you have fun with these expansions, whether you order from our webstore to receive them over the next few weeks or if you pick up a copy from your favorite retailer in early March!

The slides shown in the following infographics are also found individually (larger text) on Instagram.

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I write these articles and create videos in the hopes of adding value to readers, creators, designers, gamers, and entrepreneurs, so as we begin 2026, I thought it might be a good time to check in with you to see if I’m accomplishing those goals and how I can do better.

Stonemaier Games is a tabletop game publisher, first and foremost. We create (and reprint) games in the hopes of bringing joy to your tabletop. But I believe that the power of games extends beyond the tabletop. That’s community, and that’s why I devote some time to these articles and videos each week.

Plus, one of the amazing things about community is that it’s an opportunity for me to learn from you. Each of these articles and videos is a forum for discussion, and I appreciate you for joining the conversation. I also really appreciate the Champions whose annual $15 contribution directly supports the creation of 100+ articles per year and 300+ videos.

Website

I write 2 articles per week (Monday and Thursday), with the actual writing happening almost always on the same day that I post. Over the last few years my articles have focused primarily on the marketing and entrepreneurship of tabletop games, highlighting examples from Stonemaier Games and other publishers. I occasionally feature guest posts and interviews if someone has insights that I haven’t previously shared. Also, after most articles I record an audio version for those who prefer listening over reading.

These articles aren’t about game design (I reserve that topic for videos), and they’re less about crowdfunding than 10 years ago (I still pay attention to crowdfunding through the lens of a backer and creator, but my last project as a creator was in 2015). I’d also like to do a better job of linking new articles in relevant groups (e.g., on the Entrepreneurship & Marketing page) to help someone who wants to learn about a specific topic.

Revenue: There are no ads on the website, though this is the Stonemaier Games website, so it is a discovery tool for our games. Shopify’s analytics indicate that $1.6 million of our webstore sales over the last 12 months are attributed to this website, though not necessarily related to the blog.

Stats: While my motivation for writing these articles isn’t likes and views, I wouldn’t keep writing if people stopped reading. Views per article seem to vary widely from 300 or so to 15,000+, with most of the conversation happening on the Facebook page crossposts.

YouTube

I record on average 6 videos per week, with most of the actual filming happening on Tuesday using StreamYard, a Blue Yeti mic, and a Logitech Brio 4K webcam. The most consistent YouTube videos I film are “my favorite mechanism” about a game I recently played, top 10 lists, the weekly livecast, and the Positively Board Gaming podcast. Most videos are unedited; my coworker Joe adds a quick bumper at the beginning and text on the top 10 videos.

I also sometimes talk about expansions, digital games, the design process, games I’m excited to play again, and insights about Stonemaier game/product design. Every month I stream a Rolling Realms playthrough, and now each week I also feature a sponsored playthrough by another content creator. While it’s mostly me talking at the camera, I include other perspectives in the form of panelists on top 10 videos and lots of audience participation on the livecast.

Some notable updates to the channel in 2025/2026 were me adding relevant end-screen links and using premiere links a little more often for livecasts. I generally don’t like the premiere feature–if I see a video in my feed, I want the option to watch it now–but I think it works well for the participatory nature of livecasts.

I’m not a reviewer, so I do not accept free review copies of games. I’m always working on being more precise, eloquent, and succinct in my videos, including examples and inviting conversation.

Revenue: Prior to 2025, I had turned off all monetization options on our channel. However, after the channel was briefly hacked last year, I heard the advice that YouTube might be more responsive to situations like that if they had some vested interest in the form of paid advertising. So I turned on monetization, adding an ad at the beginning of top 10 videos and sometimes linking to our webstore on relevant videos. After doing this for 6 months, we’ve received just over $1,000 in ad revenue (total).

Stats: As I mentioned above, my motivation for any video isn’t likes or views; it’s to create something I enjoy making and is true to me while hopefully adding value to you. Views vary widely depending on the type of video; the least-viewed videos are watched around 400 times, while the most-watched videos might have upwards of 20,000 views. Overall, the channel currently has around 56,000 subscribers.

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I’d love to hear your thoughts about what you’d like me to keep doing in these articles and on the videos, along with anything you’d like to me improve or try. I make this content for you, so your feedback really is important to me.

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Also read/watch:

• 4 Impactful YouTube Experiments
• State of the Channel 2023
• 3 Takeaways from the Most-Watched Tabletop Game Videos
• How Tabletop Creators Pay the Bills (2025)

If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content! You can also listen to posts like this in the audio version of the blog.

Our mission is to bring joy to tabletops worldwide. Approximately 20% of the world speaks English, so if Stonemaier Games only published products in that language, we would miss out on serving on 80% of potential tabletops. We currently work with 40+ other publishers around the world to accomplish that goal, amounting to around 13% of our annual revenue.

Specifically, my coworker, Susannah, coordinates with those publishers (aka localization partners). For example, when the Viticulture: Bordeaux Expansion English files were approved by our manufacturer in mid-2025, Susannah shared the source files for translation and the  price per unit at different quantities with our localization partners. For any who decided to participate, Susannah kept them (and me) up to date with any potential revisions found during the translation process.

Important: Every localization partner is a publisher, completely independent from Stonemaier Games. Any information about localized games is for localization partners to share when they’re ready. You’re always welcome to express interest in any Stonemaier product with our localization partner for your preferred language.

I last wrote in detail about localization in 2016. The original article is still relevant, hence why I haven’t updated it, but today I’ll outline the process we’ve refined over the years. This is not the only way to coordinate localization; it’s just what we’ve found works well for Stonemaier Games and our partners. This is roughly in chronological order:

1. I don’t try to make our games language independent (i.e., all icons), as I find that a complex mesh of icons almost always impedes accessibility, limits the scope of creative abilities, and decreases thematic flavor. I greatly prefer a mix of icons and text. As an unintended side effect, some amount of language dependence increases the appeal for localization partners.
2. Late in the development process, Susannah pitches the product to localization partners in confidentiality so they can discuss if they want to join the first printing. Sometimes they ask to see prototype files, which I provide. We typically work with the same partners for each language to build trust and communication through consistency; it’s only if a partner continually doesn’t serve us or their customers that we look for someone new.
3. When the English first printing is in production, we get a quote from Panda for a batch of smaller quantities (1000-4000 units) to calculate localization partner prices. Typically they amount to a roughly 70% discount on MSRP (enough for us to cover manufacturing costs and make a small profit).
4. To ensure that partners receive the most printer-ready versions of the product, we wait until Panda has created the digital proofs and we’ve approved them before sending the source files for translation to partners. Each localization partner handles their own translation and proofreading. They typically have 2-3 months to provide printer-ready files (PDFs created from the InDesign source files) to join the first localized print run. Sometimes translators find mistakes that we missed, typically in time for us to update the English files; Susannah communicates those revisions to all active translators and I answer rule questions.
5. Each partner uploads their final files to Panda’s file management system and goes through Panda’s pre-press checks. If they don’t finalize and approve the files by the deadline provided, they must wait for the next printing.
6. Localization partners pay us 50% before production begins; they pay us the other 50% when their products are ready to ship from Panda a few months later. Each localization partner coordinates and pays for their own freight shipping, which may include language-independent add-ons like upgraded tokens. It’s very rare that a partner doesn’t make the second payment; if that happens, we don’t release the products to them. We rarely have written contracts with localization partners.
7. We provide an announcement schedule and marketing materials to localization partners (including photos of the English version). If we commission a teaser trailer video, we provide a version to partners without a voiceover so they can post it in their language. Some partners tell us it’s okay to list their name on the product page for our website upon the initial announcement; others wait until later.

Again, this is just one way to do things. If you’re a newer publisher who is starting to hear from potential localization partners, I recommend looking at their portfolio of other localized games. Ask for data, talk to their customers, and do your research–their work is a reflection of you. You can also consider working with companies that publish in multiple languages (e.g., Publishing Technology Solutions).

Likewise, if a publisher contacts you to consider localization of their game, feel free to ask anything you want. Request the rules, playtest files, and any available data (e.g., crowdfunding results). Keep a close eye on any early red flags in communication.

I invite any other publishers to share their localization methods in the comments–I like hearing different perspectives. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments as well.

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Bordeaux will be available on the Stonemaier Games webstores in English along with Wingspan Americas on Wednesday, January 21, with shipping throughout February. You can sign up for a notification here: https://stonemaiergames.com/games/viticulture/newsletter/

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If you gain value from the 100 articles Jamey publishes on this blog each year, please consider championing this content! You can also listen to posts like this in the audio version of the blog.