I write or rewrite most of our rulebooks at Stonemaier Games, and today I thought I’d share a few observations and techniques I’ve learned over the years.

My Techniques

• For initial local playtesting, I create player aids instead of a rulebook, as the rules are very much in flux at that stage (plus, it sets the groundwork for each player to have a player aid in the final product too). It’s only when I’m approaching blind playtesting that I write the rulebook.
• I have a simple rulebook template I follow: overview & goal, components, setup, gameplay overview, detailed gameplay, other info, and end of game.
• I typically reserve the last page of the rulebook for an icon guide, game flow, and/or index (though often the table of contents at the beginning does the job of the index).
• I try to construct rulebooks in such a way that their length is indicative of the complexity of the game, using other components to assist. For example, when I rewrote the Tokaido Duo rulebook, I extracted the character instructions into two separate sets of player aids (i.e., more helpful for players to use during the game, and more representative of Tokaido Duo’s low complexity).
• I write rulebooks as if I’m talking to you. “Pay $1 to gain 2 resources,” not “The player pays $1 to gain 2 resources.”
• If I ever need a full page to explain a minor concept, that’s a good sign that the concept is too complex for what it contributes to the game. Similarly, in 99% of cases, if I use the word “exception” in the rulebook, it’s a sign of something that will be difficult for players to remember and should be removed from the gameplay.
• My favorite rulebook size is 180x240mm. This is big enough for the rules, visuals, and examples, but small enough that you can keep it on the table while playing.
• Blind playtesting (when a game is playtested without me there to teach or supervise) is 25% for the purpose of improving the rulebook. If a playtester misses a rule, even if it’s marked clear as day in the rulebook, I consider it an opportunity to make it even clearer or put it in a more obvious place.
• My general philosophy is to put text on cards (not combinations of icons to decipher) and that the text be self-sufficient enough that a separate appendix isn’t necessary. However, sometimes there just isn’t room for lots of text. In those cases, either an appendix (like in Apiary) or the back of the card/tile (like in Tokaido) are good places for the text.
• I find it helpful to review a rulebook backwards (section by section), as I can hone in on specific elements without skimming ahead by accident.
• We have a style guide for the copyeditors and proofreaders in our oversight process. They have full access to all versions of the product (prototype and typeset files).
• When the pre-production copy (PPC) of the product is ready, one of the things I’m looking for in our playtests is how easily I can find answers to questions in the rulebook. If I can’t find the answer quickly, I revise the rulebook accordingly.

Top Advice from Others

• Board Game Design Lab
• Pixy Games
• Daniel Solis
• Unpub
• The Dice Tower
• Paul Mac
• Pam Walls

Great Rulebooks to Study

• Dungeon Lords: for its humor
• Jaws of the Lion: for its tutorial
• Barcelona: for its history
• Galactic Cruise: for its organization
• Dawn of the Zeds: for its use of multiple rulebooks
• Origin Story: for its consideration for different types of players (player count, trick-taking experience, etc)

What’s one of your favorite rulebooks or things you like to see in a rulebook?

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As much as I appreciate the effort publishers put into selling a new game and sharing its features (through reviews, videos, newsletters, updates, social media, ads, etc), I’ve found that what I end up valuing the most is the effort they put into helping me actually get the game off my shelf of opportunity and onto the table for the first time.

This manifests in many ways: Ease and instructions for the initial unpacking/organizing, clear rules/tutorials in a variety of formats (rulebook, video, Dized, Rulepop, etc), reference cards for each player, game design that promotes an intuitive onboarding process, and so on.

But there’s one way that’s often overlooked, and I highly value when publishers do this type of customer service: When the game ships and/or releases, send an update that consolidates all of the onboarding instructions in one place. This significantly increases the chance that I’ll get the game to the table soon and that I’ll play correctly the first time.

Today I sent this update for Origin Story, as we’ve now shipped over 5,000 copies to webstore customers (the retail release is coming soon), and I thought I’d break down the update into segments to illustrate our methods. If you have any feedback about how to improve this type of update, please let me know!

I’m sure that there are some people in the Origin Story Facebook Group or on BoardGameGeek who don’t subscribe to our Origin Story newsletter, so I typically post a weblink to the newsletter content there and on our website. Including the subscription link makes it easier for someone who is reading the newsletter as a webpage to subscribe to future updates.

By the time I send this update, I’ve heard from customers who may have struggled with some aspect of the game’s initial setup. This is a chance for me to use that feedback to improve the experience for anyone who hasn’t opened the game yet.

This portion is the heart of the update, as it provides the tools for people to learn the game and ask questions while they’re learning/playing. It’s also intended to get people thinking about what they can do after they’ve played the game (some low-key creative and social media ideas).

Our oversight process attempts to make the rules clear and complete, but we’re always trying to learn from players. If they’re asking some of the same questions, I like to highlight the answers up front for those who are close to trying the game for the first time.

I record how-to-teach videos for all our games, as the person who is learning the game is likely the person who will be teaching the game. My teaching method (and the way I design games) is to explain a few core concepts and then teach while playing.

Finally, the newsletter ends with some things players can do after they’ve played game. I also include links to our webstore, as there are likely some subscribers who are following along but haven’t actually purchased the game yet.

In breaking down this type of update, I think I could probably put a little more focus on the Learn to Play paragraph (maybe add some visuals or present it as a list instead of a long sentence) and shift the creative and Instagram suggestions to the end of the newsletter.

I’d love to hear what you think–are these types of updates (from us or any publisher) helpful for you? What makes them useful, and what could make them better for helping you play the game for the first time?

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Also read:

• Release with a Boom, Not a Whimper
• 15 Ways Publishers Can Support Their Own Games

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.

Today I was looking through the recent YouTube videos of a content creator, and I happened to notice that a certain type of video garners significantly more views than other videos. It’s a type of video I don’t make or watch, so it really stood out.

I decided to look at a handful of tabletop YouTube channels that post a variety of videos to see if their audiences were just as interested in this type of video. And they are!

Here are the channels I looked at, each of which features at least 4 different types of videos on a regular basis, along with an image showing a content cross-section:

Stonemaier Games

BlackBoardGaming

Board Game Buzz

Tim Chuon

Allies or Enemies

TheGameBoyGeek

Tantrum House

Man vs Meeple

Before You Play

For each of these channels, I looked at average views for different types of videos posted over the last few months. This was a very un-scientific process, as there are a variety of factors that can impact the views of any single video.

Here are my three biggest takeaways from this very small dataset:

People Love Anticipation

This is the type of video that surprised me the most. It’s by far the most-watched type of video on these channels.

It doesn’t surprise me that people like anticipating things; I love to look forward to specific games, books, movies, restaurants, etc. Rather, I’m surprised that videos about anticipation are so highly viewed, as they are the one type of video on this list about games that the content creators haven’t even played yet. They’re mostly talking about a game’s potential, not their experiences playing the game.

I’m truly happy that these content creators and their audiences enjoy the anticipation-style videos. However, it isn’t content that I’m personally interested in making–I want to share my excitement for games I’ve played, not games I might someday play–but it’s a great reminder about the marketing power of anticipation.

Lists Are Still Great

In an era of 30-second clips on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, people still seem to enjoy the option to learn about multiple games over 10-20 minutes in a single video. As much as I love a focused deep-dive into a specific game–in fact, that’s my heavy preference for podcasts–for videos I like the efficiency and order to longer lists.

The data was a good reminder that top 10 lists aren’t the only way to do this. Various creators have their own twists on variety episodes, including “if we could only keep 5 games,” “comparing these 3 games,” and “let’s talk about games we recently played.”

Playthroughs Are the Most Valued Sponsored Content

Just recently I wrote about how content creators can (if desired) earn a little revenue from paid, non-opinion content like previews and rule videos. However, it seems that playthroughs are the clear winner if a publisher is considering a content sponsorship.

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Data aside, my motivation for creating YouTube videos is almost entirely driven by the intersection of two factors: (a) What our audience enjoys and (b) what I’m passionate about filming. I’m not going to make something that isn’t true to me (e.g., absolutely no hate-bait) or if very few people engage in it (considering not only views, but comments and likes too).

What’s your takeaway from this data? Again, it’s a very small cross-section, so I’d love to hear your observations from other channels too.

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Also read:

• The Psychology of Anticipation
• How Tabletop Content Creators Pay the Bills

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.

We’ve had a busy year at Stonemaier Games! Now that we’re done releasing new products for 2025, I thought I’d reflect on the major lessons learned from the product design and marketing of these products. Here’s what we launched this year:

• Vantage: Open-world cooperation for 1-6 players on a vast planet.
• Origin Story: Superhero-themed tableau-building and trick taking for 1-5 players.
• Finspan: Dive underwater in this language-independent Wingspan-inspired game for 1-5 players.
• Wingspan Fan-Designed Birds: 6 packs, each with 25 brand-new birds.
• Tokaido Expansion & Playmat: Crossroads, Matsuri, and promos in one box.
• Wyrmspan: Dragon Academy: More cards and fledglings (dragons to train).
• Tokaido Duo: Draft dice and race to be the first to complete a traveler’s goal.
• Smitten 2: Tiny cooperative puzzle for 1-2 players.
• Tokaido: Traverse across Japan as far forward on a path as you dare.
• Between Two Castles Essential Edition: Work together with your neighbors to build castles, but there’s only one winner (1-7 players).

Overall, as much as I love these games and expansions, I feel like we packed too much into 2025 from a marketing and customer service perspective. Our goal is to shine the spotlight on a select few products each year so we can best serve you, and I don’t think we accomplished that goal by letting 2025 get so crowded. Next year will be more focused.

As for specific products that have provided takeaways for product design (not game design) or marketing:

• Vantage: I’m really glad that I broke from tradition and started posting design diary updates well before the launch, as it both gave me time to tell the story of this 8-year passion project and gave curious followers something big to anticipate. As for the product design, now that I’ve seen the effectiveness of the optional Rulepop digital storybook (and rule support) web app, I wish I had worked with Rulepop in advance rather than after the launch so people would see it mentioned in the rulebook.
• Origin Story: We aimed to put a big game with a ton of replayability in a smaller box, which served as a great reminder of how much the box size can impact a game’s manufacturing cost (and thus the final consumer price). Using a Wingspan-sized box would have added close to $10 to this game’s MSRP and added freight shipping costs. However, we did something with the box that I’d do differently in the future: Because the box is double-sided (both the front and back have full illustrations), we added a disposable piece of paper to the back of the box with retailer-focused product information. Our manufacturer put a touch of removable glue on the paper so it wouldn’t shift when the box goes through the shrinkwrap machine, but the glue leaves a small bubble when removed.
• Finspan: My main takeaway is for me to add more of a buffer to the quantity certain components, especially when an upgrade pack is involved. People run out of school tokens at higher player counts more often than expected when playing Finspan.
• Wingspan Fan-Designed Bird Promo Packs: I wish I had pursued these last year and release them in batches of 3s instead of 6 all at once–it’s a more palatable expense that way. In the future if we make more of these, we’ll most likely release them in sets of 3, similar to what we did with Rolling Realms promo realms.
• Tokaido Expansion: When I first starting working on combining Crossroads and Matsuri (which were originally separate expansions), I was a bit daunted by the rulebooks, which totaled 12 pages between them. But then I realized that they were actually rather elegant expansions with a ton of content in the rulebooks that could instead be on other tiles and cards in the game (and easier to reference that way). The final result is a single-page rulebook (printed on both sides) that much more accurately conveys to players how easy it is to add the new content to Tokaido.
• Wyrmspan: Dragon Academy: By far the biggest surprise about this expansion has been the incorrect assumption that the included tray is designed to hold ALL Wyrmspan cards. As an expansion tray, it’s actually designed to hold just the expansion cards. There wasn’t a plastic tray in Wyrmspan’s first printing, so we thought we could better serve fans of the game by including an expansion tray to hold at least some of the components (and if you want to store all cards in trays, the tray is sized so that the box also fits a second tray, which we offer discounted on our webstore). Perhaps the lesson is to include an organizer tray in the base game from the start and don’t try to retcon it later.
• Tokaido Duo: Before we acquired the Tokaido brand, all the marketing I’d seen about this Antoine Bauza dueling game seemed to gloss over two major features that I’ve tried to highlight: One, it’s a dice drafting game (meaning that both players are involved in every turn). Two, it’s a race to complete one of several goals, ala the designer’s other incredibly popular 2-player game, 7-Wonders Duel.
• Smitten 2: We tried to make the packaging for this sequel more retailer friendly by adding a hangtag and using a box instead of an envelope. The result is fine, but I’ve found that it sacrifices some of the ease-of-access of the original packaging.
• Tokaido: My biggest lesson learned is to be incredibly wary of making late-stage graphic design choices, and if I do, I need several sets of eyes to ensure that there aren’t any unintended consequences. What I’m referring to is a change we made early in pre-production to make the score track wrap around the board (which is good). However, during the process of changing this, a layer shifted in InDesign, resulting in the path shifting by a few millimeters. It doesn’t impact gameplay, but it was an embarrassing, aesthetically unpleasing way to introduce Tokaido to the Stonemaier brand. (And yes, we’re fixing it for future printings, and it’s fixed on the rubber playmat.)
• Between Two Castles Essential Edition: This combines the core game with the expansion into one seamless product, and I have few notes other than maybe we made slightly too many copies. In the past we’ve seen a pretty big bump from retailers when we give a product this “essential” treatment, but I think there are so many new games, spinoffs, sequels, and second editions on the market these days that they don’t have quite as much appeal as in the past. Despite the slight over-forecast, it’s still sold well enough to justify the Essential Edition.

Those are my primary product design and marketing lessons learned from our 2025 releases. What do you think, and what would you like me to learn from these products so we can better serve you in the future? I love questions, so feel free to ask if you don’t know the full facts or backstories behind a product design or marketing decision.

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See also: Insights from Our Projects

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.

I’m incredibly grateful for my coworkers (Dave, Susannah, and Alex) for traveling across the world to Essen for the Spiel festival this past week, along with the many incredible members of our demo team who made the trip from Iceland, England, Belgium, and a variety of other locations. Huge thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth to learn about our newest products: Vantage, Origin Story, Wyrmspan: Dragon Academy, and more.

Last year we tried a secret experiment at Essen that resulted in some fun for the team and customers; I think a variation of it was implemented this year as well. I asked my coworkers if they tried anything new at Essen Spiel this year that other creators and publishers might be interested in, and Alex shared the following:

1. Combined Sales Counter at a Shared Booth: While Stonemaier and Inside Up have shared a booth the two previous years, this is the first time we had a single combined sales counter. It was really cool how the intermingling of stock led to people coming to the booth looking for games from one company and walking away with games from both. It really exemplified the synergy we’ve built up with the partnership between the two companies.

2. Great Lighting: It’s really amazing what good lighting does to make a space feel friendly and welcoming. I’ve personally experienced this in the difference between retail stores as well but at Essen we add quite a bit of extra lightning to our booth and it makes the space quite literally shine as a standout beacon next to the booths around it.

3. Quick Pitch Tables: This year we added a row of “pitch tables” at the front of the booth, with demo tables to do full playthroughs in the space behind it. This is similar to the tables at the Gen Con booth. It’s really cool to be able to have different ways to share our games depending on the different needs of the people coming by. We also had lots of people coming up to the game shelves, picking up the boxes and reading the backs. I was really glad for the sheet on Origin Story for this and it was fun to see people pick up Vantage and realize just how heavy that box is!

All three of these are about trying to serve customers. If you’re buying products from two companies at the same booth, it’s more effective for your time to check out once instead of twice. Great lighting is crucial for inviting people into a booth and encouraging them to hang out for a while. And not everyone wants to sit down for an extended demo–they might prefer just to briefly look at a game.

If you’ve attended a convention recently, what have you seen (or implemented) that makes the experience welcoming and memorable?

Also read:

• A Secret Experiment at Essen 2024
• 5 Hours at Gen Con for the First Time Since 2018

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.