Almost exactly 1 year ago today, Mitchell and I recorded our first episode of the 30-minute Positively Board Gaming Podcast. Today we will record episode 52 for release next week (episode 51–focused on the mechanism of delayed gratification and custom dice–went live this morning).

As much as I enjoy chatting with Mitchell, I was nervous about adding yet another form of content to my current weekly schedule for Stonemaier Games: 2 articles, ~4 videos, 1 livecast, and 7 Instagram posts, plus monthly Rolling Realms liveplays and quarterly launch videos and design diary posts. Creating all that content takes time, as does participating in the ensuing conversations.

Also, I know from years of being a guest on podcasts that it’s really easy for a 30-minute conversation to end up more like 60+ minutes if you include the preparation, warm-up, the podcast itself, and the post-recording chat. I’ll say yes to pretty much any podcast or video chat, but after 30 minutes I start to check out as I think about all the other work I need to do (and want to do).

Despite these concerns, I’ve found myself looking forward to 30 minutes with Mitchell each week, and it seems that people have enjoyed our positivity as well. I don’t know the audio stats, but the videos average around 1,000 views with great discussions in the comments.

Here are a few key things I’ve learned and remained mindful of during the first year of Positively Board Gaming (and as an avid listener of many podcasts):

1. The delicate balance between familiarity and inclusivity. Any episode might be a listener’s 50th experience with our podcast or their 1st. I want repeat listeners to feel a sense of comfort from the podcast, like they’re just hanging out with friends. But I also want a new listener to feel welcome. We’re still navigating this balance: When do we overexplain the format (e.g., we don’t need to tell listeners that we’re going to discuss a treat of the day–they know what a treat is) and when do we underexplain it (e.g., is it relevant to tell people that neither of us knows the other person’s topic each week)?
2. The delicate balance between dialogue and monologue. Mitchell and I each bring a topic to the table each week, and we allot around 10 minutes each. 10 minutes can fly by when it’s a back-and-forth dialogue (which is my preference, as I talk to myself on camera all the time), so I try to ensure that the person who raised the topic has the time to share what they wanted to say about it.
3. The delicate balance between focus and variety. As a podcast listener, I find that I’m the most drawn to gaming episodes about 1 specific game, maybe 2 at most. Tabletop Takeaway, One-Stop Co-Op Shop, and Lens & Veil are a few that do this well, though there are others (like The Secret Cabal) that have a more varied chat before focusing on a specific game–I like that too. However, I find myself less inclined to only discuss 1 game on our podcast because there isn’t much Mitchell can say about it if he hasn’t played it too. Perhaps I’ll experiment with this in the future to see if can work.

I’m guessing that the balance I’m describing isn’t unique to us, hence why I’m sharing it here. Whether you’re a content creator or a listener/viewer, I’d love to hear your thoughts about how podcasts balance these elements and what makes keeps you coming back to the podcasts you love. Feel free to also share your favorite gaming and non-gaming podcasts!

New episodes of Positively Board Gaming are available every Thursday morning on YouTube and various podcast platforms. Also, I highly recommend the Overcast podcast app–it is heads and tails above any podcast app I’ve used in the past.

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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.

Recently a book publisher friend told me that the #1 thing he seeks from his authors is longevity. “If you haven’t spent at least 10 years working on a problem that a lot of people share, it probably isn’t a book for us.”

I’ve thought about this perspective a lot lately. I’m fascinated by anyone who takes that much time to work on a single project, though it didn’t seem like something I could possibly endorse to tabletop game designers. 10 years is a long time to work on the same game! Even Vantage “only” took 8 years for me to create.

But something clicked yesterday when I saw The Enigmatist in St. Louis. David Kwong is a magician, NY Times crossword designer, and an avid puzzler and gamer. The 2-hour show is full of riddles and puzzles for the audience to solve (if they wish), and Kwong seamlessly intertwines them with some more traditional magic elevated by his remarkable vocabulary and memory. We had so much fun at the show, and I highly recommend seeing it in St. Louis at The Rep over the next few weeks.

What I realized in experiencing the show is that Kwong has been working on this show for many years. While The Enigmatist itself didn’t exist 10 years ago, Kwong was cultivating his craft. I’m sure the show itself took years to create, and he originally performed it in New York in 2019, so The Enigmatist has existed in some form for 7 years. Along the way, Kwong wrote two related books and created a deck of playing cards that is also a series of puzzles.

In other words, David Kwong has devoted himself to this 2-hour show for at least 10 years. He worked hard to create something great, and he continues to share it with as many people as possible (likely while improving and enhancing it along the way).

One of the reasons I was hesitant at first to write about this topic was that it truly felt like a luxury to work on Vantage for 8 years; how could I possibly recommend that approach to other designers and publishers?

But Vantage isn’t alone in this category. A few other examples of games that have been someone’s primary focus for many years are The Old King’s Crown (Pablo Clark), Obsession (Dan Hallegan), Galactic Cruise (T.K. King), and Stardew Valley (Eric Barone). All of those tabletop games are rated 8.1 or higher on BoardGameGeek, and Stardew Valley is one of the top-rated, most-played digital games of the last 10 years.

In other words, if you have the opportunity to work on a passion project for many years, it could lead to something truly special, especially in a time when it’s more difficult than ever for a game to stand out from the deluge of high-quality projects.

Also, working on a project for 5-10 years doesn’t mean you can’t work on other projects in the meantime. I’ve found it incredibly helpful in my design process to have 2 games in the works at the same time. When I run into a wall on one game, I bounce over to the other game for a while.

That said, there are certain risks that accompany long-term passion projects. If the investment of all that time (and probably money too) doesn’t lead to something that resonates with people, you may just be making something for yourself. A safeguard for that is to not work in a vacuum–include others in the process and welcome their feedback.

Also, the world (and your world) can significantly change over 10 years. Something that might be exciting and innovative today might feel outdated in 2036. I tried to stay flexible and open-minded while creating Vantage; I constantly researched and played other open world games during the process.

10 years is a long time, though I don’t think that’s some magical number for longevity. Rather, this is more about a patient commitment to excellence. I want to give our projects the time they need to truly shine, quality over quantity.

I’ve only named a few high-profile projects here; can you think of any others? What are your thoughts on having a long-running project (even as you might work on others in the meantime too)?

***

Also read:

• Your Best Work, Mediocrity, and Creating for Creation’s Sake
• Meaningful Creations, Play, Elevation, and Connections (2025-2026)

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.

Parcel fulfillment methods, options, and best practices have evolved quite a bit over the last few years, so today I’ve updated the information from my previous post on this topic in the hope this will be helpful for my fellow creators.

The Basics

In general, this is the 2-step process that many creators use (see also this infographic):

1. Freight: A freight company (I work with ARC Global: justin.bergeron@arcglobal.us) ships cartons/pallets/containers of products from a factory to several different fulfillment centers (Australia, Canada, US, and Europe). Depending on your scale, you can potentially freight ship directly to distributors (who sell games to retailers). Here’s my 2023 update on freight shipping.
2. Fulfillment: A fulfillment center sends orders to customers within their respective region.

This method works well if you know exactly how many products to send to each region. That’s great for crowdfunders but more of a guessing-game for companies like Stonemaier Games who don’t accept orders until the products have arrived at fulfillment centers. We make educated guesses based on past sales and interest gauged from our newsletters.

Top Fulfillment Centers

Whenever I’ve selecting a fulfillment company, I always ask about and test the quality of packaging, speed, communication, customer service, and autonomous problem solving.

I’ve come to believe that consistently high quality is much more important than price when it comes to fulfillment centers. However, you can see a variety of stats (including price estimates, which are updated by each corresponding company) as well as contact information on this master list of fulfillment companies.

Here are my current top picks by region:

• United States: We work with Miniature Market fulfillment here in St. Louis and have been really impressed by all services they’ve provided. Fulfillrite, Quartermaster Logistics, and Allplay Fulfillment have great reputations, and whenever I receive a package from them, I’m pleased with the quality of packaging.
• Europe: Spiral Galaxy is great to work with, and they’ve offer a full-service VAT option. They’re extremely responsive, they’re fast, they pack games well, and they even have an optional system where they can confirm addresses with customers before printing labels.
• Canada: We work with Asmodee Canada to handle fulfillment, and they’re doing a great job with communication, speed, and quality of packaging.
• Australia/NZ/Asia: Let’s Play Games does a solid job at fulfilling our shipments to customers in Australia, New Zealand, and Asia.
• Other Areas: Unfortunately, there aren’t any fulfillment centers in other regions I can currently recommend, but I’d love to hear from other creators if you’ve had good experiences in the last few years.

If you plan to sell products through your webstore to customers on an ongoing basis, I recommend setting up different storefronts for each region (or some way to separate inventory by region).

Instructions for Fulfillment Centers

We try to be abundantly clear every time we work with a fulfillment center, informing them well in advance when we have an upcoming launch. Feel free to copy and paste the instructions below (or add/subtract from them):

1. Ship all packages so they do not require a signature for delivery.
2. Send customers their tracking number by e-mail on the same day that their order leaves the facility (not when the label is made and no later than the day after the package departs). Also, it’s crucial that backers see their FULL address on tracking notifications, not a partial address that will cause them to wonder if we forgot half of their information.
3. Either sync tracking numbers with our ecommerce platform or send me a spreadsheet of tracking numbers and couriers within 2-3 days of fulfillment completion. We can answer 90% of customer service questions if we have that data.
4. If it’s absolutely necessary for an order to ship in multiple packages, please make sure the customer knows that they’re receiving more than one package. That will prevent a lot of customer confusion and frustration.
5. Please pack the products with plenty of cushioning around the edges, corners, and between differently sized components.
6. Please use eco-friendly, space-efficient packaging if possible. (It’s generally up to the creator to specify if there is a product that could be shipped in a padded mailer or envelope instead of a reinforced box.)
7. Let me know in advance what your estimated daily/weekly target is (the quantity of orders they can ship each week). We ask that fulfillment centers increase this quantity for launch periods compared to normal weeks.

Tips and Thoughts

• Transparency: Most crowdfunders have moved to the method of charging for parcel shipping costs after the project. Parcel shipping is fulfillment center labor, packaging, and postage, which is separate from the landed cost of a product (manufacturing plus freight; this is built into the reward price). Basically, a customer’s assumption when they place a pledge is they’ve now paid for the entire landed cost and only need to pay for the parcel shipping cost later.
• Responsibility: It is inevitable that some customers will report that a package wasn’t delivered (despite the courier’s “proof” of delivery). We first ask the customer to check with their neighbors–you’d be surprised by how many times the package is next door. If the customer can’t find the package, we confirm that the address is secure (or ask for a more secure address), add a required signature to the delivery (if possible), and ship the package again.
• Product Size: A certain number of cartons fit on a pallet (18-21 cartons), and your manufacturer will often use the same carton size for everything they send. Smaller box sizes offer a significant competitive advantage given the freight shipping costs, though retailers and distributors typically don’t want to buy cartons with dozens of games inside (6-12 games per carton is ideal).
• Playmats: Big playmats in cardboard tubes require multiple packages for the same shipment, so we instead have our manufacturer flat-pack them. Fulfillment centers fold them into packages for shipment, saving customers a significant expense (and using a lot less cardboard in the process).
• Pre-packing: To speed up the fulfillment process, slightly decrease the cost per unit, and ensure a consistent quality of packaging, your manufacturer can pre-package products at the factory. This works best if customers are preordering 1 unit of the product and nothing else. You can even design expansion and accessory boxes so a shipping label can be placed directly on them without the need for a box inside a box.
• Damaged boxes: Publishers don’t typically have replacement boxes, so if a customer receives a dented or broken box and requests a replacement, there’s no other way than to send them another full game. When we do that, we give the customer a prepaid shipping label to send the ding-and-dent game to a reviewer of our choice (we check with the reviewer in advance to see if they’re fine with this arrangement).
• Replacement parts: Sometimes components are missing from inside the product, and we have replacement parts helpers around the world stocked with spare parts to send to you if you fill out the form on this page.

Other Tips I’ve Learned Over the Years

• Bar Codes/SKUs: Fulfillment centers and retailers require bar codes (gs1, then generate codes here); most also need SKUs (stock codes; if you’re in the board game industry, get these from heather.stoltzfus@hmahobby.org). Make sure you have both, and make sure you have a system for ensuring that you don’t use the same bar code on different products (I use a Google Doc with conditional formatting that highlights duplicate cells).
• Important labels: If you manufacture in China, put “Made in China” on the box (or wherever you made the product). Customs will have a problem if you don’t do this. Also include a choking hazard icon and label (“Warning. Choking hazard. Contains small parts. Not for children under 36 months.”).
• Add-Ons: The more add-ons and various configurations you offer, the more trouble you’re going to have when you fulfill rewards. Not only does it increase the potential for human error, but it also increases the cost: Some fulfillment centers charge a fee for each item in the package.
• Fee Precision: When calculating shipping rates on your crowdfunding project, use accurate fees for each country, not one-size-fits-all rates.
• Europe/VAT/Brexit: If you’re shipping from within Europe, put an address on the back of the box (i.e., your local address plus your fulfillment center address in Europe, though ask for their permission). If your game is CE marked and tested (which it needs to be if you are advertising it as a game for under 14) you need to have an address of an EU-based company that can act as your “authorised representative” and hold your Declaration of Conformity for you. You’ll need to pay VAT, and I recommend shipping DDP (delivery duty prepaid) if you ship to the EU from the UK so customers know that the price they see on your webstore (which includes VAT) is the full price they’ll pay for the product (no surprises upon delivery–and if there is a surprise, it’s a mistake by the courier that can be resolved). I also recommend putting UK and UKCA markings next to the CE markings.
• Central/South America and Africa: We’ve tried to ship to customers in these regions in the past, but very few packages would actually arrive at their destinations. I know it’s not ideal, but my recommendation to these customers is that they ship to forwarding addresses in regions where we do ship (i.e., to a friend or to a service like Shipito and MyUS).
• Communication: I’ve found that keeping backers and customers informed with frequent updates throughout the fulfillment process is really helpful for easing their anxiety, even if we have no news to share.
• Local Pickup: It took quite a bit of coordination, but a few months ago we added a local pickup option here in St. Louis through Miniature Market (for sales made on our webstore). It isn’t something I would want to handle through my home office, but Miniature Market is set up well for option.

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Hopefully this gives you some ideas for shipping and fulfillment! If you fulfilled a project recently or are shipping products on an ongoing basis, what’s something you learned that can help your fellow creators? Do you have a fulfillment center to recommend?

***

Also read:

• All other articles about fulfillment
• Board Game Supply Chain Basics
• Then and Now: How Expensive Is Freight and Parcel Shipping?
• Tariffs: Impact on Tabletop Publishers, Consumers, and US Manufacturing

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.

With our 2025 tax calculations now complete, it’s time for me to share the annual Stonemaier Games stakeholder report.

A “stakeholder” in Stonemaier Games is anyone who has an impact on our company and a stake in our story, whether it’s my coworkers, contractors, customers, Champions, Ambassadors, retailers, distributors, localization partners, artists, designers, readers, etc. So if you’re reading this, the transparency in this post is out of respect and appreciation for you.

Joy is always our goal–we don’t measure success by money, units sold, rankings, followers, or awards. Those are just metrics. So all of the data aside, I truly hope we were able to create some joy for you in the last year, and I’m grateful for your connection to Stonemaier Games.

2025 Revenue and Personnel

We use the accrual method for accounting (expenses and revenue count in the year when we ship the products to the customer). Our total revenue for 2025 was $25.1 million. The sources were distribution (34%), Stonemaier webstore (21%), localization (19%), direct hobby retailers (9%), Amazon FBA (13%), and digital game royalties (4%).

For comparison, revenue was $23.7 million in 2024 (actual profit is a much lower number on any given year; we consistently reprint almost all of our games, so the majority of our profits are reinvested into manufacturing, freight shipping, and personnel). Please note that comparing annual revenue isn’t particularly relevant, as changing the timing of a large first printing or restock by even just a month can shift millions from one year to the next. 2025 was also a particularly release-heavy year, and Vantage is among our more expensive games. Even with the increased expense of tariff taxes, we did not increase our prices.

We have no debt, nor did we take any loans in 2025. As usual, cash flow was tight at certain times of the year due to the gap between when we need to pay Panda (our manufacturer) and when distributors pay us, but we make it work. (I mention this to dispel the notion that profitable companies are always flush with cash.)

• Full-time employees: 7 (Jamey, Joe, Alex, Dave D, Susannah, Erica, Christine)
• Part-time employees: 1 (Alan)
• Every day contractors/partners: 4 (Morten, David, Dave H, Shannon, and Karel)
• Number of cats: 6
• Number of dogs: 3
• Independent contractors: 100+
• New games (including re-releases): 7
• New expansions: 2
• New accessories: 5
• Crowdfunding campaigns: 0
• Shareholders: 30 (including all 8 Stonemaier employees)

Here’s a longer list of everyone who has an impact on Stonemaier Games, including demographics (photos of many of them are here).

We warehouse and ship our games from Miniature Market for our products in the US, from Asmodee Canada for our products in Canada, from Spiral Galaxy in the UK to serve Europe, and from Let’s Play Games in Australia for Oceania/Asia. My coworkers and I work from home.

Games in Print

The quantities below are the lifetime units in circulation for each game (just the game, not expansions, accessories, or promos) in all languages released in 2025 or before, and the BGG rankings are as of today. If you haven’t rated our games, you can do so here!

• Viticulture: 273,584 units (BGG rank: 44)
• Euphoria: 44,000 units (BGG rank: 678)
• Between Two Cities: 56,900 units (BGG rank: 889)
• Scythe: 601,102 units (BGG rank: 26)
• Charterstone: 97,500 units (BGG rank: 625)
• My Little Scythe: 68,500 units (BGG rank: 837)
• Between Two Castles: 58,000 units (BGG rank: 771)
• Wingspan & Wingspan Asia: 2,639,429 units (BGG ranks: 38 and 89)
• Tapestry: 91,650 units (BGG rank: 293)
• Pendulum: 49,200 units (BGG rank: 3786)
• Red Rising: 154,800 units (BGG rank: 1055)
• Rolling Realms & Rolling Realms Redux: 62,000 units (BGG rank: 1124)
• Libertalia: 62,584 units (BGG rank: 516)
• Smitten & Smitten 2: 38,000 units (BGG rank: 6155)
• Expeditions: 77,500 units (BGG rank: 386)
• Apiary: 55,004 units (BGG rank: 314)
• Wyrmspan: 451,994 units (BGG rank: 125)
• Stamp Swap: 34,000 units (BGG rank: 3175)
• Finspan: 233,584 units (BGG rank: 489)
• Tokaido: 29,500 units (BGG rank: 835)
• Vantage: 64,000 units (BGG rank: 225)
• Origin Story: 33,500 units (BGG rank: 2314)
• Tokaido Duo: 27,834 units (BGG rank: 1800)

The products we introduced in 2025 were Finspan, Between Two Castles Essential Edition, Tokaido, Vantage, Tokaido Duo, Smitten 2, Origin Story, Wyrmspan: Dragon Academy, Tokaido: Crossroads & Matsuri, a variety of promos for Rolling Realms, and the Wingspan bird promo packs. As usual, we’ve tried to keep our release schedule streamlined and focused so we can shine a big spotlight on everything we make; with the addition of the Tokaido brand, we didn’t accomplish that goal particularly well in 2025.

Social Media, Contacts, and Other Metrics

This data is as of March 1, 2026.

• e-newsletter subscribers: 54,247 (40% open rate)
• Facebook fans: 43,305 (though most interactions are in our Facebook groups, which have over 100,000 members)
• YouTube subscribers: 57,033
• Instagram followers: 56,698
• Discord members: 3,155
• Bluesky followers: 2,695
• Stonemaier Champions: 15,738
• ambassadors (active volunteers): 780
• reviewers (active): 310
• international localization partners: 42
• Stonemaier Games Design Day attendees: 100
• funds donated to charities (annual auction): $22,364

With Joe as our Director of Communications, Alex as our COO, Susannah as our Sales Relationship Manager, Dave as our Customer Outreach Manager, Christine as our Director of Visual Design, Erica as our Ecommerce Brand Manager, Alan as our Director of Special Projects, and Jamey (me) handling lead design, development, marketing, content creation, project management, and direct-to-consumer sales, we have people specializing in different interactions on various platforms in service of you. This is reflected by our org chart:

New in 2025

Our other new endeavors and experiments in 2025 are as follows:

• While this isn’t our first foray into publishing content that originated in fan creations, it was new for us to publish a few packs of promo birds for Wingspan that were designed by fans of the game.
• We created an official place on our website for third-party accessory creators to feature their creations related to our games.
• I started the Positively Board Gaming Podcast with my friend Mitchell, with whom I’ve enjoyed chatting every week for the last year. It’s also found on our YouTube channel.
• We sponsored a professional disc golfer, Jeremy Koling, who has shared Wingspan with hundreds of people around the world while touring.
• We stood up for other publishers and small businesses who were subject to an illegal tariff tax forced upon us by the US government.

Looking Ahead to 2026

At the beginning of 2026, I previewed our releases for the year as follows:

• Q1: Wingspan expansion (based on the birds of Central and South America and the Caribbean; vision friendly cards are available as an add-on) and a Viticulture expansion (a new 4-season board with the original board on the back)
• Q2: Euphoria Essential (combines the expansion with the core game and offers a new board layout with some rules tweaks; the board and rules will be available separately for those who already have Euphoria) and the first Finspan expansion (I previewed a shark card and a colorful fish)
• Q3: Scythe vs Expeditions 2-player dueling game (this content expands Scythe and Expeditions, and all Scythe factions/player mats and Expeditions mechs/characters are compatible with the dueling game; there will be add-on packs containing metal versions of the mechs and a plastic airship [which isn’t used in the dueling game]), a small-box, lighter Wingspan bird experience playable in around 3o minutes, and a mini-expansion to Origin Story (many more superheroes)
• Q4: The first Smoking Bones game from artist and worldbuilder Andrew Bosley and a debut designer (see some info about the world here) and our version of Namiji (combines the core game and the expansion in a normal box size with accessibility updates)
• reprints for the Rolling Realm promos (other reprints for out-of-stock products are dependent on demand as indicated by back-in-stock requests on our webstore)

You can sign up for our monthly e-newsletter to receive notifications about these announcements.

In 2026, my goals are to welcome both new and experienced gamers into the gaming community and bring joy to their tabletops, to support my amazing coworkers, and to lead with kindness, compassion, and empathy.

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Thanks for joining Stonemaier Games on this journey, and if there’s anything we can do to add joy to your tabletop experiences, please let us know.

Do you have any thoughts, observations, or questions about this report? I want to continue to learn from mistakes and successes, experiment, and listen to our stakeholders in 2026.

Also read:

• 2024 Stakeholder Report
• 2023 Stakeholder Report
• 2022 Stakeholder Report
• 2021 Stakeholder Report
• 2020 Stakeholder Report
• 2019 Stakeholder Report
• 2018 Stakeholder Report
• 2017 Stakeholder Report
• 2016 Stakeholder Report

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.

Recently an Instagram post about Japanese ideologies appeared in my feed, and I keep returning to it, so I thought I’d share my ruminations with you today.

Kaizen: Improve by 1% every day instead of chasing perfection.

I think about this in two ways: One, I try to acknowledge that Stonemaier Games (and myself) can always improve, and real improvement takes time. Two, big projects are completed only when we make progress in small, incremental steps (a lesson I took to heart when designing Vantage–even if I only found time to design 1 new location on a certain day, that was infinitely better than not making any progress at all).

Shoshin: Keep a beginner’s mind; curiosity makes learning endless.

I love learning about other people, games, companies, etc. You may notice that nearly every article, video, or post I make ends with a question, as I’m genuinely curious about other perspectives. I also love to see people approach a variety of topics–from light to serious–with  real questions grounded in curiosity (not loaded questions).

Ikigai: Find the reason you wake up, as purpose fuels happiness.

This is a tough one. It’s truly amazing to understand your “why”, but what if your purpose is distant from your daily responsibilities? That said, I have found it incredibly helpful to have a clear, guiding principle: To bring joy to tabletops worldwide by serving you. That is the lighthouse for every boat I try to steer ashore.

Nemawashi: Prepare quietly before decisions; success comes from groundwork.

I’m working on this, but it doesn’t come naturally to me. Specifically, when there is a decision to be made, my instinct is to make it and move forward. I think this comes from a previous job when decisions would be deliberated ad nauseum; also, for a long time it was just me at Stonemaier. It’s really nice that I can make decisions without going through bureaucratic stopgaps, but now I’ve found so much value in involving different coworkers when I’m deliberating something.

Oubaitori: Never compare yourself to others–everyone blooms in their own season.

One of the most unhealthy things I’ve done (and sometimes still do) is compare myself, my games, and Stonemaier Games to others. It’s an insecurity, plain and simple. I don’t need to judge myself in relation to someone else, nor is it productive to judge someone else in comparison to me. Rather, I try to learn about others with an open heart and appreciate what they’ve created.

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Which of these ideologies resonates the most with you? Which one do you struggle with the most?

***

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.

Every day for the last 10 months, I’ve lived in fear that the executive branch of my own country would raise our import taxes to an extreme level that would significantly damage Stonemaier Games and the thousands of small businesses seeking to serve their US customers, retailers, and employees.

So when the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the tariff taxes and the way they were implemented were unconstitutional, I had a huge sense of relief. Relief that small businesses can no longer be used as pawns in a global game. Relief that the whim of one person can no longer effectively change the landed cost of our product from $10 to $25.

Yes, there are still legal ways for the executive branch to impose tariff taxes. They seem really passionate about making small businesses in the US pay more taxes. But these methods have limits: For example, the new tariff tax is 15% (that’s the max it can be), and it needs congressional approval to extend beyond 150 days.

In the immediate future, I don’t think we’ll see much of an impact on prices, as anything in stock in the US already had its tariff tax paid when it entered the country (if it was manufactured elsewhere). My perception is that many businesses avoided raising prices and instead just ate the extra costs (that’s what we did; we did not increase any prices).

There is also the possibility of tariff tax refunds. To date, Stonemaier Games has paid just under $300,000 in tariff taxes to the US government. I’m not counting on getting any of that back–it will be nice if we do, and I hope that other businesses do, but the level of uncertainty isn’t something for which we can plan.

My hope, as always, is that what happens next will help me best serve my coworkers, our independent contractors and partners, and our customers in the US and around the world (consumers, retailers, and distributors). I wish the same for all other small businesses.

How have the tariff taxes affected you, and what is your hope for the future of tariff taxes?

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If you want to question the feasibility of manufacturing highly customized games in the US, the ethics of manufacturing in other countries, or the politics of opposing tariff taxes, please read this and this.

Previous articles:

• Questions, Answers, and More Questions About Tariffs
• How Can We Fix This Together?
• We’re Suing the President
• The Math of Tariffs
• The Darkest Timeline
• Tariff Update: Legality, Lobbying, and Local Stores
• The Tariff Offset Gift Card: An Unexpected Outcome

Other related resources:

• CNN appearance
• NY Times
• Spectrum News appearance
• Board All the Time podcast
• Five Games for Doomsday podcast (plus Frank West)
• The Secret Cabal (Justin Jacobson)
• NPR
• Board Game Wire
• Global Times
• Financial Times
• CNET
• SLU International Business Now
• NY Times (August 2025)
• I Tried to Make Something in America (The Smarter Scrubber Experiment) – Smarter Every Day
• Tariff Tax Update: September 2025
• Polygon (Feb 2026)

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.

For the last 10+ years, Stonemaier Games has invested a lot of up-front time, resources, and love into our products, completing production before we sell to customers on our 4 regional webstores (followed by shipping soon afterwards, then a retail release a few weeks after fulfillment is complete).

This method has proven to serve our customers incredibly well, with 3 circumstantial exceptions:

1. It’s a guessing game as to how many units we send to each of our fulfillment centers (US, Canada, Europe, and Australia/NZ/Asia), so sometimes we have sold out of a product in one region but not another. Customers then need to make a back-in-stock request and wait for the reprint (or buy from their local store, as many units are reserved for retail distribution).
2. Even with our extensive oversight process, mistakes can slip through to the first printing of a product.
3. Our launches primarily reach those who follow Stonemaier Games in some capacity, directly or indirectly.

With this in mind, I was both impressed and intrigued that Gamefound is introducing a new feature called Express Crowdfunding. In their words: “Instead of collecting pledges and waiting months or years to deliver, Express Crowdfunding allows creators to gather shipping details and begin fulfillment while the campaign is still live.” When the initial printing sells out, Express shifts into accepting preorders for a second printing.

I think this is fantastic, as it directly addresses what I believe is the biggest issue with modern crowdfunding: uncertainty. When a creator launches an unfinished product, they pass the burden of uncertainty onto their backers.

Express asks creators to finish and produce some quantity of their product before launching. Yes, there’s risk in that, and I understand why creators old and new have to choose how they mitigate that risk. That’s where Express shines (in principle–we won’t see it in action until Labyrinth Chronicles launches on Tuesday): You can make a smaller print run of the game up front so some customers can receive it within a few weeks of launch, then within the same campaign you can gather preorders from everyone else.

I confirmed with Marcin at Gamefound that the pre-produced games can have a variety of variants (different versions, languages, or quantities at fulfillment centers). A creator could offer a different price for a pre-produced version than a second printing if they wish, and backers can choose between the two. StretchPay doesn’t apply to the pre-produced games, and so Express may not work as well for games priced at $100+.

In my opinion, this is a strongly backer-focused option, and I’m curious which other creators will try it first. If you do, please let me know so we can talk about it.

Does this intrigue me for a future Stonemaier launch? Just a little bit, particularly for #3 on my above list. However, part of our method is that we not only get products to customers soon after launch, we also get them to retailers soon after launch fulfillment. In fact, we saw with Expeditions that it doesn’t serve retailers and their customers well when there’s a big gap between launch fulfillment and retail fulfillment.

Also, we’ve taught early adopter consumers over many years that our webstore is the place to go to get our games, and our Champion program is built around the Shopify platform. Our webstores sync up perfectly with our fulfillment centers, and we’ve invested heavily in the webstores with significant results ($5.3m in net consumer webstore sales in 2025).

So while we likely won’t try Express, I applaud the innovation.

Quick notes on other crowdfunding innovations:

• Gamefound has also implemented Endgame, which lets backers extend a campaign as long as it continues to receive pledges. This can help with stretch goals and give more backers access to lower campaign pricing before late pledges begin. Marcin notes, “it is also just a fun experience for an engaged community,” which I can see.
• Kickstarter offers creators the option to provide “secret rewards” as a way of showing appreciation to certain backers. I learned about this from the creator of the Sugarworks project. I can see this as a nice way to offer a lower price to people for whom you’re particularly grateful.

What do you think about Express, Endgame, and secret rewards from a backer or creator perspective?

***

Also read:

• The Current State of Gamefound (2025)
• An Insider’s Perspective of Gamefound vs Kickstarter (2022)
• 10 Years Without Crowdfunding

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.

What do Senet, Backgammon, the Royal Game of Ur, Mancala, Go, Pong, archery, running, swimming, and boxing have in common? They are some of the world’s oldest games (tabletop, digital, and sports).

I realized recently that games wouldn’t have existed across the world for thousands of years if they weren’t solving an essential problem faced by humanity. Games let us feel something important that we rarely experience on a daily basis. We are able to work because of what we gain from playing.

Here’s a list I’ve compiled of essential feelings that games let us experience. Games enable us to feel:

• clever
• powerful
• creative
• lucky
• progress
• control
• safe
• joy
• adventurous
• discovery
• connection
• potential
• useful
• empathy
• masterful
• victorious
• acceptance
• complete
• unique
• purpose
• love

Think of a game you love and how it makes you feel. I put a photo of Tapestry here because it provides several of these essential feelings: I can feel clever when I eek out one more advance turn before a break for income. I can feel powerful when I expand my territory and ward off opponents. I can feel lucky when I roll the science die. I’m also consistently feeling a sense of progress (I’m always moving forward), control (full agency over the track I choose), and uniqueness (asymmetry).

Of course, the great thing is that no single game needs to provide all of these feelings. An adventurous or lucky game may not give me all that much control, just as a cooperative game that provides feelings of love and connection may not make me feel powerful or victorious.

Also, some of these feelings are provided by the act of gaming itself. I can feel complete in a game by maximizing a set collection mechanism, but I can also feel complete in the meta sense by collecting all expansions for a game I adore. I can feel useful by teaching a game, and I can feel masterful by honing my skills in a specific game over dozens of plays.

The more I thought about this topic, the more I realized two things:

1. These feelings are truly important in life. I need to sometimes feel lucky. I need to feel a sense of purpose. I need to feel like I’m making progress. Think about how essential (yet rare) these feelings are in our daily lives (work, family, school, etc). Life can be really hard, and there may be long spans of time when we don’t feel unique, discovery, or control. Games aren’t a replacement for those feelings in our daily lives, but they remind us that these feelings are possible.
2. We can create games with intention to evoke these feelings. On a purely theoretical level, I can look at any game we make and attribute at least a few of these feelings to it. I can also say that many of my games have an intended experience. But from now on, I plan to use these feelings as the foundation for every game’s design and development. Again, not every feeling for every game–some are contradictory–but I want our games to solve this problem with intention, not stumble into a solution.

I believe these are essential feelings to the human experience. While I truly hope that we all get to feel them in real life on a regular basis, I’m glad that games provide a consistent source of these feelings.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this concept. Am I missing any essential feelings? Do you consider these feelings essential to our humanity? What’s a game you played recently that provided a few of these?

***

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My journey to becoming a backer of the “Almighty” Kickstarter campaign began with an intriguing Space-Biff review, followed by a note to myself to write about the thematically whimsical-yet-informative project page, and finally a surprise message from creator Malachi Ray Rempen. I had a few questions for Mal that he graciously answered for today’s post.

1. I really like that the first image on the project page leads with the words, “Why we made Almighty” (with the reason focused on potential players: That they would “make a great god” and if they like a short list including ancient mythology, emergent narratives, and asymmetric area control). Can you talk a little about the decision to “lead with why” as the first image on the page?

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that this comes directly from Simon Sinek’s “Start with why” TED talk from back in the day. On my very first Kickstarter, Itchy Feet, I decided to take his advice literally; rather than start the campaign with the product or even the theme, the very valuable real estate at the top of the page is taken up almost entirely with a statement to answer “why” and a bit of art.

That campaign did WAY better than I ever dreamed, so in a way the why statement has become a good luck charm for me, and now I always do it. I can’t be sure that starting with why is what led to that campaign’s success, but I’m not about to test that by breaking with tradition now!

It is also a great way for me to focus the marketing message. If I can answer “why” in a single, bold, appealing statement, it’s like the center of gravity around which the rest of my messaging can turn. Without it, the marketing risks just becoming another flavor of “buy this thing now.”

[JAMEY] I really like the idea of starting with why in the messaging–it’s something I need to remember more often.

2. The game looks like Root and Oath had a baby…and you got a quote from the designer of those games, Cole Wehrle! How did you pull that off?

I credit Root with making it possible for serious strategy games to present as fun and cartoony, and for that I owe it a huge debt. With the exception of Itchy Feet, all my games are mechanically more serious than they first look, and thanks to Root nobody thinks twice about that. I took a lot of inspiration from Oath, both visually and mechanically, as it’s a highly strategic game that also revolves tightly around a shared central tableau.

Almighty is lighter than either of those games, but I do consider myself something of a student of Cole’s art direction and what you might call his sense of unified aesthetic, or how every single aspect of a board game contributes to its experience…even the parts that only exist in your mind!

As for the quote, that’s from a Bluesky post that he put up totally unprompted by me, it was a complete surprise! He’s the best though, he’s a model exception to the rule that you should never meet your heroes.

[JAMEY] I’ll add that I think it’s incredible that you are a designer, developer, publisher, and artist!

3. I must admit that when a game highlights that it can be played both competitively and cooperatively, it makes me wonder which is the “correct” or “best” way to play. In other words, to me it’s more of a marketing detriment than an asset. Of course, that’s a highly subjective take. Was Almighty designed from the beginning as either a competitive or cooperative game? What’s your instinct when you (as someone who plays games) sees a game advertised with multiple modes of play?

Almighty was built initially as a competitive game. There is certainly wisdom in the idea that a game should only present its best foot forward and not dabble in different modes of play, for the sake of clarity and elegance, and I am sympathetic to that view.

But for me personally, as a publisher of a kind of games that you are unlikely to find elsewhere, it’s a question of accessibility. I know there are people who prefer or only play solo or cooperatively, and if there is a chance that I can offer those people a way to play with the worlds, stories, art, components and puzzles in my games, then I want to try to do that for them. I also enjoy the design challenge, and looking at the amazing work by solo designers like Ricky Royal it’s getting harder and harder these days to argue that it’s not possible.

As for my own personal instinct, I don’t mind if a game has multiple modes of play, as long as they preserve what makes that game unique and interesting.

[JAMEY] I love the focus on accessibility, though I can see it working the other way too–if a game isn’t super clear about its intentions (should I play this competitively or cooperatively), that can impede accessibility. I’ve also seen rulebooks where the competitive and cooperative rules intermingle in a way that can be confusing. That said, I view solo play as a necessity; even though it’s technically a different mode, you’re still experiencing the core gameplay.

4. You have a really unique and fun take on stretch goals in the “God of Upgrades”. It’s much less rigid and far more thematic than most stretch goal systems I’ve seen, and I like the inclusion of “Backers that show kindness and support for one another” on the like list and both “Speaking to the creators of this game as though THEY were deities (we are but humble mortal vessels)” and “Backers that are rude and/or combative with each other” on the dislike list. How has the response been to this approach so far?

The result of this pretty last-minute idea is that I now have the funniest and most delightful comments section of any Kickstarter campaign I’ve ever seen. It’s full of jokes, board game themed psalms, comical appeals for forgiveness, and one person even posted a photo on BGG of their cats having “built a temple” to this “god of board game upgrades” that I created for the campaign.

It’s also practical, as it lets me gauge what backers actually want upgraded or added, which is a big downside to a traditional stretch goal system. It’s interactive, it’s thematic, it’s fun, it promotes good vibes, and maybe most importantly of all, it’s optional! So everyone who has been taking part has been making it that much more fun for everyone else. I’m delighted by the response so far.

[JAMEY] I hadn’t thought of the flexibility this method gives you to serve backers base on what they really want. You’ve basically provided the perfect method for them to express their highest hopes for the game, and you accomplish this by setting a fun (not demanding) tone for the backers.

5. Is there anything else you want to highlight in regards to the fun vibe exuded by the project page?

I’m glad you think there are fun vibes, that’s certainly the goal! It’s my belief that crowdfunding campaigns have a magic circle, too, not unlike the one we’re familiar with around the tabletop; for a limited window of time, you and other like-minded people gather together and participate in the creation of something that did not exist before and cannot exist without you. That is a wonderful, rare thing in this day and age, and worth protecting. I am a little saddened when I see campaigns that are not much more than a dolled up preorder system. To me it’s more like I’m lighting a bonfire, inviting you to join, and after our festivities you’ll get to take a burning log back home with you to light your own hearth. I dunno, maybe that’s a totally overwrought metaphor, but it’s how I feel!

[JAMEY] Thank you so much, Mal, and I’m excited to play Almighty around this time next year. If you (dear reader) have any thoughts on this conversation, feel free to share in the comments!

***

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I recently talked to a publisher friend about something they had never encountered before: They were completely caught up at work. In fact, they were well ahead of schedule but their coworkers were not, so they wanted to resist their instinct to simply create another game, at least for a while.

Being completely caught up at work is a luxury that some of us may never experience, but perhaps you can relate to brief times when you’ve completed all time-sensitive tasks. After filling every spare moment with Vantage for nearly 8 years, I had that feeling when it was complete. I suddenly went from feeling perpetually behind to having an ample amount of time.

So today I thought I’d brainstorm a few ways to spend extra hours or even days when you’re caught up on work, particularly in creative roles. I’d love to hear what you do in these rare situations.

1. Serve customers: When in doubt, I ask myself, “What could I do right now to serve our customers?” This can be private or public. For example, I could email some of our most frequent customers to thank them for their support. I could hang out in any online community for our games, or search for our games on Instagram to comment on the posts instead of just liking them. Or I could make a video (recorded or live) to help people learn one of our games.
2. Research and learn: There’s more knowledge in the world than I can ever possibly know. I can spend extra time studying game design (from books, podcasts, articles, YouTube, etc) or even playing games (tabletop and digital). In fact, I so rarely play digital games because I always feel like I should be working, but I learn something about game design every time I do.
3. Support existing products: As fun as it is to release something new, most of the games we sell are reprints. Among many different ways of supporting existing products is to share special challenges or variants (like Vantage’s recent Valentine’s-themed custom cards). I can even revisit older rulebooks with a fresh, unrushed perspective. Also, even if I’m ahead of schedule, it never hurts to playtest a prototype again.
4. Create content: If there’s a topic on my mind that might add value to people or start a conversation, I can write an article about it, record a podcast, or film a video. It doesn’t need to be a commitment to creating regular content–it’s perfectly fine to create a singular post on a topic.
5. Attend an event: I rarely travel to conventions or even attend events at local game stores/cafes. Perhaps that’s just my introversion, but part of it is the other work I always feel I should be doing. But if I have extra time, there are plenty of places I could go–near and far–to play games and meet people outside of my social circle.
6. Make something just for fun: Sometimes I give myself permission to brainstorm a game (and even prototype it) just for fun, and I’m almost always glad I did. The lack of pressure to create something publishable is incredibly freeing.
7. Help someone else: I’ve heard that one of the best things for our mental health is to help someone else. Whether it’s a coworker, a friend in the industry, or a new creator, there’s always someone out there who might be looking for a little time, feedback, or words of encouragement.
8. Connect with someone locally: I typically take a 30-minute lunch break at my home office, then it’s back to work! I hardly ever go out to lunch, but there are lots of people–friends and peers–in the area that I could be more intentional about sharing lunch with from time to time.
9. Be good to yourself: There’s no rule saying that an absence of work needs to instantly be filled by more work. I can go for a walk, take care of a personal task I’ve delayed, treat myself to a movie, etc.
10. Start the next project: I’m putting this last because despite my inclination to always be creating something new, we don’t always need to make more games. Especially when we already have plenty of games in the pipeline and when adding something new could put a burden on already-busy coworkers. That said, it’s nice to start on a new game without any time pressure.

What do you do when you have extra time at work?

***

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Years ago I was wrong about pledge managers, and I’m still learning the full scope of my short-sightedness about them.

For the way we sell new products there’s only a few weeks at most between the launch date and shipping, so we don’t use pledge managers. But I noticed a surprising data point after the recent 5-day launch period for Wingspan Americas and Viticulture: Bordeaux.

Both products sold well on our webstore during that time: 20,260 copies of Wingspan Americas and 6,353 copies of Viticulture: Bordeaux. However, in terms of the 5-day revenue, these products comprised of only half of of webstore sales. The other half of revenue came from older products.

You read that correctly. Nearly for every dollar of a sparkly new product, customers spent another dollar on an older product. Perhaps this is to consolidate shipping (we offer $10 flat-rate shipping)? Or the new products provided a nice excuse to browse the webstore?

This is what I underestimated and misunderstood about pledge managers years ago when Backerkit originally created this extension of the campaign. My backer mentality was that I’m there for the new product–if I wanted a company’s older products, I would have already purchased them, right?

But that’s not the case. The pledge manager is just an optional, non-pushy service to customers. After all, everything is shipping from the same fulfillment centers. It’s an opportunity for discovery and shipping consolidation. And, in some cases, it’s a chance for a publisher to try to move slower-selling products.

This was also a reminder to me that having related products in stock (i.e., Wingspan and Viticulture products for the recent launch) is really important, and that requires planning at least 6 months in advance.

What do you think about this? Do you ever add products to your cart in pledge managers that you weren’t planning to buy? Are you typically happy with that choice?

***

Also check out Jet Bridge, a Shopify extension that can act similarly to a pledge manager for crowdfunders who use Shopify for ongoing sales. Ben Harkins at Floodgate shared this with me after I posted this article.

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.

Last year around this time, a coworker shared that they would feel valued by a Stonemaier company retreat. After asking other coworkers about the idea and hearing that they were supportive of it, I started the year-long process of planning the trip, which culminated in roughly 3 days in Phoenix last week.

The main feature of the retreat was that it was the first time all 8 of us have ever been in the same place at the same time, as we all work well from home in Missouri, Oregon, Florida, Nevada, and Minnesota. My happy place is at my desk at work, but I was happy to serve my coworkers by arranging and participating in this trip.

Details about exactly how the trip worked are in the article I wrote in June. Basically, I found a location (Phoenix) that met the environmental preferences of all coworkers and was within a direct flight for almost all of us, and I found a rental property where we could all have our own rooms to meet privacy, introversion, and sleeping needs. The trip was only for Stonemaier employees, and the focus was on each other and Stonemaier Games (opposed to nearly everything else we do, which is focused on our customers). The trip was during the week, as it was a work trip–I wanted everyone to be able to return home for a weekend with their families and friends.

Two things that evolved after I wrote that article in June are as follows:

• Food: I heard some good advice about food planning–make it easy for everyone–that I took to heart. For breakfast, we picked up a few basic items from the grocery store on the first day. For lunch, I researched nearby restaurants from which we could order delivery or pickup. For dinner, I made reservations at a few local places that met everyone’s dietary preferences.
• Schedule: I heard some other good advice about having some sort of structure to each day, shared in advance so everyone has a clear vision and can plan accordingly. Here’s how it looked:
  • casual breakfast individually at the house
  • mornings are free time to do anything you want in and out of the house: work, sightsee, meet outside the house with local friends, relax, etc.
  • order in together for lunch
  • stay at the house for the afternoon (not necessarily for anything in particular, but just to create the potential of working together if there are things to playtest, discuss, or just play for fun)
  • go out together for dinner
  • play games together, hang out at night, and/or have quiet time

The only last-minute changes involved (a) those of us in St. Louis getting a huge snowstorm just before the trip, resulting in a longer flight and a much later arrival than planned on Tuesday and (b) we rented an 8-passenger van rather than taking rideshares around the city.

Before the trip, I printed/assembled a bunch of prototypes and packed them along with a submission and some pre-production copies. We spent the majority of the two afternoons (plus one evening) playtesting and discussing these games.

My coworkers shared a wealth of feedback for me to consider and implement, which was as helpful as it was exhausting (if you’ve ever run a playtest of one game for a few hours, you know how much mental and emotional energy it requires–this was six games over a total of at least fifteen hours). This resulted in me returning from the trip with a staggering amount of work. Their feedback was great, though, so I’m navigating how to better include coworkers in the playtesting and product design process in a more spaced-out, remote, and independent way.

I think my favorite couple of hours during the retreat happened on the last night after the final playtest session. We were tired enough to go to bed, but instead we drifted one by one into the living room and talked. Just 8 people hanging out, joking, sharing, opining, etc. It was really nice to have that idle time with such delightful folks.

I’m sharing all this partially to close the loop I opened in June’s article and partially to offer an alternative template to traditional corporate conferences filled with speeches and teambuilding activities and intense meetings. We essentially just got together in a nice place and worked/playtested for a few days.

Would I do it again? I’m not sure. I’m definitely not looking to add another job to my job, and this was no small effort for me to plan, coordinate, and execute; I also returned with far more work than when I arrived. I think we work well remotely (in fact, in many ways this was a reminder of why I prefer to work from home, especially as an introvert), and much of the product design discussions can happen virtually on a rolling basis. Three of my coworkers are here in St. Louis and already participate in playtesting (though I could do a better job of inviting them more often). The idle time was intangibly important, though, so every few years I think it would be nice to get together for that purpose, even if it’s just a quiet evening before Design Day when most people are in St. Louis anyway.

I’m curious to hear your reactions, thoughts, and questions to this style of work retreat–feel free to share in the comments!

***

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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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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 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.

I just spent a delightful weekend at Geekway Mini here in St. Louis playing tabletop games–including several play-and-win games–with a variety of wonderful people. Among some new-to-me favorites, I also taught and played Origin Story, Viticulture with the new expansion board (subscribe here for more info), and an epic 7-player game of Scythe on a friend’s stunning custom board.

With many game conventions big and small happening around the world in 2026, I thought this might be a good opportunity to shine the spotlight on the amazing play-and-win system that originated with Geekway many years ago. Also, tickets for the bigger version of Geekway will be available starting this Friday–I’d love to play a game there with you in May if you decide to attend!

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My favorite way to market our products is to facilitate and encourage them to get to the table more often. Your table, my table, the tables of reviewers, ambassadors, etc–any table will do. The more our products get to the table, the more they’re exposed to people, and hopefully the more fun people can have with them.

This is a big part of the reason why we support our products with reprints, expansions, and ongoing reviews, as well as focusing on accessibility (Watch It Played videos, ability to teach to new players on the fly instead of frontloading rules, etc). Our goal is to bring joy to tabletops worldwide, but a key element is that our games must actually get to the table.

One of my favorite ways to accomplish this goal is through play-and-win donations for game conventions and 100+ person events.

Play-and-win is a convention concept where people can check out a game, play it, and then enter their name in a lottery to win that specific game at the end of the convention. If I donate a play-and-win game to a convention, it can be experienced by dozens and dozens of people in a short amount of time. Only one of those people will win it, so if other people liked the game, they’re now informed in their decision to purchase it later.

I’ve been talking about play-and-win on this blog for a while after discovering it at St. Louis’ own Geekway to the West (which I’m attending again this year–I highly recommend it), and I’ll post those links at the bottom of this entry. Stonemaier Games sends dozens of games each month to support conventions around the world.

Today I’m going to focus on the play-and-win Google Doc that I created and maintain, as well as my current approaches to maximizing the potential of play-and-win for publishers, conventions, and gamers.

Publishers

If you’re a publisher who likes the play-and-win system, but you don’t like getting solicitations from hundreds of conventions, the Google Doc is for you. You can simply enter your information on this tab, which communicates to the participating conventions that you’re in the know and don’t need to be contacted individually.

As a publisher myself, my process for sending out play-and-win games is that I have a calendar alert late each month to remind me to check the Google Doc for conventions happening 2-3 months in the future. For example, today (mid-January) I’m looking at conventions happening in March and April. Conventions have told me that this advance notice is really helpful, particularly so the coordinators can tell vendors which games are coming in time for them to stock up via distributors.

The number of games I send to a convention depends on the size of the event. Sometimes the play-and-win coordinators enter their information on the Google Doc and forget about it, so I help to remind them of what the package is by including the words “play-and-win” as part of the address label.

I try to keep our ambassadors informed about the various conventions that feature our play-and-win games. If any of them attend those conventions, they can make sure to drop by from time to time to see if players have questions. Otherwise, you don’t need to be worried about having teachers present–people who use play-and-win are usually comfortable to learn the game from the rulebook, and random fans of the game often stop by to help out.

Last, while we donate our games to play-and-win sections for free, it’s perfectly reasonable for you to offer a convention a discount instead of a free game. This can actually be helpful to the convention, as it lets them buy exactly what they think will be the most exciting for their attendees (instead of letting you choose).

Conventions

If you’re completely new to play-and-win, read this blog entry about the core details (or these instructions on the Geekway website). Then take note of the following:

• Please enter your convention on the Google Doc (use open rows at the bottom of each month or insert a new row). In doing so, you’re committing to use any contributed games for play-and-win, and you’re committing to actually having a play-and-win section with at least a dozen total games (even if it means allocating part of your convention budget towards buying games specifically for this purpose). You can now indicate if you prefer different games or multiple copies of the same game.
• In filling out the Google Doc, there’s no need to contact publishers–particularly publishers on this tab–to solicit donations. You will either receive games 30-45 days before your event…or you won’t, in which case you have plenty of time to purchase games to fill your play-and-win section.
• At least several weeks before the convention, tell vendors which games were donated for play-and-win so they can stock those games at the event. The play-and-win section should close (and winners announced) before the vendors close their booths.
• When you receive the games, prepare them to be played (i.e., punch the punchboards, open shrinkwrapped decks of cards, sort tokens, etc). This serves the attendees hoping to show up and start playing.
• It never hurts to follow up with a publisher after a convention to let them know how their games did in the play-and-win section (number of plays and ratings from participants). I understand that this is extra work, and I won’t ever hold it against a convention for not doing so, but it’s really nice when conventions do this.
• I recommend only letting each person win at most 1 game for the entire event–that way you spread out the prizes among the most people. Also, instead of interrupting the event to announce the winners, simply post them at a few key places around the convention hall or on an online forum designated for attendees to check.

There are other tips from specific conventions on this tab of the play-and-win Google Doc.

Gamers

If you like the idea of play-and-win, feel free to check out the conventions listed on the Google Doc. You might discover a nearby game convention that you haven’t heard of.

If you’re new to game conventions, you might be pleasantly surprised by them–especially the type of convention where you just play lots of games for a few days. I’m an introvert who does not get excited about big events, but my experience at Geekway is consistently amazing. I really appreciate people who have invited me to join their game or when someone teaches a new-to-me game, and I’ve tried to be just as welcoming to others. If you attend Geekway in May and you see me, please say hi–I’d love to play a game with you!

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What are your thoughts on play-and-win?

Also see:

• a developer has created some proprietary play-and-win software
• An Open Letter to Small Game Conventions from a Tiny Publishing Company
• The New Play-and-Win System
• The Hard Data Behind Play-and-Win
• The Magic of Play-and-Win: Data from Geekway 2015
• 5 Google Spreadsheets That Can Help Every Tabletop Game Creator

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.

After months of status updates on the World of Wingspan newsletter and a brief visual preview on last week’s livecast, yesterday I fully revealed the Wingspan Americas Expansion via our website, the Wingspan Facebook group, BoardGameGeek, and a newsletter. Over the next few days I’m sharing stories, mechanisms, photos, Instagram posts, and YouTube videos about the expansion, followed by third-party media starting on January 16. The expansion will launch on our webstores on January 21 (shared via our newsletter and ads) and arrive on tabletops around the world in February. Local retailers will release the expansion in late February, then online retailers in early March. Throughout 2026 the expansion will feature at conventions, release in various languages, and be reviewed by a diverse array of content creators.

Why the long paragraph listing these milestones? I realized recently that this method is quite similar to something I’ve experienced by searching for homes on Zillow.

Over the last few months, we’ve casually been looking at homes in St. Louis. There’s a certain joy in low-key browsing without any immediate pressure to buy (we’re perfectly happy at our small condo).

Like similar websites, Zillow lets you set some parameters, and it will notify you about homes that meet those parameters. You can also favorite specific homes that you’d like to follow more closely.

What has impressed me about this system is that it creates so many opportunities for contacting and engage potential customers (like me):

• coming soon
• new listing
• open house
• plan your weekend
• price cut
• take the next step
• pending sale
• sold

As I’ve received these notifications–which walk a fine line between not enough and too many–I’ve found myself wishing there was something like this for tabletop games. I could list the parameters of the types of games I love the most, follow the games that intrigue me, and get notifications for key milestones.

In the meantime, this is essentially what we do for people who choose to follow our games. We have our general monthly newsletter (plus Instagram, YouTube, and a Facebook page), and anyone who wants to follow a specific game or brand can do so via that game’s newsletter (or its Facebook group, BoardGameGeek, or Discord). This is followed by the various touchpoints I mentioned in the opening paragraph.

Cast a wide net, then engage deeper with those who want more info about specific products. The repeated points of contact are designed to avoid overwhelming you all at once, yet at any time you could choose to read the rulebook (or opt out if you decide the product isn’t a good fit).

Honestly, it’s also fun for the publisher: We’ve been working on this expansion for years, so I appreciate the opportunity to share it from different angles over weeks and months.

What do you think about the Zillow method? Have you seen it used well for tabletop games or other products?

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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.

I strongly believe in the importance of providing review copies to a vast variety of content creators so they can share their unbiased opinions with the audiences they serve. There were a lot of great games published in 2025, and I’m truly grateful for those who chose to play and feature Stonemaier products. I estimate that we send around 1,000 free Stonemaier products each year for reviews and other content via the system described below.

I genuinely hope content creators continue to seek joy in games (opposed to it feeling like a task, chore, or obligation). You have an amazing opportunity to add value to the people who value your insights and perspectives; it’s your choice to serve your audience instead of serving an algorithm.

If you’d like to sign up to potentially receive review copies of Stonemaier games, please read following article in full to understand our guidelines and procedures (within the article there is a link to a signup form). If you’re a relatively new content creator, please also read this post.

Overall Procedures

If you’re a reviewer or content creator on our list, I will contact you when we have review copies available. At that time, you will receive a message from me listing the products currently available for review, and you can choose one to receive (free product with free shipping). If you’re not on the list, you can sign up for consideration via the form linked in this article.

I kindly request that you follow this process rather than directly soliciting me for review copies, as it allows me to continuously provide products to hundreds of different content creators. For every product we offer numerous opportunities for you to receive review copies from us; if your schedule differs from ours, Stonemaier products are widely available for you to attain or play (on our webstore, from retailers, on digital platforms, and in non-English languages from localization partners).

Whenever I let our list of reviewers know that we have review copies available, I preface the email with these guidelines:

1. You do not already have a review copy (or an incoming review copy) from Stonemaier Games for which you haven’t posted substantial content.
2. You are available to feature the product you select in the next few months.
3. You don’t already have easy access to the product.
4. If you choose an expansion to review, you already own (or have access to) the core game.

If you are a content creator who wants to be considered for Stonemaier Games review copies, please read the following guidelines and sign up on the form within this article. Once you’re on the list, we’ll contact you when we have products available for review.

Here’s how we handle the various stages of review copies:

We only send 100% final versions of our products to reviewers, not prototypes.

1. Advance Review Copies: I typically receive 10-12 copies of new products via airmail from our manufacturer, Panda, a few months before we launch the product on our webstore. While I sometimes choose a few well-established reviewers for advance review copies, I  also include some growing and underrepresented content creators. I provide a media date for those reviewers when they can start sharing their primary content about the product; the reason for this date is that we do not want to rush reviewers–we want them to have ample time to play the game, evaluate it, and compose their thoughts so their reviews can best serve their audience.
2. Early Review Copies: When our fulfillment centers receive the full ocean-freight shipments (typically a few weeks before the product launch), I reach out to a handful of content creators to see if they’re interested in receiving an early copy of the game. This is a marketing effort to reach as many people as possible, so typically these are reviewers with 20,000+ Instagram followers, 10,000+ YouTube subscribers, 1000+ podcast followers, hundreds of views per article (self-hosted or on BoardGameGeek), and/or who have medium-sized audiences with high levels of engagement.
3. First-Run Review Copies: After the initial product launch and fulfillment but before the retail release date, I contact more reviewers–most with smaller audiences than the early reviewers, but still good engagement from their audiences–to see if they would like the product. At this point, around 200 reviewers will have received a review request from me, and typically around 50-75 of them respond with interest. Your opinions are just as valid if your video, article, or podcast isn’t posted until a few days, weeks, months, or even years after the game’s announcement/launch/release. Your audience subscribes because of your insights and the quality of your content, not because you’re the first to get a new game.
4. Reprints and In-Stock Games: I don’t want all of the buzz and visibility of our products to only happen at the beginning of their lifespans, so I regularly offer review copies of reprints and in-stock games. This is typically when I reach out to content creators with small, growing audiences with less engagement (views, likes, comments).
5. New Signups and Newly Discovered Reviewers: Like any gamer, I discover new-to-me reviewers all the time, and if I really like their content or just want to make sure they’re better represented in the hobby, I may contact them directly to introduce myself and see if there are any Stonemaier products they’d like to review. We also receive new signups on the reviewer form all the time, so I give those reviewers a few chances throughout the first year to accept review copies and to share a link with me of the content they create for that product. If I don’t ever hear (via email) from reviewers who signed up for the list with a link to the content they create about the review copies, eventually I stop contacting them.
6. Damaged Games: Sometimes our customers report that they receive a damaged copy of one of our games (purchased from our webstore). In those cases, I often send them a mailing label to send the ding-and-dent game to a reviewer, and we send the customer a new game. Reviewers don’t need a perfect box to assess the experience of playing the game.

Other notes about our methods:

• I Don’t Read/Watch/Listen to Reviews of Stonemaier Products: I highly value constructive criticism, of which I get plenty from playtesters and gamers. But for reviewers, I want to remain entirely unbiased and impartial to their tastes so consumers can get honest opinions from a wide variety of reviewers. I truly want all reviewers to know they can say anything they want about the Stonemaier products they play without feeling like I’m looking over their shoulder.
• We Do Not Pay Reviewers to Express Their Opinions, Nor Do We Charge Reviewers for the Products They Review: If a content creator selects a free product from Stonemaier Games to feature, we ask that they disclose that information with full transparency in all related content. On some platforms, the only way to do this is to tag the post as a “paid promotion,” which, while not entirely accurate (we’re providing cardboard, not cash), is necessary until those platforms offer more accurate tags about material connections between reviewers and tabletop publishers. Here is an extensive survey of reviewers that reveals how exceptionally rare it is for publishers to offer reviewers money for their opinions.
• Social Media vs Journalism: Simply being on social media does not make someone a content creator, reviewer, or journalist. I have the greatest appreciation for people who are consistently willing to spend time and effort to learn/play our games, publicly share their unbiased opinions in great detail, and contact us directly (and/or other sources for research) to ask questions about our business practices instead of making unfounded assumptions. That’s journalism. My email is jamey AT stonemaier.com.
• We Ship to Reviewers the Same Way We Ship to Customers (from within their region): We ship from fulfillment centers in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia. However, if a reviewer is ever charged customs/fees by their courier, we ask that they accept the package and then contact us so we can refund those charges.
• Standard vs Deluxe: I clarified in an article the reasons that we only send content creators free copies of standard versions of our games (even if there are deluxe alternatives/add-ons). If you’re a content creator who chooses to purchase and showcase deluxe components, that’s totally fine–please just be sure to make it abundantly clear to your audience whenever you’re showcasing something that isn’t standard (to avoid any possible confusion).
• I Consume a LOT of Review Content (Just Not for Our Games): At this point, I subscribe to around 750 different game-related articles, podcasts, and YouTube channels. I love hearing other people talk about games, whether they’re individuals or multiple hosts. You can see some of my favorites on our stuff we love page (see the archive section) and among our annual charity auction selections.
• Feature and Focus: I’ve mentioned several times above that I ask content creators to select products of ours that they want to “feature.” From a publisher perspective (and, honestly, as an avid consumer of gaming content), I’m less interested in a podcast or video that’s about a bunch of different unrelated games (or a game haul Instagram post) instead of primarily featuring one or two specific games (or focusing on a specific category). “Featuring” a game also means going beyond just making a quick Instagram post or an unboxing clip.
• A Distaste for Consistent Negativity, References to “Hype”, Clickbait, and Ragebait Tactics: I truly want reviewers to offer their honest feedback about games (whether their our games or games from other publishers). However, if a reviewer is consistently negative–for example, lists about games they hate or games that disappointed them–or is focused on “the hype,” as in “Does it live up to the hype?” (see this video and this video), I steer away from that content as a viewer (and such reviewers thus drop off my radar as a publisher too). To be clear, I have no problem with negative reviews of a game that a reviewer didn’t enjoy, especially if they take ownership over their dislike (“I didn’t enjoy it” or “it wasn’t for me” rather that “This game is bad/overrated/terrible”). But if you’re going to spend time making a top 5 or top 10 list, I simply can’t relate to someone who spends that time focusing on games they strongly dislike rather than games they enjoy. I also have a strong aversion to clickbait (titles and images) and ragebait tactics that don’t seem genuine to the creator or their content.
• Brand-New Reviewers: If you’re excited to start reviewing tabletop games or you’ve only been posting for a few weeks, I highly recommend that you build up a solid base of content and an engaged audience using the games you already have access to before you request that any publisher send free games to you (as a rule of thumb, if you haven’t already created content for many games in your collection, it’s too soon to ask for free products). A mutually respectful and beneficial relationship between a reviewer and a publisher goes both ways. There’s more on this topic here.
• Conventions: Attending conventions is incredibly expensive for publishers. There are so many expenses to have games, staff, and a demo team at conventions that we need to sell every possible copy to have a chance at breaking even. For that reason, please do not ask us for free review copies at conventions.
• Permanent discoverability: Reviewers spend invaluable time and effort to play, photograph/film, and compose their thoughts–I believe that their content is worth finding months and years after the original post. So I greatly prefer when a creator’s content is permanently discoverable. Specifically, if you post reviews on Instagram, (a) build up an audience of at least 5000 engaged followers before requesting a free game AND (b) post your reviews somewhere that a search engine can find them long after the day when you first post (like an article or BoardGameGeek).
• Written Reviews: We send hundreds of review copies to content creators focused on the written word, but for a few bigger releases we didn’t send any advance copies or text-focused journalists. After posting this article on the subject and reading the demand for such reviews in the comments, we committed to sending at least 1 advance copy of each product for a written review (followed by many more in subsequent waves).
• Social Media Tags: If you post an article, podcast, or YouTube channel, a quick post on Instagram tagging @jameystegmaier makes it very easy for me to share the news (though I don’t see every post and thus can’t promise I’ll share ever post–I try my best!). Sidenote about Instagram: A personal pet peeve of mine is when I open an Instagram story and am blasted with music. I don’t want to blast anyone else with music, so it’s very rare that I share posts with audio.
• Weekly roundups: Every Friday, I post on Facebook a list of all Stonemaier review links emailed to me by reviewers over the previous 7 days. While I’ve always posted these links on our website (and continue to do so), I’ve found this to be a more active way to share review content for the benefit of both the reviewers and our followers.
• Featured content: If you accept a free review copy, we’re looking for substantial featured content. That is, we’re looking for more than a quick tweet or Instagram post (a series of such posts is more in line with the idea of “featuring” content). Featured content consists of more than a brief discussion among a number of other games and more than just a 1-2 minute standalone video.
• I Say Yes to Every Interview: No matter the size of your channel, podcast, or website, if you want to chat with me to post a public interview on your platform, I’m happy to join you (and I think you’d be surprised by how many designers, publishers, and artists will do the same). There are a few small caveats to this–for example, you need to have some body of work posted publicly for me to first take a look at–but odds are very high I’ll agree to join you. Read more about this here.
• Forge Your Own Path: There are many ways to approach content creation–your style and methods don’t need to copy what [insert your favorite famous reviewer] does. For example, I have a YouTube channel where I talk about games (mostly games by other designers/publishers). But I’m not a reviewer. Instead, I primarily focus on mechanisms: When I play a new-to-me game or expansion, I select my favorite mechanism and create a video about it. I also post weekly long-form videos (e.g., top 10s) that usually highlight a specific mechanism. I record every video in a single take using a webcam and a decent mic; most are completely unedited (I use StreamYard to share images of the game while I’m talking). I also decided a long time ago that I’m not a reviewer–just a publisher/designer who likes to talk about games–so I do not accept free copies of games (with very rare exceptions, I only play games I buy or that friends own).
• Size Doesn’t Matter: I believe that review content is relevant whether you have 300 subscribers or 300,000. The only impact of size is how often I contact you about available review copies.
• Why isn’t a content creator you know on this list? It’s probably some combination of reasons: They’ve been inactive for a long time, they don’t actually feature content for a free product they accepted (or they didn’t email me links to the content), they didn’t accept any review products for a long time, they’re on our private list but asked not to be on the public list, they never signed up for the list, their content doesn’t meet the above guidelines (too new, no permanent discoverability, clickbait tactics, etc), they’re in a region that is prohibitively expensive for shipping (we accept alternative addresses in regions we do ship to, though), or they consistently exhibit such high levels of antagonism to us and/or others that I simply want no association with them.

We understand that some reviewers receive hundreds of games, and it’s their choice to accept (or not accept) a free review copy from us given these stipulations.

Overall, I’m really grateful for the wide variety of content creators who take the time to share their perspectives with the gaming community. If you’re curious about my favorite content creators, I’ve most likely featured them on one of our annual charity auctions (like these creators in 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013). There are also members of the media who cover gaming news, which I also appreciate.

Below is a list of all reviewers who have given me permission on the form to share their information with you. Over 25% of this list is comprised of underrepresented content creators–I’d love to further improve the diversity of this list! All you need to do after reading the above article is fill out the form; later, if/when you accept a review copy, please feature content for that product and send me a link.

This list doesn’t auto-update–it’s something I manually update once a year using our private list. In case scrolling within the list below is annoying, a full-page version is here. The data on the list may not be 100% accurate, as many reviewers filled out the form a while ago, so their stats and answers may not be up to date. I’m happy to update them upon request.

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If you’re a publisher, what’s your approach to reviewers and other content creators? If you’re a gamer, how do reviewers impact your decision to buy games, expansions, and other products?

Also see my original post on this topic five and a half years ago, the 2025 update, the 2024 update, the 2023 update, the 2022 update, the 2021 update, and the 2020 update.

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.