In regards to several recent crowdfunded games that either relaunched after an initial cancellation or are struggling to move far past their funding goal, I’ve heard some concerns about trust from potential backers.

For example, if a project has a $10,000 funding goal but after the first few days they only have a few hundred backers and $13,000 in funding, is it a mark of dishonesty if they cancel the project, reconfigure, and relaunch?

Personally, I do not begrudge anyone from learning from a mistake, oversight, or shortcoming and trying to do better. Nor do I consider it dishonest to showcase a marketable funding goal…as long as the creator is transparent about their aspirational goal.

Here’s an example from a related article:

If you want to make a hypothetical game with a landed cost of $20 (manufacturing plus freight shipping) with a trusted long-time producer like Panda, you’ll have a minimum order quantity of 1,500 units (or 2,000 if plastics are involved). Ideally you’ll make more, but that’s the bare minimum you need to cover that MOQ. So that’s $30,000.

Of course, you’ll need to pay artists, graphic designers, playtesters, and proofreaders–those costs can vary greatly based on the complexity of the game and the quantity of the art. At Stonemaier Games, I would say that those costs add up to around $75,000 on average. Added to the landed costs for the 1,500-unit MOQ, that’s $105,000.

I might list the funding goal at $30,000, but somewhere else on the project page I might discuss that I’ve already invested $75,000 in the game and that the funding goal is based on the MOQ of 1,500. So there I might note that we’ll make the game if we reach the funding goal, but my hope is to eclipse $105,000, perhaps marked by a stretch goal.

A creator could also just outright say, “We chose $10,000 as a marketable funding goal, but our aspirational goal is to make at least $50,000. Reaching that aspirational goal will help us cover our sunk costs and will enable us to pay for the first printing without dipping into our savings. If the project has not reached $30,000 a few days after launch, this is a strong indicator the game and/or the campaign are missing something important, and we may consider relaunching to best serve the audience for this game.”

This is essentially what Siclen Studio announced on a recent video about their current Kickstarter, though they took it a step further: They said that as long as they stay above their $10,000 funding goal (as of this writing, the project is at $13,535), they will make the game even though they had much higher hopes for it. I admire that, though I also worry that backer accusations of dishonesty backed Siclen into this corner instead of offering them the grace to relaunch.

I understand that this is a contentious subject, and I also understand that a creator risks losing backer trust if they relaunch. However, we are talking about crowdfunding here: Nothing is etched in stone. Crowdfunding gives creators the opportunity to learn from the crowd while the product and the project are still pliable.

Also, is it not an inherently human trait to set a lower goal with the hopes of surpassing it? I can certainly relate to that.

What are your constructive thoughts about marketable vs aspirational funding goals?

Also read:

• Setting a Reasonable Campaign Goal
• Admirable Goals vs Successful Crowdfunding
• Preventing a Dud

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.

Over the weekend I was playing a game, Takenoko, which I hadn’t played in a while. I had a rule question about gardener and panda movement, and I did what I often do if I can’t find a question in the rulebook: I pulled out my phone and Googled the question.

These days, Google shows the AI answer at the top of the page, so I see that first before scrolling down to look at the sources, most of which are BoardGameGeek threads. 99% of the time when I have a rule question and use this method, I find the answer, which is made possible by people who ask questions in permanent public places (versus private messages).

At Stonemaier Games, we’ve found that the AI answers aren’t always correct (this is why I look at the sources too). We rarely have a good way of replicating the question and/or fixing incorrect answers, so we found a web app that enables those features.

On Portal, we feed our rulebooks (and other applicable files) into the app, ensuring that it sources the official files. Anyone can choose a game and ask a question, and Portal will find the answer in the rulebook, including visual citations. You can try it right now.

As a publisher, I have access to the back-end dashboard for our games on Portal, where I can see a list of questions all in one place. I can improve answers and use the “confidence” metric to improve rulebooks for reprints. I see a lot of potential value in it, and the developer (Will) is very responsive.

However, many questions about games are less urgent and more geared towards discussion. Sometimes they’re not even questions. The community around our games is driven by threads about specific cards, house rules, fan-made components, opinions, and photos. For those, we recommend using any of the following:

• Game-Specific Facebook Groups
• Game-Specific Discord Channels
• BoardGameGeek
• Stonemaier Games website

For the first time, all of these options are now found in one convenient location on our website (“Rule Questions”, at the top of the page).

How do you ask rule questions? Are you satisfied with the answers? What other types of questions or posts do you make about tabletop games (when you’re hoping for other perspectives)?

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.

14 years ago today–on September 10, 2012–Viticulture reached its funding goal on Kickstarter. I consider this the official day that Stonemaier Games was born, and I’m so grateful for those original backers for giving birth to that game and this company.

September 2012 is also around the time that I started posting articles on this blog about my thoughts, observations, data, mistakes, and lessons learned. That would approximately make this my 1456th article on this blog!

I don’t have a monumental topic today; rather, I have a few bite-size topics on which I’ve ruminated recently. I’d love to hear your thoughts about any of them.

• Games on ships: I recently went on a cruise around Iceland, and every evening we would end the day by playing games in some of the quieter places on the boat. I was pleasantly surprised to see that quite a few other people did the same. Lots of portable card games. The ship itself did not have many games, just a few decks of cards and a dozen copies of mahjong in the library. I’m reaching out to a few cruise lines to see if we could contribute some of our smaller games to their collections. What types of games do you see people playing when you travel?
• Mentioning a tip: During the Iceland cruise, we went on a number of excursions. Sometimes people tipped the tour guides, sometimes not. But I noticed that tips increased significantly at the end of an excursion to an isle of puffins. The difference was that at the end of the trip, the tour guide (one of several) thanked their coworkers and verbally invited people to share their loose change as a tip on the way out. Quite a few guests did that, and not just with coins. It was a reminder of the power of a clear, simple call to action. Have you recently responded to a call to action (and if so, what inspired you to actually take action)?
• Out of print: In a recent interview with a retailer on The Bits podcast, roughly around the 90-minute mark, a retailer (Kylie of Games Unlimited) says that he wishes publishers would let retailers know–specifically, retailers who have bought or consistently buy a product–if a currently-in-stock product is going out of print or will be out of stock for a while. All it takes is a mention in your retailer newsletter: Hey, X product with only 100 units remaining has been slow to sell and we’re not going to reprint it for a while, so now is the time to get it if the game has sold well in your store. I thought it was great feedback from Kylie that we will act on at Stonemaier Games. Do other retailers relate to this?
• Memorable moments: Earlier today I read an article listing common misses in Euro games (games with high agency, minimal randomness, and skewing towards perfect information). I don’t agree with some of the items on the list, but one stood out to me. I agree that some of the best Euro games include big memorable moments. Perhaps the moment when you play a difficult card requiring multiple steps (e.g., an elephant in Ark Nova), the moment when you complete a spatial goal (e.g., fill an island in A Feast for Odin), or the moment when you do something incredibly powerful (e.g., go to space in Tapestry). What’s your favorite memorable moment in a Euro game?
• The invitation of closure: Recently a friend recommended a 7-book series around the same time that someone suggested a 10-season TV show. The good news about a long-running series is that if I love it, I can immerse myself in that world for a long time. The bad news–as I often feel when I hear about a long-running series–is that I’m daunted by how much of a commitment it is. Plus, if it has existed for that long, I wonder if I’ve missed out on the peek of the series when people were the most excited to talk about it (the community aspect). I can see this happening with games with lots of expansions, and it’s one of the reasons I like aiming for a moment of closure with our games (e.g., 3 expansions for Scythe–though I later added Duel of Meloch, 1 expansion per continent for Wingspan, 3 expansions for Tapestry). Does the scope of a series of games impact your desire to try the game in the first place?

Thanks for reading and/or joining the conversation, whether it’s for this article or any of the 1455 articles that preceded it!

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.

At Stonemaier Games,  our staff and contributors now include a total of my 6 full-time coworkers, 1 part-time coworker and cofounder, a number of key independent contractors and creatives (designers and artists), and another 100+ paid volunteers (proofreaders and playtesters). I am so lucky to work with such talented, passionate, and kind people every day.

I’m in the incredibly fortunate position of running a company I love. I try to value my coworkers (in both words and actions) as I’d hope someone would value me if I were in their shoes. I’m a proponent of slow, deliberate, and sustainable growth: If I make the rare decision to hire someone, it’s a commitment to support them long term through the good times and the bad.

Today also happens to be the exact day I said goodbye to my treasured cat companion, Biddy. As I’ve reflected on the 16 years he was in my life, I realized how grateful I am to have had a career at Stonemaier Games that allowed me to work from home. That is such a huge gift of time I could share with Biddy, who would often nap on my chair or desk while I worked.

Here are our updates for 2026:

• Company Retreat: The 8 of us gathered in Phoenix for a few days of playtesting, discussion, and invaluable idle time together. Several of our games–including Wingspan Pocket–are significantly better as a result of the collective feedback, and it was helpful to see the value of simply being in the same space as each other. We’re getting together again for a low-key evening before Design Day in a few weeks.
• Sales Team Meetings: A few times this year the Stonemaier sales team (different facets covered by Susannah, Alex, Erica, Dave, and me) has convened for a 1-hour call without any specific objective–we’ve just made space to talk about anything related to the present and future of our products so we can do a better job of serving our varied types of customers (retailers, localization partners, distributors, online stores, convention attendees, and webstore users).
• No Generative AI: This has been a tough year for many talented people, with companies using AI as a justification for layoffs. My heart goes out to everyone who lost their jobs. Stonemaier Games does not use, has not used, and does not plan to knowingly use generative AI for creative work (text, art, videos, etc). If we’re creating something, we want it built from the ground up by talented people from different backgrounds, perspectives, and cultures. We believe that the process is integral to our output, and it allows human creativity to shine. Whenever AI tries to poke its tendrils into our company, we instead ask the question: Why don’t we pay a person to do this?

What are you reflecting on this Labor Day?

• Labor Day 2025: What’s New This Year
• Extreme Ownership and MrBeast
• Labor Day 2024: What’s New This Year
• How I Value My Coworkers
• Wages, Inflation, and Labor Day
• The Bear and Professional Development
• A Short Note About Wages on Labor Day
• Labor Day: Fair Wages, Volunteer Compensation, and a Job Application Update
• Perks and Principles for My Coworkers at Stonemaier Games
• Why I Prioritize Paying Freelancers
• Flatter Your Way into a New Industry
• Hiring in a World of Volunteers
• Designer Advances
• Gameosity Game Industry Job Board

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

Today I received an enlightening email from a fellow tabletop publisher–someone who has used crowdfunding successfully for multiple projects–about their struggles with certain types of marketing and advertising. I’ll explore this publisher’s struggles and share some constructive opinions.

Struggle #1: Facebook Ads Aren’t Resulting in Backers

The publisher shared data for three of their projects, on which they spent a total of around $90,000 on web ads. This expense essentially negated any profit they would have earned from these projects, with the most recent ad generating a 1% ROAS (return on ad spend).

However, they also shared some good news: BoardGameGeek ads are working well for them. That’s great. I actually haven’t posted an ad on BGG for a while, but I need to do so, and I’ll report what I find. The publisher also shared that they like Gamefound as a platform for discoverability, organic visibility, and the algorithm surfacing campaigns.

Meanwhile, whenever we launch a new product, we work with ad manager Andrew Cook to post two sets of ads on Facebook: One before launch to draw people in, and one during the launch to invite them to check out the webstore. For both the ads and Andrew’s time, I aim to spend around $2,000 total per launch. For every dollar we spend, we generate around 3x that much in revenue (but I think that multiplier would greatly decrease if we significantly increased our ad spend). So perhaps part of the key here is to find the right person to run your ad campaigns.

Struggle #2: Paid Previews Aren’t Working

The publisher shared that paid previews (often on YouTube) aren’t working well, both because they require an extremely polished product before any funding has been received and in terms of only a handful of new backers coming to the project from the previews.

That said, as the publisher also pointed out, attribution from a video is difficult to quantify. “People watch it, follow you, watch another, read your rules and then a week later they pledge.” I agree that there is high value in seeing multiple content creators talk about a game over the span of 1-2 weeks.

I’ll ask this: What if the goal is to inform instead of to convert? You can’t control how many people will back your project after watching a video, but you can try to be of service to people so they can spend their limited budgets on the games that will bring them the most joy. Preview content is one way to do this.

Struggle #3: Prelaunch Followers Aren’t Converting into Backers

The publisher shared that around 7% of prelaunch followers became backers for their most recent project, while they’ve seen other projects get close to 20%.

They did add a few caveats to these numbers (they’ve made some mistakes with pricing and shipping fees). No project is perfect, and it’s more important than ever to have a great game at a great value when you’re trying to create something new.

Creators can reduce the chances of encountering these issues during the campaign by having a variety of people look at their project page before launch.

As for the game itself, I think it’s increasingly helpful to share with backers how it’s different than existing games (while also sharing a few comparisons: If you like X and Y, we think you’ll enjoy Z). Also, sometimes it is a matter of getting just one game that elevates itself over all of your other games–that one special game can make a huge difference for a publisher.

Struggle #4: Climbing into the BGG Hotness Is Very Difficult

The publisher shared this: “We still haven’t cracked BGG organic traffic. I just don’t know how to drive traffic to my BGG page without paying to do that. Designer diaries, etc – they work, but it’s very small traffic, and time I could spend on a game.”

As long as it’s for the right reasons, having your game appear on the BGG Hotness list can have a multiplicative effect, as even more people discover it, which solidifies the game’s presence on the list.

I wrote this a while ago, but I think these tips for helping your game appear on the Hotness still apply: “Find ways to get people talking about your game on BGG. Post images on a regular basis. Encourage conversation as a moderator and a participant. Drive external traffic to your BGG page.”

In my opinion, the best target audience to invite to participation on BGG are the people who are already following your company or your project. This isn’t the reason why I focus on community building, but it is one of the serendipitous results.

I love that we have deeply engaged customers at Stonemaier Games, whether they’re participating on BoardGameGeek or our Facebook groups, Discord, YouTube Channel, Instagram, Bluesky, this blog, etc–I try to hang out with our followers on their platform of choice. In the rare occasions when we have something new to share with them, they’re likely to see it.

I truly feel for every creator who has struggled to connect an external or internal audience with their newest creation. It’s hard–I’ve experienced that too. Whenever I’m discouraged by the uphill battle of finding newcomers to invite to our games, I try to focus on how grateful I am for those who already choose to follow us.

Thanks to the publisher who shared this information with me. They asked to remain anonymous but said it was perfectly fine if I publicly post my thoughts on these topics.

Also read:

• Paid Advertising and How Backers Find Your Project
• Which Banner Ad Message Gets the Most Clicks?
• Everything Crowdfunders Need to Know About Advertising
• 10 Million Views: The Results of an Advertising Experiment
• Rick and Morty, Revisionist History, and Ads I’m Happy to Consume
• 10 Marketing Methods Used at Stonemaier Games

“Getting attention on a board game release announcement isn’t free anymore. It’s not news. At best it’s a bullet point on a long list of new release announcements for the week. The traditional method we’ve long employed of selling to distributors who sell to retailers who sell to players, sadly seems to be falling apart for us, and I suspect for most publishers.” –Colby Dauch, Plaid Hat Games

Over the last 2 weeks I’ve thought over and over about an article that Plaid Hat Games’ Colby Dauch wrote for Board Game Wire. Plaid Hat launched a Kickstarter in June for a new game (The Monolith). They pulled the campaign after a few days and have since relaunched. As of this writing, the project has raised $113,687 from 1257 backers.

In the article, Colby offers a transparent, humble, and vulnerable perspective about his crowdfunding philosophy, how it didn’t result in a successful first launch of The Monolith, and the adjustments he’s made for the current campaign. Today I’ll share my thoughts Colby’s initial goals and how they’ve evolved.

Original Goals (in Colby’s words)

• We will severely limit the use of exclusives. We don’t want people feeling like they HAVE to buy the product now or they will be missing out.
• We aren’t seeking to punish the people who have long supported their local board game shop by purchasing our products through them.
• Most of all we don’t want to manipulate our customers by preying on their fear of missing out.
• We will reduce the long wait between the time you back a game and the time you get that game by being fully ready to go to production at the time of the Kickstarter.

JAMEY: I love these goals, so it pains me that they didn’t align with a successful first campaign for The Monolith. However, there are a few important nuances in these goals, as I think they are all worth pursuing.

First, promos provided for free to backers and then later to everyone else at a set price are, in my opinion, just as effective in the short term and far more effective in the long term compared to exclusives.

Second, I believe it is reasonable for a publisher to offer a discount to direct-order customers, especially early adopters who are also paying shipping fees. [This paragraph was updated to represent my opinion.]

Third, I firmly believe that a publisher can best serve backers by offering a fully designed and developed game at the time of launch. This removes a significant amount of scheduling uncertainty, and design and development are well within a publisher’s control, even on a limited budget. However, the funds attained from a crowdfunding campaign may be necessary for a publisher to invest in art, miniatures, and other expensive sunk costs–Colby talks about how he may have prematurely invested in molds for The Monolith.

Future Takeaways (in Colby’s words)

• When possible, create a version of the game that focuses on lower price and a version that focuses on maximum bling.
• Be more willing to compete with the price point that we and everyone else knows online retailers are going to put on our games.
• Give the campaign a chance to communicate what the demand is. We will still be production ready, but I won’t be putting the cart directly in front of the horse again.
• Better leverage the community-based systems that already exist to support crowdfunding.

JAMEY: Fortunately, Colby is remaining true to his customer-first goals even while evolving as a crowdfunder…with one exception that has left me a bit torn.

Crowdfunding projects do seem to attract most backers to all-in deluxe pledge levels, so it makes sense that The Monolith’s $89 reward is the most popular (976 backers). However, that was an early bird price; for most of the campaign, that same exact reward has been available for $99. So while the early bird level was successful at attracting backers for the first day or so, far fewer backers have pledged to the project since then.

I personally think that a far more effective tool for attracting backers on day one (other than offering a great game at a great price) is to offer a significant unlock for free to ALL backers if you reach a certain threshold within the first 48 hours. If for some reason that threshold isn’t reached, you can add it as a big stretch goal later in the campaign. All backers are early adopters who are bringing the game to life.

I appreciate Plaid Hat for sharing their detailed thoughts with Board Game Wire, and I’m curious what you think about these goals vs how backers have responded to both versions of the project. What would you like other creators to learn from these insights?

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

We always try to make games that are easy to get to the table, but this is absurd: Just one month after customers started receiving copies of Wingspan Pocket, the game already has over 1,000 ratings on BoardGameGeek. People are getting the game and actually playing it right away–this is a publisher’s dream!

What makes Wingspan Pocket so immediately playable? Can these characteristics be replicated in other games? Here’s my take:

• Context of Wingspan: I can’t overlook that a person’s knowledge of Wingspan makes it easier to play Wingspan Pocket. Similarly, it was easier for me to play Duel for Middle-earth the first time because I had already played 7 Wonders Duel. I think this asset extends beyond game brands to game mechanisms: If I’m drawn to a new deckbuilding game, I come to it with the experience of having played other deckbuilding games.
• Fast initial setup and per-game setup: I don’t mind punching and sorting a new game, but it’s really nice when that process only takes a few minutes. With Wingspan Pocket, you literally just remove the paper bands that secure the decks of cards, and the game is ready to be played. The per-game setup takes another 2 minutes, which not only makes it easier to play the game for the first time, but also every other time.
• Streamlined core rules with engine building: No matter how complex a game is, I love when the core action system can be described in a single sentence or infographic. In Wingspan Pocket, you activate bird powers from left to right, starting with the Nest action. That’s it–that’s your turn. A brilliant part of Elizabeth’s design is that you immediately have a sense of progress, because if you play a bird on your first turn, you also get to activate that bird.
• Game length: Wingspan Pocket plays in around 30 minutes, making it easy to fit into a busy schedule. Most of our other games are longer–some significantly longer–which is right for those games, but it’s neat to see how quick-to-table a shorter game is.
• Solo play: All of our games include Automa solo modes, so you can play them without having to schedule around other players. This removes a huge barrier to entry. Wingspan Pocket is playable from 1-5 players, so when you’re ready to share it with other players, there’s a higher-than-average player count cap.
• Shared excitement: When I have the sense that many other people are playing a specific game, I’m excited to play it too. Perhaps it’s just the algorithm, but I’ve noticed a higher density of Instagram posts about Wingspan Pocket than other new games we’ve released in the past. Some of the above factors impact these posts, along with the beautiful bird art by Natalia and Ana–it’s a photogenic game.
• Reference cards for each player: I believe that the #1 asset to making a game friendly to those who teach games is the inclusion of reference cards for each player. Wingspan Pocket’s reference card has the core gameplay, setup, and card anatomy on one side and icons on the other.

I’m so happy to see people playing Wingspan Pocket, and I’m looking to learn from this experience for our other games (including Wyrmspan Pocket, which Connie is actively working on).

What inspires you to play a game soon after adding it to your collection?

Also read: The Formula for Wingspan’s Longevity, Replayability, and Success

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. 

A huge part of my job at Stonemaier Games is communicating information via this website, our newsletters, Facebook groups, the weekly YouTube livecast, etc. I’ve tried to hone my communication skills through lots of practice, plus the consumption of other creators’ newsletters, crowdfunding updates, videos, and more.

I’m always fascinated by how someone handles communication when things don’t go as planned, and we had a few such situations arise during our recent Iceland trip. Here’s what happened, how the communication was handled, and what I learned from it as a creator.

Please Get Off the Plane

We boarded the plane for our Baltimore to Reykjavik flight late in the evening, and then we sat on the plane for around an hour while mechanics came and went. The captain kept us informed during this time that there was a minor mechanical issue that would be fixed soon. When the issue was resolved, the plane continued to sit at the gate for around 20 minutes before the pilot shared that the airport runways were now undergoing scheduled maintenance, and we would need to get off the plane and wait until the next day at 2:00 to reboard.

It was a rough way to start the trip, because we missed an entire day in Iceland as a result. In this case, I think the communication between the plane and the passengers was fine, but I have to think that better communication between the airline and the airport could have gotten us out of Baltimore without disrupting the runway maintenance.

In publishing, communication about timing in the short-term can have big implications. For example, we have a game we’re trying to launch on our webstore right before Essen Spiel (and then have copies at the convention), but to make that possible, we needed to work with our manufacturer to split the print run into two halves.

The Eclipse Is Cancelled

A small part of the reason we chose this particular week to go to Iceland is that they were in the path of totality for a solar eclipse due to happen on August 12. The weather was sunny and clear the entire trip…until the afternoon of the eclipse, when the boat was surrounded by a thick layer of fog.

Throughout the day, the communications officer on board gave updates and set expectations for the eclipse viewing. She told us that the captain was doing his best to find a clear area, but the chances of finding one were increasingly low. While I’m sure some people were disappointed that they missed a clear view of the sun, these updates ensured that no one was completely caught off guard by the lack of visibility.

I appreciate this approach to crowdfunding updates. Even if things aren’t going as planned, I’d rather know (and to hear what the creator is working on) than be kept in the dark.

We Now Live on This Bus

After a fun visit to an Icelandic horse ranch, our excursion bus struggled to pull out of a steep driveway. The driver kept trying, time after time, and each time the bus drifted a little further down the hill. This went on for around 20 minutes without a word of communication from the driver or tour guide.

Did we need progress updates? I don’t think so. We could all hear what was happening, and we knew the driver was doing his best. No one complained, and when the driver finally got it to work, we all cheered.

However, I think there was probably an opportunity for one update 10 minutes in to ease any future concerns. Something along the lines of, “If we’re still here in 20 minutes, we’ll call for a backup bus and everyone can wander around the ranch in the meantime.”

Sometimes people just need to hear that everything will be okay (and how it will be okay). It’s why we send a shipping update and post in a game’s Facebook group about a week into the shipping process–we want to assure people that it’s normal for some orders to have shipped but not others, and that we’ll take care of them if their order doesn’t arrive exactly as they’d hoped.

There Is No Line (Until There’s a Line)

We went on a few excursions, and we found the lack of signage at port to be a bit bewildering. For example, when we arrived to go see puffins in the wild, there were several lines, but the only guidance anyone had from the excursion coordinator was to either wait in a specific line (as directed by her) or to wait literally anywhere else until further instructions were provided. It was confusing for the hundreds of people who had excursions at different times, and probably frustrating for the coordinator to get the same questions over and over.

Similarly, for any future product, I think it’s helpful for customers to have a place to “wait” (i.e., a prelaunch signup page or a game-specific launch notification newsletter). That way they don’t have to wonder if they’ll miss out–they’ll get a notification when the product launches.

Have you learned anything about communication recently from travels, crowdfunding, or other experiences?

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. 

A little under 2 weeks ago, we arrived as part of a group of 7 at port in Reykjavik to check into our cruise. This process is very similar to checking into a flight, except at the final step before boarding, there was a surprise: The attendant informed Megan and me that we had VIP status. We were swiftly shepherded into a lounge where we would wait for the ship (instead of standing in line).

As it turns out, the travel agent who arranged the trip for our group (the sister of a friend with whom we were traveling) had received a free VIP upgrade, and she was very nice to apply it to our room. It mostly meant that when the cruise ship docked at various ports around Iceland, we could skip the line to get off and on the boat.

When I heard this from the concierge in the lounge, while I appreciated the ability to save some time, I didn’t want to leave behind the rest of our group. But the concierge continued with the following: Those with VIP status could include other members of their party when skipping lines.

Oh. I see. That felt different. Yes, there was a still a little unease about going to the front of a long queue (which only happened once during the trip), but if we could use the VIP status to help our friends and family… well, yes please. I love positive player interaction!

So as we enjoyed this perk during the trip, I wondered if there were other forms of VIP status that avoided the feeling of exclusion, gatekeeping, or elitism. Here’s a list of some examples, many of which were shared during yesterday’s livecast:

1. Stonemaier Champion program: For $15/year, Champions support this blog and our YouTube channel while receiving a 20% discount on every Stonemaier webstore purchase and prioritized shipping before non-Champion orders. This has proven to be a good value for over 15,000 Champions without hurting the experience of everyone else.
2. Convention early access: Various conventions offer early access to the expo hall or hotel blocks for volunteers and those with special ties to the industry (e.g., FLGS owners). Accessing the expo hall an hour early feels great but isn’t so much time that you’ve cleared the shelves.
3. Theme parks: I went to Universal Studios last year and stayed in a hotel connected to the new Epic Universe, so we could enter the park an hour early early (time we used to have a quiet breakfast). We didn’t pay to jump to the front of the lines for rides, but in hindsight I regret that decision, as we spent hours waiting for our turn.
4. Birthday perks: Everyone should feel like a VIP on their birthday! Many coffee shops and bakeries will reach out to customers with a birthday treat, which seems like a win-win for the shop and the customer.
5. Speakeasies: Modern speakeasies (like NOTA in St. Louis) make you feel “in the know” with their hard-to-find doors and passwords to enter, but really anyone is welcome.
6. Loyalty systems: Some companies offer points to those who purchase products from them, and over time those points can result in some special privileges. The Lego Insider program is an example of this.
7. Backstage passes at concerts: Some people pay for backstage access while others gain it by knowing the right person. I don’t mind this mild form of gatekeeping because the backstage has an actual capacity limit (unlike an most early bird crowdfunding rewards).
8. Restaurant regulars: Have you ever been to a restaurant so many times that they know your favorite dish or sometimes serve you a special off-the-menu item? I haven’t, but it sounds amazing. I like that this is an organic, personalized version of a loyalty program.
9. Corporate perks: Some companies make their employees feel like VIPs by giving them access to suites at sporting venues (and invite friends and family to join them, like the cruise VIP status).
10. Airport lounges: My credit card gives me access to some airport lounges, and it was really nice to relax in one of them during a trip earlier this year. I wouldn’t say this fully qualifies for the list, as the other way to access them is to pay for expensive plane tickets, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.

I want our customers to feel like very important people (even if they aren’t Stonemaier Champions), so I appreciate the variety of these VIP techniques.

Is there a VIP status or perk you’ve experienced that avoids the feeling of exclusion, gatekeeping, or elitism?

I spent the last 9+ days in Iceland and the Faroe Islands, which I briefly touched upon in last week’s post and will continue to revisit in articles over the next few weeks. I had minimal internet access on the trip and fell behind in highlighting links that content creators sent to me (as I typically do each Friday on Facebook), so today I’ll catch up via this post.

I hope you discover some great reviewers from this post!

Lists and Variety

• Bapter’s favorite Stonemaier games
• Keith Law’s Gen Con wrap-up

Duel of Meloch

• Board Game Hot Takes
• Gaming Caravan
• Let’s Game More
• Board Game Gumbo
• The Mill

Wingspan Pocket

• Headlines from a Solo Player
• Sam Solo
• TerreDice Games
• IGN
• The Rulebook
• Board Game Quest
• Board Game Hot Takes
• Frankie Plays Games
• The Hungry Gamer

Origin Story: Heroes & Villains

• Allies or Enemies
• Nox Spellenzolder
• The Mill

Finspan: Sharks & Reefs

• There Will Be Games
• Never Bored of Board Games
• Magic and Meeples
• Stidjen Plays Solo

Viticulture: Bordeaux

• The Meeple Guys

Wingspan Americas

• exploring_boardgames

Vantage

• Board Game Maniac
• We’re Not Wizards
• Above Board

Rolling Realms Redux

• Lounge Lizard Games
• Frankie Plays Games

Smitten

• Cooperative Operative

Expeditions: Gears of Corruption

• Allies or Enemies

Also, thanks to Erik Thein for working with us to create this video about the Stonemaier Games experience at Gen Con:

I’m traveling in Iceland right now, and I despite doing lots of touristy things (while trying to be a respectful tourist), I’ve had nothing but amazing experiences with every Icelander. This ranges from tours to cafes to shopkeepers, among many others.

One of the best all-around experiences I had was at the Blue Lagoon hotel springs outside Reykjavik. My good impressions started at the entrance, a winding walkway lined by piles of volcano rock. It created a literal passage between the rest of the world and this relaxing escape.

At check in, we’re were each given a multi-use wristband. It gave us access to the faculty, it unlocked and linked to any available locker (as well as a panel that would remind you of your locker number if you forgot), and a quick scan informed the bartender of any drinks for which you prepaid (it also created a frictionless checkout if you wanted to add anything extra).

The hot spring area itself was essentially a massive wading pool through otherworldly milky blue warm water. I’m someone who greatly prefers land to water, but this felt really nice just to walk around in. There were a few interconnected pools, saunas, and other areas, as well as mud mask stations (another part of some prepaid packages; a quick wristband scan was all it took). The sheer volume of compatriots whose faces were also covered in green paste made the made for a delightfully silly shared experience.

At the end, there were swimsuit drying machines in the locker area and of course a gift shop to walk through on the way out (in case we wanted to buy more fancy mud). It was well positioned but not pushy.

I’ve heard there are many variations of this type of geothermal spring experience in Iceland, and I went to something similar (but much smaller) at a ryokan in Shibu Onsen in Japan a few years ago. I’m curious if you’ve tried anything designed to relax and rejuvenate while traveling—what stood out the most?

I follow Games Unlimited PGH (@gamesunlimitedpgh) on Instagram, and Kylie frequently offers really helpful retailer perspectives for publishers to consider.

One of his recent videos (actually a repost from a few years ago) was both surprising and insightful in a few different ways, as Kylie reveals that he–a very successful retailer–does not like promos.

Even as a publisher that doesn’t make promos (it was something we tried up through Scythe’s release in 2016 and then stopped pursuing), I was really curious to hear his reasons. Especially since a survey I ran of retailers in 2017 indicated that 79% of friendly local game store (FLGS) owners liked promos at the time.

Kylie’s reasons are:

• A lot of publishers send promos to his store, but it takes a lot of work to match them with the game (stores juggle a lot of different games, and promos aren’t always labeled well).
• Many promos just end up in a general bin, making them hard to find and difficult for store employees to remember to pair with a game.
• “A large part of our customers are not actually gamers,” so the idea of a promo is confusing to them. (This revelation was particularly interesting to me. Who are the majority of people who shop at local game stores, if they’re not into games?)
• Even a well-meaning, FLGS-focused publisher who tries to encourage customers to go to a game store using promos as an incentive can actually create an awkward situation if the retailer doesn’t have or can’t find the promo for the customers.

Kylie concludes by simply asking publishers to put promos inside the game box. This seems viable in most cases: Even if you make a special promo card for an existing game to offer at a convention, a content creator, or any circumstance, you can include it in future printings of the game.

I really like that Kylie ends with this: “We’ll do the work of selling your game because it’s awesome, not because we have some rare or exclusive promo.” That 100% echoes my beliefs about actively welcoming people into our games instead of using FOMO/exclusivity tactics.

What do you think about this opinion about promos?

Also read:

• The Current State of How We Work with Local Retailers (2025)
• Evergreen Games: What Do They Have in Common?
• How We Sell Some Inventory Directly to Local Retailers
• What Do Retailers Really Want?

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 recently read an interesting announcement on Board Game Wire that Scott Brady (co-designer of one of my favorite party games, Caution Signs, along with some others I really enjoy like Boop and Hues & Cues), is trying a new “proof-of-play” model of publishing through his company, A Game Studio. Their goal and methodology is to make a single, small print run of selected games “to generate real-world sales, player feedback, and retail validation before presentation to larger publishing partners.”

In the interview, Scott mentions a few problems he is trying to solve through this model:

• Publishers are passing on great games because they already have a full schedule for the next few years.
• Publishers are wary of taking on risk for a big print run without knowing how people will respond to the game.
• Mass-market games aren’t a good fit for crowdfunding.

I agree that those are all legitimate problems facing publishers (and designers). This certainly isn’t the only solution or approach, but I appreciate Scott for trying something different. He’s aiming for a single print run of these games at smaller quantities (1500-3000 units), then try to license the game to a studio that wants to invest in a bigger print run.

Of course, like any publisher, A Game Studio has limits as to how many games they can publish, so they may quickly run into the same issue that any publisher faces when they are inundated by submissions. Scott is starting with two games, and he says in the interview, “I am personally staking my reputation on the games I choose to help.”

I have some questions about the model, and I’m genuinely curious to see how it plays out.

• If a game does extremely well in the proof-of-play model, wouldn’t A Game Studio prefer to keep it in house?
• Are publishers actually looking for more games than they already have in their crowded release schedules?
• Is this actually similar to a publisher signing the worldwide rights to a game that’s currently only found in one language or that had a single successful crowdfunding campaign?
• Given the slim margins on selling games into distribution and retail, will publishers be willing to decrease their margins on these licenses? In this model, a publisher would pay both the designer and A Game Studio based on the sales they generate.

I 100% applaud Scott for trying to create a win-win-win situation for designers, publishers, and his studio, and I genuinely hope it works. I’m sorry I don’t have a link to his website or where publishers can submit to this process–I can’t find it on any of the articles, and web searches for “A Game Studio” aren’t providing accurate results.

What do you think? Will this approach work?

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.

Welcome to Gen Con week! In a similar way to Essen Spiel, the games, announcements, and events at Gen Con attract attention well beyond the tens of thousands of attendees (which is both a lot of people and also a very small percentage of people who play games worldwide).

Stonemaier Games and Meeple Source have again joined forces at Gen Con to share a booth (#2909). Wingspan Pocket, Duel of Meloch, Origin Story: Heroes & Villains, Wingspan Americas, Finspan: Sharks & Reefs, Viticulture Bordeaux, Euphoria Essential, and more will be available (see the full list of products here). You can walk up to the booth to buy any of those products, or you can place an order with Meeple Source now for pick up at Gen Con.

I was hoping to make a day trip over to Gen Con like last year, but a few circumstances–including a recent slipped disc in my back–have led me to decide that I won’t make to Indianapolis this year. However, you’re in great hands with the demo team at our booth and the events area, and you can also find designers for some of our games (Wingspan’s Elizabeth Hargrave on Thursday from 3-6pm and Finspan’s David Gordon on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 2-3pm) and even my podcast co-host, Mitchell Whitfield.

In addition to our games, I wanted to highlight two hidden gems that I highly recommend seeking out at Gen Con:

Kano by Matagot: This is one of the best abstract games I’ve ever played, largely because it doesn’t feel abstract thanks to how the theme (Japanese scroll painting) and components (resin painting jars, cloth board, stunning art on the tiles) intertwine with the mechanisms. Kano is the perfect combination of extrinsic motivations (goals presented by the game) and intrinsic motivations (creating a beautiful painted scroll), with each type of motivation feeding into the other. This is the type of gateway plus game that I would play with anyone. It’s brand new and has flown under the radar, but I think this will be a big hit once people see it and start to play it.

Trick to the Future by Gamehead: I love time travel fiction, and I love trick-taking games. Trick to the Future combines those two genres by structuring the card numbers in the format of a digital clock and giving players “fuel rods” to modify those numbers (e.g., with one rod, a 3 could become a 9). It’s such a clever system to increase player agency and immersion, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes time travel fiction and/or trick-taking games.

If you’re attending Gen Con, I hope you stop by the Stonemaier booth, even if it’s just to say hi to the amazing demo team. If you’re not attending Gen Con, all Stonemaier products there are already on our webstore, and I hope you play some great games this week.

Do you have a recommendation for anyone who is attending a big convention for the first time?

Also read:

• How to Survive and Thrive at Gen Con (or Any Big Convention)
• 10 Things You Should Know About Gen Con

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.

Have you ever been on the fence about buying or backing a game? You’re following along, you’ve watched some playthroughs and reviews, you have trust in the publisher, and you can afford the price. The game intrigues you, but you’re just not sure yet. What questions do you ask to put you over the edge?

For example:

1. Who will play this game with me?
2. Will I be able to learn, teach, and retain this? Does the setup look cumbersome?
3. If the game costs more than $25, will I play it more than once?
4. Will I actually enjoy playing this?
5. Will this fill a desired niche in my collection?
6. Am I missing out on the next big thing if I don’t buy this?
7. Among my friends, am I the only person local to me who will have this?
8. Am I excited to have this on my table, or could I just play it digitally or at a convention?

Recently I’ve faced this conundrum with a few games. Sometimes simply being on the fence is indicative to me that the game might not be the right fit. But there are plenty of games that I was hesitant to explore and ended up loving, so I try to keep an open mind.

This type of decision is highly subjective, but I’m curious if publishers can do certain things to help on the product page:

1. Who will play this game with me? –Showcase photos of people playing the game, potentially in different situations if the game scales well to various player counts (or focus on the most common situation in which this game will be played).
2. Will I be able to learn, teach, and retain this? Does the setup look cumbersome? –Use a 3-step infographic to convey the core steps of the game and mention rulebook length and setup time.
3. If the game costs more than $25, will I play it more than once? –Mention the strongest asset for replayability without overwhelming the customer with too many modes or options.
4. Will I actually enjoy playing this? –Share playthrough videos and offer demo versions online and even pre-production copies at local game stores (IV Studios does this well).
5. Will this fill a desired niche in my collection? –Accentuate 3 truly unique elements about the game.
6. Am I missing out on the next big thing if I don’t buy this? –Direct attention toward social proof (i.e., the number of backers, if it is high).
7. Among my friends, am I the only person local to me who will have this? –I’m not sure a publisher can answer this question.
8. Am I excited to have this on my table, or could I just play it digitally, at a convention, or at a local game cafe? –Highlight great art and the component hook(s), and don’t offer the full version digitally until well after the tabletop release.

I try to do a few of these things in our infographics (see below), but I’m realizing that there’s a lot of “over the edge” questions not answered in this format. What do you think about these questions and how publishers can help to answer them when you’re on the fence?

Also read: The 10 Reasons I’ll Back a Kickstarter Project

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.

Am I actually the person acting like a jerk right now?

I participate in a wide variety of discussions on the internet (mostly in relation to tabletop games), and on occasion I will find myself responding to some aggravating comments. It’s in those moments when I’m pounding away at the keyboard that I try to step back and ask myself, “Wait, am I being a jerk?”

Sometimes the answer is no. But sometimes, sure enough, my response isn’t kind (or at least neutral), and that is directly counter to my goal of building community. Regardless of how the other person is acting, I have control over my own behavior.

There are various versions of this question; here are some others that I ask myself (and often wish others would ask themselves):

• Would I speak differently if the other person was a friend or if I was face to face with them?
• Is the phrasing of my question, request, or post aligned with the outcome I’m hoping to achieve? (i.e., if I start a conversation by calling a game “a total joke”, I shouldn’t be surprised when the ensuing conversation ignores my more salient points)
• Is this an opportunity to ask a question instead of assuming or declaring? (i.e., it’s really important to get the facts straight before forming conclusions. See also this open letter to the internet.)
• Am I addressing the right person for this criticism or question? (i.e., if I have a question about a game in a specific language or digital format, am I asking the correct publisher/developer?)
• What if everyone requested this or asked this privately? (i.e., if 1,000 people asked this same question, would that be fair to the person I’m asking? See also the value of public questions.)

I truly believe that the internet would be a better place if we more consistently asked ourselves a self-awareness question. So I asked Stonemaier ambassadors to see if any of them had a question along these lines, and they had some great responses beyond those listed above. Here are a few of the 100+ questions they shared:

• 

  Am I participating in this discussion to be helpful or I just have something to prove?

• Does this affect my daily life? If so, is there anything I can do about it?
• Is this helping or hurting?
• Will this comment help anything/anyone?
• What am I trying to achieve?
• Am I treating this person like a person, or like a symbol of something I dislike?
• Am I responding to what they actually said or to the worst interpretation of it?
• Am I expecting others to think the way I do?
• Deep breath, how would I want someone to respond to me on this?
• Does my comment add value to the conversation?
• Would I be happy with what I wrote if I come back to the thread and reread it in the future?
• If I did not know me and my intentions, what would be my first reaction to reading what I wrote?
• Is my response furthering a meaningful discussion or just adding fuel to the fire?
• Is my comment on topic?
• Is this really worth letting someone who has no real impact on my life get me upset?
• What am I actually upset about that is provoking this reaction from me?
• What am I missing?
• What implicit bias do I have that is making me react this way?
• What is driving my need to respond right now?
• What is the right thing to do/say?
• What would my mom/spouse think if they saw me acting this way?
• Would I do/say this in a professional setting?

Do you have a go-to self-awareness question that helps you be the best version of yourself on the internet? Let me know in the comments.

Also read: An Open Letter to the Internet

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.

A full day has now passed since we launched 3 new products (plus 2 accessories) on the Stonemaier Games webstore, so I thought I’d share a few observations about the launch and sales data collected for each product.

All of these products are currently in stock at our 4 fulfillment centers, and shipping is underway. The launch discounts will last through July 19.

US Store | Europe Store | Canada Store | Australia/NZ/Asia Store

Product Summary

Wingspan Pocket (details): Create and activate a single row of cards on every turn in this swifter, smaller, and streamlined version of Wingspan. The cards are all double sided: a food side and a bird side. Bird powers are primarily indicated by icons instead of text, and they include a new type of power, ongoing (green) benefits.

Duel of Meloch (details): Clash head-to-head on a tight map in a race to victory in this standalone game of Scythe vs Expeditions (it is also an expansion for those games, and the content in those games is duel-compatible). The duel takes place in a tight space on a new double-sided map—only 10 locations and 2 lakes—in a race to 4 stars on a new double-sided Triumph Track, so every turn is crucial.

Origin Story: Heroes & Villains (details): Triple the number of heroes (and villains) to become in Origin Story! Just shuffle these 21 new superhero–and supervillain–cards into the original deck to vastly increase replayability.

Data

The following 24-hour sales data spans our 4 consumer webstores and our 1 direct-to-retailer webstore:

• Wingspan Pocket: 11,046 units sold
• Duel of Meloch: 4,479 units sold
• Origin Story: Heroes & Villains: 2,359 units sold

We have also sold 2,007 metal mech packs and 2,533 airship add-ons for Duel of Meloch.

Observations

Wingspan Pocket: I anticipated that we would hear from a few people who struggled with the behavioral psychology of paying $10 shipping for a $20 product (or $18, as is the launch price for Wingspan Pocket). I totally understand, and that’s why I largely view Wingspan Pocket as a game for local retailers (mid-August release).

It’s for this psychological barrier that we often launch lower-price products along with other products–with our flat-rate shipping, it’s still $10 even if the order is more robust. In truth, the shipping fee we pay for Wingspan Pocket (postage, packaging, and labor) is $14, so we’re already subsidizing this on behalf of customers.

Despite all that, I’m happy to see how many people have embraced Wingspan Pocket on launch day, whether they’re buying a single copy or several copies (I think it makes a great gift).

Duel of Meloch: I’m a little surprised sales aren’t stronger so far. There are over 600,000 copies of Scythe in circulation worldwide, and for years Scythe fans have asked me to make another expansion. Maybe it will just take a little time for people to see how much this adds to Scythe (and to Expeditions, and as a standalone dueling game).

Origin Story: Heroes & Villains: I wasn’t sure what to expect from this expansion’s initial sales, but so far I’m excited that so many people are giving this mini-expansion a chance. We really wanted to have Origin Story itself back in stock in the US in time for this launch, but worldwide freight shipping is currently quite tumultuous. Many of the restocks we were hoping to have for this launch aren’t arriving until mid-August or early September.

I’m curious to hear your thoughts, questions, and analysis of this launch. What would you like us to learn from it, and what might other creators learn from it?

US Store | Europe Store | Canada Store | Australia/NZ/Asia Store

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.

Taking a note from Hollywood, the tabletop game industry has been enamored with sequels for the last decade. It makes sense: If people already like X game, a way to serve that audience is to make X2.

I’m specifically talking about sequels, not new editions, spinoffs, or duel versions. Different game with the same core mechanisms and core theme. There’s a blurry, debatable line between sequels and spinoffs, but here’s a potential guidepost: I consider Wingspan Pocket a sequel to Wingspan, but I consider Wyrmspan and Finspan to be spinoffs.

Here are a few well-known sequels:

• Frosthaven is a sequel to Gloomhaven
• The 7th Citadel is a sequel to The 7th Continent
• The Queen’s Dilemma is a sequel to The King’s Dilemma
• Dune Imperium: Uprising is a sequel to Dune Imperium
• Great Western Trail: New Zealand is a sequel to Great Western Trail
• Age of Innovation is a sequel to Terra Mystica (as are, arguably, Gaia Project and Terra Nova)
• Azul Summer Pavilion is a sequel to Azul
• Ticket to Ride Europe is a sequel to Ticket to Ride
• Mysterium Park is a sequel to Mysterium
• Between Two Castles is a sequel to Between Two Cities
• The Isle of Penguins is a sequel to The Isle of Cats

I could go on and on. There are way more new games than sequels, but there are still plenty of sequel examples to draw from.

This leads me to two questions:

1. How does a publisher/designer know which games to select for sequels?
2. What do people really want from a sequel?

How does a publisher/designer know which games to select for sequels?

I think there are a few overlapping factors here. One is the customer response to the original game. If your game brings joy to thousands of tabletops and those customers are still asking for more, that’s a good sign. Of course, you still have a choice between a sequel, a spinoff, or an expansion.

That’s where the second factor enters play: What are you excited to make, if anything? If you’re completely done with a game after creating it, that’s perfectly fine. Or maybe you’re only excited to make an expansion. Or perhaps you want to explore the same world but with new mechanisms (e.g., Expeditions as a spinoff of Scythe). You are the driving force behind this creation, and I think it’s worth listening to what you’re excited to make.

What do people want from a sequel?

This is the question I’m puzzling over the most, and I’ll say this up front: I don’t have a clear answer other than “it depends on the game.” A big reason for this uncertainty is the impact of the original game’s popularity on the data available for the sequel. In fact, I’m not aware of any sequels that have higher ownership stats on BoardGameGeek than the original game. Higher ratings offer some guidance, but I’m unsure as to how much weight to put on them. I’m interested in what people are actually playing time after time.

Here’s my experience: I’ve found in most cases that the sequels I play that offer bigger gameplay end up getting to the table much less than the original game. Rather, it’s the sequels with similar or streamlined gameplay that I enjoy time after time (and that don’t replace the original game).

I think there might be a tendency for designers to think they need to go big if they make a sequel. Going back to the first question, if you have more fun designing a bigger game, go for it. But please don’t overlook the option to offer a sequel of similar weight (as that’s what people gravitated towards in the first place) or even a lighter weight sequel (since the original weight already exists).

I’d love to hear what you think. What are a few of your favorite sequels that you actually play more frequently than the original games? And what’s one game you love for which you really want a sequel (and what do you want from that sequel)?

Also read: The Precarious Balance Between Past Successes and Future Experiments and 10 Brand Extension Strategies for Tabletop Games

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