Category: Uncategorized

  • 2024 Boardgame & Toy Contests

    2024 Boardgame & Toy Contests

    Here’s a growing list of game and toy contests that designers can participate in. Boardgame contests are thrilling events that bring together enthusiasts of tabletop gaming to test their strategic prowess, creativity, and teamwork. Whether a seasoned competitor or a curious newcomer, boardgame contests offer a unique blend of fun, strategy, and community engagement, making them a vibrant part of the gaming culture.

    The 1LB Challenge
    Nov 10, 2023 – Feb 15, 2024
    The Game Crafter offers challenges entrants to pack as much game as possible into a box that weighs 16 ounces or less.

    2024 Cardboard Edison Award
    Jan 01, 2024 – Jan 30, 2024
    The Cardboard Edison Award recognizes great unpublished board games. Also, download their Best Practices Book!

    Board Game Geek Design Contests
    Board Game Geek offers a large variety of contests that run throughout the year. Check out the Design Contest Forum for the best information.

    The Ion Award
    Submission Due By Dec 1, 2024
    The Ion Award competition at SaltCON is the premier competition for game designers to meet publishers.

    Pegasus Designer Days
    Jan 30, 2023 – Jan 31, 2024
    In their video conference, appointment designers have ten minutes to inspire the editors with an eventual opportunity for publication. Also, check out their pdf Tips For Game Designers

    Hippodice Competition
    Jan 01, 2024 – Oct 15, 2024
    The Hippodice competition is looking for the best game ideas year after year. All game designers of unpublished board, card, dice or other non-digital games can participate.

  • Boardgame & Toy Communities

    Boardgame & Toy Communities

    Here’s a list of many of the groups and communities that I support and am actively involved in.

    Boardgame Geek
    BoardGameGeek is an online resource and community that aims to be the definitive source for board game and card game content. It’s updated on a real-time basis by more than two million registered users! 

    Martin’s Print and Play Hideaway
    A Facebook group of fans of print and play card and board games. Share your builds, plays and PnP file links here as well. We will also post links to print and play tutorials, playthroughs, reviews, and other PnP-related content.

    Board Game Design Lab
    The Board Game Design Lab is a community headed up by Gabe Barrett and built on one central purpose: To help you design great games that people love.

    Indie Game Alliance
    The IGA has built an international team comprised of independent designers and publishers, writers and artists, and most importantly, players.

    The Game Manufacturers Association
    GAMA is a non-profit organization and the premier trade association for the hobby games industry. They envisions a world where hobby games are a broadly pursued pastime 

    Small-Batch Game Publishers Group
    Run by Emily Willix of Small Furry Games

  • Board Game Table Flip Robots For TantrumCon

    Board Game Table Flip Robots For TantrumCon

    I’ve had this idea for a toy or game that involved characters randomly moving around an enclosed area and flipping board game tables… which may or may not have happened in my childhood a few times.

    TL;DR – View the final Tiktok video

    So, when I recently decided to go to TantrumCon for the first time this year and learned that they actually have a table flipping competition I felt that the universe was telling me to turn my “BIG” idea into the smallest pocket sized table flippers anyone had ever seen.

    With all the recent discussion around AI I chose to theme my flippers as robots that represented a wide range of emotions. Even the most sophisticated coding would have a hard time processing a bad die roll or losing a close game by one victory point!

    (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

    These are 4×6 cards that I could easily hand out to everyone at the conference as a fun piece of swag this weekend.

    I also bought a bunch of miniature travel scissors to give to anyone that might want to cut their cards out during the conference.

    This may look a bit fiddly but I thought “Surely the steady handed folks that can paint an eyeball on a miniature would have no problem cutting out a checkerboard the size of a blueberry!” The smaller pieces are a bit tedious but I have faith in you!

    This is what all the parts look like after cutting along the dotted lines that are marked by scissor icons.

    Bibi, one of our studio cats is always on alert in hopes that I abandon my station so she can get her giant paws on all these wonderful bits!

    After cutting the four lines where the arms are simply fold them up as if the robot is about to give someone a hug. Please no making fun of how poorly I missed the lines on this one. My excuse is that I was also taking a photo at the same time.

    Next, fold the four tabs next to the head and legs backward.

    Fold all four table legs down and continue cutting the additional robots.

    One small tip I’ve found to help the robots stand up better is to cut the base upwards at a slight angle so they will tend to lean back a bit and counterbalance the weight of the arms. You can also bend the head back a bit for the same reason too.

    Ok, Bibi REALLY wants these paper meeple standees. Intensity increases!

    This is what the entire set looks like cut out.

    And here are all the components set up on a table… ready to be flipped by MADBOT 3000!

    Click the image below or here for the video on my TikTok.