Diceocracy   Ever since you were a kid, your mama told you that you’re destined for grand things! So you’re pretty certain that things can only be better with more “you” in it! Well, it’s finally time for more … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2026/05/20/dale-yu-review-of-diceocracy/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
The Spiel des Jahres (SdJ) jury announced the nominated games for the SdJ, Kennerspiel (“connoisseur” games), and Kinderspiel (children’s games) awards earlier today and I think it’s safe to say that nobody had these titles on their Bingo cards. For … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2026/05/19/2026-sdj-nominations-announced/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
  Purrramid Designer: Renier Knizia Publisher: Lucky Duck Games Players: 2-4 Age: 8+ Time: 30 minutes Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3PcZi55 Played with review copy provided by publisher Your grandma loves cats – but she’s adopted so many that she … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2026/05/19/dale-yu-review-of-purrramid/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
Game designer Adam Porter demonstrates how to use simple graphic design tool Canva - and print on demand service Launch ...
One of my favorite annual game awards is Spiel Portugal’s Jogo do Ano (which is Portuguese for “Game of the Year”). What I like about it is that the nominated games are all heavier ones and titles like that often … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2026/05/15/2026-jogo-do-ano-nominees-announced/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
The new era of well-designed automata and solo modes for multiplayer games, coupled with excellent new solo game designs, is actually quite heartening to someone (me!) who finds something very satisfying about physically playing a game: shuffling cards, moving pieces, … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2026/05/15/solo-gaming-2026-the-first-four-months/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
  Rebuilding Chicago Designer: Quinn Brander Publisher: Wizkids Players: 1-5 Age: 12+ Time: 60-120 minutes Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4n29utO Played with review copy provided by publisher In Rebuilding Chicago, a standalone successor to 2023’s Rebuilding Seattle, you’re responsible for … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2026/05/14/dale-yu-review-of-rebuilding-chicago/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
  Catan Zip! Designer: Klaus Teuber Publisher: Catan Studio Players: 3-4 Age: 10+ Time: 60 minutes Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4tVMLCs Played with review copy provided by publisher Welcome to the unexplored island of Catan!   As you and your fellow … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2026/05/13/dale-yu-review-of-catan-zip-edition/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
PLAY – The Game Festival, the international event dedicated to Board-Games, Role-playing Games, Miniatures Games, Live, and Collectible Card Games returns from May 22nd to 24th at Bologna Fiere with more than 40.000 square meters of covered area in five different … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2026/05/12/play-the-games-festival-2026-edition/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
  Bare Bones Designer: not listed Publisher: West Coast Bias Games Players: 2-4 Age: 10+ Time: 20-30 minutes Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4vhW0hg Played with review copy provided by publisher In Bare Bones, players each begin with an identical base … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2026/05/12/dale-yu-review-of-bare-bones/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
BoardGameGeek has just announced the winners of their Golden Geek awards for 2025. There are three Game of the Year categories, for best Light, Medium, and Heavy games. Here are the top three finishers in each category, together with their … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2026/05/11/galactic-cruise-fate-of-the-fellowship-and-hot-streak-win-2025-golden-geek-awards/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
The Rummy family was always lurking nearby: Rummy, Rummy 500, Rummikub, Rummoli (the Poker/Rummy variant of Michigan Rummy that I grew up with).It felt like Dad was always working late, so games were usually limited to weekends, and my time with him was further limited thanks to a divorce that changed our family dynamic when I was just a child. For my father, games clearly felt like work, so he was less inclined to playing games and more inclined to other leisure pursuits—long meals, action movi
Honestly, I’ve been waiting for this Unmatched box for three long years. My younger son and I were playtesters for these characters in 2023 and fell head over heels in love with them. It’s a treat to get to write … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2026/05/08/unmatched-stars-stripes-forever/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
A recent entry in the excellent Solo Hero series by Renegade Game Studios, Unstoppable is a unique combat-focused card-crafting game set in a dystopian future. It is a combat deck-builder where the focus of the game is to damage enemies … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2026/05/07/matt-carlson-unstoppable/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
  Catan on the Road Designer: Benjamin Teuber Publisher: Asmodee Players: 3-4 Age: 10+ Time: 15-30 min Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/47mjaZu Played with review copy provided by publisher In CATAN – On the Road, gameplay is driven by a … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2026/05/07/dale-yu-review-of-catan-on-the-road/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
<p>by <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1?bloggerid=10014" >Steph Hodge</a></p> <br/><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/5144995"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/g32yzFv-0QwHCYgi8vX6ww__small/img/sb200ochVXjrV58zh-77tKebppg=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic5144995.png" border=0></a></div>▪️ <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/21847/pandasaurus-games" >Pandasaurus Games</a> always has a lot of really cool games in the pipeline, and they recently announced a few titles being released this summer, but don't forget about their other just-released titles as well!<br/><br/><br/><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9086369"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/q8z1jLt70WjTwtVEXvPbvQ__small/img/pS4iaDTSZwm_sQdYHFRMOVSPOvs=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic9086369.png" border=0></a></div><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9344596"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/dCc29ngMNPfMSgWDS2OcEw__small/img/rWWw3665gUkEmhJXWVYtaJPDhiU=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic9344596.jpg" border=0></a></div><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9474732"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/IcKUoliV8iDb9RcRRE4FBg__small/img/YRhBbmM31ujZd-QMePciJX9T34Y=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic9474732.png" border=0></a></div>▪️<i><b> <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/453037/shackleton-base-below-within-above" >Shackleton Base: Below. Within. Above.</a></b></i> is a new expansion just released! This expands the very popular <i><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/408180/shackleton-base-a-journey-to-the-moon" >Shackleton Base: A Journey to the Moon</a></i> which was released last year. In the box, you can expect to find 3 new corporations to mix with your base game, new scoring milestone tokens, and more content for the solo gamers out there. <br/><br/>▪️Also recently released were the two small expansion packets for <i><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/385761/faraway" >Faraway</a></i> and <i><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/416851/castle-combo" >Castle Combo</a></i>. Don't underestimate a few cards being added to your games; they add a big punch! Check out <b><i><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/448182/castle-combo-out-of-the-oubliette" >Castle Combo: Out of the Oubliette!</a> & <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/451708/faraway-under-starry-skies" >Faraway: Under Starry Skies</a>.</i></b><br/><br/><br/><i>And now for all of the summer releases! I have three exciting new games that have been announced for release this August!</i><br/><br/>[imageid=8660175 medium rep]▪️ Time to check out <b><i><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/437245/kingdom-crossing" >Kingdom Crossing</a></i></b> from designers <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/12293/marco-canetta" >Marco Canetta</a>, <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/12294/stefania-niccolini" >Stefania Niccolini</a> the team that brought you <i><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/381819/zhanguo-the-first-empire" >Zhanguo: The First Empire</a> & <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/207691/railroad-revolution" >Railroad Revolution</a></i>. This game plays 1-4 players in 45-90 minutes. <br/><br/>From the newsletter:<br/><font color=#2121A4><div class='quote'><div class='quotebody'><i>Welcome to Brightspring!<br/>In a faraway land in the midst of a verdant forest crossed by the Crystal River lies the small kingdom of Brightspring, ruled by the wise Queen Beavery, who is facing a problem: Her four regions are separated by seven bridges, and to divide her time evenly between the subjects of these regions, the kingdom would need an eighth bridge...<br/> <br/>Help the Queen build a new bridge! Scour the kingdom, recruit the best artisans, gather construction resources, and create magnificent decorations. Note, however, that you can never use the same bridge more than once in the same day.</i></div></div></font><br/><br/><br/><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9563393"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/xuLnVC8ypyeBUDcOQ6k_oA__small/img/b42HuToJFzn4obeU0UxMVxi6IOc=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic9563393.png" border=0></a></div>▪️ Seems like a perfect time for <b><i><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/469599/sandcastles" >Sandcastles</a></i></b> to be released as we get ready for the warm beach weather. For 2-6 players and plays in 20 minutes. <br/><br/>More on the mechanics from the newsletter:<br/><font color=#2121A4><div class='quote'><div class='quotebody'><i>Over 15 rounds, players draft a single tile per round and add it to their sandcastle: a personal 5×5 grid anchored by a Starter Tile. The catch? Tiles are revealed one at a time, and once you take one, you're out of that round. Wait too long hoping for something better, and you might be forced to take whatever's left.<br/><br/>Tiles score through a mix of mechanisms: adjacency bonuses for matching starfish colors, row-by-row window counts, birds on sky tiles, and flat values for shells, shovels, and buckets.<br/><br/>This gives players a satisfying puzzle to optimize across their grid. Designed by <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/92270/alex-cutler" >Alex Cutler</a> (<i><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/393429/critter-kitchen" >Critter Kitchen</a></i>,<i> <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/431481/a-place-for-all-my-books" >A Place for All My Books</a></i>), it's a clean, quick game that's equally at home on a family table or as a warm-up for game night.</i></div></div></font><br/><br/><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9563449"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/iOvN0oqwnxh6PztOHdNgIA__small/img/2DF6pyXzYPTw0ayVtbAvIi8YyCI=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic9563449.png" border=0></a></div>▪️ Finally, a new release of a classic game from 2003 called <i><b><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6351/gulo-gulo" >Gulo Gulo</a></b></i>. This is a family game that will play well with kids and large gatherings, as it plays 2-6 players in 20 minutes. <br/><br/>From the newsletter:<br/><font color=#2121A4><div class='quote'><div class='quotebody'><i>Re-introducing <i>Gulo Gulo</i> 🥚 Some games never should have gone away. <i>Gulo Gulo</i> is one of them. Originally published in 2003, this Kinderspielexperten Nominee spent years as a sought-after out-of-print gem. Now, with all-new art by <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameartist/13186/jennifer-l-meyer" >Jennifer Meyer</a> and a freshened-up ruleset, it's finally coming back to retail on August 21.<br/><br/>The premise is as follows: you're a family of wolverines racing to rescue Gulo Junior from a nest guarded by suspicious swamp vultures. The nest is packed with colorful eggs, but hiding somewhere in the middle is the alarm pole. You need to reach in and steal the right one without knocking anything over. It's harder than it sounds, but also extremely fun to watch.</i></div></div></font><br/><br/>
  Treat, Please! Designer: Courtney Shernan Publisher: Solis Players: 2-4 Age: 10+ Time: 30-60 minutes Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4cbRgAX Played with review copy provided by publisher You live a cozy life with your fellow dogs and loving human. Each … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2026/05/06/dale-yu-review-of-treat-please/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
  Questline Designers: Marc-Andre Lavoie and Martin Lavoie Publisher: Thunderworks Players: 1-6 Age: 14+ Time: 15 minutes Preorder link – https://thunderworksgames.com/products/questline-card-game Played with review copy provided by publisher In Questline, players compete to earn the most reputation stars by … <a href="https://opinionatedgamers.com/2026/05/05/dale-yu-review-of-questline/">Continue reading <span class="meta-nav">→</span></a>
<p>by <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1?bloggerid=20006" >John Drexler</a></p> <div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/7591462"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/PeX341Ah5O4DBUNphPWgRA__small/img/2mljdsXohFJhoA_8uFXYAi0H2iI=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic7591462.png" border=0></a></div><br/>This is the story of how I published my first game <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/393230/colossi" ><b><i>Colossi</i></b></a>. I learned 100 hard lessons along the way. But the most interesting are the bookends: how it started, and how I eventually realized I was done designing.<br/><br/><b>The Conception</b><br/><br/>In 2016, I was trying to design a huge, wildly ambitious superhero RPG with my friend Walter Somerville. Being new designers, we of course picked the hardest possible first project. The game was doomed, but it got our creative wheels turning. One afternoon I was on a walk with my friend Mitch, and I tried to explain a combat system I'd been developing. It was just one piece of this massive, sprawling idea. The explanation came out garbled. Mitch nodded politely, tried to play it back to me, and his version was completely wrong.<br/><br/>It was also better than mine.<br/><br/>That's where <i>Colossi</i> started. Years later in 2020, humbled by several other failed ambitious projects, I excavated just that one combat mechanism: preparing cards in three environments at once, because you don’t know which hand you’ll play next. And that was a good enough idea to build a much smaller game around.<br/><br/>I think a lot about <a href="https://catacombian.com/blog/where-do-good-ideas-in-game-design-come-from" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">where good game ideas come from</a>. Good game ideas are everywhere, for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. A painter sees the world in color, light, and shadow. Game designers see games everywhere: complicated real world systems, war, funny social situations, etc. Our job is just to stay open and pay attention. In this case, a great idea came from a friend's misunderstanding of my bad idea. Sometimes you get lucky.<br/><br/><b>Day 1</b><br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9542965"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/2FKSJprsC7hxe8sRyaRCFw__small/img/ezZ0wX1AOSuUa1RXDpg5KTYcfxc=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic9542965.png" border=0></a></div></center><br/>The picture above is literally day one of Colossi. Pencil, paper, and the simplest possible implementation. I prototype fast and furious: get the idea out of my head and onto the table so I can see whether it has legs. <a href="https://catacombian.com/blog/escape-the-mind-palace-keep-your-game-prototype-playable" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">I've written about this at length elsewhere</a>. A game only becomes a game when someone can pick it up and play it. Before that, it’s merely a thought experiment. Colossi came to life because I kept putting it in front of people, starting on day one.<br/><br/>From that first sketch, the structural hook was already there. Three Environments. Both players have identical starting decks. And, critically, you don't know which Environment will resolve first. So you're preparing three hands at once across three lanes, hedging across all of them. Because when a fight breaks out, you better have a well constructed hand with synergies and combos in that environment (originally called “Zone”).<br/><br/><b>"How much craziness can this scaffolding hold?"</b><br/><br/>My design process is typically: <br/><br/>1. Build a strong and compelling base scaffolding.<br/>2. Pressure test how much wild stuff the scaffolding can hold.<br/><br/>I strive for the experience where a player picks up a card and says, “No way. Am I seriously allowed to do that? And if I combo it with this other card… that must be broken…” And then it works. <br/><br/>A lot of the cards from my first iteration were simply elemental cards like water, fire, and electric, to build up power to win an environment. But I gradually started layering in crazier card types with big exciting effects. <br/><br/>The Colossus cards represent your special abilities as a Colossus. These cards all feel like cheating. <b>Heap</b> lets you tuck any number of your cards under itself and count them all toward its power. This allows you to make use of low power cards, dramatically change your hand size, and negate negative effect cards all at once. It’s a great example of a huge, out of the ordinary moment that makes <i>Colossi</i> feel so exciting. <b>Manifest </b>literally says "play another card from your hand, even if you're not allowed to play that card right now." I kept waiting for <b>Manifest</b> to break the game. But it just worked.<br/><br/>Another breakthrough was <b>Abduct</b>. There is a set of Beast type cards, that directly attack your opponent by forcing them to lose cards. Everyone starts <i>Colossi </i>with identical decks, which I was attached to because it puts tactics ahead of luck. But the game really came alive when I introduced a Beast card that lets you steal a card your opponent has played and making it part of your deck. Slowly, over the course of a match, the decks drift apart. By the final Skirmish, the composition of what you're drawing from is meaningfully different from what you started with. In a few games, testers abducted their opponent’s <b>Abduct </b>card! Things got crazy, but the game didn’t break, and it was still pretty fair. <br/><br/>That gradual asymmetry was a breakthrough. The identical starting decks give the game its fairness. <b>Abduct </b>(and eventually other cards that warp the decks) gives it an arc.<br/><br/>Now that <i>Colossi’</i>s foundation felt solid, I started asking how many crazy cards I could fit into the game. The answer, it turns out, is quite a lot. I developed the player decks quite a bit, and got it to a place where there was a fun and surprising set of synergies and counters. But the game needed more.<br/><br/>The first big addition came from a test with Walter. He suggested that every Environment should have its own unique rule, something that rewrites a part of the game. That single observation cracked the project wide open. <b>Sacrifice Mountain</b> makes you discard cards onto an opponent's deck. <b>Magnetic Maar</b> pulls cards from other environments into play. <b>Glass River</b> has you prepare cards face-up, totally inverting the strategy. Suddenly every session played like its own mini-game. Each Environment now had personality, and felt like a real place.<br/><br/>This was the right level of complexity for new players. But some of my testers had now played the game dozens of times. I had lots more ideas for things that were too crazy to fit into the base deck. Things that you don’t want to happen four times in a game. So I added Items: single-use cards that are randomly distributed to Environments and let you pull off enormous, game-warping plays. A few of my favorites:<br/><br/><b>Ebenezer</b>: Discard your entire hand. If you discarded at least 4 cards, this card gives you +15 power.<br/><b>Wager</b>: Guess out loud who will win this Skirmish. If you're right, draw 2 cards from your deck and prepare them on the next Environment. If you're wrong, discard all the cards you have prepared on all Environments.<br/><b>Terraformer</b>: Destroy both non-active Environments, and replace them with new ones from the deck.<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9542966"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/UTbug7yVeqvbGGrgD9sbVw__small/img/i7BMw1nR7EZMF7d6hJi4KHUe188=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic9542966.png" border=0></a></div></center><br/>The random combinations of Environments and Items created a genuinely dynamic problem to solve. Matching the synergies and counters in your deck to the environments and items available turned into an addictive game loop. Layer on the dynamic of your opponent bluffing and putting together counters of their own? I had a good game on my hands.<br/><br/><b>Hiring an Artist</b><br/><br/>These environments were the centerpiece of the game. They deserved oversized cards and gorgeous art. I found my artist <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameartist/71550/sean-thurlow" >Sean Thurlow</a> (<a href="https://www.instagram.com/seanthurlow/" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">Instagram</a>) right here on a BGG forum! Sean does environment art professionally for video games and animated shows. Handing Sean the brief of "here are twenty ridiculous Environments, go nuts" was a dream. Art sells games. Without Sean, I would not have had a successful Kickstarter. <br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9542974"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/sklKWIZlcdlxdqHZyhOp9w__small/img/WRFJrO8Hs1dLxTJZygLUxOwppR8=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic9542974.png" border=0></a></div></center><br/><b>The Graveyard</b><br/><br/>For everything that made it into the final game, two or three things got cut. My list of cut content is bigger than the game itself.<br/><br/>Most of the cut cards fell into the following categories: <br/><br/>1. <b>Too many edge cases</b>: The most instructive cut was a card called <b>Hypnotize</b>: "choose an opponent; for their next turn, they must play three cards in a row." It was a fun deviation from the normal gameplay. It was also an edge-case machine. What if the hypnotized player also has a <b>Hypnotize</b>? What if another card interrupts them mid-turn? What if they only have two cards in hand? Every playtest produced a new ruling, so out it went.<br/><br/>2. <b>Redundancy / too same-y</b>: since I’m optimizing for big, crazy, exciting moments, it was critical to not have a lot of cards that do nearly the same thing. I even had a good number of cards like <b>Recreate</b> that let you copy a Divine Gift or Beast effect an opponent had just played, and it was fine, but it just repeated an effect you just saw, and it fell flat.<br/><br/>3. <b>Mechanically sound, but a vibe killer</b>: I like games where you can really mess with your opponent. But I ran into some ideas that just felt awful. Some cards felt like you were a big brother bullying your little brother, and at the table it just felt bad.<br/><br/><b>Putting It Down</b><br/><br/>After 18 months of grinding on this game, I burned out. <i>Colossi </i>was close to done, but I couldn't tell what "done" meant anymore. It felt like there was no end to testing and idea generation. I got overwhelmed and tired, and went to work on other games. I made a web based <a href="https://thesocialgame.gg/" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">social game</a>. I developed new board game ideas. I set <i>Colossi </i>aside for nearly a year.<br/><br/>The revival happened at a work retreat. A coworker had heard I made games and asked me to bring one along. I was down on <i>Colossi</i> at the time and brought it reluctantly. They loved it. They pushed me to finish it. It had problems, but I had fresh eyes and more design experience. This was the test where I really honed in on Items, and refined how you use them. I was ready for the final stretch.<br/><br/>Testing and development are arduous. Progress stalls. You lose perspective. You need kind people around who will remind you that the thing you made is worth finishing.<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9542972"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/0xtPe0enSgXpwRLKr-0bqg__small/img/F9-vdICAJma6nnVJYK_SZia2JSE=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic9542972.png" border=0></a></div></center><br/><b>Knowing When To Stop</b><br/><br/>When I came back to <i>Colossi</i>, I was energized and started piling on new ideas again. Now that I had the right form factor for Items, the ideas were flowing. <br/><br/>I played it dozens more times, mostly with my friend Chris Thornton. Chris is a star playtester and a brilliant designer in his own right. He'd been brainstorming alongside me for years. After one test he said, “Every new idea either breaks the game, is redundant, or would turn <i>Colossi</i> into a fundamentally different game." The graveyard was bigger than the game. It was extremely difficult to come up with new crazy things that made the game better. And that was the sign that I was done.<br/><br/>This is a great heuristic to know when something is done. There’s no stone left unturned. You’ve tried everything. And every new idea hurts the game instead of enhancing it.<br/><br/>It was a weight off my shoulders. Because he was right. The foundation was holding absurd amounts of crazy: players stealing each other's cards, cycling half a deck in a turn, manifesting Beast cards out of nowhere, forcing mass discards, and the game still played fair, fast, and exciting. The cup was full of water, and it wouldn't take any more water.<br/><br/>Time to print.<br/><br/><center><div style=''><a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9542975"><img src="https://cf.geekdo-images.com/oYCTQlI2xugP85VT5ZfPUw__small/img/fJTuEtefBzTPvtQHFMl800bRwwQ=/fit-in/200x150/filters:strip_icc()/pic9542975.png" border=0></a></div></center><br/><b>Self-publishing</b><br/><br/>I ran <i>Colossi</i> as a <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/catacombian/colossi?ref=bggforums&term=colossi&total_hits=27&category_id=34" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">Kickstarter</a> through my own publisher, <a href="https://catacombian.com/" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">Catacombian</a>. Many backers took a chance on the game, got it into production, and carried it across the finish line.<br/><br/>Self-publishing means you learn every part of the pipeline whether you want to or not: manufacturing overseas, freight and customs, CE testing, warehousing, fulfillment (domestic and international), distribution, retail outreach, reviews, advertising, and the long, slow work of getting the game onto shelves. Each of those is its own game, with its own rules, and most of them do not come with a rulebook. <br/><br/>I would not have done any of it without the playtesters, the backers, and the wave of designers and publishers I pestered for advice along the way. The board game community is weirdly, disproportionately generous. If you're working on something, keep asking people for help. They will help. It is noteworthy that the story of <i>Colossi</i> mentions so many other people. Game designers have nothing without friends, testers, and collaborators. <br/><br/><b>Thanks</b><br/><br/>Colossi is available now on our <a href="https://catacombian.com/colossi" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">website</a> and in select retail stores. If you'd like to go deeper on the design process, including a longer conversation about where good ideas come from, I talk extensively about this process in my <a href="https://catacombian.com/blog" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">blog</a> / <a href="https://notesonplay.transistor.fm/" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">podcast</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@catacombiangames" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">YouTube</a> / <a href="https://www.instagram.com/catacombiangames" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">Instagram</a> / <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/catacombian.com" target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow noreferrer noopener">Bluesky</a>.
Everybody wants them.