February 2025 update

Videos, BGA and interviews!

Welcome back to the desk, especially to everyone who is new here! It’s been a busy month since my last post, and I thought I would give you all a quick look into what I’ve been up to.

Youtube

One of my goals for the new year was to try and make short form videos about game design, aimed at both those who are interesting in learning or improving in the craft, and at those folks who are just curious as to what it’s like being a full time game designer. I had been thinking about it for many months, and just when I thought it might be one of the those goals that would never be achieved…I sat down and actually recorded my first video.

And it wasn’t terrible (or at least, the experience of making it wasn’t)! I managed to fudge my way through teaching myself the basics of editing in Adobe Premiere Pro, and my first creation was ready to be released on the world:

Thank you to everyone who watched, commented and subscribed - I was really fortunate to have such a positive reaction, which gave me the impetus to keep going (which is always the hardest at the start, much like starting with a new design). I just released my fifth video yesterday, and *hopefully* I can keep up a weekly release schedule for the year. If there is anything you would like me to make a video on, do let me know!

New games on Board Game Arena

I chatted a bit about the importance of having digital implementations of games on BGA in my previous post, and in the last month two of my previously released games have appeared on the platform in open beta.

The first is the Guild of Merchant Explorers, designed with Brett J. Gilbert and published by AEG. In some ways I think it’s a perfect game for a digital port, giving you a moorish bit of puzzling in not much time at all. I tried a few solo games so far, and I knocked them out in 10-15 minutes. Breezy! And with such a brisk playing time, there is plenty of chance to try the 4 maps which offer different twists and challenges.

You can play it on BGA here.

The second release is Pioneer Days, designed with Chris Marling and originally published by Tasty Minstrel Games - although the physical game, along with a new expansion, is going to be released soon with a new publisher, Fentasy Games. This one fell off the radar pretty quickly when it was first released in 2017, but there has been a small group of fans that have kept it alive with some word of mouth over the subsequent 8 (!) years, and I’m really hoping having both the BGA version and a new expansion released in the same year might allow some folks to discover it for the first time.

You can play it on BGA here.

Interview

Finally, I did an interview with Ryan Vodnik over on the Intertextual Cardboard Experience (link), chatting about all things collaboration and game design, and in particular the origin story of the playtesting group in Cambridge that I helped start with Brett almost 15 years ago now, and that has led to a bunch of designs in different collaborative partnerships. It was a fun conversation, thanks for having me Ryan.

Until next time!

Matthew