Thank you to everyone who supported the Kickstarter! It means a lot to my wife and me to see so many people excited about the games and the product. I'd love to be able to turn the success of this into more projects in the future, so I've launched a web shop, Gameswell.shop! You can pre-order copies of the book there! In case you are a Kickstarter backer, please wait until I send out the shipping surveys to add more books and bags to your order, but you will be able to do so when that happens! Since this represents the hard work of a few different people, I wanted a place where the PNW pro ..read more

My book of PNW-inspired card games is live on Kickstarter! Two years and over five hundred playtests went into this beautiful book, and I’m proud to share these games with you. I’m so grateful for all the support from my community throughout the process. See more about the games and the book on the project page here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tomcardgames/pnw-a-book-of-card-games Read more about it in my previous blog post. Thanks for being along for the journey! -t Fun games of the week Played Agon recently and had a blast. What a fun RPG system ..read more

I've been hard at work on a new project over the past two years, and I'm thrilled to share it with you. I'll be launching a Kickstarter next month! What is it? This is PNW: Card Games Inspired by the Pacific Northwest, a collection of six modern card games in a fully illustrated hardcover book. All you need is a deck of cards and whatever tokens you have lying around to hunt with a pod of orcas, forage for tasty mushrooms, brave the swift rivers of the salmon run, and more. What's inside? There are six games in the book that all require a standard deck of cards. Each of the games is built arou ..read more

'Leigh Jones and Peter Norton are game designers in Seattle publishing their debut board game, a tile-placement adventure called Favor: Gods of Oethera (favorthegame.com). The interview, recorded May 28, 2023, has been condensed and edited for clarity. Jump to the end of the page for the full audio interview, which has more discussion about Favor's gameplay, manufacturing, Kickstarter advice, and general merriment. 'Leigh and Peter of Lichenwood Games What games did you play with family or friends growing up? 'Leigh: One that is actually my brother's favorite but we still play sometimes to th ..read more

Hello! I'm back with some updates on games and a new website, Voxle.club. Voxle.club I've been doing some voice acting for fun, and kept hunting for various sources I could utilize for practice reading aloud, doing characters, etc., so I decided to build a website to help me with just that! Voxle.club is a website I put together as an inviting way to get a daily reading from a poem, novel, play, etc. with no distractions. Each day, all users get the same excerpt. You can read a play with friends, see how dramatic you can make a romantic poet sound, or just cozy up with some coffee and a daily ..read more

Garth Avery is a board game designer in Seattle, WA working on his LUCI-award-winning debut game, “Primordial Secrets” (primordialsecrets.com). This interview, originally recorded in December 2021, has been condensed and edited for clarity, with a few updates. "Before the birth of time itself, Primordials held court in the great void." – primordialsecrets.com Intro What games did you play with family and friends growing up? Garth: I guess it all started with Magic the Gathering in middle school. From there it went to all the TCGs (trading card games)—we played Pokemon, Star Wars TCG, Star Tre ..read more

Hi all; as a way to meet folks working on games, I decided to do some interviews of people I've met via playtesting. The first is with Courtney Shernan (@CourtneyShernan), a board game designer in Seattle, WA working on her debut game, “Treat, Please!”, a game where players take up the role of a spoiled dog that knows how to get their human to give them anything they want by being cute. Game designer Courtney Shernan with her dog, Trixie. We chat about what it was like designing games during the pandemic, desert island games, Courtney's process for pitching her game to publishers, and more. T ..read more

So you want to make a game? (That question doesn't count toward my limit). Playtest early, playtest often, and make meaningful changes to your game. Most importantly, don't be defensive when people say things you don't want to hear — those people are actively trying to make your game better, so just nod and take notes. Also, don't be discouraged if you receive a lot of critical feedback; playtesters are not always right about issues in your game, and they often disagree. A few extra data points never hurt anyone, they just give you more information to hone your game. Some extra Data. 1. What ..read more

I'm back with my first weekly blog post! I'll be trying to publish every Monday with something – a game review, an update on games in development, a breakdown of some common game mechanics, or maybe just to talk about how great my wife is. Why am I starting this journey? I have been playing games and attempting to come up with my own for the greater part of my life. Whether with Legos, paper balls, or middle school video-games lovingly crafted (read: terrible but with a lot of effort put into them), I wanted to get at what was fun in games. I learned some by playing some great games growing up ..read more

Supply-chain issues got you down? Feeling pigeonholed into not making cheesecake? Using either of those as excuses for why you, for the eighth year in a row, have embarked on a days-before-Christmas frenzy to check gifts off your list? You're not a cotton-headed ninny muggins. I've got 'ya covered. What follows is a list of eleven games from established publishers (meaning more likely to be on your local game store, mega-mart, or internet shelves if you are last-minute shopping). I start on the simpler side and build up to more complex games. There's a little something for everyone on this li ..read more