Your Game Will Suck & That’s Okay
A friend with impostor syndrome and a rather successful Kickstarter asked me a question a few weeks ago: What if my game sucks? I didn’t give them a soft bunny answer: It will. To unpack that in its various dimensions: Your game will suck to you. It’ll suck to you in ways where you feel you need
Ambition is the Enemy of Good & Done
You may have heard adages like “perfect is the enemy of good” and “perfect is the enemy of done.” But where does the drive to be “perfect” come from? I don’t think those sayings are particularly useful unless you think about the motivations behind them. Enter ambition, stage left. — Neophyte game designers often have ambition
The Unknown in Tim Horton’s
Shortly before Gen Con, I decided to ransom some blog posts. I’ve been feeling the urge to blog lately, and you know what they say: don’t do anything
Why I’m Cool with Phones During Games
A lot of people hate on phones at the game table, and to some degree I get that. But every time I hear someone talk about how they
A Few Words About My Friend Stepto
Yesterday, I found out my friend Stephen Toulouse—better known in so many communities as Stepto—passed away. Stepto was a friend, perhaps one of the more surreal friendships I’ve been honored with. I didn’t know him as well as I wish I had, but for some reason I struck a chord with him enough for him to
Our Empathy Problem in Tabletop Game Writing
With tech writing, my colleagues and I keep user empathy at the forefront of our minds. The emotions going into and out of a given experience aren’t afterthoughts, and what is writing if not crafting an experience with intended effect? When I talk about this in tech writing circles, I get variations of “of course,” “I
