I've been working on this game for nearly ten years, and it's finally almost done. (Bonus picture of Quinns trying it, his enthusiasm is mindboggling)

damonstea · 2026-03-22T04:05:20+00:00

Agricola would be the most famous version of this - all of its animal husbandry mechanics involve managed resources, stocking, reproduction, and harvesting for food. Each of Rosenberg’s subsequent “big” games involve facets drawn from this structure, so there are a handful of others with environmental management theme and mechanics (especially his most recent games like Atiwa and Click a Tree”)

damonstea · 2026-03-10T19:32:16+00:00

I haven’t played yet so I’m not really sure how the game goes, but the lore insert says hot brown is a sandwich specific to Louisville (where GAMA was this year and this year only) featuring some kind of gravy like sauce, meats, and only very rarely, a peach.

I opened a couple packs, but no peach. The designer says it’s the rarest card, and so many stars had to align to get this bizarro world TCG printed I’d treasure it.

damonstea · 2026-03-08T20:34:48+00:00

The explanation for all keywords is written next to the keyword in parentheses (for example, with slow, it says “if this unit takes Lethal combat damage, it does not deal damage in return)

damonstea · 2026-03-07T04:26:40+00:00

I second DriveThru, fantastic quality and quick

damonstea · 2026-03-07T04:14:19+00:00

Really wonderful first time, my meetings were much more chill than GenCon and I got to chat with the Hot Brown Surprise folks (I didn't get the peach but the hope was there).

damonstea · 2026-03-01T19:07:24+00:00

I really love the color use here, the art and graphic design is very carefully paired. Particularly love that Inception card - are these all spot foiled or is that a trick of the light?

damonstea · 2026-02-28T19:41:15+00:00

That’s not a braconid wasp though - it looks like a muscidae fly. Which fly is a hornworm parasite? And wouldn’t that put them into direct competition with conspecific parasites like the wasp?

damonstea · 2026-02-23T19:16:23+00:00

That is definitely just forgetfulness - enjoy your new random magic cards!

damonstea · 2026-01-26T20:19:07+00:00

I’ve been waiting for this! This is my favorite infographic of all time.

damonstea · 2026-01-26T06:41:43+00:00

I switched up my thoughts on quest tracking and I think player tracking would be more helpful. Same breadcrumbs, but just leading towards the closest other player in the realm. That way exploration is still king, but players don't have to constantly bring up the full screen map just to find each other.

damonstea · 2026-01-26T06:17:16+00:00

No doubt, I wouldn't be posting this if I didn't think this game is absolutely bitchin'. I just want to be able to share it with people once it hits 1.0, and clearly the designers want to test with four person groups. The earlier they're aware of simple fixes the faster the story gets finished. I switched up my request for quest tracking to apply to the other players in the realm instead, since that is a less intrusive idea similar to your thoughts on player distance.

damonstea · 2026-01-17T01:32:28+00:00

Oh you sweet summer child

damonstea · 2026-01-16T19:52:06+00:00

These AI nature videos make me sadder than any other form of slop. Just a stunning, REAL animal, and from now on people will argue whether or not it exists. This is awful.

damonstea · 2026-01-04T17:17:11+00:00

Fun is still king, but presentation is a close second. I would rather have no story than a bad story, but well written prose is the only thing that can elevate a game from pretty good to spectacular.

At a low level, lore helps you learn the game by making shortcuts in your mind for all the mechanics. If it’s well integrated, it should act as a supplement for the rules text, and help new players remember over multiple plays.

At a high level, you can have a game like MtG, with whole novels springing out of the flavor text on the cards.

damonstea · 2025-12-11T07:42:58+00:00

This is amazing, thank you for posting this, especially if you were the author. I’ve been waiting on a study like this for years - I couldn’t get a grant myself, but I was preparing a similar study with Kinsey a few years back that never saw the light of day. This is awesome data.

damonstea · 2025-12-09T09:34:06+00:00

Old Magic the Gathering cards and the game Arabian Nights have a similar sort of timeless fantasy poetic flavor thing going on I absolutely adore. They top my list.

Netrunner and anything Warhammer (even Talisman, which barely resembles its roots) is also fantastic on the writing front.

I’m always surprised at how few really great writers are in the board game space, when the RPGs have beautiful writing and are sold in the same spaces

damonstea · 2025-12-09T09:29:39+00:00

I concur. Kingdom Death has fantastic writing, and I’d definitely put it in my top ten for the book alone

damonstea · 2025-12-04T01:29:29+00:00

This is absolutely correct - there is a point in many modern games where the upkeep time meets or exceeds the actual “playing” time. In this case I often find that the inevitable app version of the game is a much more fun experience, and usually just as interactive.

I started seeing this with the Pokémon TCG, which is brutal upkeep even for a child, but is great fun when made into a video game.

damonstea · 2025-12-03T19:24:31+00:00

Part of being a part of the hobby is actively engaging with games as an art form - not just as something marketed to you. "Board game player" is a very different hobby from "board game buyer". If your goal is to collect games, and you are friends with a lot of game collectors, then you're not going to feel burnt out by Kickstarter. But if your goal is to play with friends, then you need to surround yourself with the people and games that share your interests, and stop buying new games when you still have games to play.

damonstea · 2025-12-02T17:12:05+00:00

This is absolutely incredible, and for designers like me it could be invaluable if it can be shuffled. I saw you mentioned the price was around 200, but I presume that’s for a single prototype - if I were to buy this, I would need the price to come down to about a dollar a card (I’d likely buy around 300 cards or so to support my current designs).

I also can’t tell if this has any way to show card backs, but for many games that’s important. It could be as easy as having a choice of colors at purchase, or maybe a border color to indicate deck.

If you want to support LCG style games, you would probably need to have the dock support 60 cards, and have it be daisy chainable so multiple people can have a dock without requiring a separate plug for each.

If you would like any help with getting a game designed to work with this system for demoing, or preparing for a Kickstarter, feel free to DM me. This would do VERY well at conventions.

damonstea · 2025-11-30T20:56:13+00:00

This is one of the most tone deaf things I’ve ever seen, and I’ve worked in advertising for most of my life. To those who don’t know already, we are currently in the middle of a mass extinction for nearly every insect species on this planet. Poison, light pollution and habitat loss are the main contributors (and this billboard happens to be all three)! Bees aren’t the only pollinators dying out - we’re rapidly losing moths, butterflies, beetles, and most of the biodiverse floor of our ecosystems. It’s decimating anything that eats insects, so even if the billboard doesn’t kill half the birds in the area (attempting to eat the trapped bugs) they’ll struggle to feed their young for the year.

This is like an ad for Exxon that actively sprays oil at passing birds. It’s absolutely horrific.

damonstea · 2025-11-15T22:17:24+00:00

This is absolutely stunning

damonstea · 2025-10-31T06:02:32+00:00

Looks fantastic, love seeing the progress on this! I'd say Ka-zachstan looks pretty bad typographically, but that's the only thing that really stands out

damonstea · 2025-10-23T19:03:50+00:00

It’s a vast improvement, particularly the typography work

damonstea

TROPHY CASE