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19/10/20 SSO: Rage of Montalbano successfully funded and now open for late pledges on Crowd Ox.

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The Philosophy of Game Design: Phenomenology.

The Philosophy of Game Design: Phenomenology.

A little while ago (actually longer ago than I intended to leave it before doing a follow-up blog) I wrote a bit about some of the semantics of game design in relation to fun specifically. I’ve been thinking recently about the nature of phenomenological philosophy and want to say a little about how it relates to game design generally, and game design as an art form. So, if that sounds like the worst possible thing to read about, feel free to skip this one. Phenomenology is th

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SSO: Rage of Montalbano Kickstarter Post-Partum

SSO: Rage of Montalbano Kickstarter Post-Partum

We’ve recently (as in at the time of writing this within 48 hours) successfully funded our third Kickstarter, this time for SSO: Rage of Montalbano. As such, I’m doing my second post Kickstarter analysis blog. As I’ve said before, I see more Post-Mortem blogs for failed Kickstarters than Post-Partum ones for successful one, which I think is a pity. Firstly, I’m going to refer to the Kickstarter SSO: Rage of Montalbano here simply as RoM, for obvious reasons. Secondly, it is c

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The 5 most (biographically) influential games ever!

The 5 most (biographically) influential games ever!

I’m not generally a fan of list articles, and even less of ones about what games are “fact” more influential than others. Certainly, if the list is ten or fewer games, I’m fairly sure you’d have a hard time getting past folk games before you hit double figures. That said I really enjoyed Giant Brain’s recent blog on the games that most influenced them personally. I commented responding with my own top five, so feel free to save yourself time and just read that comment, but I

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The Kickstarter brief: Design

The Kickstarter brief: Design

I recently wrote a blog about games with roll and move mechanics on Kickstarter which seemed to garner two general schools of response, one being “surely people don’t seriously attempt to launch roll and move based games in this day and age” and the other being “it surely doesn’t mean certain failure to release a roll and move game on Kickstarter”. Firstly, yes, they absolutely do, on average about twice a month, but there are spikes. Secondly, I’m not saying that it does mea

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Reviews, Previews, Kickstarter and Independent Designers

Reviews, Previews, Kickstarter and Independent Designers

I want to make this post because I feel there is a gap between the perception and the reality of the world of reviewers and previewers in the tabletop industry, particularly in relation to Kickstarters. I’m making it mainly in relation to the payment for reviews which many backers seem to find problematic when addressed but I feel that it is seen as problematic largely due to an unwillingness to acknowledge the realities of the situation, which I hope I can help with. I wou

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Collecting and Completion, a Collecting the SDJs special

Collecting and Completion, a Collecting the SDJs special

Those of you who have been following this blog closely will know that just to bedevil myself I’ve chosen to collect and review all the Spiel Des Jahres. You might also know that I arbitrarily decided that I’d do it without paying full price myself for any of them. As such, with bring and buys at conventions and charity shops being out for what feels like forever now, I’m down to Birthdays and Christmas for ticking that list off. It recently rolled around to the inevitable bir

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