Game Design
I’ve been playing board games all my life, but began really diving into the tabletop community over the past decade. In 2016, I began working on some of my own designs. After several years of convention demos, play testing, contests, and iteration, I’m finally happy with several designs and am actively working toward publication.
I also design inserts and boxes for board games in my collection, and info on them plus links to download them are available here.
Current Projects
Amusement Architect
(formerly Compact Carnival)
1-6 players
20 minutes
drafting, modular board, tile laying
You are a budding young amusement park designer hoping to land the design contract of a prospective client. But the other players are also fighting to score the contract. Over the course of six rounds, you and the other players will draft and place cards with various attractions in your design, aiming to earn the most points for your overall plan. Each attraction type has a variety of scoring methods and a set of starting scenarios provide great variability and allow you to make each game unique.
If you would like to try Amusement Architect, there is a Tabletopia link here on the page.
A roll and write version is also in development.
Mall or Nothing
2 players
15 minutes
tile laying
You are rival mall designers trying to submit the best plans for a newly announced shopping mall. Using your awareness of what stores work best, you’ll submit your plans for the best mall. Whoever does so wins a huge promotion while the loser gets nothing.
Designed and submitted for the Button Shy Games Numbers on Cards contest. Rules can be found here.
Downtown Showdown
2 players
10 minutes
tile laying
Downtown is being revitalized by rival developers. You and your opponent will both be adding buildings to the plan for downtown. You each have building types you prefer to appear on your side of the street and things you definitely don’t want on your side of the street as well.
Careful planning and arrangement will lead you to be the most successful developer.
Ticket Town
2-4 players
20 minutes
dice rolling, drafting, hand management, press your luck, variable player powers
The carnival has come to town and the crown jewel is the row of games known as Ticket Town. Everyone lines up and tries their best to earn as many tickets as they can, because whoever does will be named the Mayor of Ticket Town.
Ticket Town (formerly Dicey Drafting) plays over three rounds where you roll a set of dice, then draft scoring cards that best take advantage of the results you’ve rolled. The cards are classic carnival games like Ring the Bell and Pop the Balloon. Your dice placement dictates how well you do at the game, allowing you to quit at any time for lower points, but extra benefits. It’s up to clever dice placement and manipulation to turn a random hand into a winning one and be crowned the Mayor of Ticket Town.
ARC (Animal Revival Collective)
1-4 players
5 minutes
real time, pattern matching
You’re a member of the Animal Revival Collective attempting to bring extinct animals back to life. You’ll be rapidly rearranging a sequence of DNA to match the known traits of the animal you’re trying to revive. However, the other scientists are also racing to revive animals faster than you. The first player to manage to revive three animals wins the game.
Other Work
I’ve been a judge for the Board Game Design Workshop since 2019. I give feedback and gaming advice to designers submitting their games, mostly based on innovation. In 2020, I also signed up to be a coach to help the semi-finalists improve their games and advance to the final round of judging.
Since 2020 I’ve worked with Unpub to help organize the Nonepub events and assist with in person events where I can. In 2023 I started a position on the advisory board for the organization.
I have also been a judge for the 2022 Cardboard Edison Award since 2022.
One of my first game design projects was creating a set of rules to play Dark Seas by AEG solo. It was my first venture into game design that I shared with the world. After publishing the first set of rules on BoardGameGeek, I got feedback by Robb Williams (girman39) who suggested adding rules for the Quartermaster. I thought the suggestion was a great idea and added it into the rules and re-released them again. You can find the rules on Board Game Geek by going to this link.