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A difficulty of mass market game design: The Target and Walmart buyers’ tastes sometimes differ from the end customers’. In those cases, it’s like games have to pass through a filter that selects for the wrong thing. No shade though. It’s hard for anyone to grok customers unlike ourselves. 🎲✂️

When I go to GenCon, I feel torn. It forces me to face the fact that my job depends on a rah-rah consumerism I reject. That ache grows heavier each year. 🎲✂️

A common mistake in judging games: "The Enthusiast Bias" It happens when tests include an invested expert or enthusiast playing or teaching. Instead of testing the game, you end up testing their expertise, which masks what the actual experience will be for a normal group of players. 🎲✂️(1/8)

I'm the Director of Game Design at Taco Cat Games. I'll be at Gen Con Friday (July 31st) and Saturday (August 1st), taking pitches from game designers. Specifically in the Hyatt Regency Atrium. If you'd like to pitch, grab a half-hour time slot here: calendly.com/nickobento/g... 🎲✂️(1/2)

I keep seeing board game reviews that claim, 'Once you understand it, it’s easy.' For a tabletop game, that's practically a tautology. Comprehension isn't the preamble to the game's friction; it IS the friction. (I guess there are exceptions for bad games w/ other inadvertent friction?) 🎲✂️

Last August, I took a new job as Director of Game Design at Taco Cat Games. The first game we've made in which I had a heavy hand is now for sale. The original designers are Ken Gruhl and Jeremy Posner, two of the best mass market designers alive. 🎲✂️(1/7)

This is a key design principle of Shigeru Miyamoto, the Nintendo designer who invented Super Mario and Zelda, and one of the greatest game designers ever. If someone that good advocates for a principle, it often pays to put serious focus on it. 🎲✂️(1/3)