Matt: Nex Playground
The Wall Street Journal has a fun article about the Nex Playground, The Hottest Toy of the Year Is Made by a Tech Startup You’ve Never Heard Of. I think this is the first time one of Audrey Capital’s companies…
Designer Diary: Asteria
by Augusto Rocha Asteria is the result of my admiration for big games in small boxes, such as Innovation by Carl Chudyk and Homeworlds by John Cooper. The ability to make interesting decisions in an ever-expanding game of strategy using…
Matt: Apple iWeb
The new X/Twitter algorithim is hard to predict, but I’ve had one go viral with over a million views now, a quote-tweet of a cool demo video of Apple’s website builder from 2009, with themes and blog support and everything….
Bomb Captain Flip, Shatter Leviathan Wilds, Proliferate Confluences, and Shimmer in Heat
by W. Eric Martin I post expansion round-ups every so often, and these posts feel like expansions on what I normally do, that is, largely of interest only to those who have seen the original posts. I guess that’s just…
Matt: Winter Fun
The colors here have now gone blue for winter, and snow has started, thanks to the excellent Snow Fall plugin. I also wanted to congratulate Wealthfront on their IPO. Many on their team have been friends or advisors over the…
Donncha: Make Photo Competitions Simple
Running a photography club competition used to mean juggling spreadsheets, chasing emails, and manually tallying votes. I built Photo Competition Manager to change that. This free WordPress plugin handles everything your club needs: member management, secure uploads, flexible voting, and…
Mastermind Marketing, Take Taken, and December Dejarik
by W. Eric Martin ▪️ On Dec. 8, 2025, McSweeney’s published Robert Rooney’s story “The Mastermind Box Cover: What the Hell Were They Thinking?” An excerpt: MARTIN SMITH (Marketing Senior Vice President): Okay. Gary’s got a new cover comp. Gary,…
Root, Arcs publisher Leder Games scraps impending Take Kickstarter after game’s designer abruptly leaves studio
Leder Games has axed its next Kickstarter campaign just a few weeks before its expected launch, after the game’s creator abruptly left the publisher and took his design with him. The surprise cancellation comes four months after the Root and…
I Tried 7 Best GoFundMe Alternatives (Raise More, Pay Less)
You shouldn’t have to lose control of your donor data and rely on a third-party platform just to create a fundraising campaign. But that’s exactly what happens when you hit ‘launch’ on GoFundMe. Thankfully, there are plenty of GoFundMe alternatives…
Designer Diary: Soothsayers
by Jeff Grisenthwaite The Magnetism of Tarot I never truly believed. My logical brain never accepted that tarot cards could actually divine the future, but I was instantly captivated by the haunting illustrations by Pamela Colman Smith in the classic…
