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Cardboard Edison

@cardboardedison.com

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Board game design and tips for board game makers. cardboardedison.com

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Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 01/10/2026

Seeking opinions! Which aesthetic do you prefer for Mini Discus, our Indie Games Night Market game: top or bottom? (Assume the layout is the same either way.) cardboardedison.com/discus

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 27/09/2026

Laying out v3 of the prototype for our Indie Games Night Market game Mini Discus! Details at cardboardedison.com/discus

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 07/09/2026

Updated prototype for our Indie Games Night Market game Mini Discus, co-designed with our daughters! It’s starting to give a sense of what the final product will look like! And we have a page up on our site: cardboardedison.com/discus

Mini Discus prototype: engraved basswood board with target spots for magnetic discs, also engraved with county-fair-like icons: balloons, tickets, fireworks, etc.

Mini Discus prototype: engraved basswood board with target spots for magnetic discs, also engraved with county-fair-like icons: balloons, tickets, fireworks, etc.

Mini Discus prototype: engraved basswood board with target spots for magnetic discs, also engraved with county-fair-like icons: balloons, tickets, fireworks, etc.

Mini Discus prototype: engraved basswood board with target spots for magnetic discs, also engraved with county-fair-like icons: balloons, tickets, fireworks, etc.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 04/09/2026

Wait, have we not posted any pics of the prototype for Mini Discus yet? Let’s change that! We’ll have real copies at the Indie Games Night Market at PAX Unplugged! www.newmillindustries.com/ignm

Mini Discus prototype: engraved board with target spots and magnetic discs, also engraved.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 01/09/2026

Board game designers: Our 2026 reports on publishing contracts are out! Industry standards to know before signing: 💵 Part 1: advances, credit, creative control 🎲 Part 2: royalties, designer copies, promotion 🌏 Part 3: co-publishing, extra royalties, rights reversion cardboardedison.com/reports

Sections of the infographics. Text-to-speech format here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VoQ_0CLQXGhkahF2_pGS65GynP1qkG7mE_Nn-rccco4/edit?tab=t.0

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 24/07/2026

Time for a free sample of our weekly board game design newsletter! We spoke with @elizhargrave.bsky.social about designing Wingspan Pocket! Plus tons of links to news & resources: us6.campaign-archive.com?u=fb6f8b674f... If you like what you see, you can sign up here: cardboardedison.com/newsletter

Screenshot of the top of Cardboard Edison's Omnibus newsletter, with a photo of board game designer Elizabeth Hargave and the title "Designing a 'Pocket' Game, With Elizabeth Hargrave."

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 18/07/2026

We just updated our lists of online and in-person playtest groups with new events and meetings! Let us know if we're missing yours! cardboardedison.com/playtest-gro...

Screenshot of the header for Cardboard Edison's list of playtest groups

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 14/07/2026

Our survey on publishing contracts is done and now we're crunching the numbers! What sort of things should we focus on in our reports? Same overview as last time? Something else? cardboardedison.com/reports

Headers for the 2021 series of reports on board game licensing contract terms.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 17/06/2026

There's currently *one place in the whole world* where you can buy a hand-made copy of our game Houdini's Last Act, and that's alongside tons of other cool indie games at Games and Stuff in Maryland.

A few dozen indie games, including Houdini's Last Act, on a game store shelf.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 09/06/2026

Here’s a database of free game art that people have posted to Itch.io: jeremiahb.raindrop.page/database-of-...

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 21/05/2026

And.... The WINNER of the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award is: ASTROLABE by Yasaman Farazan! 2nd Place: Limelight by Cameron Fleming 3rd Place: Braggin' Wranglers by Luke Wolyncewicz 4th Place: Hatchlings by Alan Leduc Congrats to all the designers! Find out more at cardboardedison.com/award

2026 Cardboard Edison Award winner Astrolabe

Astrolabe designer Yasaman Farazan

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 21/04/2026

Hatchlings, Possessions, Catacombes de Paris, PiramiDuel. Info at cardboardedison.com/award

A judge writing notes while a board with sea turtles and shells on a beach sits on the table.

A map of a manor with standees and cards nearby.

Graveyard map with hidden action tokens.

A judge considers a 3-by-3 grid of scoring cards with D4s placed at the intersections.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 21/04/2026

StrongHolds, Hybrid Hijinks, Wunderkammer, The Leftovers. Info at cardboardedison.com/award

Two judges creating towers out of magnetic tiles.

Judges around a table, each with a hybrid creature and tokens on a map.

Tokens with a color and an icon such as feather, snake, and shell.

A judge reads from an adventure book as another listens and cards sit on the table.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 21/04/2026

Midnight Spawn, Astrolabe, The Roots of All Evil, Goa Kranti. Info at cardboardedison.com/award

Two judges using cards to move their DSV and support ship to discover and observe sea creatures through cards on a board divided into three depth levels.

Astrolabe set to one player's turn, demon cards with star tokens on them, a player board, and talisman cards.

Blackthorn standee.

Judges consider cards lined up along a map of Goa.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 21/04/2026

Match Patch, Ladybugs, The Wedding Planner, Limelight. Info at cardboardedison.com/award

A hand of cards: crow, cabbage, and pumpkin.

Red dice with black pips placed on pink and blue scoring cards.

Judges using their vision board, planning board, vendor cards, and more.

A successful "bomb": a row of cards with a lot of "blunders" plus cast and crew cards and more.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 21/04/2026

Deductive Seasoning, Black Ruth of Dogtown, Braggin' Wranglers, Moonforge. Info at cardboardedison.com/award

Player shield with the Periodic Table of Flavor, ingredient cards, dry-erase pen and board.

Judges divining with cards showing shapes with patterns and colors.

Getting ready to toss a lasso at animal tokens on a playmat.

Judges at a table mining resource cubes from asteroid tiles using a factory board and its manipulation modules.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 21/04/2026

The second weekend of Cardboard Edison Award finalist judging is in the books! Pics from the event in the 🧵

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 13/04/2026

PiramiDuel, Goa Kranti, Deductive Seasoning, Catacombes de Paris. Details at cardboardedison.com/award

Two judges playing PiramiDuel: D4s and scoring tiles.

Goa Kranti prototype on the table: cards, pawns, tokens, and more.

Judges playing Deductive Seasoning: player screens hiding dry-erase periodic tables of flavor.

Catacombes de Paris prototype on the table during judging: carts, maps, tiles, and more.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 13/04/2026

The Wedding Planner, Wunderkammer, Possessions, Moonforge. Details at cardboardedison.com/award

Three judges playing The Wedding Planner: vendor cards, present tokens, players mats, and more.

Judges playing Wunderkammer: bidding tokens on a grid with curiosity tokens on it.

Three judges standing at a table with the Possessions prototype on it.

Three judges playing Moonforge at the table.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 13/04/2026

StrongHolds, The Leftovers, Braggin' Wranglers, Black Ruth of Dogtown. Details at cardboardedison.com/award

StrongHolds being played: a player throwing a magnetic tile at a tower of magnetic tiles.

The Leftovers playthrough: four judges playing the game, cards on the table, one reading the rulebook.

Two-player game of Braggin' Wranglers: one has thrown a lasso onto a playmat sprinkled with animal meeples.

Black Ruth of Dogtown on the table during testing: cards with shapes, patterns, and colors, with divination results on the backs.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 13/04/2026

Ladybugs, Midnight Spawn, Astrolabe, Hybrid Hijinks. Details at cardboardedison.com/award

Four-player playthrough of Ladybugs: a grid of cards and red dice.

Four-player game of Midnight Spawn: a board with spaces for cards showing sea creatures, plus DSV and ship tokens.

Astrolabe on the table: rotating astrolabe components, plus cards and other bits.

Hybrid Hijinks on the the table: a map of habitat spaces with paths connecting them, plus characteristic cards.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 13/04/2026

The Roots of All Evil, Match Patch, Limelight, Hatchlings. Details at cardboardedison.com/award

The Roots of All Evil being played: rings of cards with numbers, with tokens in the gaps, and Blackthorn the tree demon.

Match Patch being played: three players adjusting tracks and gathering fertilizer tokens.

Limelight being played: cast and crew cards, acclaim tokens, critics with endgames goals, and more.

Hatchlings midgame: yellow, green, and blue sea turtles racing along the beach, one protected by a shell.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 11/04/2026

Judging has begun! Here are the prototypes for all 20 finalists in the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award! Details about all of them are available at cardboardedison.com/award

Shelves holding all 20 Cardboard Edison Award finalists.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 10/04/2026

And the last finalist prototype to arrive for this year’s Cardboard Edison Award is Limelight by Cameron Fleming. Appropriate since today is “opening night” for the first Award judging event!

Limelight prototype: trays of cards, tokens, cash bits, playbills, and more.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 10/04/2026

Here’s 2026 Cardboard Edison Award finalist The Leftovers by Larry Ted McBride, where magical foodfolk cooperate to build decks and take tricks! cardboardedison.com/award

The Leftovers prototype: player mats, guidebooks, cards, chits, and more.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 10/04/2026

The next arrival in the finalists for this year’s Cardboard Edison Award is Hybrid Hijinks by Jena Kreese, where we’ll be creating crazy animal hybrids that double as configurable player powers! cardboardedison.com/award

Prototype for Hybrid Hijinks: map, cards, and a bag filled with bits.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 10/04/2026

The next finalist for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award to arrive is the first in the contest’s 11 years to come with a ring box: The Wedding Planner by José Lema! cardboardedison.com/award

Prototype of The Wedding Planner: player aids, power cards, various bits, rulebook, “thank you” and “you’re invited” cards, markers, a ring box, and more.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 09/04/2026

The next finalist for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award to arrive: Wunderkammer by @roscoschock.bsky.social, where we’ll be bidding in simultaneous silent auctions in multiple dimensions! cardboardedison.com/award

Wunderkammer prototype: board, tiles, and bidding tokens.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 06/04/2026

What? Oh nothing, just preparing to summon a demon tree in 2026 Cardboard Edison Award finalist The Roots of All Evil by Dean Burry…

Prototype for The Roots of All Evil: cards, tokens in four colors, and a 3D demon tree.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 06/04/2026

Cardboard Edison Award finalist StrongHolds by Nelson de Castro has arrived! These stickered magnetic tiles will be used to build and knock down castles!

StrongHolds prototype: just a big ol’ brick of stickered magnetic tiles.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 05/04/2026

Next arrival for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award finalist judging: Possessions by Dan Nichols, where ghostly players have one hour to complete their unfinished business!

Possessions prototype: rules, dice, cards, mats, and more.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 02/04/2026

The latest finalist for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award to arrive is Astrolabe by Yasaman Farazan! And yes, those rotating astrolabes spin exactly as you’d expect them to. cardboardedison.com/award

Astrolabe prototype: astrolabes with concentric rotating rings, player mats, board, cards, a seeing eye token, and more.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 31/03/2026

The next Cardboard Edison Award finalist to arrive? Moonforge by Pawel Owsianka—mining asteroids and forming new moons in just 90 minutes! cardboardedison.com/award

Moonforge prototype: planet tiles, action cards, mining tiles, cubes of various colors, reference sheets, and more.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 29/03/2026

The next 2026 Cardboard Edison Award finalist arrival: Match Patch by @jackrrosen.bsky.social! Getting ready for some simultaneous crop harvesting! cardboardedison.com/award

Match Patch prototype: stacks of crop cards, power cards, player tiles, colored discs, cubes, and more.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 28/03/2026

The next of the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award finalists to arrive is a freshly printed prototype of the cooperative resistance game Goa Kranti by @andydgames.bsky.social! cardboardedison.com/award

Goa Kranti prototype: boards, score tracks, cards, unpunched tokens, and a bag of dice and pawns.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 28/03/2026

The next finalist in the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award to arrive is PiramiDuel by Guillermo Viciano, Diego Ibañez & Juanjo Quintero! So many scoring conditions! cardboardedison.com/award

PiramiDuel prototype: tiles with various scoring conditions, a bag of dice, some cubes, and the rulebook.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 27/03/2026

BagBuilder is a free, browser-based game design tool for simulating random bag draws danhowardgames.github.io/BagBuilder/

Screenshot of BagBuilder: controls for adjusting the bag's contents, how many items to draw, and previously drawn items.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 27/03/2026

Next arrival among the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award finalists: Deductive Seasoning by @ericledger.bsky.social! And yes, that chart you see is of course the Periodic Table of Flavor. cardboardedison.com/award

Deductive Seasoning prototype: dry-erase boards with periodic-table-like charts, markers, cards, player screens, and more.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 25/03/2026

Next arrival for 2026 Cardboard Edison Award finalist judging: Let’s go deep-sea diving in Midnight Spawn by Jayson Farrell! cardboardedison.com/award

Midnight Spawn prototype: large board, lots of cards fanned out, player tokens in four colors, and other bits in baggies.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 25/03/2026

The next 2026 Cardboard Edison Award finalist to arrive is Braggin’ Wranglers by @bumblepie-games.bsky.social. Time to get our lassoes ready!

Braggin’ Wranglers prototype: lassoes, animal tokens, and more.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 22/03/2026

The next finalist for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award has arrived! It's the polyomino, bone-transportation pick-up-and-deliver game Catacombes de Paris by @phoenicks.bsky.social!

Prototype of Catacombes de Paris: boards, carts, polyomino and other tiles, and more.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 18/03/2026

The next finalist for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award has arrived! It’s the push-your-luck dice game Ladybugs by Michael Posada!

Prototype for Ladybugs: red and green dice; red, blue, and yellow cards; and rulebook.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 18/03/2026

This set of game icons is free to use for tabletop game projects drive.google.com/drive/folder...

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 17/03/2026

The second 2026 Cardboard Edison Award finalist to arrive is Black Ruth of Dogtown by @kddgames.bsky.social! It was handed off to us in person at Unpub this past weekend! Details at cardboardedison.com/award

Prototype for Black Ruth of Dogtown: a large player mat, rulebook, sigil cards, portent cards, and other bits.

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 08/03/2026

The first finalist for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award has arrived: Hatchlings by Alan Leduc! (Pretty fast for a game about turtles…) Details at cardboardedison.com/award

Hatchlings rulebook, board, cards, mini turtle pawns, egg shells, and other bits

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 08/03/2026

Unpub! We'll have various prototypes, but our focus this year will be: 🦂 Scorplings, our quick-reaction card-slapping game 🦩 TwentyONEderland, our Wonderland-themed game of 21 Table: Saturday 230PM-630PM unpub.softr.app/festival-202...

Cards for two Cardboard Edison designs:

Scorplings: real-time, card-slapping, quick-reaction, family, card game (adorable baby scorpion illustration)

TwentyONEderland: casual, push-your-luck, card game (photo of cards at table place settings)

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 25/02/2026

Who wants to see some awesome-looking game pitches? These are the finalists for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award!!! cardboardedison.com/award

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 02/02/2026

D'oh! 34 countries!

2026 Cardboard Edison Award stats: 396 submissions from 34 countries:
United States of America
Australia
Canada
United Kingdom
Germany
Spain
New Zealand
The Netherlands
Philippines
Malaysia
Denmark
Türkiye
Sweden
South Korea
South Africa
Portugal
Lithuania
Japan
Italy
Ireland
France
Finland
Czech Republic
Bulgaria
Brazil
Belgium
Vietnam
Serbia
Nicaragua
Mexico
Hong Kong
Greece
Chile
Armenia
cardboardedison.com/award

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 01/02/2026

The stats are in: We got 396 submissions to this year's Cardboard Edison Award from 35 countries! (For comparison, last year saw 348 entries from 27 countries.) Judging begins soon! Keep an eye on cardboardedison.com/award in the coming weeks!

2026 Cardboard Edison Award stats: 396 submissions from 35 countries:
United States of America
Australia
Canada
United Kingdom
Germany
Spain
New Zealand
The Netherlands
Philippines
Malaysia
Denmark
Türkiye
Sweden
South Korea
South Africa
Portugal
Lithuania
Japan
Italy
Ireland
France
Finland
Czech Republic
Bulgaria
Brazil
Belgium
Vietnam
Serbia
Nicaragua
Mexico
Hong Kong
Greece
Chile
Armenia
cardboardedison.com/award

Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 31/01/2026

It's the FINAL DAY FOR CARDBOARD EDISON AWARD SUBMISSIONS! We'll have a final count tomorrow, but let's just say we and our judges will be quite busy in the coming weeks! cardboardedison.com/award