iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Come join Game Makers Guild Philadelphia for playtesting this Sunday 10/4 5-10pm at The Philly Game Shop 🎲✂️ fb.me/e/58XZT6wR5

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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

If you care about keeping the Academy of Natural Sciences open to the public in Philadelphia, I need you to read and share this thread. Trish Wellenbach was sent from the mayor's office to oversee the Academy of Natural sciences situation. She needs to hear from us. Here comes the action item:

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Come join Game Makers Guild Philadelphia for playtesting this Sunday 8/23 5-10pm at The Philly Game Shop 🎲✂️ fb.me/e/4H7pHRYR0

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Finally watching this and I spotted Keep the Faith in the background!

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Come join Game Makers Guild Philadelphia for playtesting this Sunday 7/19 5-10pm at The Philly Game Shop 🎲✂️ Note that this is a week earlier than usual. fb.me/e/7gakxicW8

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Come join Game Makers Guild Philadelphia for playtesting this Sunday 6/28 5-10pm at The Philly Game Shop 🎲✂️ fb.me/e/21jbdOGIwf

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Pretty Khemyst @prettykhemyst.blacksky.app · 02/06/2026

The comment period ended yesterday. Now its time to call YOUR US Representative and BOTH of your US Senators. I don't care if you didn't vote for them, CALL THEM NOW!!!!!!! Then tell a friend that will tell a friend...you know how this works.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Come join Game Makers Guild Philadelphia for playtesting this Sunday 5/24 5-10pm at The Philly Game Shop 🎲✂️ fb.me/e/5IbRUkhZw

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Drink where? Drink in America!

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Come join Game Makers Guild Philadelphia for playtesting this Sunday 4/26 5-10pm at The Philly Game Shop 🎲✂️ fb.me/e/9W8eeNoIq

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Congratulations GMG Philly member @perryjon.bsky.social on his game Hot Streak winning the American Tabletop Award in the Casual Games category!

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

I often include edge cases in my examples illustrating basic concepts, without belaboring the edge case itself.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Oh no! I love examples when reading and when writing rulebooks. I hope we get some good answers in this thread.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Come join Game Makers Guild Philadelphia for playtesting this Sunday 3/22 5-10pm at The Philly Game Shop 🎲✂️ fb.me/e/61wSWdwXn

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Elizabeth Hargrave @elizhargrave.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Q for boardgame publishing folks: What's your estimate of volume and/or % for each of these in your company, per year? A. How many pitch requests get to pitch? B. How many pitches result in you taking a prototype for review? C. How many prototypes under review get a contract? 🎲✂️

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Birdhouse, That's Bananas, Food and Evil: Deviled Deck, and Froggy Finance - 4 games from @goosepoopgames.com, who also has a weekend table at H1. I’m looking forward to trying these. Come check them out!

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Foils - party autobattler that boils down the CCG experience to 30 minutes or less @perryjon.bsky.social makes great games that are fun, clever, and have (a sometimes surprising amount of) depth. I haven’t tried this once yet but I’m excited to see where it goes.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Empires Above - big serious 4X space opera @zintismay.bsky.social has made an epic sci-fi game with sleek systems. I’ve always had fun playing previous versions of this game and I’m looking forward to having it on my shelf some day.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Once and For All - time travel lane battler Wildstar - sci-fi western dice locking game I’ve gotten to play both of these games from @jakekbarnhart.bsky.social and they are very cool. I need to play Once and For All again because even after a couple of games at PAXU I barely scratched the surface.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Game Makers Guild Philadelphia will have a bunch of designers coming to @unpub.org! We’ll be at table F1 all weekend. Look for the red tablecloth. Here are just a few of our designers and their games: 🧵

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

And here are most of the components for Smash Dash, a real-time combat racing game for asymmetrical teams of 2 (and a crooked referee). Fortunately the changes I’m testing at Unpub required only minor updates to a few cards and player aids. 🎲✂️

Components for Smash Dash board game prototype spread across a table, including large hex-based track tiles, various player aids, item cards, troll movement dice in 3 different colors, and chunky wooden blocks and barrels for obstacles on the track.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Final stage of Unpub prep! This is a smattering of blank and filled player sheets for Roll the Stars, a trilogy of roll&write games where the map produced by one game is the starting point for the next game. Look for it on the red tablecloth at the Game Makers Guild Philadelphia table (F1). 🎲✂️

Many sheets of paper of different sizes spread across a table, filled in with different colors of pen to varying degrees, comprising the Roll the Stars trilogy of roll&write games.
In Seed the Stars players are Cosmic Creators, rolling dice and using those numbers to create galaxies of stars.
In Rule the Stars players are spacefaring Civilizations, using templates to draw lines on the galaxy map created in the previous game.
In Sail the Stars players are Starsailer Captains hauling cargo between the civilizations of the previous game, trying to store up enough credits and see the sights one last time before retiring to a quiet corner of the galaxy.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

I think Unpub will help with the transition…

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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

NO NO NO YOU DON’T GUYS LET ME PLEASE SPREAD THE GOSPEL OF FREE TAX USA federal is free, state is $16, handles even my chaotic freelancer taxes just fine, same step-by-step “designed for normies” kind of interface as TurboTax but NOT EVIL tell everyone you know www.freetaxusa.com

freetaxusa.com

FreeTaxUSA® - Free Online Tax Filing for Federal Returns

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

It went pretty well! Some important things broke but the players had fun anyway, and I think the fixes will be straightforward.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Protospiel Philly starts today! I’m excited to finally get my roll&write Sail the Stars to the table, a game I’ve been thinking about for YEARS but only just made the prototype this week. 🎲✂️

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Kickstarter United @kickstarterunited.org · 18/02/2026

Despite being back at work, Kickstarter is retaliating against our teammates for our legally-protected strike action from last year. Tell Kickstarter’s CEO this is both ILLEGAL and UNACCEPTABLE

Reinstate our teammates now!
Kickstarter is retaliating against our union members for our legally-protected strike action in October 2025.
Four union members have been laid off or forced to leave our union by leadership, despite clear business needs for these members' roles.
Email Kickstarter's CEO and tell him this is illegal and unacceptable!
e@kickstarter.com

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Jon Perry @perryjon.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Really nice article by @gengelstein.bsky.social on one of the most fundamental tools of game design. I'm constantly doing these kinds of EV calculations while designing, at both early and late stages of the process. gametek.substack.com/p/great-expe...

gametek.substack.com

Great Expectations

Mathematical modeling for game design

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

Come join Game Makers Guild Philadelphia for playtesting this Sunday 2/15 5-10pm at The Philly Game Shop 🎲✂️ fb.me/e/ccH7FRidA

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🥧 suzanne 🥧 @425suzanne.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Finished my daily calls (voice mails this morning) begging my reps to not fund the group that could haul me off the street with impunity for "looking Asian". Now to my regular begging people on social media to please make the calls too. It takes 5 mins. Get over your anxiety - people are dying.

5calls.org

5 Calls

Spend 5 minutes. Make 5 calls. Make your voice heard.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Come join Game Makers Guild Philadelphia for the first playtesting event of 2026 this Sunday 1/25 5-10pm at The Philly Game Shop 🎲✂️ fb.me/e/3RHfI8nnW

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Unpub @unpub.org · 15/01/2026

Want to make the most of Unpub Festival? Worried about late-night FOMO? Stay onsite to maximize the fun! Book by Feb 11th for attendees-only discount: www.marriott.com/event-reservations… 🎲✂️

UNPUB Festival hotel room block closing soon. Discounted rate for attendees, book by February 11th to stay onsite at the convention.

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Daniel Wynter @boardgamefeast.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

It's the final stretch till Christmas. Here's my gingerboard creation for 2025. May those risky gift requests pay off. @cmyk.games

Gingerbread version of the hot streak box, topped with fondant versions of the racers, Mom replaced with santa

Top down view of the box included Hot Streak written in icing on candy ribbon

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Come join Game Makers Guild Philadelphia for the last playtesting event of 2025 this Sunday 12/28 5-10pm at The Philly Game Shop 🎲✂️ fb.me/e/42jIZgELn

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Mentioned?! It’s the first one! Guaranteed to be seen by even the people who scroll through the least. Congrats!

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Finally I got to show Elemystic by Jamie Sabriel to a few new people. I love this perfect little battle of wits in 9 cards.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Late Saturday night Hot Streak by @perryjon.bsky.social was a huge hit as usual. Every race was exciting even though all 3 had the exact same outcome.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Other new-to-me games: Gugong by @modgames.bsky.social was great, and Tornado Splash by Moyuki Adisawa was wild and challenging. Living Forest by @severinhorror.bsky.social and Heat by Asger Harding Granerud & Daniel Skjold Pedersen I had only ever played on BGA and were fun to try in person.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Also got to try Babylon by Olivier Grégiore, which I had seen at First Look last year but didn’t get a chance to play. And this was the only time all weekend I actually took a picture of a game!

Babylon board game with tiles on multiple layers covered in little plastic fountains, stairs, bridges, and statues.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

As for published games, in the First Look area I got to try L’Oaf by @bartgamedesign.bsky.social, a great easy-playing game with an excellent name about lazy bakers. Fun tragedy-of-the-commons demonstration.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Work on my designs continued with some playtesting, a couple of publisher meetings, and a very productive brainstorming session with my co-designer @jongilmour.bsky.social

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

I’m thankful for an excellent #PAXUnplugged this year: Game Makers Guild Philadelphia had a table in the @unpub.org room and we had local designers testing their prototypes there all weekend. I got to play a couple of cool games from @jakekbarnhart.bsky.social and @jamesfirnhaber.bsky.social

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

I remember this one. It’s fun! Great distillation of games like Diplomacy and Game of Thrones.

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Jay Vowles @etgoat.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Probably not. It’s a roll&write where you use templates to draw paths on a shared galaxy map and it looks like this:

Board game map of circles containing numbers with straight and curved lines of different colors connecting them in intersecting patterns.

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