iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Any boardgame (current or future) friends who are in, or fancy a trip to South Wales in October? Here's a nice, chilled, play-focused convention I'll be going to. You can buy day tickets or residential self-catering. cwestcon.wordpress.com

Poster image for "Cwestcon 2026", Llanelli tabletop games convention. 15 to 18 October. www.cwestcon.wordpress.com

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

I've been hearing about TG Jones struggling as a brand (they are the low-effort rebrand/takeover of WH Smiths high street shops), and I feel that their attitude to pricing might be a contributing factor...

A pack of "A4 subject dividers" with a price label that says, "3 for £10 or £3 each"

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

Amused by this display at our local Lidl store: vegan sauces, one for veal and pork, and one for chicken and meatballs.

Two jars of 'Italian Classics cooking sauce' on a shop shelf, in a tray labelled as 'vegan sauce'. One jar is labelled as being for veal and pork, while the other is for chicken and meatballs.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Had a great trip to Bristol today for a @playtestuk.bsky.social meetup. Aside from playing a game about lobsters and a press-your-luck exploration game (which I really liked), we got a 4-player test of Magical Artifacts, which left me with plenty to think about and had a nice meeple stack built.

A prototype of a board game with coloured domino tiles, assorted meeples on the tiles, and a tall stack of pink meeples in the middle.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Had a really good few hours today with @davidjmortimer.bsky.social, playtesting this game of mine and one of his. Both are starting to feel like they are solid games - still work to do, but I think both are solidly in the last 90% of development. 🎲✂️

A prototype card game. In the middle is a row of cards depicting castles, and on some of them are dice or a pawn. Lined up on either side of the row of castles are overlapped lines of cards, some face-down, and some face-up and showing titles like knight, soldier, and mercenary.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Good times at #UKGamesExpo in the @playtestuk.bsky.social zone. 2 more days of this, but first I'm having a bit of a lie-down.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Just about set up for @playtestuk.bsky.social at #UKGamesExpo, kicking off tomorrow. Come and see us at the playtest zone in hall 2

A big hall containing a load of tables with red tablecloths

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

...And the cutting out worked out well enough to have something to play at the Oxford @playtestuk.bsky.social meetup this evening. We even got to try 2 variants of this game that is a co-design with @mikeharrisonwood.bsky.social

A prototype board game. The board has recessed rectangular areas with coloured shapes in them, and there are a load of dice in different colours.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

The glamorous side of board game design. No AI here. 😁 🎲✂️

A cutting board, craft knife, and steel rule, with a piece of white foamboard with holes cut into it and a load of bits that have been cut away.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Had a good morning with @mikeharrisonwood.bsky.social, thrashing out some ideas for our game with the working title Dice Cream Chaos. As a result, I am feeling confident enough to actually make some custom dice for the game. Two more colour sets to go... 🎲✂️

A load of dice with hand drawn stuff on the faces. Most of the dice are either coffee-cream or plum coloured and have faces that are 1 or 2 dots, an ice-cream cone, or blank. There is also a white die with shapes in different colours on its faces.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Self-promotion... It's been a little over a year since my first commercially published game, Grab Bag Jungle (co-designed with @mikeharrisonwood.bsky.social), was launched. If you have bought it or played it, please would you do us a favour and rate/review on BGG or wherever you bought it. Thanks ❤️

Several colourful, wooden animal tokens in front of a banana for scale, in front of a box that has the words "Grab Bag Jungle"

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Thanks to @spaceship47.bsky.social for joining @alcannon.bsky.social and I for a playtest of The Artificers. About 45 minutes for a brisk 3-player game, leaving me lagging behind in scores as is often the case! 😅 🎲✂️

A board game virtual prototype with loads of cards, tiles, and stuff

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Thanks to the lovely folk at this evening's @playtestuk.bsky.social Oxford meetup I got to see the latest iteration of The Artificers (co-designed with @alcannon.bsky.social) played by 4 folk who weren't me for the first time. Some useful feedback and observations there, so I'm very happy.

A board game prototype on a table. Someone's arm is reaching across the table to move a component.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Playtesting The Artificers in person with @alcannon.bsky.social - great to get the game to a physical table again

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Just had a nice evening playing @jontexmo.bsky.social's game about renaissance poo, Night Soil. Lots of fun, but I did sooo, sooo badly. I got the hang of things by the end, but it was way too late. Looking forward to another try tough.

A board game with loads of tokens, including poo tokens, on various parts of the board.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

It has been a while, but @alcannon.bsky.social and I got our game (formerly The Artifact and probably needing a new name now) in front of a 3rd party tester again. We've done a lot of changes, and it mostly works, but we now have a heap of insightful feedback to be working with (thanks, Laurie!). 🎲✂️

A 2-d virtual boardgame prototype, with a map board of coloured tiles, assorted cards, and a score tracking board

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Had a good day of playtesting with Alan from Surprised Stare Games, including trying a fun expansion for @davidjmortimer.bsky.social's Cousins' War. 🎲✂️

A small game board, depicting a stylised map, largely of England and Wales, on which are red and white cubes.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

After some time away from the project, @alcannon.bsky.social and I have got back to The Artifact, which probably needs a new working title. New theme, same core structure, different trappings. Hefty balance issues right now, but that's fine, and we actually enjoyed playing it. Let's goooo... 🎲✂️

A virtual boardgame prototype with colourful domino-style tiles, cards, and various tokens

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

Update: I am the god of dumplings!

A pan containing a stew, topped with 6 fluffy dumplings

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

Heh! Finally got around to rebuilding my cooperative game, Sympolis, and giving it a quick, 2-player-solo-test. The problem before was that it was too easy. This time, I lost on turn 2! With a planned tweak I would have lasted a couple more, maybe longer if I was smarter! 🎲✂️

A prototype game, with assorted cards, many overlapped with each other, plus dice and a few other tokens

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Had another good evening at the Oxford @playtestuk.bsky.social meetup, which was once again blessed by a good number of folk turning up to just play other folks' prototypes.

A prototype card game, including a layout of several characters made up of mismatched head, body, and leg sections

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Wow, that's ridiculously cheap. If anyone in the UK wants a copy of Grab Bag Jungle for pocket money, this is what The River Shop is showing me right now...

Showing the amazon.co.uk page for Grab Bag Jungle being offered for £12.30

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

A friend acquired me a copy of Union Pacific on a recent trip to Cologne. It's got to be 25 years since I last played it, and while it looks and feels a little dated, it's still a cracking game and we really enjoyed it.

A board game featuring a map of the USA with train tracks criss-crossing and coloured train tokens on many of them. In the foreground are coloured cards and paper money.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Boogie Knights is back, baby! It has been (checks notes) over 7 years since the last revision of this game that players generally enjoyed, but was never quite right. We game it a bash this evening, and got some amazing feedback. I think a fresh revision is warranted...

A game prototype. The main part of the image is three cards next to each other with mismatched parts of a character: its head, body, and legs.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Had a good day working on games with @davidjmortimer.bsky.social today, including useful progress on 'Squirrelled Away' (a co-design with Dave), some bug hunting for 'The Castle War' (my design) and a try at a new iteration of a game Dave is co-designing with someone else. 🎲✂️

A small game board with coloured disks placed in various spaces

Overlapping cards representing castles, armies, etc, as well as some dice and a stand-up token with a flying raven drawn on it

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

This aged well... (It's at Llawhaden Castle, Pembrokeshire, Wales.)

A stone surrounded well, covered with an iron grill.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Had another go at The Artifact with @alcannon.bsky.social, this time trying out a couple of ideas inspired by some recent feedback. It was just some stuff roughed out and bolted on to the existing setup, and kinda worked, but was a bit lame. It worked well enough to spark more ideas though... 🎲✂️

A virtual board game prototype with colourful tiles and tokens, and cards with icons and numbers on.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Had a nice 🎲✂️ catch-up with @mikeharrisonwood.bsky.social today and one of the things we talked about was roller coasters. Turns out that I often communicate better if I am able to make props to demonstrate what my brain is doing. This project is low priority for us though.

3 small cards in card stands, standing next to each other, with a wiggly line connecting across the cards

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

At #UKGamesExpo with @playtestuk.bsky.social and the Playtest Zone is getting good and busy.

Lots of people playing games in a big hall

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Looking around at #UKGamesExpo and nice to see Gibsons has stock of Grab Bag Jungle, and will be demoing and selling them. They're at 2-460 and it would be awesome if they sold out! 😉

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

At #UKGamesExpo and the set up is in full swing. If you're visiting, please do come to 2-108 and say hello

A big hall with a lot of work going on, setting up stalls and stuff

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

We got our first rating! 😁 It's a 6, which is fine by me.

A screen grab of the header of the Board Game Geek page for Grab Bag: Jungle, showing, amongst other things, that it has 1 rating and 0 comments.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

First sighting in the wild of Grab Bag Jungle at John Lewis in Oxford. @mikeharrisonwood.bsky.social

Person pointing at a game called Grab Bag Jungle

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Thanks to @startplayer.bsky.social for joining @alcannon.bsky.social and me for a playtest of The Artifact. This one was a lot more open and fast than last week's 4-player test. Unfortunately discussions afterwards were interrupted by Discord having an emotional event.

Virtual prototype of a board game, with coloured squares with icons and tokens on the left area, and coloured circles connected with a network of lines on the right.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Thanks to @spaceship47.bsky.social and @nicolasstraccia.bsky.social for joining me and @alcannon.bsky.social for a test of The Artifact. It's clearly a bit punishing and grindy at 4 players right now, but we got some great feedback to work with. 🎲✂️

Virtual prototype of a board game, with a load of domino-like tiles on the left and a load of coloured circles, all with a load of tokens on them in both areas

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Being able to finally do this makes me really happy... 🎲✂️

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Just had a good test of The Artifact with @alcannon.bsky.social and we feel we have a solid 2-player game, at least when the 2 players are us. Now we need to concentrate on higher player counts. Anyone out there fancy a try next Tuesday evening UK time?

A virtual boardgame prototype. On the left are coloured squares with icons and tokens on them. On the right is a network of coloured spaces with more tokens on.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

A blast from the past this afternoon with Flock by @davidjmortimer.bsky.social, which we really enjoyed, despite the frustratingly small score track.

A board game in mid-play, comprising several large cards making up a sort of board, and lots of coloured bird-shaped tokens placed on the cards.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

A good day of playtesting today. The latest iteration of The Castle War worked well. We got rid of ongoing effects and it didn't seem to feel the loss, but the removal of some other card actions wasn't such a good move. The game seems to be improving on balance though, so very happy with progress 🎲✂️

A card game on a table. In the middle is a row of cards representing castles, and on either side of these are rows of other cards, some face up and some face down. There are also a few dice and a stand-up token depicting a flying raven.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 31/12/2024

Table #366: Actual real English place name… #RandomTables #TablePerDay2024 And that's it! I've done a table every day this year. Time for a break. Happy new year, y'all!

2024-12-31
Table #366: Actual real English place name…
Roll once for each column and combine.
Column A...
1. Black.
2. Cran.
3. Hart.
4. Oak.
5. West.
6. Wood.
Column B...
1. Hill.
2. Ley.
3. Ford.
4. Ham.
5. Well.
6. Field.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

Table #365: The ultimate pen… (Penultimate, geddit?) #RandomTables #TablePerDay2024

2024-12-30
Table #365: The ultimate pen…
1. Never runs out of ink and can switch between colours.
2. Can provide whatever line width you require.
3. Doesn't need to be carried, and just appears when required.
4. Can remind you of that thing you were thinking of a minute ago.
5. Moulds itself to perfectly fit your grip.
6. Has a glittery disco ball ornament on the end.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

Table #363: Ahead, you can see you are approaching… #RandomTables #TablePerDay2024

2024-12-28
Table #363: Ahead, you can see you are approaching…
1. A huge, stone gateway.
2. The shore of a massive expanse of water.
3. A cluster of brightly coloured flags.
4. A circle of wagons.
5. The end of the road.
6. An establishment that provides rest and refreshment.

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Rob Harper @harperrob.bsky.social · 26/12/2024

Table #361: The visitor wants to play a game about… #RandomTables #TablePerDay2024

2024-12-26
Table #361: The visitor wants to play a game about…
1. Animals competing for supplies of food.
2. Stealing treasure from the inhabitants of an underground city.
3. A historical conflict with a terrible loss of life.
4. Collecting numbers in specific groups.
5. Guessing which player is trying to ruin everything.
6. Commodity trading around a central sea.

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