iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Anyway, I highly recommend it! It's just extremely fun & nothing else does what it does.

1121

If I had to analyze what's going on designwise here, I think it's that the feeling of player elimination, even in a super short short game, is an extraordinarily potent flavor. Love Letter and Red 7 get some similar mileage out of this as well.

1150

The game here is clearly in the first half, but for me it's the "weirdly intense" second half that really makes this one. There's no bluffing, no real strategy, and yet somehow it captures the feel of a high stakes Liars Dice game in a seedy backroom somewhere. Such a cool trick!

2282

And that process of trying & giving up usually generates as much or more value to me as media that I do finish, and often encompasses a number of hours/$ that compares favorably to most other things I might spend money on. Some of my favorite game experiences involve games I never got that far into.

1190

Jon Perry @perryjon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I always feel like an outsider in these games difficulty discussions, because I don't finish most games & never have. Growing up playing NES, I never internalized that games are even meant to be finished. I get as far as you can, eventually I stop playing, maybe I come back, maybe I don't.

4271

For sure, that's definitely an issue when your only uncertainty comes from player decisions. Fortunately Party House derives more of its uncertainty from good old fashioned randomness so it's able to play very well at each of the four player counts it supports, albeit with some changes in feel.

000

Jon Perry @perryjon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

If you imagine a sliding scale with "tactics" on the left , and "strategy" on the right, it's often true in games that the fewer players you have the more you shift towards the right end of that spectrum & I think that's all well & good & generally true of Party House as well.

180

Jon Perry @perryjon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Forgot to mention that if you play Party House the physical game solo (how most people play the videogame) the shop actually is fairly static! Since the only turnover that happens is what you yourself create.

1101

Jon Perry @perryjon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

As with the last expansion, this one will be fully standalone but also include ways that it can be mixed with other Air Land & Sea games.

0130

Jon Perry @perryjon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It's not quite available for purchase yet, but here's a sneak peak at box art for the next Air Land & Sea (including both a classic and a Critters at War version).

5467

Jon Perry @perryjon.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

As someone who's just had several contentious discussions about card text formatting this week, I can tell you there are no agreed upon standards. Just use your best judgement, copy what's worked in other games you like, and be consistent (in most situations).

020

Jon Perry @perryjon.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

The way to have maximum variety in a deck is not to have every card be unique but to have exactly 2 copies of every card. That way every card can also combo with itself.

1260

Reposted by Jon Perry

Chise @sailorrooscout.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Oh to be a little Tardigrade walking around a microscopic volvox algae colony. 🫧🐻🧪

8141111022

Jon Perry @perryjon.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Why does the physical version of Party House have a dynamic shop instead of a static shop? I've gotten this question occasionally since the Kickstarter launched (I thought I'd get it more tbh). See my answer below.

3732

Jon Perry @perryjon.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Christian Kudahl and I were just on the Fun Problems podcast to talk about 'framework games." What the hell is a framework game and why should you not make one? Listen and find out! You'll also learn about our forthcoming game with Scorpion Masqué: ODDBALL www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSIl...

youtube.com

How to Design Framework Games (Fun Problems #111)

YouTube video by Blue Beard Entertainment

1110

Jon Perry @perryjon.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Here's the announcement I just sent out to my mailing list, which includes a few extra thoughts about the game's inspirations & the philosophy behind the adaptation. mailchi.mp/6574dee603b4...

mailchi.mp

Party House Kickstarter is Live!

030

Jon Perry @perryjon.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

🎉 Party House: The Deckbuilding Game is available for preorder now! 🚶‍♀️Follow the link below to learn more and back the Kickstarter. www.kickstarter.com/projects/bit... ✨ While you're there, you also have the option to preorder a board game adaptation of fantastic videogame Baba is You!

312134

Reposted by Jon Perry

Bitewing Games @bitewinggames.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Check out this new @beforeyouplay.bsky.social playthrough of Party House: The Deckbuilding Game by @perryjon.bsky.social! Launching on Kickstarter TOMORROW 🎉 youtu.be/0_2INEKO1fg?...

youtu.be

Party House: The Deckbuilding Game - Teach & Playthrough

YouTube video by Before You Play

0256

That's a nice positive spin on it! I do think, a lot of games can be turned into great teaching tools for kids almost irrespective of quality.

030

I don't agree. I perceive large differences between well designed zero-agency games and poorly designed ones. There is an art to doing it well, and that art is in fact "game design"--not an insult to it.

000

Just to be clear, I'm all in favor of simplistic, low agency games of chance. The problem with this game is not its concept but its execution. It promises an experience it can not deliver on.

1160

Not what you're saying, but I do want to be extra clear that the fact that this game has no decisions has absolutely nothing to do with why I think it's a bad game. That said, I support having a name for this category of game as long as the name chosen doesn't sound pejorative.

310

I don't have this Curious George book in my possession but I can try to track down the title of it if you're interested! As a particularly egregious example of the sort of board game that clearly was never played once before publishing, it perhaps has some interest.

020

Exactly. A game like this should have some ups and downs of chance, and at a glance the board promises some light shenanigans of that sort and yet the whole game is just the outcome of two successive coin flip tests & a lot of inaccessible spaces.

020

Cool idea in theory, though the issue I would personally have with this, is that I don't find the physical action of flipping a coin satisfying in a way that I'd want to repeat it over and over throughout a game the way I would rolling dice or flipping cards. No idea if I'm representative though!

331

I assume yes, since otherwise why would they write "Stay until the next turn" which also happens to be the most confusing way possible to say "do nothing" or just do what most games in this style do -- leave the space blank.

120

Higher res so you can better appreciate the craftsmanship

4240

A friend of mine just sent me this crime against game design.

13775

Anyway, thanks for all the responses! Definitely seems to be a very niche notation known to very few folks, so it does seem like a bad choice for wide accessibility.

160

Consensus seems to be the minus notation is weird. For context, here's an example from the extremely popular game Harmonies (h/t @mweepigeon.gay for reminding me). The case for it is consistency with the plus notation. But consistency is often overrated. I agree with many that 1-2 or 0-2 is better.

1100

Independently of the "<" versus the "-", I've run into this a lot, where people have divergent opinions on whether it's better to give a rule that is inclusive or exclusive of the boundary... We went back & forth on the bust limit in Spots for example & changed it in the latest version from >7 to 8+

100

That's helpful data, thank you!

001

Haha, that's a good point, though independently I find I don't really like the use of those comparison operators when they only have a value on one side, so even like ">5" or "<2". It just feels wrong to me for whatever reason.

Tom Francis @pentadact.com · 11/09/2026

I think almost everyone understands that "3+" means "3 or more" but how widely is it understood that "3-" means "3 or less"? That latter version seems more likely to confuse non-nerds, but that's just a guess.

14260

Reposted by Jon Perry

Continuing to quietly beat the drum of "Designing without testing is like painting with your eyes shut."

216016

Reposted by Jon Perry

Bitewing Games @bitewinggames.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Time to start prepping for the party! Check out this new How to Play video for @perryjon.bsky.social's Party House: The Deckbuilding Game and get ready for the Kickstarter launch NEXT WEEK! 🚨 youtu.be/zScgmACavGk?...

youtu.be

How to Play Party House

YouTube video by Bitewing Games

0237

Jon Perry @perryjon.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Probably should have made this clear earlier -- but if you've been testing the alpha version of Time Barons on BGA, and you find any bugs or weird UI glitches, there's a bug report feature built right into BGA that you can use to report those. Thanks!

Jon Perry @perryjon.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Hell yeah, I'm due to see them again myself

All in all, I can see how Winds of Galecrest is probably the more robust option if you plan to play the game to death, but at the rate I play games (even ones I love), which is around a few times a year, the extra features weren't adding much.

Interesting, yeah, even the variable loot tokens started to feel like a net negative to me, I must say. The game is so inherently variable via the cards that having extra modularity somewhere else (and adding a new question to worry about during setup) seems fairly unnecessary to me.

210

I actually do play guitar historically, but mor piano these days, where losing that one sucks but no worse than another. But yeah it's true that for guitar I'd rather lose my dominant (right) ring finger...

000

I cut the tip off of my finger last weekend... Fortunately, it was only my non-dominant ring, which my codesigner Christian Kudahl accurately characterized as a "D-Tier" finger.

2140

Aesthetics and nostalgia for my time with the OG are a big part of it, for sure. But ultimately I realized that while I like the streamlining of some rules, I'm not into the reputation track and prefer the simple tiebreaker numbers.

120

Which was not an easy decision. If I was less of a minimalist, I would've probably kept both.

110