iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

We're seeing You Can See Everything on Saturday, I'm super excited :) I think this is the first time I bought tickets for a movie before it released

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

That cat is IN that tower

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

I work at a game store and someone came in a couple years back and they were like "PLEASE take this off my hands, I can't bear to own it any more" and it was Carcassonne The Catapult

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Players will almost always "just get playing" whenever there's any friction, so players won't look at examples if they have to find them I also believe that examples SHOULD feel optional, unless it's a really tricky rule. In that case, tell the player directly that they should look at the example!

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

I think the true value of example diagrams is to help readers check to see if their understanding of a rule is correct, not to help them gain understanding of the rule. Put example diagrams directly after the rule they are demonstrating, and make them clearly demonstrate a single game action.

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

attempting Myst for (basically) the first time. So far I've played for 45 minutes and I've found about 8 million places to input codes and zero clues about what those codes might be

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

You're telling me I can chuck AND pluck in ONE game??? I couldn't back fast enough!!!!! www.kickstarter.com/projects/urb...

kickstarter.com

Chicken Fried Dice

Run your own food truck in a fast-paced, dice chucking and plucking roll-n-write for 1-5 chefs

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Rob Newton | Coin Flip Games @coinflip.games · 16/03/2026

Launching a KS tomorrow. I'm not panicking, you're panicking! (because you haven't hit the follow button yet, right??) www.kickstarter.com/projects/urb...

Chicken Fried Dice cover art for Kickstarter. Includes a "Project We Love" sticker

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Dan Thurot @danthurot.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Actually, I want to quote this again, because I think some of us are making the misstep of allowing this conversation to proceed on Dancey's terms. He insists he was only talking about *ideas*, not finished products. What goofballs we are! Except...

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🥧 suzanne 🥧 @425suzanne.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Reposting with ALT because this kind of phenomenal disdain and disrespect from within the industry literally against two of their own titles and the designer who made them is important to recognize.

Ryan Dancey - Chief Operating Officer of Alderac Entertainment responding to:

Baffles me why people think AI should be included in any serious business when it's like the office four year old.

Ryan writes

Because three years ago, it was essentially nothing but a curiosity. Now it’s useful, but in limited cases. In a year or two it will be as useful as any new hire. A year or two after that, it will be used useful as an experienced employee. And any field. For a few dollars day in cost.

15 years ago the best humans could be any computer playing chess. 10 years ago a human checking the work of the best chest plan computer could be the best human. Today the best humans cannot beat a chess playing computer. This is what is happening with AI except the timeframe is months not years.

I have zero reason to believe that AI couldn’t come up with tiny towns or flip seven or cubitos. I can prompt any of several AI‘s right now and get ideas for games as good as those. The gaming industry doesn’t exist because humans create otherwise unobtainable ideas it exists because many many previous games exist feed into the minds of designers who produce new variance of those themes. People then apply risk. Against those ideas to see if there’s a product market fit. Sometimes there is, and sometimes there’s not. In fact, much more often than not. Extremely occasionally quotes twice in my lifetime (D&D and magic the gathering) a human has produced an all new form of gaming entertainment. Those moments are so rare and incandescent that they echo across decades.

Game publishing isn’t an industry of unique special ideas. It’s an industry about execution, marketing, and attention to detail. All things AIs are great at.

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

This idea looks super cool, I hope I can try it someday!! The only app-y board game that I have no issues with is Unlock, mostly because you start the app, leave it on the table, and almost never touch it again. Search for Planet X's app makes for excellent gameplay but is suuuper fiddly to use :(

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Marceline is Racing Dinos @marcelineleiman.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

YIKES. Upper Deck (Marvel Legendary) just announced a CCG using the Harry Potter license. Fans of UD are rallying against this decision. Like the CGE situation last year, I’m asking for your help. Join us. Share your disgust and frustration, and help us push UD to retract their awful decision. 🎲✂️

upperdeck.com

UPPER DECK ANNOUNCES COVETED HARRY POTTER LICENSE, UPCOMING PRODUCT COLLECTION - Upper Deck

Carlsbad, CA (Jan. 7, 2026) – Upper Deck, the global leader in sports and entertainment collectibles, is adding another iconic license to its extensive portfolio – announcing a deal to create collecti...

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

I work at a flgs - I think that $40 is the dividing line between small and big games; it's the price that makes you think you're buying a game-night experience instead of a filler/impulse. Therefore, $35 is the worst price for a game because it's competing with the $10 games and not the $40 games.

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

I'm (probably) not making it to OrcaCon this year but I will live vicariously through these posts. These are some good rating systems so far :)

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

Cardboard Edison interviewed me for their 2026 Best Practices handbook, check it out for some of my thoughts on submitting your game to a contest! I'm also looking forward to helping judge the first-round submissions this year. It should be lots of fun!!

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

I clicked the link and it banned me from editing Wikipedia for a year??? I’ve never edited before so maybe it’s because this is an edit link?

A screenshot showing a message that I got banned from editing

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Urban Professional Games @urbanprogames.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Chicken Fried Dice has been simmering for a while and I think we're almost ready for plating! Learn more at get.chickenfrieddice.com

A top-down 3D render of the Chicken Fried Dice board game box on a table with the game's components.

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

PS. Not hating on Carcassonne even remotely, the tension as people draw tiles in the endgame and you find out if your plans succeeded or failed is, like, the best part of the game. It took the change in feeling of input randomness over the game and used it very smartly

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

In conclusion: the feelings of your players are always more important than following supposed "good game design". Best practices will betray you if you don't use them wisely. (Also, "one type of randomness is good and the other is bad" isn't even a good best practice.)

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Trick-taking games also handle this well by having a few big sources of input randomness (dealing initial hands) rather than many small ones. The moments of input randomness are also completely disconnected from other ones, preventing lucky combos over time.

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

And there are games that use it without losing any agency. Cascadia avoided this trap by only increasing opportunities to score points as the game goes on, rather than making the play space tighter as many other spatial puzzle games do. It leaves every turn feeling puzzly up to the very end.

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

If you're making a game, and you're using input randomness because you want to give more agency to your players, be sure to use it thoughtfully because it might be doing the opposite in your endgame.

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Somewhere in the game, the moment of drawing a tile went from feeling puzzly and thoughtful to creating feelings of desperation and that you're at the mercy of the tiles - input randomness is often used to increase player agency, and in this case that agency has nearly disappeared.

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

This is especially felt in the cities, which are worth half if you don't finish them. So at the start of each turn, you reach into the bag, often hoping for a specific element to let you finish your cities and bank a large sum of points.

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

But by the end of the game, you've usually placed all your meeples and are committed to how you're scoring points, and now you just need to maximize that potential with whatever you draw.

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Take Carcassonne: drawing a tile at the start of your turn is input randomness. At the start of the game, every tile drawn is a puzzle to figure out how to best place it. Do I build many roads, one big city, or lay down some farmers?

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

An observation on randomness: in many games, as the game gets closer to ending and opportunities to get closer to achieving your goal lose flexibility, moments of input randomness often start to *feel* like output randomness.

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Joseph Z Chen 🔜 PAX Unplugged @fanfactories.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

Turnout yesterday for our local game design meetup was crazy! I think we had 14+ folks. It's amazing to see our community grow.

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Sky Team has them. A few games from Kosmos have rounded wood dice with numbers, the picture is from A Column of Fire.

The board game Sky Team, which uses dice with digits and rounded corners

The dice from the board game A Column of Fire

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 22/08/2025

I'm really excited to go to the PNW Tabletop Game Market at PAX in a couple weeks! There's some really exceptional designers there, selling some of the most unique games I've seen in a while - there's lots of cool stuff happening in indie board games :)

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Always Awake Games (Connor) 🔜 PaxU @connor.alwaysawake.games · 20/08/2025

So in October I’ll be launching my first ks! It’s a bundle of two spooky card games: Club Spooky and That’s the Spirit. I’ve talked about them before, but I wanted to finally do a proper introduction and talk about my goal for all this. 🧵1/6 www.kickstarter.com/projects/alw...

kickstarter.com

Coming soon: Club Spooky & That's the Spirit

The Ghost Party Bundle: A bundle of 2 spooky card games

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 22/05/2025

Thank you Jeff!! I hope to try Branching Out someday, the table presence is amazing!

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Thank you so much!! Your and @jonathanbovee.bsky.social 's feedback and enthusiasm for the game was the fuel that gave me the motivation to finish the design in its rockiest moments :) Also I want to play Invasion!! Let me at it!!

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Thank you so much, and congrats to you as well! Pip It stood out to me among the finalists, it looks super fun so I hope I can try it sooner than later :)

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

I can't believe that Dot Com won the Cardboard Edison Award, it's a huge honor!! Massive thanks to the judging team for all their hard work and feedback, and to everyone who playtested the game. I hope to play all the finalists' games at some point, they all look super fun :)

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

had a crazy week so I’m finally checking out the new 2 Line extension. shout out to trains fr

a photo taken from inside a train car on the Seattle 2-Line. trees and rails can be seen out the window

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

Tip for anyone who wants to get a contest submission together: set aside a couple of weeks to make the video, then get the flu for those weeks so you end up with only three days to make the video, then when the video comes out 30 seconds too long just speed it up until it fits the time limit 😉🙃

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

I'm late to this bc I haven't been on social media for a bit, but I'm beyond honored that Dot Com is a finalist for the Cardboard Edison Award! All the entries look crazy fun and I hope I can play them someday, best of luck to everyone!

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Cardboard Edison @cardboardedison.com · 09/04/2025

Burning through cash in real time in Dot Com by Sammy Salkind. Finalist details at cardboardedison.com/award

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

Hi Bluesky! I'm Sammy, a board game designer from the Seattle area. I plan to mostly post about game design along with other various life things on here :) Two of my fav in-dev games: Spy Moles, a roll-and-write played with invisible ink pens, and Dot Com, a frantic real-time economic strategy game

A photo of my game Spy Moles. There's a sheet of paper with a grid on it, and a blacklight shining on the paper reveals markings made by the player with an invisible ink pen. Surrounding the paper are cards and stencils

A photo of my game Dot Com. In the center of the table is a game board, with player pawns and cards on top of it. Each player also has their own personal board showing the actions they can take. Not pictured is the companion app for the game that keeps track of your money!

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Sammy @salkind.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

I think it might be time to actually use this site?

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