iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 15h

My greatest personal achievement for this whole #Kickstarter campaign is this 3D quarter. #boardgames

A 3D rendering of ten cards standing on end with a quarter coin for scale, The Grimoire Mini-Expansion for the Rune Rite Kickstarter. Oh, you can follow the campaign today.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/seahorse-hummingbird/rune-rite-flip-and-write-game

A 3D rendering of five black pencils with fuchsia print standing on end, with a quarter coin for scale. Oh, you can follow the campaign today.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/seahorse-hummingbird/rune-rite-flip-and-write-game

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

🔮✨ Selected as a part of Kickstarter's Witchstarter creator spotlight, Rune Rite is launching on October 13th. www.kickstarter.com/projects/sea... Why follow now? Because you'll like Rune Rite. It's fun. Also: • 20% off retail • A free mini-expansion #boardgames #kickstarter #crowdfunding

Kickstarter
Rune Rite
Witchy Thinky Fun
Your Next Favorite Flip & Write
Launching 10/13

075

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

🔮✨ How do you conjure your own polyominoes? It’s surprisingly simple and wildly satisfying. Zero downtime and maximum puzzly goodness. Coming to Witchstarter on Oct 13th! Sign up for a launch notification here: www.seahorseandhummingbird.com/shop/rune-ri... #boardgames #kickstarter #crowdfunding

An image of the Rune Rite components set up during play, illustrating the basic concept of gameplay.
• Choose a card
• Conjure a polyomino
• Write the right rite
We're on Kickstarter!

172

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

An intended upgrade for Rune Rite. Instead of a punchboard "stone altar" that players must assemble, a cardstock insert in the bottom of the box for both storage and gameplay. Crackling with powah! #boardgames

A 3D rendering of the bottom of the box for the board game Rune Rite. It features an insert that forms a square well for cards and is part of the gameplay.

0151

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

How to efficiently remove laser-cut punchboard soot and deposit much of it into your lungs. 🫁 #boardgames 🎲✂️

A brush extension connected to a drill, laying on top of and next to various components for the prototype board game of Rune Rite.

030

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

🔮✨ Rune Rite is a polyomino flip-and-write game like nothing you've ever seen, coming to Kickstarter on 10/13. Fun, puzzly and satisfying. Read more about the game and sign up for a launch notification here: www.seahorseandhummingbird.com/shop/rune-ri... #boardgames #kickstarter #crowdfunding

Gorgeous & Thinky Flip & Write Board Game
20% off & a free expansion
Launching October 13th on Kickstarter

182

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

... layer Rune cards onto a shared 3×3 Stone Altar grid to construct polyominoes on the fly. You pick your shape, and everyone else simultaneously drafts from the remaining grid—zero waiting around. Let me know if you have any questions in the comments below. Thanks so much! ♥️

The components and finished game of Rune Rite. Cards, player sheets and a punchboard stone altar. Pencils not included.

000

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

🥣🐟 Mm... Kixtartar. That's right! Rune Rite is coming to Kickstarter on October 13th! www.kickstarter.com/projects/sea... 💎 Rune Rite is a unique and puzzle-y flip-and-write game with polyominoes, simultaneous play, and satisfying moves. #boardgames

171

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Witchstarter looms nigh. Sixteen preview copies of Rune Rite ordered from Launch Tabletop. Will everything come together in time? 🤷 🤷‍♀️ 🤷‍♂️ 🤷 🤷‍♀️ 🤷‍♂️ 🤷 🤷‍♀️ 🤷‍♂️ #boardgames

All of the production files for a Launch Tabletop order of preview copies of Rune Rite.

030

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

You'd think I was defusing a bomb, how nervous I am prepping these production files. Cutlines for interlocking punchboard elements. Which of these slots is one-quarter millimeter too far off? Which tiny rounding error will make this whole thing a huge waste of time and money? 😰💸 #boardgames

A screenshot of Affinity Publisher 2 with a punchboard sheet of tiles for Rune Rite are being laid out.

110

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Working on a Rune Rite mini-expansion. I've failed at this several times, but I think I've got it now. #boardgames

Two cards edge-to-edge to form a "book". A grimoire. It says, "Storm of the Serpent," across the top. The left card has a 9x9 grid with some cells X'd off and a water rune at the bottom. The right card has an earth rune at the top and a 9x9 grid with different cells X'd off.

010

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

🎆 Pyrotechnics is out of Beta on Board Game Arena and today is Pyrotechnics Day in the Summer of Games 2026! At the moment of my screenshot, there were 195 concurrent games of Pyrotechnics going on. That feels nice. #boardgames

A screenshot from the home page of Board Game Arena with a calendar of treasure chests that can be opened daily. It's a weird little loot box scratch off game that will get you cat trophies. Today's treasure chest opens up Pyrotechnics as the game of the day.

A screenshot from the Pyrotechnics page on Board Game Arena. It depicts a game of Pyrotechnics in progress.
"Watch a game in progress (195 games)."

030

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Oh, goodness. I would *love* to work with the inimitable Beth Sobel! I have a crystal tile-playing game and a gemstone polyomino flip-and-write. If either of those match your frequency, my DMs are open.

060

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

The exploration, iteration and evolution of Threed. Threed is a trick-taking slide-puzzle #boardgame that will squeeze your brains out of your ears. Designed by @rollplusfun.bsky.social and launching in early 2027.

Dozens of different images mashed together into a quilt. All of these images were prototypes or contenders for art for the board game Threed.

0112

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Roughing out the box art and production dimensions for Threed. I still have a lot of work to do on the back of the box, that's just a placeholder. The box will be roughly 4"x5.5". #boardgames 🎲✂️

252

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

🔥 Hot! 🔥🥵 The Top 10 Single-Digit Numbers (0-9) of All Time! Check it out! You're about to experience some ⭐️ CONTENT ⭐️. Your life will be enriched. You're welcome.

163

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

I was cleaning up a little clutter around here when I came across earlier prototypes of Pyrotechnics. I'm pretty happy with the fidelity throughout. There are a million tiny tweaks between iterations, but no major overhauls. I made -~*a lot*~- of copies of handmade Pyrotechnics. #boardgames 🧨🔥

Four prototype boxes of the board game Pyrotechnics in a 2x2 grid. In the upper-left, an early prototype in a plastic clamshell deck holder. Didn't even have its own tuckbox.

In the upper-right, an Inkjet print on cardstock to mock up the dimensions for a potential box.

In the lower-left, a prototype copy from Launch Tabletop.
https://launchtabletop.com/

In the lower-right, a prototype copy from the final manufacturer, BangWee.
http://www.bangweegames.com/

030

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Oh, the vaguest of vagueposts. It's a sneak peek! 🫣 I'm just excited about this project and that's all I'm going to say. Coming to life in, like, 2030 or something. It'll take forever. Follow The Seahorse & The Hummingbird for more pointless and frustrating posts like this! #boardgames 🧦👕👖🕷️

Twelve cards in a 4x3 grid. The left column of cards has a drawing of a sock in the colors puce, chartreuse and taupe. The column of cards to the right of that has a drawing of a shirt in the same colors, but this one has an icon of a spider on it. The next column is pants with two spider icons. The right column is underpants ("underpants are wild!") with three spider icons.

030

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

I've been working on Rune Rite for over four years, and teasing a release for almost as long. The core game has always remained the same, but the tweaks have been endless. I've pretty much done it all, and I'm quite happy with what it's been honed into. #boardgames

The very first iteration of Rune Rite, then called Poly•oly•omino.

The second iteration of Rune Rite, with my own art and a much more complex scoring system.

The third artistic iteration (and twentieth mechanical iteration?) of Rune Rite.

The current and hopefully final iteration of Rune Rite. I just need to get the player sheet redone and colored.

180

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

An important lesson I'm learning along the way is that doing the right things in the right order at the right time prevents frustration, burn out, wasted time and wasted money. Sure, that sounds obvious; but I'm still learning the things, the orders and the timing. #boardgames

The famous Zach Galifianakis math meme from The Hangover with complex equations floating around Zach's head. At the bottom, the question, "Is it too soon or too late for art?" is superimposed over it.

050

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

In Rune Rite, you copy polyominoes onto your player sheet to score and win. How do you get the polyominoes? You build them! On your turn, take one card and place it on the pile to build the polyominoes most advantageous to you and least useful to your opponents. #boardgames

A visual explanation of the gameplay of Rune Rite. Place a card atop some other cards in different orientations to generate various polyominoes.

070

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

It took me a while to get started on promotional images for Rune Rite. I probably woulda-coulda-shoulda had these done a long time ago. But now that I'm in it, the going keeps going. Just had to prime the pump. There's more to do, but now I'm doing it. #boardgames

The box top for the prototype board game Rune Rite with cards from the game scattered around it and a player sheet off to the right.

The box top for the prototype board game Rune Rite atop a grid of cards from the game.

160

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

🏆 If you'd like to nominate Pyrotechnics for one or more categories in the 2025 GoldenGeek Awards, you can go to this link: boardgamegeek.com/goldengeek Scroll down to Pyrotechnics, click on it to open a pane in which you can nominate. Thank you for your support! #boardgames #goldengeek

A screenshot of Board Game Geek on the GoldenGeek Awards for 2025 with the nomination pane for Pyrotechnics open.

011

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

I am thrilled to announce that The Seahorse & The Hummingbird has signed Sneaky Squirrels by Joe Kell! A super-fun game by a great designer. I look forward to working with Joe to bring the game to life and to market. Photos by @xoe.gay and Joe Kell. #boardgames 🎲✂️

A close-up of a prototype game of Sneaky Squirrels; square cards with leaves on them and wooden squirrel meeples. Mequirrels?
Photo by Xoe Allred.

A table of people playing Sneaky Squirrels.
Photo by Joe Kell.

3294

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Quote of the Con about Threed: “The more you understand it, the more difficult it becomes.” I might put that tagline on the box. #boardgames 🎲✂️ #unpub

Two people at a table staring at a game of Threed, confused and concerned looks on their faces.

150

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

I stalled for a long time in getting Threed prepared for playtesting, but lately I've been banging it out. I'm not sure what clicked. The art still needs some love; the lighting, coloration and density all look off. But now I'm in the flow of it. Continuous, happy progress. #boardgames 🎲✂️

A Screentop.gg prototype of the board game Threed. Four hands of cards with ten cards each and a 4x4 grid of art cards in the center.

040

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

My meager contribution was the band name Cognitive Load.

A screenshot of a portion of a photograph of a t-shirt that shows a stylized band name, "Cognitive Load."

000

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Pyrotechnics was a delightful distraction, but it's time to turn my burning eye back to Threed. I might up and make a standard deck of playing cards in this style. I'm not entirely sure how I'd do face cards, though. #boardgames

Nine purple cards, numbered one through nine, with purple hexagons arranged for the art.

050

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird has committed to donating 2% of every sale to good causes. In 2025 that amounted to $32. That's not a staggering amount, but it is appropriately modest for a fledgling company and I'm proud of every penny. www.seahorseandhummingbird.com/giving/ #boardgames #giving

060

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

🎉 Hooray, we did it! Pyrotechnics is now in beta on Board Game Arena, available to all who partake in BGA! Go ahead and play, it's free! boardgamearena.com/gamepanel?ga... #boardgames #bga #boardgamearena

160

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

The bulk order of Pyrotechnics is currently on a container ship. Can you spot which one?

A screenshot from the map page of:
https://www.vesselfinder.com

150

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

What comes after Pyrotechnics? A trick-taking game like you've never seen before: Threed, by Brooks Barber. Stay tuned for updates and look for it (possibly) in the first half of 2026! #boardgames

1122

The Seahorse & The Hummingbird @thinkdeepplaylight.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

When I threw up the website for The Seahorse & The Hummingbird, I wasn't too concerned with the design. It wasn't time for that. I needed to focus on building a business and an infrastructure, not faffing about with pixel-perfect buttons. But... now the time has come. 🧵 1 of 3 #boardgames 🎲✂️

A screenshot of the new website build for The Seahorse & The Hummingbird; the whole site from top to bottom. From header to footer.

140