iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Tabletop Game Designers Association

Gus&Co @devoreur.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

75 % des éditeurs étudiés gardent le nom du jeu après la fin du contrat. 40 % peuvent créer une extension sans consulter l’auteur. La TTGDA passe plus de 50 contrats au crible. Notre analyse : #j2s

gusandco.net

Dans la jungle des contrats de jeux de société

📃 Quels éditeurs de jeux de société proposent les contrats les plus équitables ? L’étude TTGDA analyse avances, royalties, droits...

032

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Link to the report: irp.cdn-website.com/2b6905d0/fil... Link to the just the rubric: irp.cdn-website.com/2b6905d0/fil...

irp.cdn-website.com

270

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

75% of publishers retain the rights to a game’s name after the publication agreement concludes. A third of publishers deny designers the right to audit their books, and 10% include non-standard deductions to revenue before royalties are calculated.

280

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Some Key Findings: Only two-thirds of publishers offer a baseline advance above the TTGDA-recommended minimum of $1,000, while 20% offer no advance at all. 40% of publishers retain the right to create expansions without consulting the original game’s designer.

180

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Today TTGDA released what we believe is our most important effort so far - our Licensing Contract Rubric. This is an objective scoring metric that can be used to partially evaluate the quality of a contract. We applied it to a huge swath of the industry, and this chart shows how they scored. 🧵 🎲✂️

68228

Reposted by Tabletop Game Designers Association

Elizabeth Hargrave @elizhargrave.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

One major purpose of TTGDA is to help tabletop game designers negotiate better publishing contracts. We just released the rubric of what we look for -- and info on how different publishers scored on the rubric. Soon we will also release a model contract. More at www.ttgda.org/contract-bas...

Tabletop Game Designers Association (TTGDA) Releases Scoring Rubric and Tabletop
Market Contract Analysis to Promote Equitable Industry Standards

Bridgewater, NJ – The Tabletop Game Designers Association (TTGDA) today announced the
launch of their Contract Scoring Rubric and publication of its Tabletop Market Contract Analysis
– 2026, a comprehensive industry report designed to share information about contract practices
and advocate for fair treatment, intellectual property protection, and designer involvement in the
tabletop game publishing process.
The report, developed by the TTGDA contract & grievance committee—led by industry veterans
Geoff Engelstein, Elizabeth Hargrave, Matt Leacock, and James Lowder—seeks to address the
wide disparity in publishing agreements across the industry. With many first-time game
designers accepting terms that may be disadvantageous, the TTGDA has developed a rigorous,
objective scoring rubric to evaluate publisher contracts.
“Our intention is to shine a light on these industry practices and lead to more equitable
standards,” says TTGDA Vice President Sen-Foong Lim. To assist in this effort, the TTGDA will
be releasing model contracts that adhere to the criteria established in the scoring rubric.
The full report can be downloaded at www.ttgda.org/contract-basics.
Key Industry Findings
The analysis of contracts from over 50 publishers reveals several critical areas where many
standard publishing agreements fall short of fair practices:
● Advances: Only two-thirds of publishers offer a baseline advance above the
TTGDA-recommended minimum of $1,000, while 20% offer no advance at all.
● Designer Involvement in Expansions: 40% of publishers retain the right to create
expansions without consulting the original game’s designer.

Intellectual Property Rights: 75% of publishers retain the rights to a game’s name after
the publication agreement concludes and rights to the design revert to the creator.
● Financial Transparency: One-third of publishers deny designers the right to audit their
books, and 10% include non-standard deductions to revenue before royalties are
calculated.
Moving Toward Standards
The Tabletop Market Contract Analysis includes aggregate results, with summary scores for
each individual publisher available to TTGDA members. However TTGDA would like to highlight
the top five scoring publishers (alphabetically): 25th Century Games, Fireside Games, Lunar
Punk, Plaid Hat Games, and UP Games.
“These results are not a call to avoid specific publishers,” says TTGDA President Geoff
Engelstein. “Rather they are a tool for designers to negotiate terms that include fair payment,
intellectual property protection, and a meaningful role in the final product.”
The organization plans to release semi-annual updates to the Tabletop Market Contract
Analysis as more contracts are reviewed and publishers revise their standard agreements.
About the Tabletop Game Designers Association
The Tabletop Game Designers Association is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization dedicated to
supporting designers of all types of tabletop games, including board games, role playing games,
card games, miniature games, and others, whether mass market, specialty, or hobby. Learn
more about us at www.ttgda.org.

Contact:
Geoff Engelstein
President
Tabletop Game Designers Association
president@ttgda.org
www.ttgda.org

920574

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

'Some Assembly Required' is a flatpack furniture-building experience that will actually make you feel smart is a game designed by TTGDA member @leighperrott.bsky.social and published by @allplay.bsky.social that's currently funding through Thursday May 14. www.kickstarter.com/projects/boa...

kickstarter.com

River Valley Jewelcraft

Back the spiritual successors to River Valley Glassworks and Things in Rings. And: a flatpack furniture-themed tile placement game

120

Reposted by Tabletop Game Designers Association

Peer Sylvester @peersylvester.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

RIP Reinhold Wittig, one of the big gaming pioneers in Germany has sadly passed away. In the 80s he was THE small indie-publisher, who established the "tube cames", i.e. games in a cube here. Also his artwork of games like Müller&Co is one of the best until today.

23112

Reposted by Tabletop Game Designers Association

Peter McPherson ⏭️ PAX U @peterlmcpherson.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Missing Pieces is looking for your game design questions! Our pile is low right now, so your questions has a good chance of being answered in an upcoming @ttgda.bsky.social newsletter. Here are some of my favorite recent questions we've received. Submit yours here: forms.gle/53QtYWvZqJvA...

Three text boxes reading:

Cube Pusher:
I think a fun challenge I’d like to try is to make a Eurogame that’s as simple as possible, but I’m having a hard time pinning down a solid definition of what a Eurogame actually is. What elements would you say must be present in a game in order for it to be considered a Euro game?

Humor Hawker:
I’m working on a card game with humor at its core but with strategic gameplay. I imagine most of the cards having jokes and illustrations in the finished version. How do I go about playtesting and prototyping? Should I just test the core mechanisms, or should I create some of the jokes from the start?

Unlikely Customer:
When testing someone's game, for which you are not a likely customer, should you approach it the way YOU would typically play such a game or should you take on the persona of "someone who would probably like this kind of game" and try to do what THAT person would likely do?

012

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

This is not a fair rate. We hope to work with Mattel to get this rectified. Note that this is similar to the Hasbro Spark portal, which we warned against last year. www.mymattelideas.com/ideas/myidea

mymattelideas.com

Submission Agreement | MymattelIdeas

My Mattel Ideas Submission Agreement

1224

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

ALERT: Mattel has been pushing game designers to submit pitches using their My Mattel Ideas portal, even if designers are in discussions with Mattel people directly. The portal forces you to commit to a royalty cap of 1.5% plus a 10% deduction to net sales - effectively 1.35%.

28039

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Designers also had more industry-specific concerns, such as the possibility that AI could flood the market with bad games, degrade publisher decision-making and customer service, and divide the game-making community.

070

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Other concerns mentioned in open-ended responses include commonly-cited problems such as plagiarism and AI's environmental impact.

180

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Designers' other uses of AI include as a tool to help them do math, run simulations, and code digital implementations for human play.

150

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

About 4 in 5 respondents say they do not want publishers to use AI-generated marketing materials for their games and are not using it to generate marketing materials themselves.

160

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

About a quarter of designers use AI to edit text they've written, while fewer than one-fifth of respondents use AI to generate placeholder text, and fewer still use it for text to be included in the final version of a game.

140

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

There is almost no support for using AI to make the art that will be included in a published game. However, almost a third of respondents have used AI to generate placeholder art for prototypes.

160

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

About a quarter of respondents have tried using AI to come up with game ideas or mechanisms, while over half of designers said they were strongly opposed to this use of AI.

160

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Many respondents were all-or-nothing on generative AI, with over a quarter being opposed to all uses and another fifth not opposed to any of them.

170

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Just over half of respondents have tried using generative AI for something related to game design. However, of the seven types of use that we specifically asked about, none has been used by more than 40 percent of these designers.

150

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

We conducted a survey of our members about their experiences and thoughts on AI usage in tabletop game design. 🎲✂️ The full report can be found here: irp.cdn-website.com/2b6905d0/fil... A few takeaways: 🧵

irp.cdn-website.com

24423

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Kudos to @barnesandnoble.com for including designer names on their game listings!

The listing for the for the game Sanibel showing Elizabeth Hargrave

0362

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

A designer said to us that TTGDA has made him realize that the contract terms he accepts affect every designer who gets a contract from that publisher. And that has impacted his negotiating positions. We love this sentiment!

25811

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Third year in a row GAMA has snubbed designers with their "Excellence in Game Design" award. 🎲✂️

0112

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Shame on GAMA for once again not including designers in their "Excellence in Game Design" award announcement. Last year they promised that this would be corrected in 2026, but again designers are not given the recognition they deserve. The omission is no longer an oversight. It is a GAMA policy.

24515

Tabletop Game Designers Association @ttgda.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Hex Factor by TTGDA member Frederick Weller is a fast-paced abstract game for 1-4 players where you claim territory by solving puzzles where the pieces have a mind of their own. 1 minute to learn and 10 minutes to play. It's currently funding through 3/17. www.kickstarter.com/projects/sne...