January 2021 Featured Guests

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Seeking to Publish:

The game submissions we tend to love often have these features.

• Fun! We want to publish games that are fun to play.
• Immediacy of Play. Minimal set-up and light rules, so players can get into the game quickly. Limited downtime.
• Player Interaction. Players can affect each other, rather than interacting primarily with their own pieces. Designs should encourage table talk.
• Meaningful Strategy. Players make meaningful decisions that determine whether they win or lose. Diverse strategies are viable paths to victory.
• Interesting Themes. Themes must grab gamers’ attention and help sell the experience. We’re partial to comedy.
• Immersive Experiences. Players should be able to imagine that they’re part of a story as well as a game, and feel invested in it.
• Elegantly Related Theme and Gameplay. Theme and gameplay should complement one another.
• Solid Mechanics and Rules. Designs feature months or years of testing and revision, with clearly written and well-edited rules.
• Innovative Gameplay. Original concepts rather than thin variants of what’s been done before.
• Innovative Components. For example, the transparent playing cards that make Gloom unique.
• Targets Our Customers. We primarily sell games to gamers, and new design must target that demographic first and foremost. Having the potential for mainstream break-out is great, but not at our core’s expense. (Once Upon a Time is a good example of a gamer’s game with breakout appeal.)

Not Seeking to Publish

• Classic game variants (e.g., “chess but with powers”)
• Collectible games of any type
• Drinking games
• Educational games (that is, games that put education before entertainment)
• Trick-taking games
• Trivia games
• Roll-and-move games
• Religious games