The Board Game Design Forum is one of the oldest still operating board game design discussion forums.
BGDF: Richard Durham
January 2021 Featured Guests
Protospiel Online is excited to welcome several tabletop game publishers and media personalities. Keep reading to discover more about the guest we'll have joining us in the Discord server!
Atlas Games: Kayla McT & Michelle Nephew
At Atlas Games, we publish board games, card games, and tabletop roleplaying games. Our first books came out in 1990, so we’re one of the oldest hobby game publishers in business. Bestselling lines include Gloom, Once Upon a Time, Lunch Money, Ars Magica, Feng Shui, Unknown Armies, and Over the Edge.
We believe in creative curiosity and sensible operations. We love new ideas and always keep our word.
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
SilverPhoenix.Net: Charles Moisant
CHARLES D. MOISANT, is a comic book Publisher, artist, writer, and the creative director of Silver Phoenix Entertainment (a 100% female owned company).
Charles has been publishing comic books since 1991, starting with Kremin.
Silver Phoenix Entertainment works with many artists, printing comic titles like Myth Told Tales by Robert Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye, Mystery Manor Haunted Theatre, and Whispers from the Void. Charles is also known for his Roller Derby Drama, which is loosely based on the Chicago Outfit Roller Derby Team.
Charles can usually be found on his roller skates at Silver Phoenix Entertainment promoting some of the
newer titles such as ‘Whispers from The Void’ where all monsters are reflections of the Seven Deadly Sins.
Philo Barnhart is drawing the second issue. Some of his works currently in production include ‘Zombie
Annihilation’, where Doctor Zarvin is working with local heroes from Chicago to save the world from zombies; ‘Danni and Dayna in Dino World’ in which two Woman: IDA DANNI, a modern day military refueling pilot, and Dayna Onli, an African-American woman from Chicago 1902, are trapped 65 million years ago. Working against them are intelligent dinosaurs, lizard people, and the Atlantians a space-faring race who are stealing the world’s only major resource: Magik; and ‘Thunder World’ a story
about three giant robots and a giant monster learning how to work with each other and saving the world, which is being written by him and Doug Rice of Dynamo Joe. And Haunting Tales of Bachelor’s Grove with Brian K Morris a Kickstarter success.
Charles’ Latest works “Outer Planet Panic™” a Sci Fi board game and The Ultimate Adventure of the Cockerels Fist. A Fantasy web series.
Lastly, Charles has been developing free Educational comic books for the masses.
Tank & DPS News: Cecilia & Eric Hyland
Husband and Wife team in the tabletop industry making crafts, designing games, creating art, and recording a podcast.
Ludology: Geoff Engelstein
Geoff Engelstein co-founded the Ludology podcast in 2011 and continued as a co-host until 2019, when he passed his seat to Emma Larkins. Geoff is also the creator behind GameTek, exploring the math and science behind games. GameTek continues as a regular feature on both Ludology and the Dice Tower podcast.
Doomsday Robots Game Company: Bryn Smith
We are a board gaming publisher who primary publishes premier edition games to Kickstarter. Our board games are based upon three design pillars: innovating novel mechanics, streamlining play for elegant seamless experiences, and creating truly collectible games you will want to share with everyone.
Seeking to Publish:
Game that feature high collectability and appeal strongly to the Kickstarter base.
Not Seeking to Publish
Mass market games and those with only few components.
Koalatie Games: Mike Trias
Our goal as a company is to bring board games to the masses in a fun and scalable way. Our games feature both beginner and advanced modes, so after you learn the basics you can explore deeper, more strategic ways of playing. Whether you are new to board and card games or a seasoned hobbyist, you’ll have a great time with Koalatie Games!
Seeking to Publish:
Games that are accessible for the public at large, in theme and in complexity.
Not Seeking to Publish
RPG’s. Games that are on the heavier side as the base game. However, we are open to games that are simple as a base game but becomes heavier and more complex with expansions or adjusted rules.
XYZ Game Labs: Lauren Nepomuceno
XYZ Game Labs is an independent tabletop game publisher based in Chicago, IL. Our mission is to invent new gamers by creating properties that act as a gateway to tabletop gaming.
Check the XYZ Game Labs website for detailed submission guidelines. The high points are:
Seeking to Publish:
We enjoy a wide variety of games. They can run anywhere from 30 min to 2 hours and have player counts anywhere from 1 to 8+.
If you’re submitting a design for the XYZ Quarks line it must match 3 criteria: Fits in a pocket, can be learned in 3min or less and playtime must be under 30 minutes.
Not Seeking to Publish
All audiences, please. We’re not going to publish NSFW themed games.
You have to own the thing you’re showing us.