The Board Game Design Workshop 2020 Contest
I’m thrilled to be a semi-finalist in the 2020 Board Game Design Workshop Contest with my game Uranus! The top 20 games from round 1 have gone through to the semis (Uranus! was placed in 10th position). These are the full round 1 ranks. Over the next month, I’ll be working on my semi-final submission. This stage of the competition requires the full rule book and a 15 minute ‘How to Play’ video. Each designer has been paired up with a coach, who will support them with the submission. I’m pretty excited about the coaching!
A bit about Uranus!
Catastrophic asteroid attacks are threatening your moon, and those of your neighbours. In this cooperative ‘write and erase’ network builder, you must optimise the ever-changing landscape of your individual moon and exploit its resources, before the moon is destroyed. Use your asymmetric powers to help your closest allies, for all races must make the journey to Uranus to be saved.
If you’ve not yet seen it, watch the game overview submitted to Round 1.

Board, Deck and Dice review BuzzleBox 2
BuzzleBox 2: Doughnuts & Cake has had another brilliant review this week. Nick Welford from Board, Deck and Dice roped his son in to do the review with him. It was great to get a family perspective.
They said, “We have been absolutely blown away with this package.”
Marvellous. Watch the review!
Christmas Cracker Kickstarter
For the month of September we will be running a campaign on Kickstarter to launch The Dark Imp Cracker Games; The Imp Box! You can now register for launch notifications. Here are the highlights…



In case you missed it…
- On Sunday I did a live broadcast – looking at a game in development – Worm Attack. You can watch the replay.
- On Monday I released a new video about Why the coaster game Letter Market is great for English lessons.
- On Wednesday I released a new time-lapse video of The Dark Imp playing the solo game Nautilion.
- On Thursday I published a new blog: Six reasons to start playing board games on holiday.
- On Friday I published a video about How to play Alien Farm, one of the Coaster Games.
- This morning (Saturday) I published a video which will be the start of a long series of short videos on How I became a Board Game Designer. Part 1 is about the games we played as a child. Watch it here.
Coming this week…
- Monday video: Sleuth Box – an activity for Maths lessons.
- Wednesday time-lapse video: A game sped up!
- Thursday blog: A game or puzzle to play at home.
- Friday video: How to play Letter Market
- Every day this week – new instalments in the “How I became a board game designer” video series. Make sure you don’t miss any by subscribing on Youtube.
