Some thoughts on the paid advertising ecosystem. What the Jellop & Kickstarter partnership means for indie board game publishers, how to target your audience, and inspiration for the best creative from past ad campaigns.

We take a look at the macroeconomic environment and potential impacts to indie board game publishing. Topics include freight, inflationary pressures, and the cyclicality of board games.

Ever wonder how board games make it to market? We walk through the board game supply chain, from manufacture, parts sourcing, freight, distribution and fulfillment.

Plus, who doesn’t like a cool infographic?

Alan Moon is most well known for his standout and best selling design Ticket to Ride. But, it was a long journey getting the game published.

I’m excited to share some behind the scenes content from the upcoming Board Game Design Virtual Summit, where friend of the company and designer Joe Slack sits down Alan to talk about how he got his ticket to… err… his game design and publishing journey.

We delve into the math behind BGG ratings and what they means for an indie board game.

Simplifying the ordering & order management processes is key for promoting our games in stores and through retail distribution. We walk through the process of integrating retail orders through our Shopify storefront.

We take a look at early lessons learned from our online games platform for Sigil. While there is a lot to be proud of, we also have plenty of challenges.

I keep a running list of blog post ideas, some of which aren’t substantive enough to deserve their own article. In this too short to post wrap up we talk about fulfillment hiccups and tips, and the power of social feedback.

Kickstarter is all about building a story and a connection with your prospective backers. We walk through our best practices of how to structure a Kickstarter story, along with some tips on technical specifications and what to include in sections.

We dive into new years with a reflection on the power of building strong habits. And a challenge to our readers to do just that.

A look back at our top 5 articles of 2022.

Colors are a powerful tool. They trigger strong associative emotional responses that we can use to the advantage of our brands. We take a look at color psychology and what it means for board game design and brand development.

Our quest to develop a super-delux, high-end, collectors’ edition game box led us down a rabbit hole of woodworking, and print techniques.

We take a closer look at lacquer finishes, and pad printing.

I asked chat GPT to write an article on indie board game publishing. This is it….

Plus a lot more prose, by me, breaking down the role of AI in publishing, its strengths and limitations.

We examine the waterfall of board game consumers - cognoscenti, hobbyists, and casual hobbyists. And, think through board game adoption and how to successfully market games to a broader consumer base.

There are two major roadblocks to Sigil being a real success. The first is my ability to successfully market the game to get it in front of enough of the right players. The second is a more abstract threat.

Because Sigil is deterministic - higher skill level players win the vast majority of games. This can create a feel bad experience for newer players if they are paired with more experienced players. Exacerbating the problem is that until players reach a certain level of comfort with the game, it can be hard to see their own improvement.

We think through our strategies for smoothing new player onboarding and skill development.

Step by step guide to arrange and book international freight and customs brokerage.

We spent a lot of time thinking through and planning Sigil as a brand, and defining our target audience. We take a look behind the curtain at that process, and share our early working documents and inspirations.

Anchoring our brand and audience allowed us to create a more cohesive stronger product, and is allowing us to pursue more focused marketing.

We sit down with illustrator Stephen Nickel to talk about board game, video game, and tabletop RPG (TTRPG) illustration. The state of the industry, how to become a professional illustrator, and the impact that AI generated illustration will have.

TikTok is an excellent platform to grow and build community. But, it takes some work.

We explore the ins and outs of the app from an indie board game publisher’s perspective. What works, what doesn’t work, and how you can grow your channel.