Today’s the last day to get your applications in!

Coming soon: Out of Sorts - 2nd Edition Work together to sort the strange books in an alien's library before time runs out!

Excited to announce that Out of Sorts second edition is launching this August!

All new books to sort, challenges to face and a mini expansion all in a shiny new box.

Follow now on Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/alw...

A lovely game that is entirely the vibe of our usual game night crew. Glad to see it grow.

Thank you : ) Also, just wanna say, y’all have been a big inspiration for my game design/publishing journey. Thanks for doing what you’re doing!

Coming soon: Out of Sorts - 2nd Edition Work together to sort the strange books in an alien's library before time runs out!

Excited to announce that Out of Sorts second edition is launching this August!

All new books to sort, challenges to face and a mini expansion all in a shiny new box.

Follow now on Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/alw...

I was talking to a distributor and they said for just UK I’d need 200 orders to even make it “worth” sending to a local hub. Which is not something I can easily count on at my small scale….

Anyways, all that to say... I've been taking a break to revamp the Always Awake Games logo!

The store entry for That’s the Spirit bird game. “A game of deduction, second guessing, and unfortunate ghosts”

The store entry for Club Spooky. “A game of picky creatures and bidding for attention”

Now that the ks is officially fulfilled, Club Spooky and That’s the Spirit are now available!

www.alwaysawake.games

I’ve also got a few review copies set aside, so if you do reviews and are interested, send me a DM!

Ha maybe one day!

Anyways, all that to say... I've been taking a break to revamp the Always Awake Games logo!

Which is why having lots of projects going at the same time is great for my brain. Sometimes I'm just not up for doing a certain thing. But there's gonna be at least one project that is in a state I'm up for working on.

Which is also why the "just stick to being a designer" advice isn't my favorite

Not me starting a YouTube series and then burning out straight away. At least I'm living up to my ideal of not needing to make everything commercially viable 😅

My brain is in "dump ideas into a file" mode, and not so much "talk into a camera in an empty room".

The store entry for That’s the Spirit bird game. “A game of deduction, second guessing, and unfortunate ghosts”

The store entry for Club Spooky. “A game of picky creatures and bidding for attention”

Now that the ks is officially fulfilled, Club Spooky and That’s the Spirit are now available!

www.alwaysawake.games

I’ve also got a few review copies set aside, so if you do reviews and are interested, send me a DM!

Reminder that applications for the indie tabletop market at PaxWest close on the 19th!

Yup! Totally fine to sit back for a turn (though it usually doesn’t go well for the players who do that too often)

Today on the podcast, we're putting the First Play in First Player Token! We took a spin with Club Spooky by @connor.alwaysawake.games and loved the silly spooky vibe! Listen to our one-play review here: www.buzzsprout.com/2292265/epis.... Warning: Cute kids on audio!

The PNW Tabletop Market at Pax West is happening again and applications are open through 4/19!

If you’ve got a scrappy/quirky/weird/home made game you want to make and sell 20-50 copies of this is your chance! Excited to see what you’ve got : )

www.alwaysawake.games/pnw-tabletop...

Multiple Win Conditions: Find the Fun? YouTube video by Always Awake Games

New Multiple Win Conditions! Today I’m talking about “Find the Fun”. One of the most common bits of advice I got as a new designer

youtu.be/vPTe9PlGAP8?...

but also: there's obviously a bigger appetite than people think for weird, experimental games that question the basic assumptions & received wisdom of "Good Game Design"

if there wasn't, folks would have gotten sick of me a long time ago

I will say, these markets tend to be ok with a sort of “indie tax” so you can price the game at a more reasonable price for you. People going to these markets understand. Happy to chat about it!

The PNW Tabletop Market at Pax West is happening again and applications are open through 4/19!

If you’ve got a scrappy/quirky/weird/home made game you want to make and sell 20-50 copies of this is your chance! Excited to see what you’ve got : )

www.alwaysawake.games/pnw-tabletop...

Totally. That feels like the huge missing piece of “find the fun”.

And yeah, video games do have an easier time and I’m guessing part of it is ease of distribution. Cause RPGs seem to be in a similar boat since they can rely on just pdfs. I think board games can find their indie format though

Multiple Win Conditions: Find the Fun? YouTube video by Always Awake Games

New Multiple Win Conditions! Today I’m talking about “Find the Fun”. One of the most common bits of advice I got as a new designer

youtu.be/vPTe9PlGAP8?...

Fry n’ Write Food trucks, like roll-and-write games, went from unknowns circa 2013 to oversaturated by 2021 to fresh all over again in this the year 2026. At least that’s the hope behind Chicken Fried Dic…

Chicken Fried Dice is the sort of roll-and-write I would introduce to my sister's family, a mid-weight, mid-complexity, mid-math game about building the most successful food truck. My preview: spacebiff.com/2026/03/27/c...

Episode 91 - Ashwin Kamath and Rob Newton - The Journey to hatch Chicken Fried Dice - Favorite Blank and Writes - Good food, cute heavy game, and a trip to Japan | The BoardGameGeek Podcast

@coinflip.games & I had the absolute honor of joining @panda8ngel.bsky.social on Boardgamegeeks Podcast, episode 91! We talk about ourselves, Chicken Fried Dice,and how we got started mostly before jumping in to our favorite blank n write games! Thank you so much!

boardgamegeek.com/blog/12153/b...

"Every good game I've ever seen has eventually found its audience!"

Yeah ever since I started doing my own art, I usually try and add some "character" to prototypes at least to start getting the feeling across and seeing if the style is working or not. Good art practice and you get to "playtest" the art

First of all, feedback like this from one of the designer friends I admire the most means the world. So thank you, Marceline!

Second, this feels like a great opportunity for a lil chat on why my prototypes look like they do.

If you're curious, follow along for a 🎲✂️ thread:

In the free-response section of the survey, multiple designers said that the process of chatting with the AI particularly helped them better articulate their own goals or ideas for a game. One said, "It's like asking another human who may not know much about games. They know enough to at least bounce a couple ideas, which ends up with me getting to where I want to go."

This segment in particular stands out. If you're trying to capture the feeling of asking a human with knowledge on the subject....have you tried actually asking a human with knowledge on the subject? So much of this is systemic of the breakdown of networks and institutional knowledge.

I’m so glad you did! Looking forward to getting my copy soon!