Content warning: mentions of racism, violence, abuse, oppression, slavery. When is it a good idea for a board game to make a villain a playable position? In competitive board games, all players are each others’ antagonists. But this is a different thing than having roles which are coded as “villains”, “bad”, “malefic”, or “in the wrong” – roles that would…
Showing my work
Earlier this year, an Indigenous gamer (who’d been very kindly spending their time to give me thoughts on a Dahan-centric Spirit Island expansion) asked what I was doing to find, create, or advance actual Indigenous voices in the board game industry. Upon hearing my answer, they suggested that I really ought to make that information more public, to help raise…
Spirit Island in a paper analyzing island-themed board games
Dr. Hannah Fair of the University of Oxford has published an analysis of island-themed board games, looking at how they reflect society’s ideas of the world – environmental, social, and more. The main three games examined are Taluva, Vanuatu, and Spirit Island. It’s a really neat read if you enjoy academic papers; I was struck by a number of its…
Colonialism and Games
Several articles and videos addressing colonialism & board games came out recently (Feb 2021). It’s made me think I should start keeping a reference list of links on the topic. If there’s a good read/watch/resource that I’ve missed, or if you’re a creator who’d like to be credited differently, please drop me a line! When I know that a creator…
Site is live!
It’s on the bare-bones side, but serves its basic purpose of being a central point for “here’s how to get in touch with me”, “what games have I made”, and linking to the signup form for email updates. Some things I hope to add: answers to frequently asked questions (about specific games and game design in general), links to interviews…