During an interview at the event, Professor Tony Ortega asked for my thoughts on the skills students learn through the program. I told him that the coursework gives students the opportunity to develop many different types of skills. Obviously, the hope is that they will all get jobs in game design, but there are many other industries where those skills can be applied.

The more I thought about his question, the more personal it became. My own degree is in anthropology. I do not have a career as an anthropologist or archaeologist, but I still use what I learned during those four years. In fact, many of those skills have made me a better game designer.

Some connections are fairly obvious. The quantitative skills I learned in statistics courses help me think about representative sample sizes, probability, and number distributions. The less obvious connections are the softer skills: observing how people behave, asking questions without leading them, and setting aside my own assumptions.

Learning How to Test

One of the most important skills game-design students learn is how to test something. I work in software development in my day job, where I often have to test whether software meets its requirements. That does not mean simply pushing buttons and confirming that they work. You also have to think critically about whether the software accomplishes the intended purpose.

Sometimes a stakeholder tells you exactly what they want, and you build it, only to discover that it does not actually do what they need. They might say, “I want a report that includes the date a product was delivered.” If you ask why they want it, you may learn that what they really need is a report on the promptness of deliveries. One delivery date does not answer that question. The report needs the requested date, the actual delivery date, and a calculation showing whether the delivery was on time.

Game design can be similar. During a playtest, you may observe a person taking a specific action that gets them from A to B. Without understanding that player’s motivation, it can be difficult to determine whether the mechanic is working effectively. Did they take that action because it supported a strategy, or only because it seemed like the expected next step? The why can be just as important as the action itself.

Sometimes you can ask players to think out loud. This works well with experienced playtesters, although it can be challenging if talking through a decision would reveal someone’s strategy to an opponent. It can be especially effective in a solo game or a two-player game where the designer is the other player.

Often, simply asking “Why?” without adding too much detail is enough. You do not want to lead the player toward the answer you expect. You also have to become comfortable with an awkward silence. Ask the question, let the person think, and do not rush to fill the silence for them.

Looking Beyond Your Own Assumptions

Observation without interference is an important part of anthropology, especially in ethnographic study. I had a lot of book learning on the subject, but I probably gained the most practical experience when I was responsible for the user experience of a website. To design a usable site, I needed to know both how and why a person used it.

Anthropology also taught me the importance of holistic study: looking at something from many angles without allowing my own bias to get in the way.

I remember one of my Anthropology professors asking my class to imagine that we were studying a village in a remote location. The people in the village always seemed to have good luck catching fish at a particular time of day. What might explain it?

We went around the room offering possibilities. Maybe the fish were more active then. Maybe it had to do with the type of bait they used or the temperature at that time of day. All our answers were scientific and rooted in Western ways of thinking, which reflected who we were.

Then the professor asked, “What if the village’s ancestors directed the fishermen to go at that time in an elder’s vision?”

It made me stop and think about how important it is to consider something from where other people are, not where I am.

I have had to apply that lesson to my own game designs. In my Harrisburg roll-and-write game about industrializing the city, players gain resources from assets they have built, then use those resources to build more assets. In my mind, there was a natural progression from cotton to cloth to consumer goods, for example.

Many players wanted to skip straight to consumer goods. I did not initially understand why they would ignore what seemed to me like the obvious progression. The problem was that the game gave them no reason to take the extra step. The shortcut provided the same number of points. My idea of a “natural progression” depended on historical knowledge that not every player had, and the mechanics did not reward them for following it anyway.

Once I understood that, I added a victory point benefit for taking the longer route. I had to get out of my own head, look at the game from the players’ perspective, and make a change based on what they were actually doing.

Iteration Is a Skill

And making that change is another skill I learned through multiple design processes. You make a small, observable change between versions, then test again to see what effect it has.

This is something you learn in programming and software testing. If you make too many changes at once, or make a single drastic change, it becomes much more difficult to understand the effect on the product. In software, you might introduce a bug and have no idea which change caused it. In a board game, you might create an imbalance between mechanics without knowing which adjustment is responsible. Either way, the problem becomes more difficult to fix in the long run.

The paper prototypes at the HU event were a good reminder of what iteration can look like. I have spent a long time working with digital versions and mostly finished games. There was something more visceral about sitting down with paper prototypes. It took me back to the roots of game design.

One was a tower-defense game. The student explained that they were a big fan of the genre and wanted to create a board game with the same feeling. I chose the most expensive piece of equipment because I assumed it would also be the most powerful. The other players started with lower-level equipment that provided more coverage.

It quickly became clear that there was a predictable path to victory: start with the lower-level equipment, survive the early waves, and progress to the higher-level equipment later. Starting with the expensive equipment only left me poor and poorly defended. The playtest illustrated the need for better balance so that players could pursue different strategies instead of following a single optimal path.

The student was very receptive to the feedback. In fact, all the students seemed prepared for this type of event. They took in feedback without becoming defensive. They clearly stated their design goals without trying to change the players’ perceptions of what had happened. It was obvious that their coursework had prepared them for the process.

Paper prototypes may help create that openness. A more finished product can give the impression that the designer has already committed to certain parts of the design and may not be open to changing them. With a paper prototype, the designer can cross something out without disrupting the game. Everything feels more fluid, and the feedback feels more important.

More Than a Job Title

People have “jokingly” asked me, “So, how is that archaeology degree working out for you?” The implication is that I wasted my time, money, and effort on a useless degree. It makes me angry. Just because I am not digging holes in Pennsylvania in the middle of summer does not mean I am not using the skills I learned.

While I do not have a career in anthropology or archaeology, those four years of college helped prepare me to work as a GIS technician, webmaster, communication specialist, business analyst, and game designer. The skills moved with me even when the job titles changed.

I think game-design degrees can work the same way. Graduates might not go on to develop video games for a living or create a top-100 game on Board Game Geek. But they might become program managers, quality-assurance testers, business analysts, or any number of other things. They will know how to observe people, question assumptions, understand the purpose behind a request, test an idea, accept feedback, and improve something one change at a time.

An education is more than a title and your name on a piece of paper. It is a collection of skills and knowledge that you can apply almost anywhere in life if you are creative enough.

Aside from abstract games, most games have some sort of theme that helps the player understand their goals and drives motivation for playing. Sometimes that theme is very weak. Recently I played The Gang, a cooperative poker-like game with a little social deduction. The story is that you’re all part of a gang pulling off a series of bank heists. Maybe it was the way it was taught to me, but I didn’t see much of that theme pulling through in the play. I didn’t feel a motivation to win because I wanted to successfully pull off a heist.

Other games have extremely strong themes. Captain’s Chair is a head-to-head deck builder battle based in the Star Trek universe. Not only is every card strongly set with characters, locations, and equipment from the show, but the way you win and how you play is directly affected by which captain you choose.

Game Design Start - Theme versus Mechanic

Some designers start with a great idea for a game based on the mechanics they want to put into a game, either because they came up with something unique or maybe want to improve on a design they played. However, Community Cats started as an idea based strictly on theme. I wanted to make a game about trapping cats and returning them to their colonies. So then I had to consider what mechanics work for that sort of theme. I very quickly decided on a pick-up-and-deliver game, because that is quite literally what you do with the cats in real life. You pick them up from their colonies and deliver them to the clinic for surgery.

Turning Real-World Situations Into Mechanics

Next, I thought about the situations a rescuer encounters while doing TNR and how I could represent them in the game.

You Never Know What You’re Going to Trap

When you trap at a colony, you have no idea how many cats you’re going to get. You know how many traps you put out, and if you’ve been caring for the colony, you’ll know roughly how many cats you need to trap. But cats really have a mind of their own. You’re never guaranteed to trap a specific number.

To capture that unpredictability, I decided on a bag-building mechanic. When populating the colonies, players draw cat cubes from a bag, so they never know exactly what they’re going to get.

Some Cats Are Harder to Trap

Some cats are very trap savvy and know better than to go into a trap. Maybe they’ve been trapped before, they’ve seen other cats get trapped, or they just don’t like the weird metal object in their home. There are plenty of reasons, but these cats often need a little special coaxing.

I represented this with different difficulty levels. Each game has a specific number of difficult, average, and friendly cats in the bag. The type of cat cube a player draws determines how difficult that cat will be to trap.

Rescuers Have Tools

In real life, rescuers have a number of ways to make trapping difficult cats easier. One is to use food that will really attract the cat. Sometimes fish-based food is enough to get their attention. For the really difficult cats, the other trick is to use Kentucky Fried Chicken. It’s a sworn-by secret among rescuers.

Rescuers can also use a drop trap. I always describe this as a Wile E. Coyote-type trap from the Looney Tunes cartoons. It’s a giant square cage that’s held up with a stick. You put something they want (food) under it and wait and watch. When the cat goes under it, you pull the stick and it drops on them. You can then transfer them over to a normal trap for transport. They even have electronic ones now that work using a remote control button!

In the game, tasty food and a drop trap became token upgrades that the player can purchase to enhance their rolls. Tasty food gives a simple +1 to dice rolls. To mimic its real-world application, the drop trap requires more time tokens to use but guarantees a trapped cat.

Things Left Out or Removed

I was very adamant that I wanted the game to rely heavily on theme and that I was willing to sacrifice a little on gameplay to capture that realism. However, there were still a few things left out or removed.

In TNR, it really does matter if you capture a female or a male cat. Females require a longer recovery time because their surgery is more invasive. I explored the idea of having female/male cube distinction, but ultimately decided it was too much for the player to keep track of. I didn’t want analysis paralysis to occur because there were too many factors. In fact, I left out the whole recovery process unless you assume they stay in the clinic overnight.

Cats multiply exponentially. In the game, two cats only make one more cat. In reality, a single unspayed mother can have multiple litters each year, usually between three and six kittens. The game became nearly impossible if that many cubes were added, so it was reduced. I wanted the game to feel like a challenge, but not impossible.

Pulling It All Together

Designers make a final decision on how they balance realism and fun mechanics. It’s a lot easier when you’re making something like a fantasy game about dragons compared to making a game about an educational topic like TNR. However, I think I’ve been able to find a nice blend of real-life scenarios and fun game mechanics to make Community Cats a challenging puzzle that entertains while it educates.

All pictures came from work done by Trapped and Tipped TNR Advocacy Group out of Mechanicsburg, PA. If you’re interested in donating to them, you can do so here: https://www.paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/5913919

What’s Blind Playtesting?

That’s where blind playtesting comes into play. For those who don’t know, blind playtesting is when you give the rulebook to the players and have them teach themselves and play the game. It could be everyone reads it, or it might be assigned to one player. For Community Cats, this is easy since it’s a solo game. Everyone gets to read the rules.

How’s it work?

Every designer probably does it a little differently. Recently, I had the opportunity at the Dillsburg Game Night to bring a few copies of my game and get players to test it out. I gave each player a set of the rules and told them to read through it and play the game. I made myself available for questions, but tried to urge them to find the answer if they could. If you are too readily available, they’ll rely on you and not the ruleset.

Observation Is Key

I think the most important part is watching the players, but not interfering. You need to let them make mistakes. Be sure to write down where they did something wrong, so you can see where in the rules you might need to clarify.

For instance, one of the playtesters only put one cat on each colony during setup (instead of 2). I let them complete the setup and actually start a round before pointing it out. I was hoping to see if they would catch themselves (they didn’t). It’s important that they play the game mostly right, so that’s where I stepped in.

I joked with my own friend who was playtesting that my anthropology skills were in use. I was treating her like an ethnographic study and recording what she was doing.

Ask Them to Think Out Loud

One of the most useful things a playtester can do is think out loud. It really helps to gain some insight into their motivations and understanding of the game. Community Cats has a bit of strategy in that you usually have multiple ways to handle a problem. I like to hear why they are doing things, rather than just see the end results. This helps me know if my ruleset is explaining why certain decisions are important.

For example, Community Cats has an employee meeple that performs actions that cannot be done otherwise. It’s an optional upgrade that you can purchase at the beginning of the round for $1 and one time. At the end of the round, you can either pay $1 to retain them or return them to the supply. If they go back to the supply, you can buy them again next round, but it will cost both the $1 and the time to hire them.

It’s important to me that players understand that decision. Many players asked, “Why bother paying the $1 if I can just buy them again?” But the distinction is that retaining the employee does not cost any additional time. Planning to have the money at the end of the round is important if you want to keep that option open. I don’t necessarily want to spell that strategy out in the rules, but I want to make sure the rules help players arrive at that decision.

Do Not Coach

So one very important thing I learned this time around was that I had been coaching far too much when I explained the game. Out of the six games that were played, four were lost by running out of cat cubes. Through observation, I saw that players were not making the most efficient decisions. During normal playtesting, I would have offered tips and strategies, but blind playtesters do not have that benefit.

That made the results much more useful. If players are consistently running out of cat cubes without coaching, then I need to account for that in the game itself. I had to rethink my math on the number of cubes in the bag based on the blind playtesting. This is something that I likely would not have realized without it.

When to Stop

Knowing when to stop is a problem that many creatives have. I was recently at a book event for Rachel Reid’s Game Changer series, and the author was asked, “When do you know your book is done with editing?” Her response was basically that she had to rely on her editor, because if left to her own devices, she would never stop. Even now, if she rereads parts of her books, she wants to make changes.

I think that can also be true for board game designers who are doing all the work on their own. When you don’t have someone else to tell you to stop, you’ll likely keep going because you’ll always find something you want to change.

Blind playtesting has shown me that most players are able to understand the basic rules of the game without my teaching it. I made a few formatting changes based on the feedback, and I have sent just the rulebook out to a few more folks who are going to test the game on their own. I think after that, I need to call it done. Deadlines are very helpful for knowing when to stop.

Stuff to Do Fair

Before I wrap up, I also want to mention that Matt and I will be at the Stuff to Do Fair. The New Cumberland Stuff to Do Fair takes place on Sunday, October 4, 2026, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM at the New Cumberland Fire Hall (319 4th St, New Cumberland, PA). We’ll be representing the Harrisburg Board Game Alliance, trying to explain the hobby of board gaming to folks and drum up some support for all the awesome play groups we have in Central PA. Stop by if you’re free!

Community Cats is a good fit for this because it’s a solo game with a very strong educational theme. I don’t believe it’ll appeal to a wide audience, but feel strongly that there is a specific audience who will love it. I talked about Community Cats in my introduction if you want to go back and learn more about it.

Since being chosen for the Night Market, I’m now in production mode for the game. I originally thought I would make around 25 copies of the game. However, in conversations with previous Night Marketers and attendees, I now think I need to aim higher around 50 or more.

How to Make (Not Design) Community Cats

Community Cats is being produced mostly in my home. There are a few components I decided to outsource.

1) Time. It would take me too much time to produce everything. I needed to make some strategic decisions on where I would spend my time.

2) Quality. I’m not aiming for top-quality production because I’m hopeful buyers will appreciate the DIY-ness. This is different than mass production games. However, I do still need to attract folks with some nice-looking components, for instance, the box.

3) Sanity. Sometimes the best choice you can make is to let someone else do it. For example, I hate stapling rulebooks. While it is costing a little more per copy than I like, outsourcing it saves time and saves me from doing something I dread.

Laser Cutting

I own an XTool P2S 55W CO2 Laser Cutter. For those who don’t know, I’m a huge crafting nerd. These are the sort of things I buy myself for rainy days. The laser cutter does an amazing job cutting out components like wooden meeples and chipboard tokens.

For the tiles and tokens, the first thing I do is print them out on high quality Presentation Matte paper with my Epson inkjet printer. I spray a matte finish over it to help protect from the dust of the laser cutter. Next, I spray glue it onto the chipboard. I give it a day to dry before putting it into the laser cutter. I can probably do an entire post about this process.

For the Employee meeple, I decided I wanted to have it double-sided. One is a figure with short hair, the other with long hair. The easiest way for me to do this was to cut out both sides from a thinner wood, then glue them together. Since I only need one per copy, this is manageable.

Replacing the Gameboard

In the earlier version of the game, I had a game board that was placed down so you can tell a colony’s label. This was going to be difficult to produce myself because it’d require scoring the board, or finding tape to make it foldable. I came up with a different solution by cutting out Colony Indicators from the wood. They are brackets that attach to the card. This way I can easily rubber band them together and it takes up a lot less space in the box. While the production will probably take longer, most of it is just waiting on the wood to cut. I do have to sand and clean them, but that can be done while watching TV.

3D Printing

Originally I was trying to avoid using any plastic. However, I do have a 3D printer and lots of spools of filament. So my rationale was that I would not be using newly produced plastic. This would save me on cost since I already have the materials instead of buying thousands of wooden cubes. It also gave me the opportunity to use a custom cat cube. I think it adds to the cuteness of the game.

The Box

Originally I was going to use shipping boxes and place labels on the front and back. This was a very unpolished look, but it was economical and in line with DIY. However, I recently found an online company that can do print-on-demand shipping boxes. They can print full color on the outside. Also, they don’t have a minimum order amount. This means I can do around 100 boxes and keep it to around $2/box. It’s more than I wanted to spend but the sample they sent looks really good. I think the polished box will help convince some buyers that this is a quality game.

Production Schedule

I’ve made a list of everything I feel certain that I can make ahead of time. Components like the time, money and tasty food tokens have not changed at all. Now that I’ve settled on a box, it’s going to be a little smaller than I had anticipated. That means I have to redo the rulebook to fit. I also want to wait to do the cards and colony locations until I’m satisfied with the scenarios in the back of the book. (This means a lot of playtesting this weekend). So my goal is to finish as much as possible as soon as possible, so that it’ll just be a matter of assembling before the December deadline.

What Do You Want to Hear About?

I’ve only covered a fraction of what it will take to finish this producing this game. However, I know I have to make a record of what I do while I do it, or it’ll get lost. So let me know what parts of the production you want to know more about. I’m happy to share my methods and lessons learned as I go. Use the comments on Substack or find me on Bluesky or Discord.

Game Designer Coordinator

For the event, I was the game designer coordinator this year, so I wanted to share my experience with that. We had 10 participants in Designer Alley, which focused on established designers who had products they wanted to sell and/or promote.

One of the most exciting parts was seeing games that had appeared at previous Board Game Days as demos or prototypes, like Scrapbots, Medieval Merchants, and Sheep, now show up as completed products for sale. I love to see that progression, and I want the event to support it. We are a space for designers to bring an idea to the table, improving it over time, and eventually getting it into players’ hands. I didn’t get to spend as much time downstairs with them as I would have liked, but everyone I talked to had very positive things to say. They had a steady stream of customers and got the word out about their games to new audiences.

Playtesting and Demos

Upstairs, attendees were greeted by the Play and Win and game libraries hosted by the Bodhana Group. The first section of tables they came to was the Break My Game demo and playtesting area, where over a dozen designers brought games in every stage of development. Some were polished, near-final versions, while others were paper prototypes covered in Sharpie-marked changes. This is where I brought my two games: Community Cats and Harrisburg 1878.

Every time I looked up, the tables were full. People were waiting in line to try specific games, and some designers were told, “I would buy this today if you had it.” I loved seeing that shared energy between designers and attendees. It made the whole section feel active, encouraging, and full of possibility. We also had a few visiting designers from New York!

Community Cats Playtesting

I was able to get a few playtests in with my games between other duties as assigned, including running home to print more sign-in sheets because we ran out. For Community Cats, one of my favorite moments is seeing the rules click on a player’s face. During my first playtest, I could tell the player understood the core game loop before I was even done explaining it. They started nodding along, as if the next rule felt obvious, which is usually a good sign that the design is moving in the right direction.

I also learned more about the game’s difficulty. Both playtests used random setups instead of the scenarios in the back of the rulebook, and even though the players seemed to have similar skill levels, the first game was probably too easy while the second offered a much better challenge. That tells me the setup may be doing more work than I realized, and HBGD gave me a clearer direction for what I need to test next.

Harrisburg 1878 Playtesting

As for Harrisburg 1878, I spent the week after Great Escape on the Lakes making some big changes before bringing it to HBGD. I tried to balance the game by making sure every resource could be used to develop some kind of asset. I changed the Prosperity track so that it was tied to trading resources rather than selling Consumer Goods, which are now called Furnishings. I also reduced the number of resources that could be developed and turned development into a simple one-resource-plus-one-action exchange instead of a set of complicated recipes.

The version I brought was very new and had never been playtested, but I was encouraged by how well the main loop of build, produce, and develop held together. It is becoming a strong engine builder with several different paths to scoring points. The teach still took longer than I wanted, but it did not seem confusing so much as full of moving parts, which feels appropriate for a game about industrialization. I haven’t done a post yet about Harrisburg 1878, so that will be coming next. I want to talk more about the history behind the choices I made in the design, and the challenge of making sure that history still comes through when I am not there to teach it.

Next Year

Hopefully we will have a date set soon for next year’s Board Game Day. It seems like a late summer date fits a lot of schedules, so we’ll likely stick with that. Personally, my biggest goal for next year is to bring in even more designers. We had a few visiting designers from New York this year, and with the Amtrak station right there, Harrisburg can be an easy trip for them. I also want to make sure we are reaching designers in Lancaster and the surrounding area. The more people and perspectives we can bring together, the more ideas we can have flowing around the room.

I know designers were excited to get playtesting in, but I also want to keep building the community around those playtests and create more opportunities for designers to meet, talk, and support each other. I have some investigating to do on how to make that happen. Subscribe to stay up to date on next year’s Board Game Day, Community Cats, Harrisburg 1878, and whatever else ends up in the midden next.

I know I’ve been behind on posts. It’s been far too long, but I was struggling to find time or energy to write. So this is going to be a mass update of everything that has happened in the last few months.

Community Cats chosen for Indie Games Night Market at PAX Unplugged

My solo pick-up-and-deliver game, Community Cats, was chosen as one of 26 vendors that will be featured at New Mill Industries’ Indie Games Night Market at PAX Unplugged. From what I was told, the competition was intense, with over 100 applicants vying for spots.

For those who don’t know about the Night Markets, it’s a way for niche games to get out in front of the public. It’s for designers who only want to do small runs or take a DIY approach. To learn more, visit https://www.newmillindustries.com/ignm

I’ll probably be posting a ton about Community Cats now while I try to figure out exactly what my production path looks like.

Great Escape on the Lakes

GEOTL is one of my favorite game conventions. It’s hosted at a YMCA camp in Painted Post, NY. They have only been holding it for a few years, but the numbers are growing each con. I was able to enter my games into a game contest. There was a panel and luncheon for game designers where we got to discuss questions about all stages of the design process.

My favorite part, however, is not board game related. My husband and I run the escape room there. For the past three years we’ve brought The Wizard’s Retreat, a one-hour in-the-dark traveling escape room. Everyone gives it great reviews. We were told this year that after a group played last time, they couldn’t stop talking about it. After doing a professional escape room, the whole group said The Wizard’s Retreat was easily comparable.

We will be bringing the escape room locally to Harrisburg in November for a fundraising event. Stay tuned for more information on that.

I also got to meet my new friend, Houdini, a 17-year-old goat who is very well fed. He recently lost his partner, Earl, but refuses to hang out with any other goats now. He looks very much forward to being visited by people (and fed). We went for a walk each morning to stay active, and to see Houdini!

20 Sided Gamified Podcast

I was the guest for Episode #133: Building a Game Community: Manda Shafer of the Harrisburg Board Game Alliance of the 20 Sided Gamified Podcast. You can listen to it here:

I spent the first half an hour talking way too much about my first passion, the roleplaying game Vampire: The Masquerade. About halfway through, we start to talk about some of my games and Harrisburg Board Game Day. It was my first time on a podcast and I really enjoyed the opportunity. Turns out I really do like talking about myself! Hopefully more chances to be a guest will come.

Harrisburg Board Game Day

Board Game Day (https://www.hbgalliance.org/events/harrisburg-board-game-day-2026) is this week, Saturday, August 29, from 10am-8pm. It’s a free community event for everyone to enjoy board games. I’ve been working with over 20 designers! We’re going to have a Designer Alley where you can buy some of their games, but we also have plenty of tables set up for demos and playtesting.

Good Day PA did a segment for us where fellow board member, Erik Arneson, and myself were featured. You can watch it below.

Our local community paper, TheBurg, also shared an article with more information about the day: https://theburgnews.com/news/harrisburg-board-game-day-to-return-this-weekend-with-play-connection

Mindmidden

I am going to try very hard to go back to posting regularly. After this weekend, my time should free up slightly. I’ll be focused on getting Community Cats produced. However, that will probably be a great opportunity to talk about the DIY approach for this newsletter.

What is The Establishment?

It’s a storytelling game for 3-6 players where you take on the role of a faction leader and member of a secretive group trying to control the fate of humanity. The setting is sci-fi, based in the near future, where humans have colonized Mars and moved into the Inner Asteroid Belt.

How did it start?

This game actually started as a roleplaying game based in the world of Vampire: The Masquerade. Each player controlled a clan of vampires and was part of a council that controlled everything going on around them. I wanted to make a game where one session covered more than a few days or weeks. I wanted it to represent years of planning and control. I play tested it a handful of times at conventions and the local game cafe. It was neat, but pretty sloppy and relied too much on the source material. At that time, version 5 of Vampire wasn’t a thing yet, and it was sort of a dead IP.

How it evolved

I wanted to build a system that could be played in any setting the GM wanted to create. It involved a hex-grid map, a bunch of tokens, and some poker chips. There was an element of debate and dealing that continued into the published version. However, I eventually wanted to make a game that didn’t rely on having a storyteller or GM to run it. I wanted everyone to be able to play.

Card-based format

I moved to a card-based format that uses branching storylines. I usually describe it as a Choose Your Own Adventure book for multiple people. There are still some card mechanics rather than traditional dice, but at its core, it’s closer to a roleplaying game (RPG) than a traditional card or board game.

The Challenge

Because The Establishment is somewhere between a card game and a roleplaying game, I don’t think I’ve found the real audience for it yet. It’s missing the traditional win condition that board gamers are looking for, but it’s also a departure from the pencil-and-paper expectations of role players. I need to find a way to appeal to a seemingly thin slice of the Venn diagram: players who like board games, but also enjoy trying out one-shot RPGs without a well-known built world.

What does the future hold?

Well, I still have many copies to sell, so I’ll keep trying to figure out how to find the audience and how to better market to them. It’s currently available for sale on the DPH website, at any convention where I or DPH Games are, or in one of the local Harrisburg game shops. I’ll also have it with me at Developer’s Day at Lazarus Games in June.

The Harrisburg Board Game Alliance is holding the third annual Board Game Yard Sale on Saturday, May 16, 2026, from 12-3 pm. The Yard Sale serves as a fundraiser to help keep Board Game Day free for everyone.

Back up, what’s the Harrisburg Board Game Alliance?

I serve as the Vice President of the Harrisburg Board Game Alliance. It’s a non-profit dedicated to spreading the board gaming hobby in the Harrisburg region. You can learn more at our the HBG Alliance website.

Our biggest event is our annual Harrisburg Board Game Day, which is held every summer. It’s a free event for everyone to enjoy some new games, try to win some free prizes, meet new people, and experience Harrisburg.

So what does that have to do with a yard sale?

Well, at the Yard Sale, there are going to be over 20 different vendors selling their used board games so that they can live another life. The Alliance will also have a table filled with games that have been donated to us. So all the money we raise goes towards things like rent, insurance, and supplies for Board Game Day. That’s how we can keep it free for people to attend, by covering all the costs through the yard sale.

What’s expected at the yard sale?

Each vendor is just a regular gamer with too many games on their shelves. I anticipate there will be hundreds of games for sale, and usually at a very good price.

We have early access tickets for only $6 that you can buy to get in early. This will let you view and purchase games an hour earlier than general admission. Update: Early access tickets sold out!

In the past, we’ve had all sorts of games. Everything from piles of Avalon Hill war games to mass market party games to copies of Kickstarter exclusives.

Anything else special?

Yes! The Bodhana Group, another local game-related non-profit, will be there selling games. They have an extensive library for sale, and all proceeds will benefit the use of gaming in therapy.

The Alliance will also have a special “Made in Harrisburg” section that features new games from local designers. That’s where I’ll be stationed most of the day, so stop by and say hello.

Made in Harrisburg

I suggested the table to the HBG Alliance Board because I wanted to work on an idea I had to promote our local designers and help introduce them to the gaming community. I had heard about the great success that Designed in the DMV had as a promotional tool for designers in the Delaware-Maryland-Virginia region. It’s a collective of game designers helping one another make and sell games. I’d love to capture the spirit of that and apply it to our region.

I’m not sure how successful this first year will be. This is more a way to dip my toe in the water and get some designers used to the idea of helping one another. I will certainly report back on what happens.

Take my money!

We’d love to. Join us at the Harrisburg Board Game Yard Sale on Saturday, May 16, 2026, from 12-3 pm. If you bought the early access ticket, you can get in at 11 am.

Let me know what you think about this event and whether you have any questions. Hope to see you there.

Community Cats puts you in the role of a rescuer facing a neighborhood overrun with stray cats. It’s your job to Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) the cats to keep the population from spiraling out of control. I like to tell people: It’s like Pandemic, but with kittens! You feel a constant pressure to take control of a situation before it becomes unmanageable.

Where did the idea come from?

For those who know me, I’ve been involved in animal rescue for over a decade. I’ve fostered so many dogs and cats, I’ve honestly lost count. I also spent a few years involved in TNR work. I feel very strongly that we cannot adopt our way out of the overpopulation of cats, and that TNR has to be one of the tools. I really like to make games that help people learn something new. So it’s sort of natural that making a cat game only made sense, and TNR seemed to be something that’s not out there yet.

Another cat game?

I know there’s dozens of games out there. You can say, “You know that cat game...” and no one will know which you’re talking about because there are so many. However, I believe that Community Cats isn’t just a fun game with a cat theme put onto it. The real-world mechanics of it really drive the game. Every rule in the game exists for a very specific reason and as much as possible is true to real life situation. I lean into educating people on how it works, but still making an interesting and challenging game.

How’s it play?

Community Cats is a solo game. Each of the six cat colonies on the gameboard, plus the wandering cat track, begins with two cat cubes. At the end of each round, any colony with more than one cat that has not been trapped, neutered, and returned will gain a new cube. The player has ten rounds and five actions per round, represented by time tokens, to buy equipment, trap cats, and take them to the clinic. Money is limited to cover both upgrades and visits to the veterinarian clinic. Players roll dice equal to the number of traps they have to capture the cats in the colony. Event cards help the player along the way with benefits like extra traps, lines of credit, and a volunteer. Players win when all the colonies have been stabilized and can no longer produce new cat cubes. However, if they run out of cubes from the bag or the wandering cat track fills up, they will lose.

Where I’m at in development

I’ve been working on it for about 9 months now. I believe the core mechanics are solid. I probably need to get a few more playtests in with other people. Being a solo game, I’ve been able to play it a lot myself. However, the feedback from others is crucial. The main area I need to work on is determining the difficulty level. Since there are 11 different colonies, but only six are played each game, the difficulty fluctuates based on which colonies are used and where they are placed in relation to each other. I think my plan is going to be to suggest possible setups for each difficulty level - easy, normal, hard, extreme. But I need the playtesting time to do that.

What does the future hold?

Originally I started the game thinking I was going to make a print and play. It got a little too complicated for that, so I pivoted to thinking I’d approach publishers. But then I heard a panel at Unpub Festival that talked about a ‘third way’ for game publishing that involves small batch self-publishing. The idea is that you create 25-50 copies of the game for sale at conventions or game markets. Indie Games Night Market at PAX and Lunar Punks’ Midnight Market are some great examples. I am currently exploring ways I can create Community Cats on my own.

Stay Tuned

I have a lot more to cover about Community Cats, but I wanted to give readers a foundation on the game for when I inevitably write another article about it. If you want to stay informed, subscribe to Mind Midden to keep getting updates about my games like Community Cats.

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Mepacon is one of my favorite mid-sized local conventions ever. We’ve been going for over 15 years now! Mepacon 50 was held April 17-19 in the Lehigh Valley, Pa. It happens twice a year and is filled with so many games, you may not know where to start. To learn more about the con, check out their website https://mepacon.com.

For the third time now, I’ve run the Break My Game playtesting section. If you don’t know about Break My Game, learn about them at https://www.breakmygame.com. We set up four tables for the weekend for game designers to sign up and bring their games for playtesting.

By the Numbers

Let’s cover a few of the numbers. We had 11 two-hour slots for the entire weekend. Seven were sold out with only the late night and Sunday slots left unfilled. We had nine designers sign up. That was over 50 hours of playtesting in a three-day span.

Overall, it was a positive experience for the designers, but a few things make this different from other playtesting events.

One, the people attending are regular gamers. In some cases, a few might be designers who sit down, but the majority of people looking to play a game are not. This provides both pros and cons. While you might not get the in-depth analysis a fellow designer can offer, you do get a fresh perspective from potential consumers which I think is invaluable.

Two, Break My Game isn’t the only thing there. Mepacon has so many opportunities: board games, LARPs, RPGs, miniatures, even an egg hunt this time. There are a lot of things competing for players’ attention. Designers need to be willing to attract players into their games. It’s not the built-in audience one can find at other playtesting events. This can make it difficult for less outgoing designers.

Three, these conventions have a great mix of games at various stages of development. The schedule play generally includes only published games, but doesn’t always. There are also vendors that have nearly finished, about to crowdfund, or ready for sale games too. It’s important to me to make sure that the playtesting section stays true to its intent: games that need constructive criticism and feedback to grow. Attendees can also be confused by the blurred lines between these different stages of games.

Four, it’s still young. While Break My Game has been going on for years in many places, this is only the third convention for Mepacon. That’s less than two years old. It’s still in its infancy and going through some growing pains. I have a lot to learn about what works best for this setting and will only learn that through trial and error.

My experience

I got to playtest Van Life Challenge by Gray Dog Games (https://www.graydoggames.com/). I competed against fellow players by traveling around the country, trying out some wild regional foods, and telling my TV viewers all about it. We had fun telling some food stories (which earned me some extra points). My favorite part was learning some of the foods. Pennsylvania had perogies, which is one of my personal favorites.

Community Cats

I also had the chance to run a few games of Community Cats with players. It’s my solo game where people take on the role of a cat rescuer trying to keep the population of stray cats in their neighborhood to a sustainable level. One playtester said she would have bought it if it was available. I take that as a positive sign that the game is nearly complete.

Until Next Time

Special shout out to my volunteers: Ryan, Will, and Jacob. I honestly would not have been able to do it without you. Thank you for organizing the tables, attracting players, and jumping into the game when needed.

If this sounds like a fun experience to you, the next Mepacon is November 13-15. Whether you’re a designer looking to test your next game or a player looking to give feedback on new designs, I hope to see you at a table.

Mind Midden is something I came up with a long time ago in college. At the time, the internet was still sort of new and these blog things were really taking off. I never actually got around to writing anything for it, but I had good intentions.

I don’t know what a midden is

A midden, in archaeological terms, is a refuse pile. It’s usually where people threw out a whole bunch of stuff over time. It was a place where, when you were done with something, you threw it out and that builds up over time.

So a mind midden would be a place in your brain where you finish something and store it away for good. But there’s one important thing about middens at an archaeological site. They are an absolute treasure trove of information. It’s a place where layer upon layer of stuff tells you everything about the people who left it – from what they ate to what they played with.

Following that logic then, this mind midden is a digital place where I can store a bunch of information after I was done with it that, once discovered, could be a great source of information for anyone else.

But, who are you?

For those reading who don’t know me, I’m a game designer from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I self-published and crowdfunded my first game, The Establishment, in 2024. I’m Vice President of the Harrisburg Board Game Alliance, which hosts Harrisburg Board Game Day, an annual free board game day for the community. I also run the monthly Break My Game playtesting event in the area. My current goal is to build a community for game designers. A place to strengthen relationships, create real networking opportunities, grow as designers, and get our work seen by more people.

And why am I here?

My plan is to use this space to allow people interested in the things I do to keep tabs on what I’m up to. The focus will be board game related ranging from topics like my game design journey, games that I’ve played, experiences with playtesting, and news and information on the many game events I participate in.

I’ll be publishing every two weeks. Some topics I initially have planned are a review of Mepacon, a nearby game convention I recently attended, and introductions to my game designs.

So now what?

I hope I’ve enticed you with this first post to have you stick around. Subscribe to receive timely updates in your email. There’s a lot I have to add to this midden and I’m excited to share it with you.