Tag: game design

Game Design Brain Dump: October 9, 2026

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Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here with another board game design brain dump. We’re in the heart of the “Ber” season (months ending in BER), so I’ve been focused primarily on writing, but I’ve got a few ideas for board game design, specifically the different modes a game designer can enter whenever they playtest, develop, and design.

Several months ago, I shared Spill the Beans with one of many board game design groups. As they played the game, the members kept thinking of ways to make the game more complex, add more design space. While this was well-meaning, it wasn’t what I wanted or even needed for Spill the Beans. I had progressed the design to a point where I didn’t want to add anything or explore different directions for the design; I was looking for things to refine or take away. Don’t get me wrong. I intend to use some of the ideas mentioned during that Spill the Beans playtest session in a future design, one that could use more fleshing out. This experience led me to think about the various types of playtesting and the roles designers and playtesters assume during these playtest sessions.

Explorer Mode

During an Explorer Mode playtest, the game designer and playtesters are looking for new mechanisms, thematic ideas, and component choices for the game playtested. Many playtest sessions fall under the Explorer Mode. Most, if not every, new game begins in Explorer Mode, and even if a game were to progress to a future mode, they have a chance of returning to Explorer Mode, especially if a game mechanism or two doesn’t quite work. You may have to find alternatives.

Playtesters during the session I mentioned in the opening of Spill the Beans confused the type of session I wanted to have with an Explorer Mode playtest. We’ll get to the playtest mode I thought we were going to have soon enough, but not knowing what playtest type you’re running hurts the designer and the playtesters. I received a ton of great ideas during this session. In an Explorer Mode playtest, that’s amazing. These playtest sessions are asking, What is possible?

You won’t be able to execute every idea in an Explorer Mode playtest, but try out as many of the ideas that sound like they should work together. After all, you’re exploring. You don’t yet know what you want your game to be.

Judge Mode

A Judge Mode playtest has the designer making decisions about which of the options are best by comparing and contrasting mechanism combinations. During this playtest phase, you may even have multiple prototypes, featuring these combos. While you’re in Judge Mode, you’ll be asking, Which approach is better?

A good example of a Judge Mode playtest in action was when I switched Rustbucket Riots from a dice rolling, dice placement game to a bag building, token placement game. For several months, I kept the old version of Rustbucket Riots to see which variant I thought worked best. Which game on-boarded players quicker? Which game was easier to teach? Which one minimized luck? Did I even want to minimize luck? And so on.

But you don’t need to have multiple prototypes of the same game. You can also chose a published game–preferably one the playtesters have played–that is similar enough to your game, or a game that provides a similar experience. After playing your game, you can ask the playtesters if your game scratches a similar itch.

Builder Mode

In Builder Mode, you’ll incorporate all the best ideas from earlier tests (and prototypes) and stress test them. The builder is trying to make the game path you’ve chosen the strongest it can be. Unlike the previous two modes, you’re not interested in alternatives to your design. This is where I was with Spill the Beans. My playtesters during that session didn’t know that I was in Builder Mode because I didn’t know I was in that mode. I had to examine how I playtested game designs. The Builder Mode asks, What happens if I commit to one direction?

How can I maximize the fun? Is there an exploitable strategy that can win almost every game? And so on. During this mode, you might still take notes of possible avenues, which could send you back a mode or two, but for the most part, you’ve made your game design choices.

Inspector Mode

During Inspector Mode you’ll refine your work, removing rough edges, and balancing the game. This is where the game goes from being “good” to “excellent.” Hopefully.

Once you reach the Inspector Mode, you should know exactly what you want your game to be. You’re trying to make your game the best it can be.

So, those are my thoughts on the various types of playtests and how to use them. Now that I’ve gotten a good handle on what I’m doing, I may be able to better let my playtesters know what I’m looking for with feedback. The question, “What did you think,” doesn’t help with feedback. And I was guilty of asking that question after that playtest of Spill the Beans. Hopefully, this list will help other game designers ask the right questions and get better feedback.

Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Fifth Wednesday September 2026: Personal Updates

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Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here, and we just barely got a fifth Wednesday this month. You know what that means: Personal Updates. Today, our writers share personal updates from the past few months. I’ll kick off this post with some of my personal updates.

Kyra’s Updates

Well, this is an awkward time for an update. Nuke-Con 2026 is a couple of days from now. Not only will I be at the board game convention, I’ll be a guest of honor. What? I’ve never been a guest at a convention before. I’m stoked. We’ll see what happens in a couple of days. October’s Game Design Brain Dump is already written and ready to post, so I may have to share some highlights in November’s Game Design Brain Dump. Nuke-Con 2026 should include a ton of playtesting. The Spielmasons (a local board game design group) and I have a dedicated table this year. We’re even putting on an event where convention attendees can take supplies (provided by The Gamecrafter) to design their own games. The Spielmasons and I will be playtesting your designs on Sunday. Woo hoo! If you’re in the Omaha area and you’d like to have me and The Spielmasons playtest a game you designed, stop on by.

I’m still in discussion with a publisher for Spill the Beans. My point of contact has been busy these past couple of months with a KickStarter campaign, which I covered in one of our Geekly News posts, and GenCon. Convention season is dying down. Ironically, Nuke-Con is one of the latest board game conventions of the season, so I should be able to meet with the publisher soon. Fingers crossed.

I haven’t heard back from any of the publishers where I submitted Whirligig Pets. I’m treating this process similar to submitting to literary agents. I’ll craft a follow-up email for Whirligig Pets in the coming days, wait another week or two, and then submit to another board game publisher before Halloween if I don’t hear from this wave of publishers. Board game publishers get busy. Case in point, the publisher with interest in Spill the Beans. I’d like to reengage with the publishers where I sent Whirligig Pets before closing out those submissions as “never responded.”

“Never responded” is a good segue for my writing update. October also marks the three month mark for this round of Crooked as a Dogwood submissions. Most literary agents choose silence. In the next few weeks, I’ll update my submissions to “never responded” and submit to another wave of literary agents. But I’m going to change up a few things. Notably, I’ll rebrand Crooked as a Dogwood as upmarket fiction. Upmarket fiction is a fusion between literary fiction and commercial fiction. If you ask four different publishers what upmarket fiction is, you’ll get four different answers. In short, upmarket fiction is book club fiction.

I always viewed Crooked as a Dogwood making at least one book club fiction, so it may qualify as upmarket fiction. Most writers don’t know that their books are upmarket fiction. I may be one of them. Oops! Upmarket fiction is one of the most sought after genres by literary agents. Before this next wave of literary agent submissions, I’ll give my synopsis a quick pass and spruce up my query letter. It’s always a good idea to revisit these items.

Ber Season has officially begun. With the exception of Nuke-Con most of my focus will be on writing this year’s novel and editing my previous novels. I’m well over 15,000 words, which is a good total for me by the end of September. I’ll ramp up production in the coming weeks and months and easily complete a novel-length work by the end of November. Novel Writing Month. Woo hoo!

Those are all the updates I have for this Fifth Wednesday. It’s a little light because I write Game Design and Writing Brain Dumps once a month. If you want to hear more about my exploits, check out those posts. Let’s see what Season has been doing.

Season’s Updates

As of this post, I’ll have been at my gardening job for a full year. Yay! I’m still loving it and learning a lot. I’ve been trying to cater the flower beds in my work environment to natural pest control. A.K.A. keep the spiders safe. We have a lot of cat-faced spiders and yellow garden spiders. They’re amazing little helpers. 🙂

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned my car before. I have a black 1999 VW New Beetle named Horus. I’ve had Horus for two years now, and he’s been in and out of the shop at least twenty times since I bought him with more tows than I care to admit. He’s my first car, and I didn’t know anything about what to check for in a used car. I got his A/C fixed earlier this month after his most recent attack on my wallet. I’m hoping Horus will behave himself so I can save up for two big things I want to achieve within the next handful of years.

My sister and I are planning on moving in together next spring (hopefully). Recently, I got a pay raise at work and have gotten a lot of overtime, so I’ve been squirreling away an extra hundred bucks a paycheck on top of my usual twenty percent. I also want to buy a dark red Honda Accord within the next five years. I don’t know why, but it has to be red. I will not be swayed. And yes, I already have a name picked out. Let me know if you’d like me to share it, Geekly Gang.

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here again. Those are our writers’ personal updates from these past few months. What’ve you been up to, Geekly Gang? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Game Design Brain Dump: September 4, 2026

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Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle with another board game design brain dump. I’m still submitting designs to various publishers. I’ve received a couple of rejections. Brotherwise Games gave me a prompt response. I’ve given up on a handful of publishers (like Lucky Duck Games), marking them down as “never responded” in my spreadsheet. Seriously, I wish there was a submission tracker like Duotrope for board games, so designers could share notes on which publishers are more responsive than others. I guess I can do that here. While I don’t particularly care for Brotherwise Games’ submission manager (they use Google Forms and pics), I do like how prompt they were with a response. And that’s another thing the board game community could use, a more standardized online submission manager program like Submittable.

Anyway, I’ve made tweaks to Spill the Beans. My goal is making Spill the Beans more enjoyable at lower player counts, and I think I’ve accomplished this by having players “bust” if they spill too many of the same bean type. Love it! Spill the Beans is still a party game at its core, but I’ve playtested multiple smaller player count games at designer meet-ups and received good feedback. You would think a player may get lucky, pushing their luck by spilling out more beans and not busting, and that does occur, but the game evens out over time. And smaller player count games take little time at all. Spilling out more beans per turn means that the game concludes a lot faster at smaller player counts (a problem the game had before this change). Players are just as likely to run out of beans as they are to fill two jars.

Enough about Spill the Beans, I’ve also been submitting Whirligig Pets to various publishers. I’ve had fewer responses for Whirligig Pets than Spill the Beans. I may be submitting to the wrong publishers. Or I may need to submit games during conventions. Or it could be something else entirely. Again, board games need a submission tracker and submission manager program like Duotrope and Submittable.

Monster Chef 01 Board Game Logo

I wrote the Monster Chef rulebook. It’s up for review with multiple design groups. I’m getting close to submission with this title. I can’t wait. Monster Chef has plenty of theme and could tie in well with the upcoming season of Delicious in Dungeon (2027). I’m also exploring expansions for this title. Monster Chef is a joy to develop.

The same isn’t always true of Rustbucket Riots. I’m still playtesting this game’s shift from dice placement to bag builder. I like what I’ve seen so far, but balance has become an issue. If I can unknot Rustbucket Riots’ balancing issues, it could proceed to a similar state to Monster Chef.

Mechanisms

And we come to two newer designs that don’t even have names–yet–and I may want to help a fellow game designer get one of their title’s published. I won’t name her design here, but I love the game’s quilting theme. One of my new titles doesn’t have a theme. Well, I don’t care for the theme of flowers that it currently has. Too many games use a flower theme, so I may need to shake up a few things. My second title is fallout shelter game includes multi-use tetrominoes and spinners. Oh, yeah. We’re gonna get freaky.

That second title has been on the backburner for over a year. I wanted to get Spill the Beans, Whirligig Pets, and Monster Chef to good states before starting another project. I can’t wait to take the fallout shelter game to conventions. Woo hoo!

That’s all I’ve been working on over the past month. I should have more updates next month. Nuke-Con (in Omaha) is on the horizon. I’ll be attending with Spielmasons. If you’re going, stop by and say hi. Thank for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Game Design Brain Dump: July 3, 2026

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Happy Friday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here with another board game design brain dump. I’ll be honest. This past month, most of my focus has been on writing my personal fiction, blogs, and tabletop RPG. I haven’t even had a chance to playtest the changes I made (to Monster Chef) during the previous game design brain dump. Today’s game design brain dump will center on Rustbucket Riots. Ah! Rustbucket Riots has seen plenty of changes throughout the year and a half I’ve been developing the game. And it looks like Rustbucket Riots could see another change in the near future. Let’s talk about it in today’s Board Game Design Brain Dump.

I’ve already made changes to Rustbucket Riots. For those of you who didn’t check the previous link, the above image is what the Rustbucket Riots game board used to look like. This was the board for a good many months–years–until I had it upgraded. I’ll share that picture in a bit, but gaining some space gives anyone perspective.

For the months I haven’t been working on Rustbucket Riots, I’ve been working on Monster Chef. This gave me two things: cognitive distance from Rustbucket Riots, cross-pollination of ideas with Monster Chef. Rustbucket Riots and Monster Chef are nothing alike. One is a cooperative, dice placement game with interlocking gears (Rustbucket Riots), while the other is a competitive, card management game with a cook timing mechanism (Monster Chef). But working on Monster Chef, figuring out how to make that game easier to teach and faster to play made me view Rustbucket Riots in a new light. I needed to look at Rustbucket Riots through the same lens as Monster Chef.

Ah. The board above is beautiful. I forgot how pretty Rustbucket Riots’ current board is, and it’s functional. The board illustrates which region a die belongs. Whatever color the die rests is the region it belongs to, so a die placed in the yellow wedge (of the large gear) will touch the orange and yellow regions. Easy! Before this change, playtesters would complain it was too difficult to tell. I haven’t received that feedback as much after this change. So, it might be time for more change. Players are supposed to simultaneously roll dice, lock them in, place them, and remove the dice from the gear spaces to use the die.

That’s a lot of mechanical things going on at once. The rolling, locking, and placing can get long and difficult to explain. The change I’m thinking of making is replacing dice with tokens, converting Rustbucket Riots from dice placement to a bag builder game. If I do this, this will fundamentally change the game. I won’t change the board, at least not right away. If I go through with this, I’ll make the tokens die-shaped. No. I’m concerned about how this change will affect Rustbucket Riots’ flow. I’ll need to rebalance the game. Some boss robots may need new abilities (many of their current abilities revolve around dice manipulation). And how does busting work in this new setup?

I don’t know. I guess this post lives up to its title of a game design brain dump, emphasis on the brain dump. In the coming weeks, I’ll playtest the current version of Rustbucket Riots and see where these changes could be implemented. Thankfully, I won’t need to change any of Rustbucket Riots’ major set pieces. I can produce die-shaped tokens and alternate cards. We can play the game both ways. See which one flows best. My guess will be the tokens. I’ve spent so much time explaining how die rolling and locking die faces work. Explaining that you just pull out X number of tokens will be a relief. And I could see minions (the orange and pink dice) finding their way into player bags. Perhaps that’s the bust trigger.

Thank you for reading this week’s game design brain dump. You’re awesome. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Board Game Design Brain Dump: April 24, 2026

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Happy Friday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. I’ve been silent on the board game design brain dumps over the past several weeks. It’s been busy. Earlier this month, I attended the Great Plains Gaming Festival (GPGF). We’ll discuss soon, but before we get into that, I’m getting to the fun part: Submitting.

Sell Sheet

Almost every publisher requires a sell sheet, so I guess I’ll kick off this game design dump with sell sheets. Sell sheets remind the publisher what your game is all about. Below is a sell sheet for Spill the Beans (I omitted my contact information).

This sell sheet could use some more work. I always second-guess my pictures and layout. But this sell sheet contains what it needs: the name of the game, contact info, the hook (what makes the game unique), demographics (age, player count, and time), a list of components, a brief overview, and quick rundown (with visuals) of how the game is played during a turn.

The background picture (of jellybeans) is obscured by a white backdrop, making the text and pictures on top of the white backdrop legible. You don’t need a fancy background or a colored backdrop. I did so here to add a little extra color. Frankly, I may have overdone it a little. Legible text and images (of the game) are key. I like having a logo, but you don’t need one. And the tagline does enough to let publishers know what kind of game Spill the Beans is.

Next, we have an overview picture of the game. Always a plus to have in a sell sheet. Publishers need to see all–or at least most of–the game’s components. Demographics are shown to the left of the overview pic. Again, publishers need to know who the game is for, how many players the game accommodates, and how long the game takes to play. I settled on 15-25 minutes because I noticed some players strategize more than others (sending the game to 25 minutes), but I didn’t include plays of first-time gamers. The time on the sell sheet should reflect the average time it takes to play a game, not teaching the game to new players. So, of course, Spill the Beans will take a few extra minutes when someone first learns the rules. It really doesn’t take long to learn this game.

Under the overview and demographics, we find a brief (three to four sentence) description of the game, and beneath that we find what players will do (mostly) on their turns, giving publishers an idea of the game’s flow. Each turn action has a header, a picture, and a very brief explanation of each action underneath the pics. Do not include too many of the rules. That’s for the rulebook.

Finally, we get components, features, and contact info. Typically, the components section doesn’t need a detailed breakdown of each item. For instance, if your game includes 110 standard cards, potential publishers don’t need to know that half the cards are of one type and the other half is a different type. Publishers are only interested total number of cards and size. In Spill the Beans, I mention 18 Tarot-sized cards. I don’t say that eight of them are player reference cards and the other 10 are jar cards. That’s for the rulebook to explain further. Features are what make your game standout, and contact info should include your name, e-mail address, and phone number. You can see why I didn’t share that here. Lol

Sometimes, the things that aren’t included are just as important as the ones you do include. I don’t include a thorough rules explanation. I’ve seen game designers try to squeeze in their entire rulebook on a sell sheet. No! Don’t do that. Consequently, you don’t want walls of text. They’re intimidating. I don’t believe I included any flowery market language or buzz words in this sell sheet, words like unique, fun, exciting, or sustainigizing.

Wait. That last one wasn’t a word. And I didn’t mention how long I’ve been working on this game. First off, publishers don’t need to know that. It may even hurt your pitch if a publisher finds out you’ve been working on a game for years. Second, I share those details on this blog. If a publisher wants to know the story behind some of these games, they could look them up on this website. Eek!

Overview Video

Years ago, overview videos were nice to have. They are now–almost–industry standard. You can still get away with only have a sell sheet. But even the publishers who don’t require an overview video highly recommend one.

Above is Spill the Beans’ Overview Video. It’s bare bones, but I believe it’s effective. One of our writers, Season, narrates, and you’ll see similarities between the Overview Video and Sell Sheet. Sure, Season goes into the rules in a little more detail, but she really only adds what triggers the end of the game and scoring. Honestly, overview videos help folks who may be more visual learners. A Sell Sheet can only do so much. Overview Videos take the concept further.

A special shoutout to Kenneth Turner at Nerds Making Nerdy Things. Kenneth made the physical design for Spill the Beans’ spilling cup. Nerds Making Nerdy Things takes special orders. If you have an idea for a board game peripheral or even an art project like a shadowbox, feel free to contact Nerds.

I thought of Kenneth while looking at Season handling the Spill the Beans cup. Getting back to the Overview Video, you’ll need several of the same elements you’ll find in a Sell Sheet: the name of your game, the player count and approximate length (like you’ll find in demographics), the theme, the roles players take (if any), the objective, and what players do on their turn and throughout the game, which can include what triggers the end of the game and scoring. Again, we don’t include the full rules. For the fourth or fifth time, that’s why we have a rulebook. You don’t need to include fancy animations or cut-ins. The video above is simple. You also don’t want to talk too much. Show, don’t tell. Season did a good job of avoiding wordiness.

I’ve submitted Spill the Beans to board game publishers. I don’t know if I can share the names of those publishers here yet or not, so they’ll remain anonymous–for now. I’d prefer a program for board game submission that’s similar to Duotrope in the literary world, where submitters share their experiences with publishers (how long the publisher took to give a response, if they ever gave a response) in an attempt to catalogue publishers and their tendencies. I may just create one. But that’s a problem for future Kyra.

Great Plains Gaming Festival

I was triple-booked the weekend of Great Plains Gaming Festival (GPGF), so I didn’t show up for much of the convention. Friday was my big day. But my games attended GPGF all three days as part of the Playtest to Win event. In short, I was a little disappointed. My games didn’t get checked out as much as I would’ve liked. But I can honestly say Spill the Beans, Whirligig Pets, and No Kings were blind playtested. Gamers played these games by reading the rules.

I wasn’t there to explain anything. Heck! I couldn’t be there to explain anything. Spill the Beans and Whirligig Pets are ready for publication. Will they see tweaks in the future? Sure, but the core games are solid. And except for No Kings, the rulebooks make sense. No Kings needs some work to put it mildly. But yay! I can submit the other two with confidence.

My Future Events

I have so many upcoming gaming events in the coming months. You can stop by at any of these and say hi or convince me to play a game or a dozen.

Nuke-Con’s Aftershock Event: May 16, 2026 (I’ll be working one of the tables)
Omaha Gaming Convention: July 10-12, 2026 (I won’t be working this one, but I will be in attendance; let’s get our game on)
Omaha Pride: July 17, 2026 (I’ll be running games for Pride)
O-Con: July 17-19, 2026 (at the Extra Life table; I double-booked myself again, oops–I can’t calendar)

And I think that’s it for the coming months. It’s a little early to advertise Nuke-Con in October. But that’s all I have for today’s Board Game Design Brain Dump. Hopefully, this means I’m back to doing these on a more regular basis. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Fifth Wednesday: New Year’s Resolutions

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Happy New Year’s…Eve, Geekly Gang! The holiday happens to fall on the fifth Wednesday of December, and whenever a month has five Wednesdays, our writers share personal updates. So, today sounds like a great day for New Year’s Resolutions. Feel free to share your New Year’s Resolutions in the comments. I’ll get us started.

Kyra’s Resolutions

I may have spoiled some of my resolutions with a previous writing brain dump, so you may find some repeats here. I’ll try to keep this short.

1) Write something every week. First, this needs to be something outside Geekly. Yes. I write something every week–or at least most weeks–for the site, so this is personal writing like a short story or chapter in a novel. But this could be as little as a single word. I’m not putting a word count on this resolution. My idea is that one word usually leads to a sentence, which will lead to much more.

2) Work on a game every week. This could be playtesting, developing an existing design, or even designing a new game. Again, the simple act of working on a game every week should lead to more than a single design or development session.

3) The above images remind me that I need to be more consistent with posting brain dumps–at least one of each per month.

4) Read one book a month in a genre that I write or a genre I’m interested in writing. It’s always a good idea to stay current with what sells. And reading helps with one’s writing. Don’t worry about reading another person’s writing impacting your writing. You have your own unique perspective.

5) Read one writing craft book or publishing business book next year. 2025’s book was Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, and I barely got that one under the wire. Reading about the act of writing is crucial if one wants to write. And I could stand to learn more about the writing/publishing business.

6) Read at least one book next year in a genre I don’t intend to write. This past year, I read I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com. I don’t know if I’ll ever write a romantacy novel, but I’m glad I read this title. Kimberly Lemming did a great job balancing comedy, steamy romance, and social commentary. Kudos! And romantacy sells. I needed to read at least one book from the genre. I may read another one or two in 2026. Romance and fantasy are two of the best-selling genres. Put them together, and you get a powerful combination.

7) Play at least six board games with themes or mechanisms I don’t usually gravitate toward. This is the board game design equivalent of the previous resolution. Nuff said.

8) Get something published. This resolution is largely out of my control, but I’m not so sure. If I don’t share a publication in a literary journal or board game through a publisher in the next twelve months, I may post a short story or poem on JK Geekly by the end of 2026. Let me know if you’d be interested in this style of content. I’ll even offer this invitation to our other Geekly writers. I can’t wait to see what they have in store.

9) I have plenty of other personal goals, like staying active and volunteering more with Extra Life, but I’ll still primarily focus on writing and board game design with these resolutions. Case in point, I’ll be at ScroogeCon in Lincoln, NE, January 10, 2026, with Extra Life. If you’re in the area, stop by and say hi. I helped raise thousands of dollars for the Children’s Hospital in 2025 and hope to raise even more this upcoming year.

Looks like I’m flying solo this week. Season and Skye aren’t sharing any New Year’s Resolutions in this post. I guess that means they won’t fail at any resolutions by next Friday. They don’t have to sweat Quitter’s Day (January 9, 2026). Smart.

What are your New Year’s Resolutions, Geekly Gang? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for reading this past year, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a fantabulastical New Year’s Celebration.

Game Design Brain Dump: October 10, 2025

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Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. Last week, we began a series called–for the time being–Writing Brain Dump, and this week is the time to roll out Game Design Brain Dump. The title is a work in progress. Let’s hope I can express my board game design process with this series. Fingers crossed for a cogent thought or two. Strap in for a Board Game Design Brain Dump.

Rustbucket Riots Origins

I’m going a different route from last week’s writing brain dump. Recently, I attended a panel about board game design at Nuke-Con (Omaha’s board game convention) and figured we could begin with what prompted me to begin designing Rustbucket Riots.

I knew Mega Man: The Board Game by Jasco Games wasn’t the best when I purchased it at a severe discount. Honestly, I wanted the bits. Jasco Games did an amazing job with Mega Man’s miniatures and the look of the game. But good luck finishing a game of Mega Man in under 10 hours. Each robot stage plays like five games of Munchkin played back-to-back, with every other player doing their best to prevent you from completing the stage. And you need to complete multiple boss stages. 10 hours may be too few hours to complete this game. You may need to dedicate a table to preserve your month-long game of Mega Man.

I hope I won’t get copyright claimed for any images. Eek! I began with a simple dice chucker of a game. Players would roll standard six-sided dice (I don’t recall the exact number, but it was likely around four or five) and then place the dice on their player boards. Each space on the player board would grant different abilities, with the final four slots variable for powers obtained by defeating robot bosses. Players could place multiple dice in a single space to combine the rolled result. A six may be played with a single die showing a six or with a two and a four or any other combination of six.

I chose dice chucking because rolling dice and placing them with predetermined spaces made for quick turns. Quick turns lead to a game that one can finish within ten hours. This game worked well. Heck, I even tried it as a real-time game, and it worked extremely well. Games lasted less than 15 minutes. I even saw this Mega Man variant as a game that could be played in tournaments of speed runs. Now that I think about it, I may revisit this variant in the future and give it a reskin. Sorry, the ADHD took the wheel for a second.

For some reason, I abandoned the above game concept and went in a different direction. I love Cretaceous Rails. Unlike Jasco’s Mega Man, there isn’t much I’d change with this title. Cretaceous Rails makes this list because I wanted to try using one of its core game mechanisms: dual action selection. I even asked Cretaceous Rails’ designer, Ann Journey, if it’d be okay if I borrowed this game mechanism before trying the next Mega Man remix iteration. The result was a game I nicknamed Rondelande.

Oh my goodness. This game wasn’t just a different direction from my first Mega Man remix; it was different in every possible way. I didn’t keep any of Rondelande’s hardcopy versions. I only have the digital files, and it’s difficult to recreate what the game looked like without a physical copy. But I’ll try my best.

That’s a lot of color going on. Those are supposed to be three rondels (a circular game mechanism with pie wedges representing which actions one may take) stacked on top of one another. Each turn, players would place their gear tokens on one of the hexagon-shaped spaces and take the actions indicated. But before placing gears, players could play up to two cards (depicting one of the actions run, slide, jump, shoot, or climb) underneath the spaces on the outer edge. Players would then be able to take all the actions, including actions on cards, during their turn.

Note: The trapezoid spaces had different actions like draw cards or oil cans (that functioned as wild actions) or even rotating one of the top two rondels, so the action selection could vary.

Rondelande was a lot of fun. It ventured far from what I had originally intended to make. That’s the ADHD brain taking the wheel again. Unfortunately, Rondelande was a space hog. The image above is at least a twentieth of the size of the original game. Despite its size, Rondelande may have been a great game if I had stuck with it. I liked how players could build up the board as they went, benefiting themselves for a turn, but also allowing an opponent to take the same action in a future turn. Players could even refresh (take back their gear tokens) or choose not to refresh for a turn to prevent someone from taking an action their token is currently occupying. Rondelande was great. But something felt off. I wanted interlocking gears for the board because it made sense for a robot theme. I had chosen rondels because they were easier to build. And then I found gears that would work.

I found a file that could work for interlocking gears. Yay! As an aside, I was working on making this file work while producing my Mega Man variant and Rondelande, so a lot of what we’re about to discuss happened concurrently with the previous two games.

At first, I was using a lot of memory foam. Rondelande’s rondels were comprised of foam. I’d print out the digital files (of that rainbow nightmare above) onto full sheet labels and then sticker them over the foam and cut them out. I tried the same concept with the gear pictured above. And it worked…for like one playthrough of the game. Foam likes to shred under friction. Who knew? So, I put the interlocking gears aside until I found a set of wooden gears on Amazon.

Yes! I was in business. I could continue with Rustbucket Riots. The picture above is a modern version of the game; the first version still used foam for its board (the gears haven’t changed too much). I still have a version of the first game and will include a picture of it in a future post. Rustbucket Riots combines multiple ideas. I brought back dice chucking from Mega Man, only this time, I used specialty dice that included run, slide, climb, shoot, and jump. And I always thought Tzolk’in’s gears didn’t move enough. I could fix two issues I saw in other games. Jasco’s Mega Man took too long, and Tzolk’in (Tzolk’in is an amazing game that earns its spot in BGG; I’m nitpicking) could have gears that frequently turn.

The name Rustbucket Riots came swiftly. Originally, I wanted to make a better Mega Man board game, but I couldn’t copy Mega Man exactly. So, I wondered if I could make the player characters villainous. The Boss Robots attempt to free themselves from an oppressive corporocracy and the humans using them as cheap labor, while the players assume the role of corporate robots tasked with bringing the rogue robots under control. Even though the Boss Robots would view what’s happening as a revolution, we’re playing this game from the viewpoint of corporate robots, and they’d see it as riots. Throw in a slur, and you get Rustbucket Riots.

I think that’s everything up to the idea of Rustbucket Riots materialized. We’ll cover early iterations of the game in the next board game design brain dump. If you’ve made it this far through my rambling, you’re awesome. You know it. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Fifth Wednesday Personal Update: July 2025

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Happy fifth Wednesday, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. Since it’s the fifth Wednesday of July, that means our writers will be sharing personal updates. I’ll get things started.

Kyra’s Writing

My writing and game design will sound similar this month. The two center around the same concept. I wrote a first draft of a novel based on one of my board games, Rustbucket Riots, and I’m in the throes of reverse outlining.

Reverse outlining is an important stage of writing/editing that I learned after multiple novels. During the reverse editing stage, I take note of what happens in each chapter/scene, looking at the novel from a macro level, rather than a micro level (like line editing). Reverse outlining allows me to see who the point of view (POV) character is for each chapter (if there’s more than one POV character for the novel). If a character has only one POV chapter, I may need to give them more chapters or consider omitting the chapter or using a different POV character. Jotting down what happens in each chapter makes it easier to see which chapters are pulling their weight (from a narrative perspective), which ones could do more, and which ones may not be needed.

In previous novels, I made the mistake of line editing after writing the first draft. That doesn’t work–at least, not for me. The sunk cost fallacy (the tendency to continue an endeavor because of the time and effort spent on the project) is strong when a writer does this. Slapping together a crappy first draft and then taking a macro look at each chapter makes it easier to “kill one’s darlings.” If I haven’t spent hours editing a chapter, that chapter hasn’t reached the status of one of my darlings. It’s easier to make cuts.

Depending on when you’re reading this, I may be slashing through thousands of words in one keystroke. Can you hear the ink cry?

On a different note, I’m still querying agents. Fingers crossed.

Kyra’s Game Design

I received a ton of great feedback for Rustbucket Riots and Whirligig Pets. Both games are well on their way to being publishable.

I’m continuing to refine my other designs, and I’ll be at Comic Con Nebraska this weekend. If you’re in the area, stop by and say hi. I’ll be in the game room, demoing various designs that will include Rustbucket Riots and Whirligig Pets. I’ll even have JK Geekly badge ribbons.

Tangent: I joined a board game publication and pitching course, so hopefully, my board game pitches will improve in the coming months. Lol

That’s all I have for these past three months. Let’s check in with Skye.

Skye’s Update

Believe it or not, I do have a life. I know, I was surprised too. Not much has happened since the last time I did one of these, but there were a couple of things I wanted to mention.

First, I have a new job at my local movie theater. Y’all know how much I love movies, so this kind of job is right up my alley. There’s a more community-oriented culture at Marcus Theaters with several opportunities to learn and connect with the team, which I love. Of course, there’s also free movie tickets. This means that I can start covering recently released films on my personal blog, TGIMovies, in a more financially responsible way.

Second, I took this summer off from college. So far, I’ve been having a good time relaxing and dedicating my time toward things I love, such as my hobbies, my relationships, and this community. I’ve learned a lot about myself, spent time with those I care about, and started working towards my future. At this point in my life, I’m the most excited I’ve ever been about what’s to come. I’m glad I got to share it with y’all!

Thanks for reading about my experiences and for inviting me to this website. Though I don’t say it often, I’m greatly honored to be a part of this community, to experience geeky content with like-minded people, and to have a platform to offer my thoughts. I’ll see y’all next week with another “Whatcha.” Take care!

Kyra Kyle here again. Season doesn’t have an update for the past three months. She graduated from college with a Bachelor’s and continues to look for work in her field. Fingers crossed that she’ll find something soon. And feel free to share what you’ve been working on over the past three months. We’re all part of the Geekly Gang. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.