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One of the things I don’t like about many “clicker” style incremental games is that they require too much clicking. I’ll literally make my wrist sore trying to click faster.

If I’m playing with an audio slider, I want to hear the feedback immediately so I can pick the right level quickly. So I set out to make my settings apply immediately.

I currently have a few types of resources in my game, such as InventoryItem, and Upgrade that store basic data and textures for these concepts. I have found several use cases where trying to access specific resources or resource values has caused me problems. Most of these use cases arise when needed during dynamic access at runtime to these resources, meaning that they are not embedded into a node or resource’s @export property. Resources attached to a property are managed well by Godot’s editor. ...

I’m going a bit more technical than usual with this post as I’m going to be sharing some of this information with others anyways. Two birds with one stone and all of that… Resources are data containers. They don’t do anything on their own: instead, nodes use the data contained in resources. I won’t be reviewing Resources themselves, so if you need more info, please read more from the Godot documentation. ...

I’ve been hard at work on my game, Cursor Incremental. I learn more every day. As I build out my code and tools, some things get much easier and faster. The new stuff, though, always takes a lot of time Lately, I’ve been spending more time on Reddit in the r/godot and r/gamedev subreddits. It’s a LOT of people just starting out, like me, but also a fair number of industry veterans. I see a lot of posts from high school and college students. I see a lot of my younger self in them. Their ambition often far outweighs what’s feasible ...

My partner doesn’t play any video games, so explaining them can sometimes be difficult. The genre “Crafting Survival” doesn’t mean much to someone who doesn’t game, even though just about every parent knows what Minecraft is. So I started saying that I’m playing a “tree chopping” game—because you chop trees and build stuff. I’ve played a lot of tree choppers, and honestly, the amount of effort put into making the tree chopping feel satisfying is really important to the game. On the low end of the spectrum for satisfying tree chopping is Timberborn, a game about beavers chopping trees and building a city. The beavers aren’t chopping or even gnawing the trees. They just kind of stand there until the wood is collected. ...

I subscribe to the notion that everyone has ideas, but it’s the execution that is difficult. Well, sometimes the ideas are difficult too.

I wanted to document how I got started learning Godot and making games. I’ve actually learned the basics of Godot before, forgotten it all, and am now learning all over again. Parsing the amount of information that exists these days is difficult. I spent a few hours reading various opinions before even landing on Godot instead of Unity, and then even more time trying to figure out how I would best use my time learning ...

I’ve been talking about my struggles with board game design. I really like the appeal of the board game design space. Its dependence on physical objects constrains the space in a meaningful way. I would think this might make it easier to design something interesting, as the scope is typically limited by what individual people can or are willing to deal with in order to play a physical game. There may be some truth to that idea; however, it certainly hasn’t helped me. I am always impressed at game designers who are able to abstract really concrete ideas, like flying a spaceship or cooking food, into the movement of cards or small components around a table ...

Last week, I talked about trying to build a small tableau builder using a limited set of cards Design Diary: Party FowlAfter feeling overwhelmed trying to design a larger card game that I mentioned in last weeks post, I decided to go back to something smaller. That led … Big Dewlap - Blog I started playing with a new theme, one that I thought was both thematically interesting and could lead to compelling gameplay mechanics: inverse worlds ...

After feeling overwhelmed trying to design a larger card game that I mentioned in last weeks post, I decided to go back to something smaller. That led me back to an unnamed game, which has been through a number of iterations already. The game originated form the idea hiring an adventuring party in a fantasy universe. Imaging going to a pub and hiring some knights, rangers, and wizards. The composition of the party awards you points, and the player with the most points after a few rounds would win. My friend suggested having all the characters be birds and then call it Party Fowl. Admittedly an excellent pun, that has already been turned into a video game. ...

The Weight of a 60-ton Mech Late last week, I actually tried to sit down and do some game design. I was already struggling to find motivation for various reasons. One standout is the state of the economy and the country. Tariffs are set to decimate the board game industry. Jamey Stegmaier has two excellent blog posts about this. The Darkest TimelineLast night I tried to work on a new game I’m brainstorming, but it’s really hard to create something for the future when that future looks so grim. I mostly just found myself staring bl…Stonemaier Games The Math of TariffsIn the whirlwind surrounding the 54% tariff paid by any company importing goods from China to the US, I consistently saw questions, confusion, and even accusations of greed regarding the math of ta…Stonemaier Games Although I never set out to design games to make money, the fact that any glimmer of hope for actually publishing a game is mostly gone is discouraging. I’ve been trying to reframe my mindset to focus on the process so I can actually enjoy my time designing games. ...

I’ve started my sabbatical, but it hasn’t quite set in yet that I don’t need to work. I’ve spent the start of my week working on my will, doing a bit more exercise than normal, and fretting over the state of the country. I haven’t spent any time on game design, and to be honest needed a quick blog post for the week. I recently got out my 10 year old Nikon DSLR camera and decided I would try taking some board game photos with it. ...

I’m starting a three-month sabbatical from work next week—something I’ve long needed. I haven’t had more than two weeks away from work in over 15 years. I’m not really sure what to expect or how I’ll feel. For now, I have the same anxiety I get every time I take time off work; I’m trying to get “all the things” completed at work to hand off before I leave. Oddly, I don’t feel a heavier weight than normal, likely because I’ve been planning my leave for a couple of months now. ...

This past Saturday, my partner and I spent our day at the BOINGA Indie Board Game Showcase in Boston. Check out the list of games that were there. BOINGA 2025 Games List — QUIRK EVENTS QUIRK EVENTS This is a really welcoming and awesome event for (mostly) local designers to show off their new, or existing games. Even better you get to chat with the designers, hear how the game was designed, how many boxes of inventory are stored in their parents’ basements, and meet other friendly gamers in the community. ...

Gaming Shorthand When you dive into board games, as with any activity or hobby, you start to learn the language of games. I couldn’t tell you much about woodworking. Looking at this glossary of terms, there’s a lot of J words. Jamb, jigsaw, joiner, joist. Those are all important and useful words for woodworkers that a layman like me isn’t too interested in. Just as woodworking has its own terminology, board games are no different. Deck builder, Euro game, role-playing, dungeon crawler. These words both help us categorize and explain games without having to read the whole rule book. They can also be a source of confusion. Does the term “board game” also include card-only games like Scout? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ...

The Appeal of 18-Card Games I’ve been really interested in building an 18-card game ever since I learned about “wallet games,” which I most notably associate with Button Shy Games. Constraints often breed creativity, as limited space requires unique solutions. You can’t simply add more cards, components, or pieces to accomplish your goal. Limiting scope when building software—whether that’s enterprise applications or video games—often leads to faster delivery, as it simply requires less work. I assumed the same principle would apply to board games, or in this case, a card game. Limit the scope, invent something simple, and boom, I have a game! Spoiler alert… this is not true. ...

I found my push-your-luck, dice-rolling, poker game to be in relatively good shape. The game flowed well, was pretty easy to teach, and, most importantly, we had fun playing it. Now, I needed to write the rules. I originally thought writing rules would be easy. I don’t know why—I have no excuse for such a naive thought. Even games from established publishers often have rulebooks with gaps, missing edge cases, or confusing instructions. ...

In my last design diary, I talked about the invaluable insights from playtesting—how feedback helped me rethink parts of the game, refine its mechanics, and let go of ideas that weren’t quite working. Since then, I’ve made some changes, and I wanted to share the thought process behind them. Design Diary #3: Playtesting and FeedbackRefining a game comes with exciting ups and downs. One change can ruin the game, while another can turn a mediocre experience into something special. … Big Dewlap - Blog I’m trying a new format for this design diary. Let me know your thoughts on if it works or not! ...

Refining a game comes with exciting ups and downs. One change can ruin the game, while another can turn a mediocre experience into something special. It’s important not to get discouraged by setbacks and to let the triumphs motivate you to keep going.