Nick Henning

If you want to learn more of the nitty gritty, like I said, I'll make a video to share more about it soon!

I truly believe Catacombes has a place in boardgaming. Not because it will be popular, but because it will be weird. I think some (small) percent of people are going to really like this game, and honestly, that feels like a better product to me in a flooded market (short of making the next ark nova)

Long games also just have more opportunity for frustration in learning the game. This was common feedback from my judges and the next two weeks are going to be full court press on the rulebook. I've done a blind playtest or three, but I've always been immediately available for problems

I'm so eager to see how Catacombes performs when the judges play it. I can see it's the longest game by listed time, which I think often works against you in these kinds of contests (I'm a heavy gamer but I'll admit my fun per minute is probably higher in Challengers than most of my preferred games)

I think this weirdness really helps in design contests. There's something powerfully expressive and evocative about bold ideas that will rise to the top in a format like this one. I've been shopping for a publisher and had a few nibbles of interest, but nothing powerful enough to go anywhere real

I actually submitted two games for this contest. Truthfully, the other design may be the "better" one in that I think it has a wider appeal and is more likely to be published. Catacombes is...niche. In theme. In mechanisms. I call it a "pick up and deliver", but honestly it's a bad description.

Back then, I remembered thinking that someday I'd have a design good enough to submit it. Not to win. Just to submit. While I've thought about CE for a decade, this was my first time actually putting anything in. And I feel so fortunate to have piqued a few curiosities.

Catacombes, specifically, was a theme forward design. I was inspired by a visit, but I waited 4 months to put anything on paper because my ideas were way, way, way too big. And I've made that mistake before in my previous design life.

I also played this game with everyone who was marginally interested. My mom played this game probably 50 times. Yes, family are usually not the best playtesters because they want you to succeed so much, but having someone who plays every version of your game is a massive sanity check.

And this doesn't come from luck. It comes from a lot of time networking, sharing love of games, being available, and being enthusiastic. We all could be pouring our energy into anything, and choosing board games has to come from a place of passion, it just takes too much time for that not to be true

After a big life move, I struggled to find a good playtest community and essentially left design. I can't state how incredibly value having a reliable group of people with a regular playtesting schedule has been in keeping motivated. The group I play with represents 3 of the 20 finalists this year

I'm going to make a video soon about Catacombes, but this is the game that got me back into the design hobby. Well, @connievdc.bsky.social is probably a more correct answer, but Catacombes was the first game I designed in 5 years or so.

Cardboard Edison Award — Cardboard Edison

Amazingly, Catacombes de Paris was selected as a finalist for Cardboard Edison's design contest. I'm so thrilled!

cardboardedison.com/award

Won the ring in lost ruins of arnak at #wsbg, proceeded to lose in the grand semifinal for a 3rd time. Mostly exciting news but very mixed journey for me

We in Vegas baby #wsbg

I stopped applying to jobs a month ago. I'm still receiving rejections 3 times a week.

Excited to share that I started a new job as a business game designer, which means I'll be focusing on serious games in my professional career, and I guess silly games in my hobby time

Hired again!!! Thrilled to announce I'll be starting a career as a Business Game Designer soon

I got my first publisher bite on Catacombs, which has just made my whole day

Pretty much finished with my gag game, Whale Baron, and I'll make a video about it someday

Inkscape for me. It requires more manual labor but the product is pretty good.

Do folks have a good recommendation for simple software to create player boards / player mats? I use nandeck for everything with a repeating template, but (still!) don't have anything I love for larger "one-off" components. Would love your recs! 🎲✂️

My latest live playthru on Lost Ruins of Arnak generated a ton of commentary even though I lost the game. I think the main reason is that it felt like one of those games where you couldn't just execute "the game plan" and the pivoting challenge was very real.

Today's playtest was fun for the players and had great critical feedback, the holy grail of test sessions

Had a blast at the first Rookscon on MT. Now back to regularly scheduled life for a bit.

Double playtest weekend and spent all my Sunday funday putting catacombs on TTS. Exhausting but fun

Yeesh, that last rejection hurt. Really thought I was going to get moved forward. It's a mess put here rn.

This is mostly meant to be a games account but....if you're American, what's happening with deportations rn is sickening and I hope you educate yourself about it. Ideally, call your reps, flood the phone lines.

Played Catacombes de Paris 3 times this past week and folks continue to really dig it. I'm still grappling with the refill and ending but the core system is just so snappy and satisfying

Got Catacombs de Paris in front of my partner last night and she seemed to dig it! I'm so pumped about this game.