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Reposted by Matthew Dunstan

Rory Muldoon @rorymuldoon.bsky.social · 16h

Hey #portfolioday

I’m a graphic designer who makes analog games. Here are some fun illustrations I made for our chill diving game Aquamarine.

www.postmarkgames.com

An illustration of a stylised shoal of yellow fish. Text reads ‘Aquamarine’ and ‘Butterfly Fish’

An illustration of a stylised blue and orange Cuttlefish. Text reads ‘Aquamarine’ and ‘Cuttlefish’

An illustration of stylised purple jellyfish. Text reads ‘Aquamarine’ and ‘Jellyfish’

An illustration of a stylised colourful coral reef. Text reads ‘Aquamarine’ and ‘Coral Reef’

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Reposted by Matthew Dunstan

cécile @haraiva.bsky.social · 22h

been having the music/games 'industry' parallel on the mind all the way through games week, and that always leads back to me thinking about steve albini being essentially my standard for the kind of person i want to be in a scene/community. heres a little something from a reddit ama he did ages ago

Connections don't mean shit. I've never had any connections that weren't a natural outgrowth of doing things I was doing anyway. Additionally, the people you might make connections with who work in the industry and value connections themselves, all those people are clueless assholes with no clout anyhow. You can tell because they think they can get somewhere with connections and spend their energy trying to make connections rather than being good at things, and being good at things is the only thing that earns you clout or connections.

It's a myth that you can get anywhere in music through connections. The guy on the other end of the connection has to be into what you're doing, and if you're doing it publicly and he's receptive, he probably hears about it on his own.

Don't worry about anything but making music you like. Everything else is bullshit.

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Reposted by Matthew Dunstan

The Cardboard Herald @cardboardherald.bsky.social · 1d

Just posted a lovely conversation with @trevormbenjamin.bsky.social, codesigner or @bitewinggames.bsky.social’s Moytura and Azure. Check it out on our podcast channel or you can watch the vid here now:
youtu.be/aQJTCxGdeMY

Trevor Benjamin on co-designing Moytura, Azure and collaborative game design - TCbH Interviews

YouTube video by The Cardboard Herald

youtu.be

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Matthew Dunstan @matthewdunstan.bsky.social · 2d

Does anyone have good restaurant recommendations in Essen? Looking to try and find a new good place for Spiel this year ;)

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Reposted by Matthew Dunstan

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 2d

This is such a clever idea on taking kids to museums/galleries
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Nadia from London has an idea that sounds such fun you'll be booking a day out asap.
"I've always loved museums," she says,
"but they can be overwhelming for children. For decades now, I've done something called 'playing postcards'
We do
the museum backwards, visiting the gift shop first. Each child gets to choose three postcards. Then they take it in turns to find that particular artwork in the museum and give us a little information about the piece from the details on the postcard, or from any gallery plaque. At the end of this treasure-hunt-style activity, we vote for our favourite in the cafe."

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Reposted by Matthew Dunstan

Marceline Leiman (High Tide, available now!!) @marcelineleiman.bsky.social · 7d

This presentation by Jonas Tyroller absolutely applies to boardgame pitching as well. 🎲✂️

Mechanisms aren’t what sell games.

Focusing solely on “hooks” can distract you from what’s most important: making an appealing game that’s scoped appropriately (for its size/weight/gameplay, what have you)

What Sells on Steam: You Don't Need a Hook

YouTube video by Jonas Tyroller

youtu.be

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Reposted by Matthew Dunstan

Endless Mode @endlessmode.bsky.social · 5d

Rillem is a one-player journaling game that uses cards as prompts for creating and solving puzzles, @ckunzelman.bsky.social writes. www.endlessmode.com/tabletop/ril...

Create Your Own Puzzles and Stories with Rillem

Rillem is a one-player journaling game that uses cards as prompts for creating and solving your own puzzles.

www.endlessmode.com

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Matthew Dunstan @matthewdunstan.bsky.social · 6d

Thank you Marceline :)

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Matthew Dunstan @matthewdunstan.bsky.social · 6d

Sorry to hear that Robin, hope a calmer Essen will be good for you :)

Matthew Dunstan @matthewdunstan.bsky.social · 6d

That’s really kind of you Erik - and yes I will be there!

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Matthew Dunstan @matthewdunstan.bsky.social · 6d

Thanks for the kind words - and definitely good advice. Trying to find ways to regain that balance, lets see how they go!

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Matthew Dunstan @matthewdunstan.bsky.social · 6d

Thanks Uli! See you soon.

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Matthew Dunstan @matthewdunstan.bsky.social · 6d

I know a lot of other designers who are struggling with burnout as well, and my hope is just to help start and continue conversations about mental health in our industry, and steps that can be taken to improve it for everyone working in it.

Thanks for watching (and watching any of my other videos).

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Matthew Dunstan @matthewdunstan.bsky.social · 6d

Today's video was a hard one for me to make - I wanted to talk about my experiences going through burnout in the last year or so as a game designer, and aspects of the wider tabletop industry that contribute to that.

youtu.be/D2rC_8F10R8

🎲✂️

The reality of being a full time game designer

YouTube video by Matthew Dunstan

youtu.be

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Matthew Dunstan @matthewdunstan.bsky.social · 9d

Thank you so much for the support Suz!!!

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Reposted by Matthew Dunstan

Postmark Games @postmarkgames.bsky.social · 9d

Waypoints Map 5 is here, and we’re off to the North Alpine Foothills! Fill your whisky flask, venture into the great lochs, and grab your bike to make use of one of the many biking trails.

A graphic of an OS style map depicting icons, contour lines and geographical features. Text reads 'Waypoints' 'The North Alpine Foothills' 'Out Now'

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Reposted by Matthew Dunstan

Rory Muldoon @rorymuldoon.bsky.social · 9d

New Waypoints map!

Waypoints is maybe the game I’m most proud of. I genuinely believe it does something different in the roll & write space and love making new stuff for it.

If you like the sound of free form route planning then you should probably check it out.

Postmark Games @postmarkgames.bsky.social · 9d

Waypoints Map 5 is here, and we’re off to the North Alpine Foothills! Fill your whisky flask, venture into the great lochs, and grab your bike to make use of one of the many biking trails.

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Reposted by Matthew Dunstan

Daniel Solis @danielsolis.bsky.social · 10d

Welcome to Saturday! You made it! It's time for this week's #connections #puzzle. It was a rather busy few days, so I didn't get a chance to do the early testing I usually do. I hope it's acceptable!
connectionsplus.io/game/uy9Igs

Blah Blah, Ad Nauseum, Bona Fide, Woo Woo, Yada Yada, Hocus Pocus, Ciao Ciao, So On, Status Quo, Later Gator, So Forth, Claptrap, Alma Mater, Bye Bye, Tah Tah, Flimflam

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Reposted by Matthew Dunstan

Crownfell preorder: Nov 18 @weheart.games · 11d

The crowd sale for #Crownfell has been approved for November 18! Add-ons include a neoprene playmat and a solo expansion.

This 2-player asymmetric chess-like has 17 cards unique movement and abilities.

Sign up to be notified here (shares appreciated!) 🧡 www.thegamecrafter.com/crowdsale/cr...

The Crownfell base game box, standing beside the playmat, with some cards on the mat, mid-game.

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Reposted by Matthew Dunstan

Daniel Newman // New Mill Industries @dnlnwmn.bsky.social · 11d

my wife keeps telling me that if i want to sell more games i should “do marketing” but like…i don’t want to…

so, like, tell your friends and stuff that i’ve got games to sell, yeah?

newmillindustries.com

New Mill Industries

newmillindustries.com

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Matthew Dunstan @matthewdunstan.bsky.social · 11d

In today's video I go over things I learnt from designing 3 different narrative game systems in my design career, and how other designers can think about approaching new narrative games!

Props to Dave Neale and @philwh.bsky.social for being awesome co-designers :)

youtu.be/YJmJ1IALfGc

🎲✂️

What I learned from selling millions of narrative games

YouTube video by Matthew Dunstan

youtu.be

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Reposted by Matthew Dunstan

Rory Muldoon @rorymuldoon.bsky.social · 13d

Still noodling away at this 18 card space combat game. It’s a slow side project that I tinker with every now and then but I’m kind of ok with that.

Prototype cards on a cutting mat. The card nearest the camera is in portrait orientation and shows a line drawing of a spaceship. The cards above it are in landscape orientation and show abstracted space locations.

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Reposted by Matthew Dunstan

Dan Thurot @danthurot.bsky.social · 14d

For today's article, I'm just griping about why "fun" is a bad word for critics. spacebiff.com/2025/09/30/a...

Anti-Fun

There’s one word I try to never use when writing about board games. The F-word. No, not that one. “Fun.” There it is. My critical curse word. Today I want to talk about why “fun” isn’t an especiall…

spacebiff.com

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Reposted by Matthew Dunstan

Daniel Solis @danielsolis.bsky.social · 13d

Hoo boy. I'm anticipating listening to this one. 😂 Economics podcast @planetmoney.bsky.social visits Gen Con and tries to make a board game. Start of a series on the production and business of tabletop games. www.npr.org/2025/10/01/n...
#boardgame

We make a board game : Planet Money

We want to make a board game. It must, of course, teach the world about economics. It must be fun. It’d be nice if it sold lots of copies! How hard could that be!? (Monopoly and Catan are hugely popul...

www.npr.org

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Reposted by Matthew Dunstan

Elizabeth Hargrave @elizhargrave.bsky.social · 16d

I just noticed this list is up to 988 games. Who wants to find the missing 12 that will get us to 1000?
boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/297...

Games by Women & People of Marginalized Genders

There are several other geeklists that limit themselves in some way (one game per designer, noteworthy games). What if we tried to make a list that has all the games we know of that have at least one ...

boardgamegeek.com

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