Behind the games.
Design diaries, production updates and what we learned self-publishing card games — Kickstarter, retail, conventions and the long road from prototype to print.
There's no turn where you get to do all three
The Gallery Gambit design diary, part 2
My girlfriend designed my most striking game
She doesn't like board games. This story is about how she designed Gallery Gambit anyway.
How I get my games into retail without losing my mind
Why I shifted from individual localisations to global licensing to get my games on tables worldwide.
Why my Kickstarter predictions were completely wrong
The numbers said the project was going to crush it. The live campaign said otherwise.
The story behind Stamp Showdown
The first game I published that I didn’t design myself
Stamp Showdown Just Levelled Up.
February 3rd, 2026 Hey! As you might have noticed, Stamp Showdown is live on Kickstarter 🎉 And we’ve got two big pieces of news to share. Go to Kickstarter A truly limited Kickstarter edition For the
Watch the Stamp Showdown trailer before anyone else
January 6th, 2026 Hey collector, Happy New Year! I hope you’re having a great entrance to 2026. My last newsletter outlined the progress of Stamp Showdown. Right now, I just want to share early access
Stamp Showdown is almost ready!
December 11th, 2025 Hey collectors! My last newsletter was about SPIEL and all the work that goes into having your own booth at a large convention. Since then, we’ve done it again at the largest con i
Behind the scenes: my first Spiel booth
October 20th, 2025 Hey! This newsletter will contain a personal report on the Spiel conference. If you’re here for the updates, skip the first part and scroll directly to the bottom. Because I’ve been
River Rats Just Levelled Up.
October 20th, 2025 Hey everyone, We’ve got some big news to share this time. And, it’s a very exciting week, since we’re going to the SPIEL conference this Thursday! What we’ll cover: Meet us in Essen
We’re going to SPIEL & all River Rats have shipped!
September 16th, 2025 Hey everyone, It’s been just over a month since the last newsletter! In this edition: SPIEL, Essen information: let’s meet 🙂 River Rats fulfilment update: all games have shipped!
Stamp Showdown & River Rats Production Update
August 7th, 2025 Hey everyone, It’s been just over a month since the last newsletter! In this edition: Introducing my new upcoming game: Stamp Showdown. Spoiler: you can already play it! River Rats pr
How our game, River Rats, was designed – from Robin’s perspective
The previous article outlined how River Rats was designed from the lead designer’s perspective, Mathijs Jansen. But here is the same story, but now from…
Marketing the River Rats Kickstarter Campaign
All the investments, social media efforts and everything.
Almost Ready for Production & New Game Ahead!
June 25th, 2025 Hey everyone, It’s been pretty busy since the end of the Kickstarter campaign. We reached over €20k with almost 750 backers, which is really amazing! From now on, I’ll keep sharing the
Guest Post: Mathijs’ Design Diary for River Rats
Written by Mathijs Jansen I would have never expected to be making a game about anthropomorphic animals on a river cruise. In game design, you…
Introducing River Rats
How River Rats was made and what decisions were taken along the way.
Design Diary #3: Dream Guardians in the freezer. Welcome, River Rats!
We are all in.
Design Diary #2: New Name, Refreshed Game, New Dream Guardian
Dream Guardians will become available soon!
Design Diary #1: Dreamkeepers
Join me in the journey of creating a new game and bringing it to market