Blog

Q&A Session with Jamey Stegmaier (Stonemaier Games)

Posted by michaeliantorno at 9:30 am • January 16, 2019

Hello TAGsters! I’m happy to announce that Jamey Stegmaier of Stonemaier Games has offered to participate in a question-and-answer session for TAG!
Jamey runs the day-to-day operations of Stonemaier Games and designed the board games Scythe, Viticulture, Charterstone, and Euphoria. His eight crowdfunding campaigns have raised over $3.2 million, and he shares his insights, mistakes, and lessons learned on his blog. Jamey’s passion for crowdfunding led him to author A Crowdfunder’s Strategy Guide, a book …

Global Game Jam 2019

Jan 25, 2019 - Jan 27, 2019

Posted by Gina at 11:45 am • January 11, 2019

The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is the world’s largest game jam event taking place around the world at physical locations. Think of it as a 48 hour long game making marathon. It is the growth of an idea that in today’s heavily connected world, we could come together, be creative, share experiences and express ourselves in a multitude of ways using games. TAG thrives to create an environment where people who are typically excluded from or …

Balance and Momentum in Scythe

Posted by michaeliantorno at 9:30 am • December 29, 2018

In a previous blog post, I chatted about some elements commonly present in the legacy and campaign modes of board games, specifically the joy of the disposable cards found in Gloomhaven. Today, I’m going to critique a game that has a campaign mode which, although isn’t strictly legacy (there are no disposable elements and the entire game can be reset), co-opts a few features from the legacy approach. That game is Scythe, an engine-building board …

Alt Text and Social Media

Posted by michaeliantorno at 9:00 am • December 17, 2018

This past November, Instagram added a new accessibility feature to its popular social media platform: the ability to create photo descriptions to benefit blind or low vision users. This “alt text” can be added manually as a post is being crafted or can be automatically generated by an AI using advanced object recognition software. This development follows in the footsteps of Facebook and Twitter, who provide alt text functionality through both their apps and websites.
Although …

Promises: Tales From the Making

Posted by idatoft at 12:07 pm • December 8, 2018

This summer, my game Promises was one of the works included in Hexagram’s campus exhibition at Ars Electronica in Linz. Promises is part of my doctoral research in which I explore what kinds of games become possible when featuring vibration as the primary expression instead of for instance screen and sound. Promises is a computationally simple game. It accommodates up to 16 players and is organized around 16 game objects that each have a unique …

Montreal Mini Maker Faire 2018 Recap

Posted by michaeliantorno at 9:30 am • December 3, 2018

Last month, Concordia University hosted the Montréal Mini Maker Faire! Co-presented by Maker Media with an organizational team drawn from the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology and the Montréal making scene, the event was a diverse showcase of engineers, artists, scientists, and crafters. Described as a the Greatest Show (& Tell) on Earth, it celebrated the city’s rich maker scene.
Quick Facts

Hosted at Concordia University in Montréal on November 16 & 17
70+ exhibitors, speakers, …