Stonemaier Streams

In regards to several recent crowdfunded games that either relaunched after an initial cancellation or are struggling to move far past their funding goal, I've heard some concerns about trust from potential backers. For example, if a project has a $10,000 funding goal but after the first few days they only have a few hundred backers and $13,000 in funding, is it a mark of dishonesty if they cancel the project, reconfigure, and relaunch? https://stonemaiergames.com/marketable-vs-aspirational-funding-goals/

https://youtube.com/live/ZueGOyxXlOw

Over the weekend I was playing a game, Takenoko, which I hadn't played in a while. I had a rule question about gardener and panda movement, and I did what I often do if I can't find a question in the rulebook: I pulled out my phone and Googled the question.   https://stonemaiergames.com/how-do-you-ask-rule-questions/

Today I discuss my favorite legacy games--games featuring permanent changes that can't be undone--out of the roughly 25 that I've played. Legacy games often feature unlocks, surprises, and consequences in a campaign format. https://youtu.be/0rc1h6WlOhI

14 years ago today--on September 10, 2012--Viticulture reached its funding goal on Kickstarter. I consider this the official day that Stonemaier Games was born, and I'm so grateful for those original backers for giving birth to that game and this company. I don't have a monumental topic today; rather, I have a few bite-size topics on which I've ruminated recently. I'd love to hear your thoughts about any of them. https://stonemaiergames.com/bits-and-bobs-5-recent-thoughts-about-tabletop-publishing/

Join Jamey for an hour of Stonemaier Games news, questions, answers, and random discussion topics! https://youtube.com/live/fj8OVuT9BPA

At Stonemaier Games,  our staff and contributors now include a total of my 6 full-time coworkers, 1 part-time coworker and cofounder, a number of key independent contractors and creatives (designers and artists), and another 100+ paid volunteers (proofreaders and playtesters). I am so lucky to work with such talented, passionate, and kind people every day.   https://stonemaiergames.com/labor-day-2026-whats-new-this-year/

In today's video I share my top 10 favorite tabletop games of all time as of right now (September 2026). https://youtu.be/MhJHqacHXEs

Today I received an enlightening email from a fellow publisher–someone who has used crowdfunding successfully for multiple projects–about their struggles with certain types of marketing and advertising. I'll explore this publisher's struggles and share some constructive opinions. https://stonemaiergames.com/the-current-state-of-crowdfunding-marketing-2026/

Join Jamey for an hour of Stonemaier Games news, questions, answers, and random discussion topics! https://youtube.com/live/3ltoyqJMiTA

In a recent article, Colby offers a transparent, humble, and vulnerable perspective about his crowdfunding philosophy, how it didn't result in a successful first launch of The Monolith, and the adjustments he's made for the current campaign. Today I'll share my thoughts Colby's initial goals and how they've evolved.   https://stonemaiergames.com/admirable-goals-vs-successful-crowdfunding/

I discuss different resource systems in games; specifically, different types of costs to put things (cards, tiles, miniatures, dice, etc) into play.   https://youtu.be/Ow3V4zWB82o

We always try to make games that are easy to get to the table, but this is absurd: Just one month after customers started receiving copies of Wingspan Pocket, the game already has over 1,000 ratings on BoardGameGeek. People are getting the game and actually playing it right away--this is a publisher's dream!   https://stonemaiergames.com/one-thousand-ratings-in-one-month/

https://youtube.com/live/2qdjl8wcTGQ

I'm always fascinated by how someone handles communication when things don't go as planned, and we had a few such situations arise during our recent Iceland trip. Here's what happened, how the communication was handled, and what I learned from it as a creator. https://stonemaiergames.com/4-examples-of-good-bad-and-mixed-communication-from-our-iceland-trip/

Jamey summarizes each Stonemaier game (2013-2026) in 1 minute or less. https://youtu.be/drnFyqz2Y_I

I want our customers to feel like very important people (even if they aren't Stonemaier Champions), so I appreciate the variety of these VIP techniques.   https://stonemaiergames.com/10-ways-to-offer-vip-status-without-exclusion-gatekeeping-or-elitism/

Join Jamey for an hour of Stonemaier Games news, questions, answers, and random discussion topics! https://youtube.com/live/tGS_5OTLtSE

Jamey and Erica discuss their favorite medium-weight games with simple rules, easy to learn, and high strategic depth.   https://youtu.be/j-Z6CFfq69c

I follow Games Unlimited PGH (@gamesunlimitedpgh) on Instagram, and Kylie frequently offers really helpful retailer perspectives for publishers to consider. One of his recent videos (actually a repost from a few years ago) was both surprising and insightful in a few different ways, as Kylie reveals that he--a very successful retailer--does not like promos. https://stonemaiergames.com/a-surprising-opinion-about-promos-and-game-store-customers/

Join Jamey for an hour of Stonemaier Games news, questions, answers, and random discussion topics! https://youtube.com/live/Sz7s4wqrmQ4

On Sunday afternoon I received an email with a question that stumped me. I knew the answer, but I was at a complete lack of resources to provide an adequate response. The question was, “Do you make any games other than Wingspan?”   https://stonemaiergames.com/this-question-about-our-games-stumped-me/

In today's video I explore games where the art plays a key role in the gameplay. https://youtu.be/C-ivNU0wmCk

I recently read an interesting announcement on Board Game Wire that Scott Brady (co-designer of one of my favorite party games, Caution Signs, along with some others I really enjoy like Boop and Hues & Cues), is trying a new “proof-of-play” model of publishing through his company, A Game Studio. Their goal and methodology is to make a single, small print run of selected games “to generate real-world sales, player feedback, and retail validation before presentation to larger publishing partners.” https://stonemaiergames.com/the-proof-of-play-model-my-thoughts/

Join Jamey for an hour of Stonemaier Games news, questions, answers, and random discussion topics!   https://youtube.com/live/GTfjOIXu8sk

Welcome to Gen Con week! In a similar way to Essen Spiel, the games, announcements, and events at Gen Con attract attention well beyond the tens of thousands of attendees (which is both a lot of people and also a very small percentage of people who play games worldwide).   https://stonemaiergames.com/gen-con-2026-stonemaier-games-and-2-hidden-gems/

Have you ever been on the fence about buying or backing a game? You're following along, you've watched some playthroughs and reviews, you have trust in the publisher, and you can afford the price. The game intrigues you, but you're just not sure yet. What questions do you ask to put you over the edge?   https://stonemaiergames.com/what-puts-you-over-the-edge-to-buy-back-a-game/

Join Jamey for an hour of Stonemaier Games news, questions, answers, and random discussion topics!   https://youtube.com/live/lHR0RKD0KsY

I truly believe that the internet would be a better place if we more consistently asked ourselves a self-awareness question.   https://stonemaiergames.com/what-is-your-go-to-self-awareness-question-for-internet-interactions/

In today's video Jamey and Erica discuss our favorite long games (for me this is games that play in 3+ hours). Campaign games weren't eligible for this video.   https://youtu.be/K3MBlhG2_B8

A full day has now passed since we launched 3 new products (plus 2 accessories) on the Stonemaier Games webstore, so I thought I'd share a few observations about the launch and sales data collected for each product.   https://stonemaiergames.com/launch-day-results-wingspan-pocket-duel-of-meloch-and-heroes-villains/

July 15, 2026 is the launch day (starting around 10:00 am Central) for Wingspan Pocket, Duel of Meloch, and Origin Story: Heroes & Villains.   https://youtube.com/live/j3_tQo_EkVk

Taking a note from Hollywood, the tabletop game industry has been enamored with sequels for the last decade. It makes sense: If people already like X game, a way to serve that audience is to make X2.   https://stonemaiergames.com/what-do-we-really-want-from-a-sequel/

In today's video I discuss my favorite mechanisms in new-to-me games and expansions so far in 2026.   https://youtu.be/7pLyT7R1iyo

Tabletop play is always our top priority at Stonemaier Games. We design games for the tabletop, we playtest games on the tabletop, and we only sell physical versions of games. However, over the years my appreciation has grown for the existence of digital versions of tabletop games, as those licenses allow us to serve our customers in a few important ways...   https://stonemaiergames.com/the-current-state-of-digital-versions-of-tabletop-games-2026/

Join Jamey for an hour of Stonemaier Games news, questions, answers, and random discussion topics!   https://youtube.com/live/FFLREPwp654

In some ways, Wingspan Pocket is one of our smallest games. It's only around 6x4x2 inches, it only takes 30 minutes to play, and it asks each player to manage only 1 row of bird cards. Yet by another metric it is our biggest game, as there are 175,000 units in the first English print run, by far the most in our 14-year history. With that much at stake, we really, really needed to get it right.   https://stonemaiergames.com/elevating-wingspan-pocket-ppc-product-design-playtests/

I discuss my favorite new-to-me games (including expansions and sequels) of 2026 (January-June). This is not limited to 2026 releases.   https://youtu.be/v7fCV7jf0c4

Gabe Barrett runs Best With 1 Games, and over the last few years I've seen him adapt a really interesting strategy for creating and launching games. With their latest game, Stonefall, in its final days on Gamefound, Gabe was kind to take some time to answer questions about his methods.   https://stonemaiergames.com/34671-2/

Join Jamey and special guest Elizabeth to learn about Wingspan Pocket!   https://youtube.com/live/6JCCSCGdKng

A long time ago in a fulfillment center far, far away, Stonemaier Games offered a few ala carte options to webstore customers. Glass beads for Viticulture, plastic mechs for Scythe, metal coins for Charterstone...these were all included in their respective games, but sometimes people wanted more/extras.   https://stonemaiergames.com/why-ala-carte-isnt-feasible-at-scale/

Today I discuss my top 10 favorite heist-themed games, one of my favorite movie genres.   https://youtu.be/8OhChnJ9L_Q

In mid-2024, I had a hankering to design an asymmetric dueling game. However, I was daunted by the task of essentially designing two different games that existed in the same world and could have meaningful overlapping tensions. I quickly realized the obvious: Scythe and Expeditions are already different games that exist in the same alternate history and already have overlapping elements. https://stonemaiergames.com/duel-of-meloch-the-most-cross-compatible-product-weve-ever-made/

Join Jamey for an hour of Stonemaier Games news, questions, answers, and random discussion topics! https://stonemaiergames.com/games/duel-of-meloch/

https://stonemaiergames.com/a-sneak-preview-worth-paying-for/

https://youtu.be/aYgqG924K4s

https://stonemaiergames.com/how-do-we-decide-which-games-to-publish/

https://youtube.com/live/8V3CRDLnVi4

https://stonemaiergames.com/naming-podcast-video-episodes-so-people-actually-listen-watch/

https://youtu.be/_dU6zVhhoWs

https://stonemaiergames.com/a-new-twist-on-showcasing-our-games-on-facebook/