Matthew Hocker

The Color Jam campaign is in its final 24 hours today. Designed by @stickydoodler.bsky.social and Joe Kell, with art by Erin Laue, we're incredibly proud of the work put in to make this game something special. We hope you'll check it out! www.kickstarter.com/projects/lun...

🔮✨ Rune Rite is now live on Kickstarter! Your next favorite flip-and-write, Rune Rite is a polyomino puzzle like none you've ever seen. Light, thinky, unique and FUN. Back it today and join the coven. 🧹🧙‍♀️ www.kickstarter.com/projects/sea... 💙🎲 #BoardGames #Kickstarter #IndieBoardGames

🔮✨ Selected as a part of Kickstarter's Witchstarter creator spotlight, Rune Rite is launching on October 13th. www.kickstarter.com/projects/sea... Why follow now? Because you'll like Rune Rite. It's fun. Also: • 20% off retail • A free mini-expansion #boardgames #kickstarter #crowdfunding

Color Jam has funded! We're so, so excited about making this coloring game a reality. Thanks to everyone for sharing, supporting, and helping this exist! And a major thanks to the incredible game designers Gene Koo and Joe Kell, as well as artist Erin Laue. You all made this something truly special.

Color Jam is live—and it looks fantastic!🖍️ I love seeing the thoughtful design innovations happening over at @lunarpunk.games. What might look like a simple coloring game has real quality of design behind it! @stickydoodler.bsky.social The incredible people there is half the joy of supporting! 😊

Color Jam goes live on Kickstarter in just 11 days! Find your next creative cozy game that you can play with friends or by yourself. It's a surprisingly challenging, authentic coloring experience. Link after the jump...

Only two days left to back Out of Sorts! www.kickstarter.com/projects/alw...

It's almost time to Color Jam! This cozy, puzzle-y coloring game by @stickydoodler.bsky.social and Joe Kell launches on September 22nd. Trying to get your favorite colors in the right spots is harder than it looks! We can't wait to see your cool art. 🎨 www.kickstarter.com/projects/lun...

Some info on how I plan to produce 50+ copies of my game at home (Yes, I may be a little bananas).

This month, we're pleased to announce another game we've brought into our pipeline. Small Steps to Fight Fascism is a codesign by @goatgruff.bsky.social and Joe Kell about the ICE occupation of Minneapolis in late 2025 and early 2026. Read more about it here: www.hawkanddovegames.com/blog/small-s...

Over four years in the making. That's a bit of a dramatic intro; I wasn't working on it every day for four years. I was figuring out *games* for four years. But it's finally here. 💎 Rune Rite is coming to crowdfunding on October 13th. Follow this prelaunch page for a notification then. #boardgames

Almost there!!

Today feels like a good day to announce it! I'm preparing for my first crowd funding campaign! Bot Builders is an engine building game about robots and the people who make them, inspired by real life robotics competitions.

Today TTGDA released what we believe is our most important effort so far - our Licensing Contract Rubric. This is an objective scoring metric that can be used to partially evaluate the quality of a contract. We applied it to a huge swath of the industry, and this chart shows how they scored. 🧵 🎲✂️

One major purpose of TTGDA is to help tabletop game designers negotiate better publishing contracts. We just released the rubric of what we look for -- and info on how different publishers scored on the rubric. Soon we will also release a model contract. More at www.ttgda.org/contract-bas...

Games can be games without a hierarchical result. We must broaden traditional definitions of tabletop games to give designers the agency and opportunity to express themselves in new, exciting, and challenging ways. We should be creating new ways to explore artistic mediums, not shutting them down.

Here it is, our final podcast episode! We recorded it live at Crystal’s in Vegas since Ambie and her family went there for vacation! We talk about Color Jam and Rosetta: Second Edition and reminisce about the podcast and our friendship. @lunarpunk.games @dvcgames.bsky.social youtu.be/-PO5fsoKyiAo

Houdini's Last Act is a magic trick of an indie game, an investigation of medium hucksters and wavering teammates. It isn't often that we get a small game this handsome or intriguing. My review: spacebiff.com/2026/07/28/h...

Just uploaded 5 games to @rpgtrader.bsky.social ! All of my main games are now available there too! rpg-trader.com/creator/259/...

Today I discuss three paper games: one about origami, another with coins, and a third that's all about coloring by numbers. Read about them here: spacebiff.com/2026/07/24/o...

More to what I was talking about re: proper attribution. The @ttgda.bsky.social is working to reduce instances where publishers, media outlets, and content creators fail to acknowledge the creatives behind the games. irp.cdn-website.com/2b6905d0/fil...

Excited for our first book club on July 28th at 8pm EST! We'll discuss C. Thi Nguyen's "Games: Agency as Art", an excellent text about how games convey agential experiences, and the risk of losing our values to scoring systems. Hosted by @ericdittmore.bsky.social ! discord.gg/NrqwRTm4?eve...

Another Hawk & Dove update went out today via our newsletter! Progress on Painkillers and announcing our attendance at several conventions across the EU this fall. As always, if you're interested in what we're up to, please share and subscribe! www.hawkanddovegames.com

These kinds of reviews make me very happy : ) And if you’re into this sort of thing as well, make sure to follow the KS! www.kickstarter.com/projects/alw...

One of our favorite things about Color Jam is seeing how people build a story around their coloring choices. Due to the game's puzzle, we stylized some spaces to be interpreted in different ways. In the photos below, the spaces in the middle right either be a hot air balloon or a part of a cactus!

I'm so excited that the ColorJam Kickstarter page is LIVE! 🖍️ The goal is simple: "Color a nice picture." 🧩 The puzzle is elegant: satisfying for gamers, easy enough for kids. 🤔 But the experience is deep: What, really, is a "nice picture?" I would love if you followed along to learn more! 🩷💚🤎🩵💜💛

Make your next work of art in Color Jam, a cozy, print-and-puzzle coloring game launching on Kickstarter later this year. Grab your favorite crayons and play solo or with friends. Follow along here for when the project goes live: www.kickstarter.com/projects/lun... The night is for creativity. 🖍️

Happy pride youtu.be/uAkNYJsL3wA

Oh hey, I was on a board game podcast talking about my one of my games about community resilience and collective action. Incredibly exciting to talk about two of my favorite things!

You know, when you think about it, a designer had to playtest Jumanji.

Yes! It genuinely has never been easier to playtest your game if you're willing to engage in this space on Discord. You can build your own network too, but this is always available and has more peer-to-peer playtesting than any space on the internet.

BGG Podcast - Episode 95: Emily Vincent - Usability & UI Design in Board Games, 10+ Hidden Small Box Gems, Libraries, and cats calling in the Spring boardgamegeek.com/blog/12153/b...

Our latest Dialogue at Dusk is now on Youtube! We chat with thelast19digitsofpi about his game Ornithocracy, and how unranked games are particularly powerful for games of negotiation and diplomacy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGK...

I just sent out our first newsletter to subscribers! The biggest piece of news is announcing our first game - Painkillers, one of my designs. I am immensely proud of this game and how far it has come since its inception. Here's a mini thread on the game as it is now.

I heard y'all are interested in sites that list cool tabletop game designers? How about one made by humans which features local indie designers making 100% human-made games?? www.designedinthedmv.org/designers.html

Learn about my newest game design: open.substack.com/pub/mandasha...

New episode of Multiple Win Conditions! This time I’m chatting about how often you get told to “just stick to game design” if you ever mention self-publishing and how I don’t think the distinction is quite so clear. youtu.be/Tdzmkc4qQ7w?...

On May 12th at 3pm est, we'll chat with thelast19digitsofpi about his diplomacy game Ornithocracy, and how unranked games are particularly well suited for games of negotiation. discord.gg/d4nMFq3e?eve...

We are accepting submissions for this year's Midnight Market, an annual event where we host a curated library of small-print run games available for purchase for a limited time. If you would like to submit your game, please click here: forms.gle/tJcB22LQe4aM... The night is for indie games. 🌙

IT'S HERE! Order Keep the Faith, @gregisonthego.bsky.social's storytelling game about a religion in transition with art by @goblinprincete.bsky.social and @momatoes.com. Available at cmichpress.com and some retailers. Ask your local game store! #keepthefaithgame #KTFShareTheLore

Give us a listen!

This conversation with Liz was, as always, a delight!

New Multiple Win Conditions! Today I’m talking about “Find the Fun”. One of the most common bits of advice I got as a new designer youtu.be/vPTe9PlGAP8?...

We are really excited about publishing Color Jam, designed by @stickydoodler.bsky.social and Joe Kell. It's a cozy, print-and-puzzle coloring game for one or for you and some friends. It's perfect for lazy summer evenings or for when you want a whisper of strategy in your coloring. 🏖️🖍️

Just a reminder that The Bonsai Diary print-and-play is 50% off to celebrate its Origins Award nomination. That's a whopping $2.50 off! (And if you truly can't afford it, there are still 27 free community copies available of the ashcan/prototype) stickydoodler.itch.io/the-bonsai-d...

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how so much game design advice that’s available is really just business/product advice. It’s got a lot of survivorship bias and as a result, it’s homogenising and dissuading a lot of what’s possible. So…I’m making a little vlog series about it!