Tabletop Game Designers Association (@ttgda.bsky.social)

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

Official account of the Tabletop Game Designers Association. More information at ttgda.org

@ttgda.bsky.social

We have learned of a website (which we are not linking to) that is charging people to pay to play knockoffs of popular board games like Catan, Wingspan, Agricola and more - different names, crappy art, same mechanics.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

Importantly, people have to pay to play the games online without any of that going to the publishers or designers. They just stole someone's work and are charging for it. None of that money is going to the designers or publishers.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

If you value designers, publishers, and the gaming industry, please do not support sites like this, and let us know if you discover others.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

The D&D and Magic the Gathering teams at Wizards of the Coast are forming a union! TTGDA lauds their efforts, and encourages people to sign the petition to express public support @uwotc-official.bsky.social actionnetwork.org/forms/uwotcp...

actionnetwork.orgStand with Dungeons & Dragons and Magic Workers Forming a Union!The Dungeons & Dragons team and Studio X (Magic: The Gathering; Duel Masters) are forming a union! We are joining the ranks of United Wizards of the Coast - CWA (UWOTC-CWA) and following in the fo...

Tabletop Game Designers Association reposted

Gus&Co

@devoreur.bsky.social

13 Aug

75 % des éditeurs étudiés gardent le nom du jeu après la fin du contrat. 40 % peuvent créer une extension sans consulter l’auteur. La TTGDA passe plus de 50 contrats au crible. Notre analyse : #j2s

gusandco.netDans la jungle des contrats de jeux de société📃 Quels éditeurs de jeux de société proposent les contrats les plus équitables ? L’étude TTGDA analyse avances, royalties, droits...

Tabletop Game Designers Association reposted

BackseatGamer.com

@backseatgamer.com

12 Aug

Board Game Publishers Just Got Their Contracts Scored #BoardGames #GameDesign #TTGDA #BoardGameNews #TabletopGaming #BackseatGamer

backseatgamer.comBoard Game Publishers Just Got Their Contracts ScoredThe Tabletop Game Designers Association scored 50+ publishers' standard contracts out of 110 points. A fifth pay no advance, and 75% keep your game's name.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

13 Aug

A nice (French-language) discussion of our contract survey report. gusandco.net/2026/08/13/c...

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

11 Aug

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. 🧵 🎲✂️

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Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

11 Aug

75% of publishers retain the rights to a game’s name after the publication agreement concludes. A third of publishers deny designers the right to audit their books, and 10% include non-standard deductions to revenue before royalties are calculated.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

11 Aug

Link to the report: irp.cdn-website.com/2b6905d0/fil... Link to the just the rubric: irp.cdn-website.com/2b6905d0/fil...

irp.cdn-website.comirp.cdn-website.com

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

11 Aug

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

11 Aug

We are pleased to recognize the top five scoring publishers (alphabetically): @25thcentury.games @firesidegames.bsky.social @lunarpunk.games @plaidhatgames.bsky.social UP Games

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

11 Aug

Some Key Findings: Only two-thirds of publishers offer a baseline advance above the TTGDA-recommended minimum of $1,000, while 20% offer no advance at all. 40% of publishers retain the right to create expansions without consulting the original game’s designer.

Tabletop Game Designers Association reposted

Elizabeth Hargrave

@elizhargrave.bsky.social

11 Aug

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...

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

11 May

'Some Assembly Required' is a flatpack furniture-building experience that will actually make you feel smart is a game designed by TTGDA member @leighperrott.bsky.social and published by @allplay.bsky.social that's currently funding through Thursday May 14. www.kickstarter.com/projects/boa...

kickstarter.comRiver Valley JewelcraftBack the spiritual successors to River Valley Glassworks and Things in Rings. And: a flatpack furniture-themed tile placement game

Tabletop Game Designers Association reposted

Peer Sylvester

@peersylvester.bsky.social

12 Apr

RIP Reinhold Wittig, one of the big gaming pioneers in Germany has sadly passed away. In the 80s he was THE small indie-publisher, who established the "tube cames", i.e. games in a cube here. Also his artwork of games like Müller&Co is one of the best until today.

Hilk@hilk.bsky.social

My friend and mentor, gaming giant Reinhold Wittig, passed away yesterday. I have written a somewhat personal obituary (in German) which you can find here: wp.me/pekkzY-1Ed

wp.meErinnerungen an Reinhold Wittig (1937 – 2026) - Du bist dran!Ich habe früher bei der Volkshochschule Göttingen gearbeitet. Dadurch hatte ich die Möglichkeit, pro Semester einen kostenlosen Volkshochschulkurs zu besuchen. 2007 fiel mein Blick auf einen Kurs name...

Tabletop Game Designers Association reposted

Peter McPherson ⏭️ PAX U

@peterlmcpherson.bsky.social

28 Mar

Missing Pieces is looking for your game design questions! Our pile is low right now, so your questions has a good chance of being answered in an upcoming @ttgda.bsky.social newsletter. Here are some of my favorite recent questions we've received. Submit yours here: forms.gle/53QtYWvZqJvA...

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

28 Mar

ALERT: Mattel has been pushing game designers to submit pitches using their My Mattel Ideas portal, even if designers are in discussions with Mattel people directly. The portal forces you to commit to a royalty cap of 1.5% plus a 10% deduction to net sales - effectively 1.35%.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

28 Mar

This is not a fair rate. We hope to work with Mattel to get this rectified. Note that this is similar to the Hasbro Spark portal, which we warned against last year. www.mymattelideas.com/ideas/myidea

mymattelideas.comSubmission Agreement | MymattelIdeasMy Mattel Ideas Submission Agreement

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

26 Mar

We conducted a survey of our members about their experiences and thoughts on AI usage in tabletop game design. 🎲✂️ The full report can be found here: irp.cdn-website.com/2b6905d0/fil... A few takeaways: 🧵

irp.cdn-website.comirp.cdn-website.com

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Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

26 Mar

Other concerns mentioned in open-ended responses include commonly-cited problems such as plagiarism and AI's environmental impact.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

26 Mar

Designers also had more industry-specific concerns, such as the possibility that AI could flood the market with bad games, degrade publisher decision-making and customer service, and divide the game-making community.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

26 Mar

irp.cdn-website.comirp.cdn-website.com

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Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

26 Mar

About 4 in 5 respondents say they do not want publishers to use AI-generated marketing materials for their games and are not using it to generate marketing materials themselves.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

26 Mar

Designers' other uses of AI include as a tool to help them do math, run simulations, and code digital implementations for human play.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

26 Mar

irp.cdn-website.comirp.cdn-website.com

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Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

26 Mar

There is almost no support for using AI to make the art that will be included in a published game. However, almost a third of respondents have used AI to generate placeholder art for prototypes.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

26 Mar

About a quarter of designers use AI to edit text they've written, while fewer than one-fifth of respondents use AI to generate placeholder text, and fewer still use it for text to be included in the final version of a game.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

26 Mar

irp.cdn-website.comirp.cdn-website.com

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Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

26 Mar

Many respondents were all-or-nothing on generative AI, with over a quarter being opposed to all uses and another fifth not opposed to any of them.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

26 Mar

About a quarter of respondents have tried using AI to come up with game ideas or mechanisms, while over half of designers said they were strongly opposed to this use of AI.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

26 Mar

irp.cdn-website.comirp.cdn-website.com

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

26 Mar

Just over half of respondents have tried using generative AI for something related to game design. However, of the seven types of use that we specifically asked about, none has been used by more than 40 percent of these designers.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

23 Mar

Kudos to @barnesandnoble.com for including designer names on their game listings!

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

16 Mar

A designer said to us that TTGDA has made him realize that the contract terms he accepts affect every designer who gets a contract from that publisher. And that has impacted his negotiating positions. We love this sentiment!

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

4 Mar

Third year in a row GAMA has snubbed designers with their "Excellence in Game Design" award. 🎲✂️

Tabletop Game Designers Association@ttgda.bsky.social

Shame on GAMA for once again not including designers in their "Excellence in Game Design" award announcement. Last year they promised that this would be corrected in 2026, but again designers are not given the recognition they deserve. The omission is no longer an oversight. It is a GAMA policy.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

4 Mar

Tabletop Game Designers Association@ttgda.bsky.social

Disappointing that the listing of the @originsgamefair.bsky.social Awards finalists (for "Excellence in Game Design") does not mention the game designers. We requested that they include that last year, but the omission continues. www.originsawards.net/news/announc...

originsawards.netAnnouncing the 48th Annual Origins Awards Finalists! — The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & DesignIn Board Games

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

24 Feb

Hex Factor by TTGDA member Frederick Weller is a fast-paced abstract game for 1-4 players where you claim territory by solving puzzles where the pieces have a mind of their own. 1 minute to learn and 10 minutes to play. It's currently funding through 3/17. www.kickstarter.com/projects/sne...

kickstarter.comHEX FACTOR: THE ADDICTIVE, REAL-TIME PUZZLE GAMERace to claim territory by being the first to solve puzzles in an easy-to-learn, real-time, abstract strategy game.

Tabletop Game Designers Association

@ttgda.bsky.social

18 Feb

AEG would not exist without the creativity and hard work of designers.