Tag Wingspan

Board game publishers Stonemaier, CMYK and Eurydice Games on how they’re utilising – and paying to include – fan designs in their releases

Homebrew designs and fan-made rules and variants have been part of hobby board gaming for as long as the pastime has existed - and some publishers have leaned into utilising design work from fans in their published games. BoardGameWire spoke to Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games, Alex Hague from CMYK Games, and Jackson Pope from Eurydice Games about how they've approached bringing in fan-made ideas for their titles.

“Keep the foot on the gas, and don’t get complacent!”: Wyrmspan designer Connie Vogelmann on making the jump to full-time board game design

Few board game designers score the kind of rapid success that has come to Connie Vogelmann - with her debut design Apiary from 2023 flying high in the BoardGameGeek rankings, and follow-up creation Wyrmspan selling "far beyond the wildest dreams" of publisher Stonemaier Games' founder Jamey Stegmaier following its high-profile release last year. That double success - and the "destruction" Donald Trump's administration has had on her work as a grants law attorney - has seen Vogelmann decide to take the plunge into full-time board game design. She spoke to BoardGameWire about navigating freelance design, branching out beyond worker placement, and the challenges that face full-time designers in the current economic climate.