{"id":7249,"date":"2026-08-18T15:18:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T14:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/?p=7249"},"modified":"2026-08-18T15:18:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T14:18:54","slug":"unstable-unicorns-maker-launches-new-studio-led-by-rising-star-designer-marceline-leiman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/18\/unstable-unicorns-maker-launches-new-studio-led-by-rising-star-designer-marceline-leiman\/","title":{"rendered":"Unstable Unicorns maker launches new studio led by rising star designer Marceline Leiman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Unstable Unicorns publisher Unstable Games<\/a> has launched a new studio led by rising tabletop designer Marceline Leiman, who will shape its creative direction and design every game it releases for at least the next few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ordinary Magic plans to publish light strategy board and card games set within a single expanding world, with Leiman telling BoardGameWire the studio is looking to put out designs “offering whimsical, magical moments of the everyday” alongside high interaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move comes nine years after Unstable Games owner TeeTurtle’s hugely successful Kickstarter campaign for light card game Unstable Unicorns<\/a>, which raised more than $1.8m from over 33,000 backers<\/a> – and went on to sell more than a million copies worldwide by 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The success of that release led to t-shirt maker TeeTurtle creating its dedicated tabletop studio Unstable Games, which has sold millions across its debut title and follow-up releases such as Here to Slay<\/a>, Happy Little Dinosaurs<\/a>, Casting Shadows<\/a> and Twisted Cryptids<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ordinary Magic’s arrival comes hot on the heels of Unstable Games completing by far its biggest crowdfunding campaign yet, with Here to Slay Dungeons raising more than $6.6m on Gamefound<\/a> in April.

Leading the new studio continues a rapid rise for Leiman, a 2025 Diana Jones Emerging Designer Program winner<\/a> whose published designs include High Tide<\/a>, Wildberries<\/a> and Dino Racer<\/a> – the latter of which picked up significant buzz at Gen Con this year, and is currently ranked at number two in the BoardGameGeek Hotness<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ordinary Magic studio lead Marceline Leiman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Her route into professional board game design began with the 2023 release of her solo mode for North Star Games<\/a> titles Oceans<\/a>, which led to a part-time developer position at Underdog Games<\/a>, as well as client work for Office Dog, WizKids, Allplay, Button Shy Games and Maestro Media, according to her website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Ordinary Magic represents her first full-time job in the industry, with Leiman saying the roots of the venture going back to the period immediately following the downsizing of Underdog in April 2025, when the publisher laid off almost its entire staff as it attempted to weather the impact of US tariffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She told BoardGameWire that Underdog president Nick Bentley, who was also let go by the company at that time, quickly introduced her to Unstable Games, with the pair initially planning to build the new operation together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bentley ultimately went in another direction before that arrangement was finalised and is now director of game design at Taco Cat Games<\/a>, which rebranded from Dolphin Hat Games in May to reflect the huge success of its standout title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leiman said, “We both were fully intending to start up a new studio within Unstable Games. The proposition was always that they were going to do sort of an incubator program, is the way that they proposed it to us.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added, “My role within the studio was always going to be the capacity of being a game designer. Only now with Nick no longer part of the project, it has allowed me to take more of a formal leadership role.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leading the line<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The resulting structure puts Leiman’s work at the centre of the studio, rather than positioning Ordinary Magic as a conventional publisher or imprint sourcing games from a roster of designers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She told BoardGameWire, “Every single game that comes out of Ordinary Magic is a design of mine. I am the designer of each of the games coming from the studio, and you should expect that at least for the next several years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That does not mean that you won’t ever see a game from anyone else besides me from Ordinary Magic. But think of me as the shepherd of the studio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am leading the direction of the design behind Ordinary Magic and the types of games you should expect, and the feelings from the games that you should expect. But I am absolutely open to that changing; it’s not a hard rule.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leiman added that although she is not currently accepting game pitches, she is “always interested in learning what designers are working on, both those I am familiar with and unfamiliar with”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She told BoardGameWire, “I love sharing ideas, and I think the spirit of design is still very much open in terms of the way I like to talk with other designers. I always want to consider whether or not in the future, an opportunity is available between Ordinary Magic and a designer looking to pitch their games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“However, I cannot promise at this time that we are accepting any pitches that we might receive. If I were to look at any pitches, what I’ve described in the past is that Ordinary Magic is looking for games that are offering whimsical, magical moments of the everyday. Not high magic, not combative, though highly interactive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think if someone wanted to pitch to me a game with a theme that was more focused on a curious bit of a real-life moment that inspired them, that would interest me more than somebody who’s coming to me with a pitch purely with a magical concept. I am much more interested in the grounded reality of this world rather than the high fantasy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding direction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leiman said the studio’s creative direction would be to create interactive games which give “meaningful reason for other players to be at the table with you”, but added that would likely not extend to full “take-that”-style designs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said, “What you should expect from us is strategy-light strategy style games, sometimes card games, sometimes board games. I am also very interested in exploring the realms of cooperation as well as indirect player interaction, or both direct and indirect forms of player interaction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Something that you’ll find from me is that I am very interested in sort of passive aggression in games, where the decisions I am making might be to block you or to prevent you from getting something before me. A very old-school style of interaction, German old-school I think some people would think about.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ordinary Magic’s first three titles are set to launch together on Gamefound this autumn<\/a>, taking players to a bookshop, hotel and corner caf\u00e9 through The Curious Little Bookshop<\/a> and two as-yet-unrevealed titles.

Leiman said the original plan had been to launch the games individually, but that Unstable ultimately proposed putting all three into the same campaign after their development schedules aligned – a situation which partly arose due to Leiman’s rapid work rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Curious Little Bookshop || Gamefound image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She told BoardGameWire, “The method that I was taught game design was very much under the tutelage of my professors at NYU Game Center, and there we worked very much within a fast-paced work environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Joining this studio very much is like returning back to that environment, which I am very comfortable being in. The way that I’ve worked within the studio is quite fast, is quite rapid, I guess, in relation to other people’s speeds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But for me, within a short amount of time, what I am looking to do is try out many ideas and fail with many ideas as quickly as possible, so I could find the core of what is fun, what is interesting, what is memorable about a game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It just so happened to align with our release schedule that I would have these three games. Our original plan was to release them one by one, but just with the way that scheduling worked out, we decided that it would be best to put our best foot forward with this new studio by showing the strength of our design, with the strength of our art, and production capabilities.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Operationally, however, Ordinary Magic is currently far less separate from its parent studio than its distinct branding might suggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The only difference between Ordinary Magic and Unstable Games in terms of operation is me,” Leiman told BoardGameWire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added, “Everything that you’ve come to expect from me – my work ethic, my taste, my voice – you should expect to be part of these games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Not to say that I don’t work with the Unstable Games team as well. We actually do cross-pollinate a lot in terms of our playtesting, in terms of our conversations, in terms of problem-solving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So it’s not like I’m totally in a silo or and neither are they from me. There’s definitely a lot of creative support going back and forth between the two studios. And as the studio continues to develop and grow in size, naturally Ordinary Magic will change with it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking about the shared world envisaged by Ordinary Magic for all of its releases, Leiman told BoardGameWire, “You should not expect to see any games released from Ordinary Magic that are not part of this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’ve talked a lot about what that means in terms of building the IP, sort of what direction could it go in the future? Does it open us to different forms of media, different forms of games, or are they all going to be board games and card games? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re leaving that station open right now. But we’re definitely open to exploring what it means to have this IP as we look forward to the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As for recurring characters and locations, I would say keep your eyes open for the GameFound campaign, and I think you’ll be very excited to see some crossover moments between them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ordinary Magic’s debut Gamefound campaign is currently scheduled to launch in the autumn<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more stories like this direct to your email inbox, click here to sign up for BoardGameWire’s free email newsletter. \n\nAnd if you’ve found our reporting interesting or useful, please consider a paid subscription to help support our journalism!<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Leading the new studio continues a rapid rise for Leiman, a 2025 Diana Jones Emerging Designer Program winner whose published designs include High Tide, Wildberries and Dino Racer – the latter of which picked up significant buzz at Gen Con this year, and is currently ranked at number two in the BoardGameGeek Hotness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,135,25,462,256,26,1692,2631,267,1120,2196,2632,2194,2630],"class_list":["post-7249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-board-game","tag-board-games","tag-crowdfunding","tag-designer","tag-diana-jones-award","tag-gamefound","tag-marceline-leiman","tag-ordinary-magic","tag-publisher","tag-studio","tag-teeturtle","tag-the-curious-little-bookshop","tag-unstable-games","tag-unstable-unicorns"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":7}},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t