The project is called Tiny Games, and it is out of a studio in the UK called Hide & Seek. They are developing an app/PDF with hundreds of small games that you play in the physical world with other people.

If you don’t know, I’m now running a research lab called Because Play Matters, where I focus on transformative games for informal learning and the future of gamification.   The concept of Play is an important one, and one we don’t do enough in life.

This app/PDF is all about enabling you to play with the people around you.  I made a video in support of this campaign.  It’s not a paid video, nor did they even ask for this.  (they don’t even know I’m doing it!)  I just feel this is very important, so I want to help get the word out.

You can see my video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vapE5W2QsI

and you can support the project at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1755218595/tiny-games-hundreds-of-real-world-games-inside-you

I’m working on a new social game. One of the things I need for the game are get-to-know-you questions.

So, I thought it might be fun to crowd source it. If I use your question, I’ll give you appropriate credit on the game card/screen with your question!

If you want to see your name in a game, this is your chance!

Come and contribute a question by April 13th at

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDRsZi1TXzVkdWh3cDcxQXdfbHF3VkE6MQ

I wanted to first apologize if you had any spam coming your way from this blog.  Bad guys found their way in and replaced my RSS feed with their own Web site, so I ended up deleting the whole blog and reintroducing the content.

I will be at PAX East spending most of my time in the tabletop area, so come by and say howdy!

I have continued to add videos to my InPlay video series at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL87F7ABA9235A8565

I also went to the Game Developers Conference this year, and presented a series of videos with my thoughts:

No new news on my other board game designs – one company had a contract on my adventure game for 18 months, then canceled the contract and sent it back to me.  That was certainly disappointing.   Other games are under consideration elsewhere.   If I do get news, I’ll post it here!

I’m wrapping up my sabbatical at MIT over the next month or so, then will be heading back to Syracuse.

Most are under 5 minutes.

I’ve made about 30 of them so far, and you can find them all at
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL87F7ABA9235A8565

If you want to keep up with my YouTube video series, they are all posted in my snicholson channel at
http://www.youtube.com/snicholson

You can also keep up with me via my public Google+ channel, which is at
http://gplus.to/snicholson

If you want to keep up with my scholarly view of games, you can do so at
http://becauseplaymatters.com

You can watch the video here:

or download it through the Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/details/TeachingVideoAboutTheRepublicOfRome.

This isn’t a return of BGWS, but a special video for the auction. I didn’t have a very good experience putting this together, so I don’t plan on doing this again.

If you’d like to talk about this video, head over to http://boardgamegeek.com/video/7523/the-republic-of-rome/teaching-video-on-the-republic-of-rome-with-silly

You can find the auction at
http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/67340/bgws-closeout-auction-ending-may-22/

You can see the video at
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7361550n

and learn more about the filming of my segment at
http://boardgamegeek.com/article/6537880

As I’ve closed down the show, I’ve decided to sell off about 350 of my games (which is about a third of my collection, so I’m not selling everything!) You can find information about the sale at http://tinyurl.com/bgwssale

You can still hear me on the On Board Games podcast. I was particularly happy with Episode 58, where we talked about ideas we are working on as game designers. You can hear that episode at

During the last few months, I’ve been writing about games in two places.

First – I’ve been looking at larger issues in board games as the Game Professor over at Board Game Info. You can find these posts over at boardgameinfo.com and there is an RSS feed at http://www.boardgameinfo.com/external.php?do=rss&type=newcontent&sectionid=43&days=120&count=10action=subscribe

Second – I’ve started a blog on Board Game Geek called “Get Off My Lawn.” This is a very different take about games – I’m taking aspects of games that bother me for some reason and talking about them. My hope is that it will help future designers to see things about their game that might bother some players. This is Grumpy Old Man Nicholson, who has been in the background for years during Board Games with Scott, enjoying his time to grouse about games. You can read these posts over at boardgamegeek.com or get an RSS feed at http://boardgamegeek.com/rss/blog/292

I will be doing a teaching video about Republic of Rome, as that was the winner in the auction for Jack Vasel. I’m reading the rules, but have a play of it on the schedule for later in April, so I expect to work on this video in May.

Finally, I am getting ideas for a “Things I Regret” BGWS video, where I do some of the bits and games that I truly regretted not getting around to for BGWS.

I have donated a board game video on the game of the top bidder’s choosing.

So, if you are a publisher or designer wanting to get the word out about your game or just have a favorite game you want the world to know about, here is your chance.

You can bid on this at
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/63654/item/1557385#item1557385
through February 7th.