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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con!

@puzzlekindcreative.com

450 followers 420 following 2.2K posts

(He/him) Hey, I'm Adam, a worship tech director, escape room designer & board game designer. bicycler 🚴🏻 & gardener 🍓 Trans rights = human rights Puzzle creations and games for sale: https://ko-fi.com/ajstichter 🧩✂️ Puzzle & Escape Game Design

ko-fi.com

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · Nov 20

Thought it'd be good to do an introduction post - Hi! I'm Adam, an escape game, puzzle box, solo ttrpg, and board game designer.

The pictures are of my puzzleboxes, my solo/coop card game "My Small Garden", one of the rooms in my Air BnB game, and elements from my escape game builds.

Three large puzzle boxes on tables. One has a set of gears and a lock on it side the other has a large Circle and another one has a maze with shapes.

There are cards in a person's hand. In the background there are Black and White cards in a grid.

A parlor with a large mirror above fireplace a couch lamp pictures on the wall. In the center is a rug with a circular table on top of it. On the table there are several boxes some locks and papers.

On the edge of a large crate is a globe and Egyptian statue a Caesar Cipher wheel magnifying glass and some keys. The background is a brick wall.

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 16h

I solved the daily Clues by Sam (Oct 12th 2025) in less than 15 minutes
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cluesbysam.com

Clues by Sam

A daily logic puzzle where you deduce who are criminals and who are innocent!

cluesbysam.com

Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 17h

Ah, just saw the X is on the board too, are you moving the rightmost card in the river in 5 to the X? Will there be fewer and fewer cards in the river?

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 17h

Quick feedback: a lot of these are much easier to associate now. 2 - Idk what A means - is there a B in the game somewhere? 5 - still wondering why the X is on this card instead of on the board, I guess?

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 1d

I just wanted to explain some of the reasons why I interpreted them as I did. I hope it wasn't too forward!

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 1d

4&5 feel like you're interacting with the same action or piece because of the X in both.

And with 6 I would offset the arrow because you're moving from one hex to another, and this feels like something happening on the same hex.

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 1d

suggest actually mirroring that on the cards to set it up visually.

For 1,2,&3 i might also show something like an arrow or a plus symbol to show gaining the card. Likewise, do something to show removal of the X on 4.

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 1d

Secondly, while I think that the symbols for 2 and 3 are clever, there should probably be more alike iconography on 1. You've got that bar on the top and I think that should be mirrored on the card, like what you do on 3. On the 2 tile, you have a different color space where the options are, so I'd

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 1d

So adding a 1-3 word description on the action tiles might help clear things up, especially for new players.

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 1d

So I see how you're trying to communicate just with symbols and while it's cleaner-looking i think that it might also lead to players referencing the rulebook more. I think that symbols shouldn't always be on their own but help players access the state of the game board better at a quick glance.

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Reposted by Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con!

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 1d

Glad to see the Tabletop Games series at @uofmpress.bsky.social take off with @jreylee.bsky.social's book on Catan.

Clear, unambiguous writing on abstraction and gaming with regard to colonial themes.

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 1d

Is it a fun series?

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 1d

My guesses without the context of the game, rules or text.
1. Attack/damage
2. No idea
3. Compare? View?
4. Trash or discard
5. Discard or trash
6. Upgrade?

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 1d

This one felt pretty good. No mistakes and one hint.
I solved the daily Clues by Sam (Oct 11th 2025) in less than 14 minutes
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cluesbysam.com

Clues by Sam

A daily logic puzzle where you deduce who are criminals and who are innocent!

cluesbysam.com

Reposted by Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con!

Chris, Junk Food Games @junkfoodgames.bsky.social · 3d

No AI is used in any of my games. You can find this Human Made icon on everything I make.

Really great icon pack by Hinokodo

Hinokodo @hinokodo.com · 3d

Caught up on the livecast from this week. Someone mentioned that other companies are starting to put 'no ai was used' kind of notes on their games and in rulebooks. I think y'all might be interested to know that there is a movement there and people look for that!

@stonemaiergames.com

the human made icons in the pack. free to use of course.

an example shown on a book. (specifically TUMULUS by Exeunt Press)

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 2d

Doing this first thing in the morning is maybe not what my brain is up for.

I solved the daily Clues by Sam (Oct 10th 2025) in less than 22 minutes
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cluesbysam.com

Clues by Sam

A daily logic puzzle where you deduce who are criminals and who are innocent!

cluesbysam.com

Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 4d

James is fun. Looking forward to watching this.

Reposted by Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con!

Marceline Leiman (High Tide, available now!!) @marcelineleiman.bsky.social · 5d

So when you’re planning for your pitch, think not just in terms of your fun, mechanical hooks—make sure everything is working towards fulfilling the appeal of your game’s promised experience.

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 6d

as a person who designs narrative-focused things, I think that staying true to the story is vitally important to escape game design - if your puzzles or mechanics aren't in service to the story pull players out of the immersion and they begin to realize themselves as frustrated players. ✂️🧩

Matthew Dunstan @matthewdunstan.bsky.social · 9d

In today's video I go over things I learnt from designing 3 different narrative game systems in my design career, and how other designers can think about approaching new narrative games!

Props to Dave Neale and @philwh.bsky.social for being awesome co-designers :)

youtu.be/YJmJ1IALfGc

🎲✂️

What I learned from selling millions of narrative games

YouTube video by Matthew Dunstan

youtu.be

Reposted by Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con!

Kathleen De Vere @kathleen.loadingreadyrun.com · 13d

Good morning! It's Pizzamas, and that means I can finally tell people about THIS:
pizzamas.com/collections/...

I wrote another Pizzamas Dungeons and Dragons adventure!

It's got tons of Nerdfighter references (and a few just for the LRR fans, heh heh), jokes and a message board!

Pizzamas One Shot - Part II

Did you absolutely love the first adventure? Well we’ve got a new one cooked up for you! Now with some new pre-gen characters and packed with a whole lot of excitement! Are you a DM? If you purchase t...

pizzamas.com

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Reposted by Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con!

Crownfell preorder: Nov 18 @weheart.games · 9d

The crowd sale for #Crownfell has been approved for November 18! Add-ons include a neoprene playmat and a solo expansion.

This 2-player asymmetric chess-like has 17 cards unique movement and abilities.

Sign up to be notified here (shares appreciated!) 🧡 www.thegamecrafter.com/crowdsale/cr...

The Crownfell base game box, standing beside the playmat, with some cards on the mat, mid-game.

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 9d

Thanks for the link!

Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 9d

How is mandamina?

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 10d

I am really quite worried about this might be.

Reposted by Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con!

Evan Torner @guyintheblackhat.bsky.social · 11d

14,292 games released on Steam in 2025 alone.
1100 new board games at SPIEL.

The sheer number of games being released now, all over the world by all these different sizes of teams, really boggles the mind, but what *really* boggles the mind is still having to *defend game studies* despite all that.

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Adam Stichter 🔜 Gen Con! @puzzlekindcreative.com · 13d

Hey look, you can spend money to let a corporation spy on you! 🤨

The Verge @theverge.com · 13d

Amazon’s Echo Pop and Dot speakers are the cheapest they’ve been in months

You can save $15.

buff.ly