Amabel Holland
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amabel.bsky.social
Amabel Holland
@amabel.bsky.social
She/her. "Widely considered one of today’s most innovative game designers." - The New Yorker

Board games: https://hollandspiele.com
video essays: youtube.com/@hollandspiele
Patreon: patreon.com/amabelholland
sidekicking: youtube.com/@SBPlaysGames
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📌I'm Amabel (she/her), a board game designer. Out of my 80+ games, I'm best known for City of Six Moons and Irish Gauge.

I co-own the publisher Hollandspiele. In my spare time I make video essays about the future & history of games.

I'm a slutty poly trans woman, and I talk about all of the above.
she beat me by like a thousand points

I bounced off Lacerda's games pretty hard generally - often just a little too heavy/complicated for me - but I enjoyed this one and had an easier time getting the various parts to work together & understanding how they did so
November 26, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
@marcelineleiman.bsky.social has been such a great mouthpiece for the IGNM and the indie design scene in general. I'm shit at promoting the things I'm doing, so it's nice to have her be so excited about the event and spread the word.
As promised, here’s a chat I had with designer @marcelineleiman.bsky.social who wants YOU to make games for Indie Games Night Market. If you are looking to break into games, you’ll want to watch this interview.

youtu.be/-np-0dZWFPs
Designer Marceline Leiman wants YOU to make games for Indie Games Night Market - TCbH PAX Interview
YouTube video by The Cardboard Herald
youtu.be
November 26, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
As promised, here’s a chat I had with designer @marcelineleiman.bsky.social who wants YOU to make games for Indie Games Night Market. If you are looking to break into games, you’ll want to watch this interview.

youtu.be/-np-0dZWFPs
Designer Marceline Leiman wants YOU to make games for Indie Games Night Market - TCbH PAX Interview
YouTube video by The Cardboard Herald
youtu.be
November 25, 2025 at 9:20 PM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
I have long posited that Daniel Craig's accent in Glass Onion is better than Knives Out because in Knives Out he is trying to do a real Southern accent and is bad at it but in Glass Onion he is just talking like Foghorn Leghorn, which is something a real gay Southern weirdo would do.
November 25, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
in a year which, so far, included (1) my book getting published, (2) one of my videos getting some real traction, (3) one of my games taking off in a way that's bonkers banana pants, and (4) surviving, this is still the thing I am proudest of doing
June 25, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
you could say i deserve it but if i hadn't noticed someone else would have.
November 26, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
I'm friends with Cole now, Erin is my sister now, but in both cases that came after their kindness to someone they didn't know very well changed my life. So much of my happiness & success is based on luck & kindness that I can't help but feel a deep, overwhelming gratitude. This life is a gift.
November 26, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
It's luck, but also kindness? Cole Wehrle saying yes to essentially an absolute stranger who asked him to design a game for her new company. The numerous colleagues who told a reporter for the New Yorker to talk to me. Erin Escobedo telling a scared closeted trans girl it was worth it to be Amabel.
November 26, 2025 at 12:49 PM
I'm not the only person who makes board games full-time but I am probably the only one who does it full-time making weird, abrasive, experimental zine-like board games w/ POD production values. That should not work; feels like I am getting away with something. And I do chalk it up primarily to luck.
Some close friends to be get a little frustrated in my tendency to priortise luck in my own career, as they know how I work. I try to explain that work just is buying a lottery ticket. It's necessary, but certainly not sufficient. I know many folks who've worked as hard but the dice have been cruel.
November 26, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
"It is against the TOS to be talked into suicide by our LLM" is possibly the most evil tech bro thing I've ever read
Additionally, OpenAI argues its not liable because Raine, by using ChatGPT for self-harm, broke its terms of service
November 26, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
Uh, excuse me, but this new report written by a doctor whose license is under review for abuse and malpractice actually says being suicidal builds character and so now we're gonna make that national health policy
November 25, 2025 at 11:20 PM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
imagine having to hear shit like "study confirms giving diabetic children insulin reduces their death rates by 100%" as if that hasn't been known for like a hunred years. that's what being trans is like
November 25, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
My books do pretty well, but the backbone of my income is from film and television criticism on my Patreon, so I'm a full-time writer, but I'm doing two separate careers.
I know we know this, but authors need to get better at talking about how they actually make their money. Stop pretending it's from the books.
November 25, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
Big news! The groundhog is back at my sister's and she gave him a plum
November 25, 2025 at 12:39 PM
what is eklund if not wrongness persevering
I want to agree to this in principle, but there’s also a Phil Eklund way to do it incorrectly. Eklund would regularly rename mechanics without offering context, assuming that the player would have the same knowledge and instincts as he did. It resulted in a rulebook that sounded like a muddled code.
there is almost no feedback I will reflexively ignore as a game developer but “you shouldn’t name something X because people don’t know that word” is one of them. oh no! You might learn a new word! God forbid you take away a piece of knowledge from a game that’s not a brand of gun or some shit lol
November 25, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
November 24, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
there is almost no feedback I will reflexively ignore as a game developer but “you shouldn’t name something X because people don’t know that word” is one of them. oh no! You might learn a new word! God forbid you take away a piece of knowledge from a game that’s not a brand of gun or some shit lol
November 25, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
not gonna share any of the odious headlines calling a child a ‘trans activist’ but the clear implication is that she deserved to be attacked, right? that it wasn’t an adult running in on a child but something she provoked?
both the papers and the courts in this country are hostile to trans people
November 25, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
Reposted by Amabel Holland
Played a bunch of new (to me) games at BGG Con, and was honestly most excited by some of the unpublished games from amateur designers.

Maybe I'm just getting jaded about "best practices" games, but I get real jazzed about smart people making new mistakes in this space.
November 24, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
November 24, 2025 at 4:57 AM
hour and some change before I pull the plug on this year's sale - if you've been waiting until the last minute to make your order, well, this is it!
November 24, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
One of the producers on Guilty Gear Strive said it was basically impossible to source player feedback on balance changes online because nobody had original opinions and would just parrot what the most popular content creators said and so they had to rely on data and I think about that every day.
November 23, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Reposted by Amabel Holland
Can I just say that I am being bombarded with ads for Eternity and I think its entire view of the afterlife is monstrous
November 24, 2025 at 3:22 AM