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Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest @connor.alwaysawake.games · 7h

Thank you ☺️

Reposted by Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest

Joseph Z Chen 🔜 PAX Unplugged @fanfactories.bsky.social · 7h

Don't think I've anticipated a KS more than this one! Connor is a talented designer & artist. Games executed well where the art + design are by the same person are rare but guarantee a seamless & full experience. Both games are amazing. Highly recommend you check these out.

Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest @connor.alwaysawake.games · 7h

Excited to announce that Club Spooky and That’s the Spirit are finally launching on Kickstarter next week, October 14th!

Assemble the coolest group of ghouls at Club Spooky and find the culprit of your accidental death in Thats the Spirit!

Preview page here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/alw...

A banner for the Ghost Party bundle ks with the launch date of October 14th. A copy of each game is standing upright with cards from the games splayed in front.

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Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest @connor.alwaysawake.games · 7h

If you want to learn more about the games, I took full advantage of KS’s new preview page setup. I also did a thread a little while ago here talking about my goals for the campaign as an indie publisher: bsky.app/profile/conn...

Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest @connor.alwaysawake.games · Aug 20

So in October I’ll be launching my first ks! It’s a bundle of two spooky card games: Club Spooky and That’s the Spirit. I’ve talked about them before, but I wanted to finally do a proper introduction and talk about my goal for all this. 🧵1/6 www.kickstarter.com/projects/alw...

Coming soon: Club Spooky & That's the Spirit

The Ghost Party Bundle: A bundle of 2 spooky card games

www.kickstarter.com

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Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest @connor.alwaysawake.games · 7h

Excited to announce that Club Spooky and That’s the Spirit are finally launching on Kickstarter next week, October 14th!

Assemble the coolest group of ghouls at Club Spooky and find the culprit of your accidental death in Thats the Spirit!

Preview page here: www.kickstarter.com/projects/alw...

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Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest @connor.alwaysawake.games · 12d

Yeah, it took me the last few months of testing out different styles on and off to finally settle on this. After that though I feel like I got the hang of it from the first time around. But still it’s definitely a process of churning out a bunch of stuff to cut down later.

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Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest @connor.alwaysawake.games · 12d

I’m thinking they’re more “tablets” now. I gotta make the template border clearer though 😅 but yeah, all new symbols that I’m trying to make feel more alien. Plus I’m trying out a few tweaks to the gameplay to streamline things.

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Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest @connor.alwaysawake.games · 13d

Needed a break from ks prep so I started working on a thing 👽📚

Closeup of some cards on a table. The category cards from Out of Sorts are in the background and some new out of sorts cards are in the foreground.

A pov shot of a hand of new prototype out of sorts cards

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Reposted by Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest

Joseph Z Chen 🔜 PAX Unplugged @fanfactories.bsky.social · 16d

A handful of copies of Grunt Work are available at Blue Highway Games in Queen Anne, Seattle now! BHG is an awesome local game store, a tremendous supporter of local designers, and our monthly host for our design meetups. Go check them out!

Table display of board games with 5 copies of Grunt Work amongst various other games.

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Reposted by Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest

Matt Soucy @msoucy.gay · 25d

It's a release!
Drawing Dungeon is a roll-and-write dungeon crawl I've been working on for a few months now!
Four maps and a playtime of 15-20 minutes per session, all for $3!
Explore the dungeon, collect treasure, and defeat the boss (or die trying)!

Drawing Dungeon by Soucy Games

Sharpen your pencil and prepare to delve into the dungeon! Switch between exploring new rooms and defeating the monsters inside them to earn more items and treasure!

soucygames.itch.io

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Reposted by Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest

Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · 26d

Re-upping for the weekend crowd. I am exceptionally proud of this one, a sweeping story about ingenuity and failure, great ideas and stupid ones, with a cast that includes inventors, scoundrels, art collectors, actors, ad men, and legendary comic book artist Dave Cockrum.

Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · Sep 9

The Aurora Plastics Corporation, later Aurora Products, was known for their slot cars and licensed model kits. But the publication of a board game would change everything.

youtu.be/TH3QT05C25w

SKITTLE: the board game series that destroyed its publisher

YouTube video by Hollandspiele

youtu.be

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Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest @connor.alwaysawake.games · 28d

Another little ghost drawing (totally not relatable of course).

A ghost slouched down in a green armchair sliding onto the floor. There’s a glow coming from in front

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Reposted by Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest

Joseph Z Chen 🔜 PAX Unplugged @fanfactories.bsky.social · 29d

A week ago I sold my games at the PNW Tabletop Game Market @ PAX West! Sold lots of Grunt Work & sold out of the ~20 copies of Flip Stack Burger Shack I handmade.

Check out my writeup of the experience & see some photos of the other designers there!

fantastic-factories.medium.com/selling-game...

Selling games at the PNW Tabletop Game Market

On August 30th, 2025 I was fortunate enough to be a part of 16 indie game designers selling their games at the PNW Tabletop Game Market @…

fantastic-factories.medium.com

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Reposted by Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest

Joseph Z Chen 🔜 PAX Unplugged @fanfactories.bsky.social · 29d

Overgrown is a great game, and it's been awesome to see it developed week after week at our local playtesting meetup. Bryan has put a ton of work into this so go check it out! It has one of the coolest drafting mechanisms I've ever seen.

Bryan - Good Time Hat Games @goodtimehat.bsky.social · 29d

🌿Overgrown🌿 is LIVE and already funded! Not only that, but we've hit our first stretch goal! I couldn't be happier with the response we've seen so far and I can't wait to get Overgrown into people's hands 🎉

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Reposted by Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest

jay Dragon has firmware updates @jdragsky.bsky.social · Sep 8

good morning, i wrote a manifesto about a new direction for game design / play
possumcreek.medium.com/the-expressi...

The Expressionist Games Manifesto

“Work! Intoxication! Brain-racking! Chewing, eating, gorging, rooting up! Rapturous birth pangs! Jabbing of the brush, preferably right…

possumcreek.medium.com

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Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest @connor.alwaysawake.games · Sep 1

Thanks everyone who came to the PaxWest Game Market! And thank you to all the designers and the Pax enforcers who wrangled the crowds! I’m so glad there continues to be a demand for this.

I’m sure I’ll do a recap post at some point, but for now I’m wiped.

A crowd of people walking past tables where indie publishers are selling their games

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Reposted by Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest

Ashwin Kamath 🔜 PAXUnplugged! @boardgameghee.bsky.social · Aug 31

THE PNW INDIE GAME MARKET is in full swing at #paxwest !!!

What a reception! You all are the best I swear!!!!

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Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest @connor.alwaysawake.games · Aug 29

Ok I stand corrected lol

Reposted by Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest

David Masnato 🔜 PAXU @davidmasnato.com · Aug 28

How do you learn more about these games, get involved in their development, or sign one?

Follow @lunarpunk.games. Join the @breakmygame.com Discord. Attend a @protospielo.bsky.social event. Talk to designers who hang out in those places. You're missing the games because you're in the wrong place!

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Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest @connor.alwaysawake.games · Aug 28

If you wanna see where all these weird little games are (cause there are a lot of them), check out your local indie market!

Joseph Z Chen 🔜 PAX Unplugged @fanfactories.bsky.social · Aug 28

Locally made & limited run indie board games for one night only at PAX West @ 7 PM!! Come check out games from 16 different designers (including myself) and support the local game designer community.

www.alwaysawake.games/pnw-tabletop...

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Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest @connor.alwaysawake.games · Aug 28

Oh totally, but despite that we never see it written in the rulebook. And I think we’d benefit from doing that. The closest I’ve seen is Deception: Murder in Hong Kong where it enforces each player having a minute to talk uninterrupted.

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Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest @connor.alwaysawake.games · Aug 28

Board game designers: what mechanics do I add to my game to stop a quarterback from bullying everyone?

RPGs: have you all tried talking and setting expectations?

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Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest @connor.alwaysawake.games · Aug 28

I love when the board game and rpg worlds break containment and start crossing over. There’s so many “problems” in board game design that are solved non-issues in rpgs and vice versa.

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Reposted by Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest

Lunarpunk Games @lunarpunk.games · Aug 28

If you want to explore design territory that moves away from this focus on colonialist domination or capitalist productivity, start at the end: the game's outcome. What are players trying to accomplish and why? Do they really need to have the most, or is it reasonable to have enough?

Xo3 (it/its) 🐰🔪 @xoe.gay · Aug 28

Hey, if you found me because of the recent discourse about board games and their place in political/artistic expression, check out my video about how competitive games and victory points funnel the human experience through a colonialist/capitalist lens.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTKf...

🎲✂️

The Emperor's High Score

YouTube video by Knife Bunny

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest

jay Dragon has firmware updates @jdragsky.bsky.social · Aug 28

i have a lot of empathy for my sisters in board games who struggle to have their artistic vision appreciated in a substantially more publisher-strangled world while simultaneously being dismissed by other designers who dont engage w the scope of their creative practixe

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Reposted by Connor Wake | Always Awake Games 🔜 PaxWest

Amabel Holland @amabel.bsky.social · Aug 28

I like an efficiency puzzle, I play & have made them, but they're such a small part of what board games can be & it is legit disheartening how many designers & players resist what is out there or tell you what you have made "isn't really a game"

It's often lonely & isolating but is changing slowly

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