October 20th, 2025 Hey! This newsletter will contain a personal report on the Spiel conference. If you’re here for the updates, skip the first part and scroll directly to the bottom. Because I’ve been busy the last few weeks. Mainly with preparations for the Spiel conference, the largest board game fair in the world. It was the first time I had a stand there, or at least a part of a stand. Since it’s super expensive, I decided to share a stand with two other publishers, and my other company,…
October 20th, 2025 Hey everyone, We’ve got some big news to share this time. And, it’s a very exciting week, since we’re going to the SPIEL conference this Thursday! What we’ll cover: Meet us in Essen at Hall 6 Booth D411! River Rats fulfilment request: please check your tracking link. Stamp Showdown update Big River Rats News Come and meet us at SPIEL Pretty cool banner, right?! If you’re there, please do come and say “hi”. Mathijs (River Rats designer), Peter-Jan (Monsters of Loch Lomond…
September 16th, 2025 Hey everyone, It’s been just over a month since the last newsletter! In this edition: SPIEL, Essen information: let’s meet 🙂 River Rats fulfilment update: all games have shipped! Stamp Showdown update SPIEL, Essen – Hall 6 Booth D411 This is the first year we’re having a stand at SPIEL. Together with Key Card Games we will be showcasing River Rats and Monsters of Loch Lomond. We’d love to meet you there! So come by our booth in Hall 6, D411. We’re looking for some help…
August 7th, 2025 Hey everyone, It’s been just over a month since the last newsletter! In this edition: Introducing my new upcoming game: Stamp Showdown. Spoiler: you can already play it! River Rats production and fulfilment update. My Game Design & Publishing blog & podcast feature Introducing: Stamp Showdown My friends and I were on my balcony, enjoying some Korean bites and makgeolli (Korean rice wine), which serves as fuel for our card game try-out session. While the others were still…
I’ve written a detailed journal of the whole marketing journey and outlined what worked and what didn’t in marketing River Rats before and during the Kickstarter Campaign. Everything is presented on an interactive timeline, with charts, links and all the…
The previous article outlined how River Rats was designed from the lead designer’s perspective, Mathijs Jansen. But here is the same story, but now from my perspective. If want to know about marketing the campaign, check this article. I wanted to…
June 25th, 2025 Hey everyone, It’s been pretty busy since the end of the Kickstarter campaign. We reached over €20k with almost 750 backers, which is really amazing! From now on, I’ll keep sharing the news on production, fulfillment and future games once per month. In this newsletter, I’ll update you on the status of production and fulfillment of River Rats, and tell you a bit more about a possible upcoming game. And, I need your input for it! Production & Fulfillment River Rats Below you’ll…
Written by Mathijs Jansen I would have never expected to be making a game about anthropomorphic animals on a river cruise. In game design, you are trying to set and deliver on expectations. On the other hand, in comedy you…
A lot has changed since my last design diary. As mentioned in the previous diary, I put the game I was working, Dream Guardians, in the freezer. And after finding help from Mathijs we came out with a revamped game: River Rats….
This update took a lot longer than I planned, but I’ve decided to put Dream Guardiansin the freezer for now. Dream Guardians struggles There were two big issues with the game: First, it was hard to manage all the cards without…
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