We travel to a lot of gaming conventions each year but none are quite as unique or as special as the Unpublished Games Festival. In this, its 8th year, Unpub has grown from a tiny gathering of game designers at the VFW Hall in Dover, Delaware, to thousands gathering to make good games better at the Hunt Valley Resort just outside Baltimore, Maryland. Unpub has been an invaluable resource for designers as playtesters pour in to play, give feedback, and improve game designs. It’s quite possible that Dice Hate Me Games wouldn’t exist without Unpub, and I can guarantee you there are more than a few excellent game titles on your shelves that became excellent because of Unpub.

Chapter Marks

00:00:00 – Unpub logistics, planning snafus, and con overview

00:51:00 – Unpub Magic Moments™

00:59:30 – Maastricht gets a turn structure

01:02:45 – Games Keep sales room story where Chris accidentally moves product

01:09:30 – My Father’s Work: “Cursed Ingestible Spontaneous Combustion Pills”

01:11:45 – The most infamous Magic Moment of Unpub

01:16:00 – Richard Launius, super playtester, is turning into a Euro gamer

01:20:00 – The Iron Rooster and the giant pop tart

01:22:45 – Small section on games we wished we had gotten to play

01:31:30 – Designer & Playtester feedback on the convention

01:39:30 – Talk of a future panel about designer etiquette and how to treat playtesters

01:41:00 – Diversity at Unpub

01:46:00 – What we actually did at Unpub

01:46:42 – Lesley Magic Moment – playtesting Yellow Fever 1793

01:51:30 – TC’s Playtesting of My Father’s Work, Maastricht, and Handsome

01:58:00 – Chris’s testing of Homebrewers and revised Brew Crafters: Travel Card Game

02:01:18 – Chris’s playtest of Alpacalypse

02:03:45 – Chris’s playtest of Nat Levan’s Neon Noir

02:05:49 – Chris’s development work on Those Meddling Kids

02:13:15 – Playtesting Yellow Fever with Chris, TC, Keith Ferguson, and Matt Wolfe

02:15:45 – Playtesting Matt Riddle & Ben Pinchback’s River Valley Glassworks

02:19:15 – Unpub Thank Yous

02:22:45 – What’s next for Unpub?

02:27:00 – Backside of the podcast – Game News (VRG, Fireball Island)

02:30:45 – Kickstarter roundup

02:38:30 – TC News (heading to Proto Atlanta)

Games and things mentioned

Unpub Network

Those Meddling Kids

Maastricht

My Father’s Work

River Valley Glassworks

Watch

Thieve’s Den

Icon

Handsome

Homebrewers

Brew Crafters: TCG

Van Ryder Games Graphic Novel Adventures

Fireball Island

Azul

Fleet Dice
Fire in the Library (KS)
Dinosaur Island: Back from Extinction (KS)
Mystery of the Temples (KS)
Vinyl (KS)
Dragon Keepers (KS)
Elder Dice (KS)

ALSO, OUR KICKSTARTER ALL STARS:

Please visit our new game store! You can now find all the Dice Hate Me Games titles at the Greater Than Games store!

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