This design diary follows my journey of creating Hack-a-Pad for the BGG 2025 54-card design contest.
Initially, I was considering a 24-hour contest with the keyword “Pad,” but once I realized I didn’t have the time for that, I pivoted to this 54-card challenge instead.
In this diary, you can follow along with my design process step by step—seeing how I work to get the game contest-ready, tested by a few playtesters, and finished on a tight schedule—all while juggling a busy timeline.
Most content in the diary is dictated by me and transcribed by AI. Minor edition and changes are done manually during publishing of the diary enty.
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Entering Hack-a-Pad to the 54 card design contest
Design Diary – August 12th 2025 (Note: This entry was dictated by the designer and transcribed by ChatGPT, as the designer was multitasking hands-free.) Today, I officially decided to jump into the BGG 54-card design contest. I hoped to do a 24-hour contest again because I had some unexpected success last time. This time the
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Regrets and first card design
Design Diary – August 13th 2025 (Note: This entry was dictated by the designer and transcribed by ChatGPT.) Last night, I already started feeling a bit of regret about entering the contest. I feel like I might be in over my head because I have so much else going on. I really want to give
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First card design prototypes
Design Diary – August 14th 2025 (Note: This entry was dictated by the designer and transcribed by ChatGPT while the designer was fixing a wall in an outbuilding.) Today, I left my day job a bit earlier than usual—just about 45 minutes early—because I know I’ll be working late tomorrow and over the weekend. I’m
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Designing cards and removing unnecessary mechanics
Design Diary Entry – 17th August 2025 (Dictated by the designer and transcribed by the AI while the designer was out picking raspberries!) This weekend has been all about refining the card designs for Hack-a-Pad. I already had the basic card types sketched out, but I used my limited time to really nail down the
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First playtest done
Design Diary Entry – 24th August 2025 (Note: This entry was dictated by the designer while driving a car and transcribed by AI.) Last week was a pretty busy one, but I finally had a chance to start playtesting Hack-a-Pad. The good news: the core idea is working quite nicely. I ran numerous tests by
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Some progress and PnP files done
Design Diary – September 1, 2025 (Note: This entry was dictated by the designer while driving a car and transcribed by AI.) I made unexpected progress today on the rulebook for Prototype 1.1. Writing rules always gives me a much clearer picture of how the game is actually supposed to work — and what’s still
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Fine-tuning and positive surprises
Design Diary – September 24, 2025 (Note: This entry was dictated by the designer while driving a car to work and transcribed by AI.) Version Update It’s been a while since my last entry—two hectic weeks, but I’ve made progress on Hack-a-Pad. I’m currently on version 1b.1a, which means just minor tweaks—spelling fixes and a
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Final Tweaks Before the Contest Deadline
Design Diary – October 13, 2025 Transcribed by AI, dictated by the designer while driving. As the contest deadline approaches, I’ve been making the final tweaks to Hack-a-Pad. The game is almost ready, and I’m feeling a mix of excitement and nervousness. I’ve been refining the rules and making sure everything is as polished as
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Life after the contest
Design Diary – December 07, 2025 Unusually written by the designer himself, spellchecked by AI. The design contest ended a week ago and I have had some time to think about the next steps. Unfortunately, I have no idea how the game was received, as only the top games in each contest category were named.