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 unclear. Just like always, I found some things I thought were obvious in my head but turned out hard to express cleanly. That’s a good sign something needs refining.

I also looked back at the feedback from recent playtests with family and friends. One thing stood out: the start of the game still feels a bit too slow. So I changed the starting hand size and initial app install counts slightly to get things moving faster. Now it seems that playtime is about 30 minutes which was my target. This also makes early decisions more meaningful, which is a bonus.

Another small step forward: I’ve started prepared the print-and-play files for upload. They’re not fully polished yet, but I want to get the ball rolling so I don’t get stuck doing everything last minute. You can find them at https://wannabeboardgamedesigner.com/board-games/hack-a-pad/proto-1-1/

All of this is part of my prep for the Lautapelaamaan event in Helsinki, which is now only a few weeks away (Aug 12-14). I plan to bring Hack-a-Pad there alongside my other prototypes, so I want everything to be as smooth and testable as possible by then. Every day counts at this point.