Gabe Barrett
29 episodes listed below
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The Board Game Design Lab was created for one purpose: to help you design great games people love. To accomplish that goal, this podcast interviews designers, publishers, and board game insiders on specific topics related to game design. I don't waste time talking about recently played games or pop culture. Instead, the show does a deep dive into subjects that I hope you’ll find extremely valuable as you progress through your game design journey.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Board Game Design Lab makes the creative and commercial decisions behind tabletop games unusually concrete.
Board Game Design Lab treats tabletop games as things that must be shaped, tested, financed, and eventually placed in people's hands. The host builds focused interviews around working problems, moving from foundational design questions and player experience to crowdfunding…
A spaceship's core breach becomes your lesson in making failure fun at the table.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A workshop-style conversation about helping new designers learn without losing momentum.
Jay Cormier's conversation treats game design teaching as a practical, hands-on problem: how to bring new designers along without pretending a first pass is already done.
A practical look at making preschool games feel like real games.
This conversation follows the practical work of making games for preschoolers without flattening them into chores. The core question is simple enough and harder than it looks: how do you build something a four-year-old can grasp while still making it feel like a real game?
A clear-eyed look at making board game work pay.
This episode takes a practical look at earning a living in board games and treating design as part of a larger business. The host and Joe Slack move through the less polished realities of going pro: market size, product fit, consulting, publishing, crowdfunding, writing, and the…
A grounded look at creativity, tropes, and the work needed to keep ideas from going stale.
Creativity here is treated less like a flash of inspiration than a habit worth practicing. Jason Perez brings a rare mix of psychotherapist, licensed clinician, and game designer, and that blend keeps the conversation tied to how people actually think, fall back on tropes, and…
A practical look at how wallet-sized games are designed, sold, and kept moving as a repeatable business.
The episode frames small games as a business model as much as a design choice. Jason Tagmire of Button Shy Games walks through wallet-sized designs, repeatable packaging, a monthly schedule, and a sales mix that includes direct sales, Kickstarter, Patreon, and occasional Black…
A practical look at the questions that shape a game before it takes form.
This episode stays close to the basics of game design and asks the questions that usually come before a concept hardens into a real game: who it is for, how many players it needs, how long it runs, and how heavy it feels.
A plainspoken look at why crowdfunding marketing works when the value story is clear.
This episode takes a practical look at crowdfunding marketing for board games and what makes a campaign feel worth backing. It stays focused on the pieces that actually move pledges: Facebook ads, email marketing, page presentation, reward value, and the wait before delivery.
A clear look at the control-versus-reach tradeoffs behind direct sales, Amazon, and distribution.
The episode follows a board-game publisher’s growth with a practical eye, never pretending distribution is easy. Amy and Dusty Droz weigh direct sales, Amazon, and broader distribution against one another, and the thread that holds it together is simple: where does a company…
Practical D&D craft for working DMs.
Live-wire esoteric teaching in motion.
Fast clues, drinks, louder wrong answers.
Ten years is the lesson.
Seventy-one tips is a lot, but the episode keeps the pile manageable.
Creativity starts with catching the shortcut before it hardens.
Start before the prototype.
What makes someone hit pledge instead of closing the tab?
Print-and-play is getting some real table time.
Design theory gets practical fast.
Small batch publishing gets the spotlight.
Readable characters come first.
How do you get from nothing to launch?
How do you teach game design?
Start with Wingspan before the awards and the later attention.
Start with control.
Gabe starts broad.
Designing a game and publishing one tug at different muscles.
Can a game design hobby pay the bills?
Small games go under the work light.
Corey starts with process.
Luck is the design problem on the table.
How much math belongs in game design?
Math gets the spotlight.
Preschool games get a hard reset.
Games tell stories at the table.
Playtesting starts with getting honest about what players are actually doing.
Why is focus so slippery?
Indie publishing is noisy.
Over 100 questions came in.
Pam Walls says she built her list around 21 board games every designer should play, then narrowed it to 10 games that expose mechanics, theme, and designer choices.