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mattleacock.bsky.social
Game Designer known for cooperative games including Pandemic, Forbidden Island, and Daybreak
49 posts 1,130 followers 145 following
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Posts 13 Comments 37

Joined over 500 folks in Palo Alto (including Joan Baez!) and over a hundred in Sunnyvale to protest Musk and Trump's illegal dismantling of our government. Keep calling, keep protesting, keep the pressure on.

submitted 9 days ago • 10 comments

Molly House is a strange and meaningful beast, at once a celebration of queer love, a critique of imperial power, and a call to solidarity. More than that, it is a game that can't help but be personally meaningful to the lonesome and tired. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/02/12/m...

submitted 14 days ago • 18 comments

Just finished Cardboard Ghosts by @amabel.bsky.social If you're into understanding systems or helping other people understand systems—especially systems of oppression, you should definitely check this one out. Highly recommended. She throws the gauntlet on page 102. Let's pick it up!

submitted 21 days ago • 3 comments

Honored to learn that Daybreak has been awarded the Lizzie Magie Prize for 2024! The award aims to highlight what board games bring to society as a cultural object. Also should note that Lizzie Magie was a cooperative game designer herself, filing her patent in 1903.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

After watching @nopunincluded.bsky.social 's great preso covering dodgy skin conductivity tests, I suggest checking out this preso I did on tracking emotional reactions using remote playtesting with video. I don't get faces in frame as much as I'd like, but even good audio is super helpful.

submitted 22 days ago • 1 comment

This is such a great video. And, sadly, the conversation about rules and arousal is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to publishing (and design) best practices which are couched in half-cocked studies and which often try to cover for far bigger issues. Short 🧵

submitted 23 days ago • 4 comments

This is not normal, or natural, or inevitable. youtu.be/ZfBkw0j-QIs?...

submitted 30 days ago • 37 comments

The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship has just been announced! Thrilled to announce that there's a new Pandemic System game coming in 2025 based on Tolkien's masterpiece.

submitted 36 days ago • 5 comments

Excited to see that Daybreak won the Spiel of Approval Award for 2024! And if you haven't checked out the Spiel Foundation, be sure to have a look—they do great work.

submitted 65 days ago • 0 comments

Excited to announce *Animal Rescue Team* co-designed with friend and real-life animal rescuer, Lisa Towell, coming next year from Play to Z. This will also be the first game in the SU&SD Presents line. Fun to work with Zev again; we first teamed up on a game called Pandemic back in 2007.

submitted 81 days ago • 2 comments

More please!

submitted 93 days ago • 0 comments

Quick, we need to send some boardgamers to help the folks at COP win at Daybreak.

submitted 96 days ago • 0 comments

Hank Green makes the case that populism was inevitable in this moment of a new communications technology (many-to-many social media), and along the way makes observations about the role of trust in a functional society, along with many other nuggets of brilliance. Spend a half hour on it. Trust me.

submitted 96 days ago • 9 comments