Watch it Played’s Rodney Smith cuts ties with Game Night Picks, accuses owner of unethical advertising practices towards publishers
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Welcome to the latest BoardGameWire newsletter!
Yesterday Watch It Played founder and host Rodney Smith released a video and written report accusing long-time site colleague Chaz Marler of misleading advertisers on the latter’s Game Night Picks YouTube channel. The crux of the claim centres around Marler using YouTube ads to boost subscriber numbers and video views on Game Night Picks by huge amounts in November and December last year.
Analytics released by Smith show those viewers largely disappear less than a minute into watching, however, well before the point publisher adverts - which are charged per video view - are shown. BoardGameWire lays out the situation in detail, alongside Marler’s response and both sites’ plans for their future.
We also have an in-depth interview with Pandemic and Daybreak creator Matt Leacock, in which he talks about his journey as a designer, working with publishers and developers, and his part in the fight for designer rights.
And British board game publisher Alley Cat Games is celebrating its successful pivot into experimenting with more complex Kickstarter releases, after Ada’s Dream triumphed in this year’s heavy games-focused Diamant d’Or prize. Plus all the rest of the essential news from the board game industry, designer-focused advice and articles, and the regular jobs roundup.
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Mike Didymus-True - Editor
Watch it Played’s Rodney Smith cuts ties with Game Night Picks, accuses owner of unethical advertising practices towards publishers
Rodney Smith, the founder and host of board game ‘how to play’ video giant Watch It Played, has accused long-time site colleague Chaz Marler of misleading advertisers on the latter’s Game Night Picks YouTube channel by paying to boost viewer numbers on its videos.
A detailed report distributed by Smith to board game publishers yesterday said Marler had used YouTube advertising to boost views on Game Night Picks – formerly known as Pair of Dice Paradise – in November and December last year, with typical viewers per video rising from the low thousands to an average of 36,700 across those months.
While that might seem ideal for publisher advertisers, Smith added that Game Night Picks had transitioned to a ‘per view’ fee structure early last year – and said more than 90% of viewers in November and December left the videos within the first minute, well short of the point at which publisher advertising was shown.
Pandemic creator Matt Leacock on fighting for designers’ rights, working with effective developers and his publisher ‘pet peeves’
After being catapulted into the board game industry limelight following the success of Pandemic in 2008, Matt Leacock has scored ongoing success through titles such as the Forbidden series, Ticket to Ride and Pandemic legacy titles and his Kennerspiel-winning climate-change co-design Daybreak.
In this in-depth interview he spoke with BoardGameWire about how the industry has changed for designers over the last quarter of a century, how working with developers can best help a design to sing, and why fighting for designer rights is among his most important jobs in 2026.
Alley Cat Games’ pivot to producing more high-complexity designs rewarded with Diamant d’Or win for Ada’s Dream
British board game publisher Alley Cat Games has triumphed in this year’s Diamant d’Or – a prize focused on championing heavier eurogames – after pivoting its strategy several years ago to experiment with crowdfunding more complex designs.
The Toni López-designed dice manipulation game fought off big name titles including Galactic Cruise and Luthier to win the 2026 Diamant d’Or, which was created more than a decade ago to celebrate complex euros the organisers felt were being overlooked by more mainstream board game awards.
Veteran Dice Tower reviewer Sam Healey resigns in wake of saying Alex Pretti, Renee Good were to blame for ICE killing them, after comments began impacting review giant’s annual pledge drive
Sam Healey, the veteran Dice Tower reviewer who has contributed to the channel for much of the last 20 years, has resigned after comments he made blaming Alex Pretti and Renee Good for their deaths at the hands of ICE agents began to impact the company’s annual crowdfunding pledge drive.
Healey posted on Facebook and in the comments section of the Dice Tower’s Gamefound campaign to say he was stepping down from his paid, part-time role at the business, adding that site founder Tom Vasel was “not putting me up to this”.
“We released nine games in 2025 and only one was a flop”: French publisher Super Meeple on how avoiding overproduction is proving a recipe for success
Less is more for French board game publisher Super Meeple, which says its strategy of keeping a tight rein on the number of complex titles it releases each year is paying off in an industry rife with overproduction.
Super Meeple, which releases its own designs as well as localising major titles such as Ark Nova and Gaia Project, says it is planning a “downward trend” for the number of games it releases each year in order to help each title stand out in an increasingly competitive market.
France’s biggest board game award changes rules for 2026, requires entries to name artists on box for first time
France’s highest-profile board game prize, the As d’Or, has updated its rules for 2026 to ensure that artist names must appear on a game box in order for designs to be eligible for the award.
The award, which traces its history back to 1988, has already required entries to show designer names on their game boxes for several years, in addition to requirements for the game to be published in French and available in the French market during the preceding year.
“Our business has exploded in a positive way”: board game distribution, fulfillment specialist Meeples Group moves from start-up to scale-up with huge warehouse expansion
European board game distributor and fulfillment company Meeples Group is continuing its rapid expansion since its launch operating out of attic five years ago, with a move to a huge new warehouse in the wake of soaring numbers of orders last year.
Company co-founder Floris Toorenburg told BoardGameWire the company handled 14-times the number of orders in December 2025 that it did 12 months earlier, and estimated the business will ship about 118,000 packages and pallets this year across e-commerce fulfillment, crowdfunding fulfillment and its own sales channels.
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Other news:
Lewis & Clark: The Expedition designer Cédrick Chaboussit has died - Ludovox
Alain Larousse has joined Asmodee as chief information officer
Design Zone
Elizabeth Hargrave on the origins of her latest title, Sanibel - Mojo Nation
Sen-Foong Lim and Erica Bouyouris from the Ludology podcast talk to Heather O'Neill and Hunter Johnson, members of the Unpub Board of Directors, about the upcoming Unpub Festival 2026
Pam Walls is running another 24-hour Mystery Box Game Jam, with spaces capped at 35
Matthew Dunstan delves into what players might mean when they say your game is unbalanced, and discusses other aspects that might be more important to get right
Nick Bentley investigates why a game which feels special during playtesting might begin falling flat on wider release
Designer Diary: Skybridge by Franz Vohwinkel and Michael Rieneck - BoardGameGeek
Board game designers on BlueSky discuss how many publishers to pitch to at once
Skeleton Code Machine looks at lane battlers and area control via the example of Air, Land, & Sea
Geoff Engelstein looks at mathematical modeling via Expectation Value and how that can help game designs
The Decision Space podcast goes back to the basics in asking: how should we characterize a decision space, and what shapes the arc of a game?
Joe Slack from The Board Game Design Course on why people don’t want to play your game (and what to do about it)
The Game Design Unboxed podcast chats to first-time designer Reed Ambrose about Wispwood, BGG contests, Unpub speed pitching and working with publishers.
Designer Diary: Village Pillage by Peter C Hawyard - BoardGameGeek
The Tabletop Takeaway podcast team look at how to balance wildcards while still making them appealing, through the medium of Splendor
Peter C Hayward and Zachary Strebeck discuss the whole nine yards of board game contracts, including specific percentage numbers, what to avoid and what to look for
Job Watch
US - Graphic Designer, Marketing and Events (Contractor Role) - Ravensburger North America
US - Marketing Manager, Community & Experience - Exploding Kittens
All these jobs are from the very excellent Tabletop Game Jobs Facebook Group - head there to take a look at all the latest listings
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