Stagione 3
Enthusiastic Art with Zeta Gaston
Side Quest
The Road to GenCon 2026
Pivot to Pitching Publishers
Marketing Ethics with Dan Thurot
Piecing It Together
Game Market West 2026
Manufacturing the Fun
Feedback Recaps
Hands On
1 di 7
This week, The Misplay welcomed Zeta Gaston to the podcast. Zeta joined Jason and Mark to tell the story of how she became the artist for Under One Sky. They discussed the revisions, tools, and process that lead to submitting the art to the manufacturer for the pre-production copies of the game in preparation for GenCon 2026.
Jason and Mark took a pause from all the business and logistics talk surrounding Under One Sky. They sat down together to develop an old game concept. They outline the reason for beginning development of another game and learn about 18-card card games. They touch on what's coming up next for Under One Sky.
Jason and Mark go through the logistics and planning leading into Jason's weekend at KublaCon and the 3rd annual Misplay trip to GenCon. They give in depth updates about Under One Sky's, art, manufacturer, logistics, and next steps.Jason gives a special thanks to Game Crafter for a donation towards the summer board game design program Jason will be teaching this summer.
Jason and Mark discuss the possibility of pitching Under One Sky to publishers. Mark shares an outline for how to go from concept to submitting to publishers. Jason explains the reasons why The Misplay never considered looking for a publisher. He also shares a little glimpse into the plan for the summer after a sit down with Randy O' Connor before KublaCon later this month.
We were fortunate to have Dan Thurot of Space-Biff join us for a conversation. Dan shared his thoughts on his ethics based approach towards reviewing games. He also broke down the difference between previews, reviews, and how to play videos and shared his insight into the nuances and objectives of each from his perspective. https://spacebiff.com/
We took a half step back to review our work on the constellation cards for Under One Sky. The constellation cards have always been challenging to the game's design and we are coming up to the deadline we need to meet to continue moving forward with the game's art. Jason is still millimeters deep into working out the physical dimensions of the game board for the manufacturer.
We took the podcast and Under One Sky down the road to San Jose for the March edition of Game Market West. Jason manned our table and got to teach the game to another group of playtesters. Mark continued learning about manufacturing by interviewing designers that had games for sale at the event. The Misplay would like to extend it's appreciation for the organizers at Golden Gate Game Makers and Guildhouse.
We follow up our components exploration with some in depth discussion of the decisions around our tiles and board for Under One Sky. The questions we grapple with will have implications for our search for a manufacturer and influence the continued direction we ask the artist to go for us. Later, Jason tells some stories from his visit to GDC.
We just turned the page on two milestone opportunities in the development of Under One Sky. We found out if we made the cut or not for the Cardboard Edison finals and Jason ran a set of blind playtests. We took turns running each other through the feedback we received from each event and debriefed in real time about what the feedback means for our game going forward.
We took a field trip to local game café The Game Parlour to look at, handle, and study the components of a variety of games. We broke down boards, tiles, counters, and unique pieces in search of the materials and aesthetics that best serve Under One Sky. The Game Parlour was incredibly generous in giving us the time and space to work and record in one of their highly sought-after gaming rooms, and we’re deeply grateful for their hospitality.