Links: Behind the Scenes at Mattel & Marco Polo Wins the Deutscher Spielepreis

For the last three years I have worked on board games for the German Market. I have been asked a lot "why only German?" and while I can't talk about our strategy believe me I hope we can expand eventually. Focusing on a specific strategy in a specific market has allowed me to work on 5 new board games over the last 3 years which is a nice increase.

That is a long winded way of answering — when we have the available time, money, and man hours to devote to new board games we passionately get to work on them. That all comes from how well we stoke our core brands because those are the bread and butter that allow us to invest in future games.

Your body aches. Your head feels like it is going to explode. You are tired, but you can't sleep. And every day, you have to painstakingly stick to a schedule, just to take pills to mitigate some of these symptoms. You are living with a chronic invisible illness.

Bitter Pills is a board game about this experience, where you manage your medications and deal with the symptoms of hypothyroidism and polycystic ovary syndrome. Chronic illnesses are often hard to talk about, and in the case of invisible illness, there's no outward symptoms for others to see. By playing Bitter Pills, sufferers are given a way to discuss chronic illness with others through a less complicated language than the usual medical terminology, and their loved ones are able to experience the often stressful process of their daily routine.