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• Steve Jackson has posted designer notes for Munchkin Zombies on the SJG website.
• Designer Andy Looney spoke at Savannah College of Art & Design in February 2011, talking about his approach to game design. Looney's write-up of the talk in The Looney Labs Fan Club includes a handout titled "How I Design a Game" that includes straightforward advice like "simplify", "repeat until fun" and the ever-popular "get defensive and brood".
• U.S. publisher Tasty Minstrel Games is importing Spiel 2010 releases Magnum Sal and Sun, Sea & Sand, but making the games available only as a direct purchase through TMG for the moment. For details, head to this link for Magnum Sal and this link for SSS.
• Sean Ross' Haggis is now playable online at Board Game Arena, where Ross is currently ranked #2 in the standings. Sign up and try to knock him down.
• Laurent Escoffier and Marc Tabourin's Photo Party is available as an iOS app, which seems like an ideal blending of game design and technology.
• Scott Nicholson is featured in an article in The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) about his efforts to have games available in libraries as a community resource.
• In his blog Talking Game, Eric Franklin explains the benefit of breaking through your game preferences: "When we reach past our preferences, we sometimes find games we would otherwise have missed. And some of these games may become favorites, if we give them a chance." Sometimes, of course, we just waste our time and reinforce why we have those preferences to begin with, but not always – and those odd counter-tidal finds are sometimes more enjoyable for being so unexpected.
• James Sheahan has started recording Gaming World Records on his MetaGames blog following a trip through the Himilayas in Nepal. While you might not be able to top his "World's Highest Altitude Boardgaming Record", Sheahan invites you to submit gaming-related world records of your own.
• Even The New York Times dishes out a thimbleful of hate for Monopoly in its review of Under the Boardwalk, a documentary about the game from Kevin Tostado: "Monopoly, slow-moving and dependent largely on chance, is no spectator sport." Still haven't watched this movie as I appear in it and am not eager to see myself on screen – someday I'll take the plunge...
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