Cardboard Edison

@cardboardedison.com

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Board game design and tips for board game makers. cardboardedison.com

Screenshot of the header for Cardboard Edison's list of playtest groups
Headers for the 2021 series of reports on board game licensing contract terms.
A few dozen indie games, including Houdini's Last Act, on a game store shelf.
2026 Cardboard Edison Award winner Astrolabe
A judge writing notes while a board with sea turtles and shells on a beach sits on the table.
Two judges creating towers out of magnetic tiles.
Two judges using cards to move their DSV and support ship to discover and observe sea creatures through cards on a board divided into three depth levels.
A hand of cards: crow, cabbage, and pumpkin.
Player shield with the Periodic Table of Flavor, ingredient cards, dry-erase pen and board.
Logo for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award.
Two judges playing PiramiDuel: D4s and scoring tiles.
Three judges playing The Wedding Planner: vendor cards, present tokens, players mats, and more.
StrongHolds being played: a player throwing a magnetic tile at a tower of magnetic tiles.
Four-player playthrough of Ladybugs: a grid of cards and red dice.
The Roots of All Evil being played: rings of cards with numbers, with tokens in the gaps, and Blackthorn the tree demon.
Shelves holding all 20 Cardboard Edison Award finalists.
Limelight prototype: trays of cards, tokens, cash bits, playbills, and more.
The Leftovers prototype: player mats, guidebooks, cards, chits, and more.
Prototype for Hybrid Hijinks: map, cards, and a bag filled with bits.
Prototype of The Wedding Planner: player aids, power cards, various bits, rulebook, “thank you” and “you’re invited” cards, markers, a ring box, and more.
Wunderkammer prototype: board, tiles, and bidding tokens.
Prototype for The Roots of All Evil: cards, tokens in four colors, and a 3D demon tree.
StrongHolds prototype: just a big ol’ brick of stickered magnetic tiles.
Possessions prototype: rules, dice, cards, mats, and more.
Astrolabe prototype: astrolabes with concentric rotating rings, player mats, board, cards, a seeing eye token, and more.
Moonforge prototype: planet tiles, action cards, mining tiles, cubes of various colors, reference sheets, and more.
Match Patch prototype: stacks of crop cards, power cards, player tiles, colored discs, cubes, and more.
Goa Kranti prototype: boards, score tracks, cards, unpunched tokens, and a bag of dice and pawns.
PiramiDuel prototype: tiles with various scoring conditions, a bag of dice, some cubes, and the rulebook.
Screenshot of BagBuilder: controls for adjusting the bag's contents, how many items to draw, and previously drawn items.
Deductive Seasoning prototype: dry-erase boards with periodic-table-like charts, markers, cards, player screens, and more.
Midnight Spawn prototype: large board, lots of cards fanned out, player tokens in four colors, and other bits in baggies.
Braggin’ Wranglers prototype: lassoes, animal tokens, and more.
Prototype of Catacombes de Paris: boards, carts, polyomino and other tiles, and more.
Prototype for Ladybugs: red and green dice; red, blue, and yellow cards; and rulebook.
Prototype for Black Ruth of Dogtown: a large player mat, rulebook, sigil cards, portent cards, and other bits.
Hatchlings rulebook, board, cards, mini turtle pawns, egg shells, and other bits
Cards for two Cardboard Edison designs: Scorplings: real-time, card-slapping, quick-reaction, family, card game (adorable baby scorpion illustration) TwentyONEderland: casual, push-your-luck, card game (photo of cards at table place settings)
logo for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award
2026 Cardboard Edison Award stats: 396 submissions from 34 countries: United States of America Australia Canada United Kingdom Germany Spain New Zealand The Netherlands Philippines Malaysia Denmark Türkiye Sweden South Korea South Africa Portugal Lithuania Japan Italy Ireland France Finland Czech Republic Bulgaria Brazil Belgium Vietnam Serbia Nicaragua Mexico Hong Kong Greece Chile Armenia cardboardedison.com/award
2026 Cardboard Edison Award stats: 396 submissions from 35 countries: United States of America Australia Canada United Kingdom Germany Spain New Zealand The Netherlands Philippines Malaysia Denmark Türkiye Sweden South Korea South Africa Portugal Lithuania Japan Italy Ireland France Finland Czech Republic Bulgaria Brazil Belgium Vietnam Serbia Nicaragua Mexico Hong Kong Greece Chile Armenia cardboardedison.com/award
Logo for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award
Cover of the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award Best Practices book. Two players at a table, playing a game that looks suspiciously like the 2025 award-winner Dot Com.
Logo for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award
Logo for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award
Logo for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award
Snapshot of the top portion of three of Cardboard Edison's reports on board game publishing contracts.
logo for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award
Logo for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award
Logo for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award
Logo for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award
Logo for the 2026 Cardboard Edison Award
Boxes of Houdini's Last Act, some packed up in mailers.
2026 Cardboard Edison Award logo
"Limited Copies of Houdini's Last Act Are Available Now!" Product shot with all the game's components on a table.
Houdini's Last Act components laid out on a table: custom-cut and hand-stamped card sleeves, board with magnetic tracker, tokens, rulebook, mantra card, box, etc.
Cardboard box filled with multicolored cutouts from plastic card sleeves.
Stacks of paper components for Houdini's Last Act, arranged in neat rows on a table.