Dan Thurot
@danthurot.bsky.social
I'm just some dude. A cardboard cowboy. I also write Space-Biff!, the world's first and only board game review site.
Reposted by Dan Thurot
my personal mantra, “Always Bet on John Clowdus”, remains a fundamental truth of the universe.
In the Shadow of Atlas is another single-deck game by John Clowdus, and it finds him in familiar territory: the lane-battler. This is a smart and self-contained game that recalls some of Clowdus's earliest experiments. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/11/05/i...
Atlas Boogied
Something I’ve always appreciated about John Clowdus’s games is the way they evoke larger worlds with two sentences and a half-dozen illustrations. In the Shadow of Atlas, for instance,…
spacebiff.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:26 PM
my personal mantra, “Always Bet on John Clowdus”, remains a fundamental truth of the universe.
Reposted by Dan Thurot
A personal favorite in playtesting and one I'm excited to snag at PAXU.
Adulting is another forthcoming Indie Games Night Market title, this time tackling the stresses and self-care of an ordinary weekend. It is warm, inviting, and does the multi-victor thing without feeling like a cop-out. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/11/06/a...
Joy in the Burnout
Eric Dittmore’s Adulting is not Johnny O’Neal’s Adulthood, although it’s inevitable I’ll mix up the two titles somewhere in the text of this review. In fact, I already…
spacebiff.com
November 7, 2025 at 1:50 AM
A personal favorite in playtesting and one I'm excited to snag at PAXU.
Reposted by Dan Thurot
Dan’s review beautifully articulates my intent behind Adulting. I’m so glad it resonates.
“Adulting holds up a mirror to our own busy lives... The stolen moments of joy amid the bustle. The relief of a helping hand from somebody sitting beside us. What a warm, inviting, comforting game.”
“Adulting holds up a mirror to our own busy lives... The stolen moments of joy amid the bustle. The relief of a helping hand from somebody sitting beside us. What a warm, inviting, comforting game.”
Adulting is another forthcoming Indie Games Night Market title, this time tackling the stresses and self-care of an ordinary weekend. It is warm, inviting, and does the multi-victor thing without feeling like a cop-out. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/11/06/a...
Joy in the Burnout
Eric Dittmore’s Adulting is not Johnny O’Neal’s Adulthood, although it’s inevitable I’ll mix up the two titles somewhere in the text of this review. In fact, I already…
spacebiff.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Dan’s review beautifully articulates my intent behind Adulting. I’m so glad it resonates.
“Adulting holds up a mirror to our own busy lives... The stolen moments of joy amid the bustle. The relief of a helping hand from somebody sitting beside us. What a warm, inviting, comforting game.”
“Adulting holds up a mirror to our own busy lives... The stolen moments of joy amid the bustle. The relief of a helping hand from somebody sitting beside us. What a warm, inviting, comforting game.”
Reposted by Dan Thurot
HELL YEAH THIS GANE IS AWESOME!!!!!!
Adulting is another forthcoming Indie Games Night Market title, this time tackling the stresses and self-care of an ordinary weekend. It is warm, inviting, and does the multi-victor thing without feeling like a cop-out. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/11/06/a...
Joy in the Burnout
Eric Dittmore’s Adulting is not Johnny O’Neal’s Adulthood, although it’s inevitable I’ll mix up the two titles somewhere in the text of this review. In fact, I already…
spacebiff.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:01 PM
HELL YEAH THIS GANE IS AWESOME!!!!!!
Adulting is another forthcoming Indie Games Night Market title, this time tackling the stresses and self-care of an ordinary weekend. It is warm, inviting, and does the multi-victor thing without feeling like a cop-out. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/11/06/a...
Joy in the Burnout
Eric Dittmore’s Adulting is not Johnny O’Neal’s Adulthood, although it’s inevitable I’ll mix up the two titles somewhere in the text of this review. In fact, I already…
spacebiff.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Adulting is another forthcoming Indie Games Night Market title, this time tackling the stresses and self-care of an ordinary weekend. It is warm, inviting, and does the multi-victor thing without feeling like a cop-out. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/11/06/a...
In the Shadow of Atlas is another single-deck game by John Clowdus, and it finds him in familiar territory: the lane-battler. This is a smart and self-contained game that recalls some of Clowdus's earliest experiments. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/11/05/i...
Atlas Boogied
Something I’ve always appreciated about John Clowdus’s games is the way they evoke larger worlds with two sentences and a half-dozen illustrations. In the Shadow of Atlas, for instance,…
spacebiff.com
November 5, 2025 at 6:54 PM
In the Shadow of Atlas is another single-deck game by John Clowdus, and it finds him in familiar territory: the lane-battler. This is a smart and self-contained game that recalls some of Clowdus's earliest experiments. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/11/05/i...
Reposted by Dan Thurot
Dan Thurot has cost me so much fucking money (complimentary)
November 5, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Dan Thurot has cost me so much fucking money (complimentary)
CogDrive Neon is another John Clowdus lane-battler. But it's also a deck-builder. And a set-matching game. And it does all these things in its own way, making it both fascinating and a little hard to approach. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/11/04/c...
Robots Punching Robots
space-biff: noun (informal) A sudden, sharp blow or punch or lasering, as delivered from a robot or spaceship to another robot or spaceship I believe it goes without saying that any game about giga…
spacebiff.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:09 AM
CogDrive Neon is another John Clowdus lane-battler. But it's also a deck-builder. And a set-matching game. And it does all these things in its own way, making it both fascinating and a little hard to approach. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/11/04/c...
Reposted by Dan Thurot
Honored and tickled by Dan Thurot’s review of Rowin, to be sold at IGNM at Pax Unplugged.
“There’s no small measure of hate-drafting...”
“There’s the pleasant whiff of press-your-luck…”
“It has that classic feel, like something you’d dredge out of an old monastery’s archives.”
“I dig it.”
“There’s no small measure of hate-drafting...”
“There’s the pleasant whiff of press-your-luck…”
“It has that classic feel, like something you’d dredge out of an old monastery’s archives.”
“I dig it.”
November 4, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Honored and tickled by Dan Thurot’s review of Rowin, to be sold at IGNM at Pax Unplugged.
“There’s no small measure of hate-drafting...”
“There’s the pleasant whiff of press-your-luck…”
“It has that classic feel, like something you’d dredge out of an old monastery’s archives.”
“I dig it.”
“There’s no small measure of hate-drafting...”
“There’s the pleasant whiff of press-your-luck…”
“It has that classic feel, like something you’d dredge out of an old monastery’s archives.”
“I dig it.”
Rowin by @aveknots.bsky.social merges abstract determinism with chancy roll-a-thons, producing a lovely little game that's more than the sum of its parts. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/11/03/r...
Putting on a Row
Rowin is… not about rowing. Sorry, rowing enthusiasts. You’ve come to the wrong place. Again. Instead, Rowin is about getting five stones in a row. I suppose that’s how rowing wor…
spacebiff.com
November 4, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Rowin by @aveknots.bsky.social merges abstract determinism with chancy roll-a-thons, producing a lovely little game that's more than the sum of its parts. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/11/03/r...
It was a slower week round these parts, but hardly a bad one.
What did you get to the table?
What did you get to the table?
November 3, 2025 at 10:48 PM
It was a slower week round these parts, but hardly a bad one.
What did you get to the table?
What did you get to the table?
Only two days left to back Club Spooky and That's the Spirit!, two indie games by @connor.alwaysawake.games.
November 2, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Only two days left to back Club Spooky and That's the Spirit!, two indie games by @connor.alwaysawake.games.
Bohemians puts you in the worn-down shoes of a poverty-stricken artist, wandering Paris and working dead-end jobs in your pursuit of great art. It might not look like much on the outside, but it's a masterwork in how to elevate a game through a vivid setting. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/10/30/b...
Syphilitics
Moving to Paris to embrace my inner bum/artist has always been one of my life goals, so Jasper de Lange’s Bohemians was a safe bet. Set in the drowsy days and smoky nights of Paris-That-Was, …
spacebiff.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Bohemians puts you in the worn-down shoes of a poverty-stricken artist, wandering Paris and working dead-end jobs in your pursuit of great art. It might not look like much on the outside, but it's a masterwork in how to elevate a game through a vivid setting. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/10/30/b...
Reposted by Dan Thurot
Very good review! Thought provoking.
The Great Commission strives to tell the story of early Christian evangelists. I have complicated feelings on it. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/10/29/t...
Neither Board Nor Counters
I remember the first time I felt doubt. It was the night my little sister was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. Mom figured it out at the grocery store — we’d been through this once before — an…
spacebiff.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Very good review! Thought provoking.
Reposted by Dan Thurot
A stunning bit of writing that is simultaneously about cardboard bits & bobs, but also the messiness of Christian history and the even messier reality of making sense of it, and peace with it, individually and together.
The Great Commission strives to tell the story of early Christian evangelists. I have complicated feelings on it. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/10/29/t...
Neither Board Nor Counters
I remember the first time I felt doubt. It was the night my little sister was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. Mom figured it out at the grocery store — we’d been through this once before — an…
spacebiff.com
October 30, 2025 at 4:16 PM
A stunning bit of writing that is simultaneously about cardboard bits & bobs, but also the messiness of Christian history and the even messier reality of making sense of it, and peace with it, individually and together.
Reposted by Dan Thurot
What a powerful review from Dan. This is what board game criticism should be.
The Great Commission strives to tell the story of early Christian evangelists. I have complicated feelings on it. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/10/29/t...
Neither Board Nor Counters
I remember the first time I felt doubt. It was the night my little sister was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. Mom figured it out at the grocery store — we’d been through this once before — an…
spacebiff.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:40 PM
What a powerful review from Dan. This is what board game criticism should be.
Reposted by Dan Thurot
Another fantastic board game review/essay from Dan!
The Great Commission strives to tell the story of early Christian evangelists. I have complicated feelings on it. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/10/29/t...
Neither Board Nor Counters
I remember the first time I felt doubt. It was the night my little sister was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. Mom figured it out at the grocery store — we’d been through this once before — an…
spacebiff.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Another fantastic board game review/essay from Dan!
I was delighted to chat with Liz about The Great Commission, a game that I broadly enjoyed, but also felt quite a few feelings and thought quite a few thoughts about.
@danthurot.bsky.social and I got nerdy with our discussion of The Great Commission, a game about running a church. We had complicated feelings about it, but that's kind of our thing. youtu.be/mgBUMMdE_yc
The Great Commission: Chat w/ Dan Thurot
YouTube video by Beyond Solitaire
youtu.be
October 30, 2025 at 2:44 PM
I was delighted to chat with Liz about The Great Commission, a game that I broadly enjoyed, but also felt quite a few feelings and thought quite a few thoughts about.
Reposted by Dan Thurot
This is the kind of review that makes me respect Dan so much.
Who else writes about board games in a way that feels revelatory?
Who else writes about board games in a way that feels revelatory?
The Great Commission strives to tell the story of early Christian evangelists. I have complicated feelings on it. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/10/29/t...
Neither Board Nor Counters
I remember the first time I felt doubt. It was the night my little sister was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. Mom figured it out at the grocery store — we’d been through this once before — an…
spacebiff.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:21 PM
This is the kind of review that makes me respect Dan so much.
Who else writes about board games in a way that feels revelatory?
Who else writes about board games in a way that feels revelatory?
Reposted by Dan Thurot
“Here’s what I do believe: we can make this world a beautiful place. We can feed the hungry. We can clothe the naked. We can visit the prisoner. And we never needed a Rapture to do it.”
Dan’s got me crying reading a review of a board game.
Dan’s got me crying reading a review of a board game.
The Great Commission strives to tell the story of early Christian evangelists. I have complicated feelings on it. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/10/29/t...
Neither Board Nor Counters
I remember the first time I felt doubt. It was the night my little sister was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. Mom figured it out at the grocery store — we’d been through this once before — an…
spacebiff.com
October 30, 2025 at 10:24 AM
“Here’s what I do believe: we can make this world a beautiful place. We can feed the hungry. We can clothe the naked. We can visit the prisoner. And we never needed a Rapture to do it.”
Dan’s got me crying reading a review of a board game.
Dan’s got me crying reading a review of a board game.
Reposted by Dan Thurot
Appreciating Dan's kind and thoughtful analysis of space I find myself in. Somewhere in between not believing and a church that don't really care to create space for people to doubt.
The Great Commission strives to tell the story of early Christian evangelists. I have complicated feelings on it. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/10/29/t...
Neither Board Nor Counters
I remember the first time I felt doubt. It was the night my little sister was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. Mom figured it out at the grocery store — we’d been through this once before — an…
spacebiff.com
October 30, 2025 at 4:48 AM
Appreciating Dan's kind and thoughtful analysis of space I find myself in. Somewhere in between not believing and a church that don't really care to create space for people to doubt.
Reposted by Dan Thurot
I haven’t read a piece of Dan’s criticism that I resonated with quite as much as this one. I sometimes wonder why I still call myself a Christian and identify as religious in spite of all of the bullshit it entails. Dan captures the feelings of doubt and hopefulness that drives my faith.
The Great Commission strives to tell the story of early Christian evangelists. I have complicated feelings on it. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/10/29/t...
Neither Board Nor Counters
I remember the first time I felt doubt. It was the night my little sister was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. Mom figured it out at the grocery store — we’d been through this once before — an…
spacebiff.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:56 AM
I haven’t read a piece of Dan’s criticism that I resonated with quite as much as this one. I sometimes wonder why I still call myself a Christian and identify as religious in spite of all of the bullshit it entails. Dan captures the feelings of doubt and hopefulness that drives my faith.
Reposted by Dan Thurot
A wonderful, if heavy, read
The Great Commission strives to tell the story of early Christian evangelists. I have complicated feelings on it. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/10/29/t...
Neither Board Nor Counters
I remember the first time I felt doubt. It was the night my little sister was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. Mom figured it out at the grocery store — we’d been through this once before — an…
spacebiff.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:49 AM
A wonderful, if heavy, read
Reposted by Dan Thurot
A moving read if you've ever had spiritual doubt, no matter where you ended up.
The Great Commission strives to tell the story of early Christian evangelists. I have complicated feelings on it. My review: spacebiff.com/2025/10/29/t...
Neither Board Nor Counters
I remember the first time I felt doubt. It was the night my little sister was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. Mom figured it out at the grocery store — we’d been through this once before — an…
spacebiff.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:35 AM
A moving read if you've ever had spiritual doubt, no matter where you ended up.
Reposted by Dan Thurot
This is one of the most remarkable pieces of writing I've read in a while, and it's especially incredible that it started as a board game review: spacebiff.com/2025/10/29/t.... Well worth reading even if the game in question isn't of interest to you. Excellent stuff from @danthurot.bsky.social.
October 30, 2025 at 2:20 AM
This is one of the most remarkable pieces of writing I've read in a while, and it's especially incredible that it started as a board game review: spacebiff.com/2025/10/29/t.... Well worth reading even if the game in question isn't of interest to you. Excellent stuff from @danthurot.bsky.social.