Christopher Chan-BLM
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xopherchan.bsky.social
Christopher Chan-BLM
@xopherchan.bsky.social
400 followers 250 following 610 posts
Art director by day and board game designer by any other time (Stalk Exchange, The Night Cage, Portents), let’s talk design and make our hobbies better, he/him, BLM
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xopherchan.bsky.social
When you make your own garden veggie cream cheese you can put as many garden veggies into it as you want
A sliced bagel on a plate on a black table in the sun piled high with finely chopped vegetables, loosely held together with some cream cheese.
May 30, 2025 at 2:10 PM
xopherchan.bsky.social
Late w/my @unpub.bsky.social 2025 recap, but in the darkest timeline a little light is always relevant.

Spending 4 days with this roving village of game designers is one of the most joyous events of the year for me. I’d trade all the spring/summer holidays for more. And it only works b/c of you.🎲✂️
A selfie with me on the left and an incredibly talented team from the game jam. Curt demonstrating a tabletop dexterity game about playing HORSE during the ProAm game jam. A selfie (probably shot around 2am) of Ian, Muzzy, Hunter, and me playing Riichi mahjong. Playtesting one of my weird Hex variants. This one’s called Triplecross and it will probably melt your brain.
April 8, 2025 at 2:32 PM
xopherchan.bsky.social
Hey Unpub goers! I’m set up at K6 with Threading the Needle (my mahjong garment worker game). I’ll be here until 6:30. Stop by! 🎲✂️
A table with a series of boards and player aids set up on it with mahjong tiles. The table cloth is blue hexagons and the Unpub ready for players sign is raised.
March 29, 2025 at 6:46 PM
xopherchan.bsky.social
Had my first meet up with a new playtest group in Toronto last night and got to try out a new investment game I’ve had in a drawer (yes, another one). I’m tentatively calling this one Witch Way. It’s loosely inspired by Trax and is basically a train game for people who don’t like trains or math.
🎲✂️
A paper prototype on a wooden surface. A grid of squares mostly diagonally bisected into 2 differently colored triangles and surrounded by cards pitching cauldrons with various resources hovering above them. Some of the squares have path tiles on them, each with a white and a black line. Those lines connect to each other and the cards on the outside. It has a hand written mark up that says “start” in the top left. The same paper prototype at the same angle as before but labeled “end” and mostly filled in by path tiles with only one cauldron card on the outside. Cauldron cards are collected on one edge of the frame.
March 4, 2025 at 2:22 PM
xopherchan.bsky.social
I was cleaning out a folder and found this old board for Stalk Exchange and got all nostalgic. That game branched at least 4 times as I was figuring it out thanks to the most regular and frequent playtest schedule I’ve ever had. Community like that is truly special. Don’t take it for granted. 🎲✂️
A hand holding a rumpled and folded sheet of letter paper with a hex grid and a score track around the edge along with some ranking columns at the bottom.
March 1, 2025 at 5:46 PM
xopherchan.bsky.social
My first sighting of Stalk Exchange at Barnes & Noble! (It’s even right next to The Night Cage!)
🎲✂️
Some crazy person (the author) standing next to an end cap in the board game section of a barnes and noble pointing at board games. One hand points at the Night Cage, the other points at Stalk Exchange.
February 19, 2025 at 11:33 PM
xopherchan.bsky.social
A bit of obligatory self-promotion. Stop by and see me at GAMA next week if you want to learn a bit about pitch videos!
🎲✂️
a promotional graphic from GAMA expo that reads "making game pitch videos for non-video making professionals" followed by two head shots, one of George Georgeadis of Oniro and one of Christopher Chan of Tree Horse. February 23-27, 2025. Gama.org/gamaexpo. Kentucky international Convention Center, Louisville, KY
February 18, 2025 at 4:04 PM
xopherchan.bsky.social
Best mail I’ve gotten in a while! I’m so excited to dig into this one @amabel.bsky.social
A hand holding a copy of Carboard Ghosts by Amabel Holland over a polished brown stone surface.
February 10, 2025 at 4:34 PM
xopherchan.bsky.social
As someone who mostly takes notes on a phone, I’ve forced myself to keep my design journal for the garment workers game purely physical and to use cursive when I write in it. I don’t know if this is helping or hurting the process, but it is making it feel more personal and specific. 🎲✂️
A page of cursive text in a lined journal. Mostly about math.
January 3, 2025 at 3:22 PM
xopherchan.bsky.social
It’s 4am, my alarm isn’t supposed to go off for another hour and I can’t wait. I’m on the road to PAXU. See you there, friends!
A selfie of the author sitting in his parked car about to drive off to PAX. He’s bundled up, open mouthed with excitement and… is that a mustache? Why does he have a mustache?
December 5, 2024 at 9:04 AM
xopherchan.bsky.social
I stopped by Millennium Games to do some Xmas shopping and was surprised to see them displaying Stalk Exchange! Seeing your game out in the wild never gets old!
🎲✂️
The interior of a games store. I’m standing next to the assistant manager posing with a copy of Stalk Exchange in front of a display of Stalk Exchange.
December 1, 2024 at 4:55 AM
xopherchan.bsky.social
Sometimes a game comes out almost fully formed, sometimes you do a lot of iteration. This pile might just be from August. But I’m feeling good about the progress this historical garment worker Mahjong variant has made in just under 6 months.
🎲✂️
A pile of printed boards and player aids scattered on the a carpeted floor. They’re spare, simple organizers mostly. The lighting could be better.
November 20, 2024 at 4:21 AM
xopherchan.bsky.social
I need to get a proper cooling rack for the next time I stress bake.
A close up of some freshly baked chocolate chip cookies cooling on a repurposed dish rack.
November 6, 2024 at 4:09 AM
xopherchan.bsky.social
Ok, that’s pretty neat.
A simple Bluesky image that reads celebrating 10 million users, #272,044
September 18, 2024 at 3:22 PM
xopherchan.bsky.social
Ok! That’s 148 mahjong tiles stickered and ready for playtesting CuseCon in a few days.
🎲✂️
A coffee table covered in the backs of sticker paper and rows of mahjong tiles with non traditional symbols on them.
September 17, 2024 at 4:22 AM
xopherchan.bsky.social
@sumfatkid.bsky.social the snack commission should be aware of these. They’re preeetttyyy good.
An open bag of ruffles potato chips. The flavor: KFC original recipe chicken.
July 5, 2024 at 10:45 PM
xopherchan.bsky.social
Another night of playtesting at Opal Grove. Got Unseelie Uprising to the table and have clear steps forward to the next iteration. Also got in a good 4p test of Ryan’s game, Opening Night.
A grid of square cards with forests and castles on them. A prototype of a worker placement game themed after around theater.
June 27, 2024 at 2:29 AM
xopherchan.bsky.social
In each of these boxes and bags, there is a prototype that I’m bringing to Origins. Let’s see how many of them I can playtest this week! 🎲✂️
A stack of 7 boxes and bags on a stained work table in front of a Kallax of games. Sunlight hits the boxes on one side.
June 18, 2024 at 11:21 PM
xopherchan.bsky.social
Hope the next person to use this wants a mocha, because this certainly tasted like it had coffee grounds in it.
An open Keurig machine with a Swiss miss hot chocolate pod in it.
June 7, 2024 at 7:44 PM
xopherchan.bsky.social
Punching a new game is exciting. Punching an advance copy of your own game is magic.
A hand holding a bunch of punched chipboard sheets like a hand of cards in front of a wall of board games. The punched sheets read “Stalk Exchange” in the top left corner.
May 30, 2024 at 2:23 AM
xopherchan.bsky.social
Gonna be up late shooting a little pitch video.
A wide angle photo of a home office filled with board games and lighting equipment. A camera mounted on a tall tripod points at a table with a prototype involving multicolored Jenga blocks.
May 21, 2024 at 3:34 AM
xopherchan.bsky.social
Guess what I'm making a rulebook for?
🎲✂️
A screenshot of an adobe illustrator workspace with various artboards scattered about. Colorful vector blocks on top of a forest of dollar signs- clear but mostly functional.
May 14, 2024 at 1:48 AM
xopherchan.bsky.social
Announcement day! My game, Stalk Exchange, will be released at GenCon with the Op. I'm bursting with excitement for this one and so excited to talk about it more.

A whole bunch of videos dropped with the announcement too! I'll follow with them below.

1/2
🎲✂️
A board game box featuring a papercraft flower arrangement sits on a green surface with components artfully set up around it. There are wooden tokens with flowers on them, papercraft sheds, a board with hexagons, and cloth bags. Behind all of this is a blurry garden background.
April 22, 2024 at 10:10 PM
xopherchan.bsky.social
Almost every book/souvenir store in the Zürich airport had board games. I’m going to miss Europe.
A black metal display of board games in the Zürich airport. A pyramid display of board games in the Zürich airport. Fun fact, there were 2 of these, but one of them was focused on kids games. A white shelf of board games next to a shelf of souvenirs in the Zürich airport. A sign reads “tobacco in the background.
April 13, 2024 at 8:51 AM
xopherchan.bsky.social
I gotchu

www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/...
A stock photo of a Swiss Army knife from above showing various implement a with a stock photo watermark reading “shutterstock.com 1677196372”
April 12, 2024 at 8:10 PM