Boardssey: The All-in-One Platform Reshaping How Board Games Get Made [sponsored] -

As the board game industry has exploded in the last couple of decades, so too has the desire and demand from designers for ways to streamline and manage the often fragmented reality of prototyping, testing and preparing to publish their new creations. In this sponsored article, the team behind board game design toolkit Boardssey explain how they’ve leveraged their own experiences designing games – and the pain points they ran up against – to create a one-stop shop for supporting overwhelmed game designers.

Boardssey delivers what board game designers have long needed: the industry’s first dedicated platform that unifies the entire creation process from concept to publication. Designed specifically for creators struggling with fragmented workflows, it centralizes game management, playtesting, collaboration, and publisher presentation in one seamless ecosystem.

Just months after launch, the platform has earned endorsements from industry heavyweights like Jamey Stegmaier and attracted both indie creators and established publishers with its unlimited-collaboration model, a game-changing approach that eliminates the per-user pricing barriers that typically limit design teams.

“I’m really impressed by what Boardssey offers to designers, whether they’re looking to pitch to publishers or self-publish. The interface is clearly designed from the ground up with game designers in mind.” says Jamey Stegmaier on his blog.

Key Features: Solving Designer Pain Points

What began as a few tools to solve everyday frustrations of quickly grew into something much bigger. Boardssey has evolved into a full-fledged platform designed to support the entire board game creation journey, not just for designers, but for developers, publishers, artists, and marketers too. By addressing real industry pain points across roles, it brings everything together in one place, making collaboration smoother and turning scattered workflows into a connected, efficient process.

Game Center: The Single Source of Truth

The Game Center serves as the centralized repository for all game information: rulebooks, component lists, game assets, and version documentation. Designers can track their game’s evolution with detailed version notes, maintaining a clear picture of how their creation has changed over time and why specific design decisions were made.

Games Portfolio: Professional Presentation Without the Tech Hassle

One standout feature included in all subscription tiers is the Games Portfolio, which allows designers to showcase their work professionally without needing to build a website or manage hosting. With one click, designers can generate a polished online portfolio directly from their Boardssey data, making a strong impression on publishers and potential collaborators.

Playtest Hub: Structured Feedback Collection

The Playtest Hub transforms how designers collect feedback, using customizable forms to gather consistent, actionable insights from playtests. This structured approach helps identify patterns across multiple sessions, making iteration more efficient and purposeful.

Project Dashboard: Visual Workflow Management

Boardssey’s Project Dashboard helps designers manage multiple games, deadlines, and team members with intuitive Kanban boards and task management tools. This visual approach to project management turns overwhelming to-do lists into clear roadmaps from concept to published game.

Unlimited Collaboration Without Per-User Costs

Perhaps most disruptive is Boardssey’s pricing approach: unlimited team members across all subscription tiers. This eliminates the per-user pricing that often forces small design teams to limit collaboration, democratizing access to professional-grade tools.

Game Permissions: Secure Team Collaboration

For design teams working on multiple projects simultaneously, Boardssey’s Game Permissions system provides granular access control at the individual game level. This allows administrators to specify exactly which team members can access particular games, critical for studios developing confidential projects or working with external freelancers.

“If you work with board games, Boardssey is the tool you need to have. It conveniently combines all the basic tools for planning, designing, and testing a new game, whether from an editorial perspective or as an independent game creator.” says Leandro Nunes, Founder of Adoleta Jogos, board game publisher.

Designer’s Swiss Army Knife: Specialized Tools

Boardssey includes a comprehensive toolkit of specialized utilities that address common design challenges:

“It’s like having a Swiss Army knife specifically designed for board game creation,” describes one customer. While the collection continues to grow with regular additions, current standout tools include:

P&P Cards Layout: Generate print-and-play prototypes without graphic design skills
TTS Deck Editor: Create Tabletop Simulator-ready digital prototypes for remote playtesting
Variables Distribution: Balance game elements through data-driven distribution tools
Digital Mockups Generator: Professionally present game boxes, cards, tiles, and more in 3D
Color Blindness Simulator: Test component accessibility for different types of color vision
and many more

According to Boardssey, these represent just a portion of their specialized tools, with new utilities being added regularly based on designer feedback and industry needs. This growing toolkit eliminates the need for multiple software subscriptions or advanced technical skills, allowing designers to focus on game development rather than tooling.

The Team Behind the Tool: Championing Board Game Designers

Boardssey’s authenticity comes from the team behind it: veterans of both the board game and tech industries who have felt the pain points and are passionate about elevating the role of designers. The project is led by Luis Francisco Baroni Coutinho, a board game industry veteran with over 15 years of experience and co-founder of Grok Games, one of Brazil’s leading publishers. The Boardssey team brings firsthand knowledge to every feature they build, ensuring the platform meets the real needs of the people who create games.

Boardssey was built to enhance the workflows they already use, not replace them. It provides powerful tools and a shared space where teams can collaborate more smoothly and even present their work more professionally. When that happens, better games and stronger creative partnerships will naturally follow.”

Luis Francisco, alongside co-founders Anca Bujor and Rey David Cuevas, formed Boardssey after experiencing the frustrations of juggling disparate tools while developing games.
This founding trio brings together a unique combination of complementary skills: Luis’s deep industry knowledge and publishing experience, Anca’s growth marketing expertise, and Rey’s technical brilliance in platform development. Their previous success launching and scaling a startup within a tech company gave them the perfect foundation of entrepreneurial experience to build a platform that both solves complex design challenges and celebrates the creators behind the games we love.

The Designer Quiz: A Viral Marketing Success

If the name Boardssey sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen their Quiz “Which Board Game Designer Is Your Creative Soul Twin?” making the rounds on social media and design forums.

“Our designer quiz exploded across the worldwide community like wildfire. It’s not just a fun personality test, it’s a discovery engine that’s connecting new designers with their creative heroes and introducing players to designers they hadn’t discovered before. The conversations it’s sparked have been incredible to watch”, says Anca.

The quiz serves multiple purposes: entertaining the community, educating users about different design approaches, and driving traffic to both the Boardssey platform and the games created by featured designers. It’s a clever approach that highlights Boardssey’s understanding of the board game industry as not just a marketplace but a community built around shared creative values.

Recent Developments and Future Direction

Boardssey recently added several new features based on user feedback, including digital 3D mockups for presenting game components and pitch tracking for publishers and designers to monitor submission status. These additions reflect the platform’s evolution from a design tool to a comprehensive ecosystem for the entire game development journey.

Next on the roadmap is the highly anticipated Sell Sheet Designer, which will enable creators to automatically generate professional, publisher-ready presentations directly from their game data. This feature addresses one of the most common hurdles for first-time designers: creating professional-quality sales materials without graphic design expertise.

Looking ahead, the platform is also developing a Feedback Analysis tool for the Playtest Hub that will automatically categorize playtest comments and identify recurring themes across sessions, plus a Royalty Tracking system for post-publication business management.

The ROI: Measurable Time and Cost Savings

Early adopters report significant returns on their Boardssey investment. According to user testimonials, designers save 5-10 hours weekly by eliminating context-switching between tools and automating routine tasks. The platform has also helped reduce development cycles by approximately 30% through structured playtesting and feedback integration.

“Before Boardssey, I was cobbling together five different software subscriptions to manage my design process,” reports one independent designer. “Now I have everything in one place at a fraction of the cost, and I can actually focus on designing instead of managing my tools.”

Unlike ad-hoc toolchains for project management, asset design, digital prototyping, Boardssey consolidates planning, playtesting, and portfolio publishing under one roof. This unified approach contrasts sharply with the per-user fees and multiple-subscription costs designers typically face, saving small teams hundreds of dollars annually

For Designers at Every Stage: Scaling with Your Journey

Boardssey’s tiered approach ensures creators at all career stages have access to professional tools tailored to their specific needs:

Adventurer: For hobbyists, first-time designers, and design students taking their initial steps into game creation. This accessible entry point includes everything needed to develop and playtest up to 5 games simultaneously while maintaining a professional online portfolio, perfect for those focused on their first few designs.
Pathfinder: For independent designers with a growing catalog and small studios developing multiple titles concurrently. With capacity for 20 games and 40 projects, plus advanced collaboration tools like the Whiteboard feature, this tier supports creators who are establishing themselves in the industry and regularly pitching to publishers.
Oracle: For established design studios, publishers managing multiple designers, and prolific creators with extensive game catalogs. With unlimited capacity for games and projects, this tier eliminates any constraints for professional teams handling numerous titles across various stages of development.

All plans maintain Boardssey’s signature unlimited users policy, allowing teams to collaborate without per-seat pricing barriers, and include the Games Portfolio feature for professional presentation. Every tier starts with a risk-free 14-day trial with full access and no credit card required. With localized pricing worldwide, Boardssey ensures affordability for designers regardless of their geographic location.

The Future of Game Design?

As the board game industry keeps growing, the tools that support creators need to keep up. Instead of juggling scattered apps and spreadsheets, teams now need a connected, all-in-one system. And it’s about time…

Boardssey isn’t just a set of convenient features; it’s a fresh take on how games are created, tested, and brought to life. By covering every stage of development and making it easy for teams of all sizes to collaborate, Boardssey helps streamline the process and gives more visibility to the people behind the games. When creators have the right support, the whole industry benefits.

More details on the Boardssey platform are available on the company’s website.