The Joy of Designing Games
Philippe Beaudoin · October 29, 2026
Those of you who know me know I lead a double life. Honestly, it’s probably triple or quadruple… but today, I’m sharing “Phil the board game designer.”
Back in the late 2000s, having just discovered modern board games (“Eurogames,” as they were called back then), I felt the itch to design my own. I came up with plenty of concepts, but two stood out: Panama and Québec. The first won a prototype contest in France. The second was published by Le Scorpion Masqué and Ystari Games in 2011.
Phil-the-designer took a backseat for the last fifteen years. Yet every time I play or watch others play, the itch returns. The urge to invent another one. To dream up mechanics and themes… The longing to chat with other designers, publishers, and players.
Last week, I did just that. Live from Essen SPIEL, the world’s largest board game fair. Québec was featured prominently at the Spielworxx booth—the publisher that decided to pick it up again, 15 years later, giving it fresh, modern artwork.
To me, Spielworxx is really Uli. Uli Blennemann, the owner. We first connected four years ago through an out-of-the-blue email he sent to my co-designer Pierre and me, offering to reprint the game. A few calls followed, and we finally met in Berlin earlier this summer. We hit it off immediately. Uli is just great: a hockey fan, an industry veteran who knows his craft inside and out, constantly hunting for hidden gems and finely tuned mechanics. A publisher who genuinely loves players and seeks to understand them.
So when Uli asked, “Phil, why don’t you come to Essen and play a round of Québec with attendees?” I thought about it, then said yes. I booked my ticket, added some local sightseeing, and on October 22nd, dove headfirst into the fair to play the game that consumed so much of my life fifteen years ago.
Then: BOOM! I remembered why I love design so much. Sitting with three strangers, explaining complex rules in my second language to folks whose English was also a second language, we built a moment. Not a cutthroat contest, but four people sharing an invented world, genuinely enjoying each other’s company. A moment earlier, we were total strangers with nothing obvious in common: different countries, languages, ages. Yet we laughed, teased, threw wrenches in each other’s plans, and helped one another out. All in just over an hour…
…and I sat there watching the four of us, and the board that made it all possible. Québec. My game…
Creating moments like that is truly exhilarating.