Tend began as a Stardew-flavored side project Toby Sarnelle built just for his friends — then IV Studio co-founder Zac Dixon helped turn it into one of the most-requested flip-and-writes out there. 🌱 TEND's designers open up the legacy version that almost shipped, and the two expansions coming next — 🐝 HIVE and 🍷 CELLAR.
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🎙️ IN THIS EPISODE:
🧪 The legacy "mega sheet" — a tech tree of colored stars they spun on for six months, then cut
🧱 Walls in the mines, doomed rondels, and IV's standing policy on Austin's ideas
🎮 What years designing TWO DOTS taught Toby about hooking a player fast
🐄 The one-cow problem Toby would patch in TEND tomorrow
🐝 HIVE: four apiaries, bee dice, and a true roll-and-write inside a flip-and-write
🍷 CELLAR: a three-game mini campaign where your first farm sets up your last
📦 "Bring me three expansions and a standalone" — and what comes after HIVE and CELLAR
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🔗 LINKS
🌱 Tend by IV Studio
▶ https://shop.iv.studio/products/tend-board-game
🐝 Tend: Hive & Cellar Expansions on Gamefound
▶ https://gamefound.com/en/projects/iv-studio/tend-expansions
❤️ Support My Work — Join Cardboard
▶ https://crdbrd.app/
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🎧 TOO LONG TO WATCH? THIS IS NOW A PODCAST!
🍎 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-board-game-secret-show/id6785378165
🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033GRnTDINaxqcoJksaCl4
🔵 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/01414914-23bd-4f4c-a29f-50daa231f364
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⏱️ CHAPTERS
00:00 - Cold open
00:42 - Who are Toby Sarnelle and Zac Dixon?
01:59 - How Toby ended up on the same box as Zac
02:58 - From Two Dots lead designer to board games
06:48 - "I didn't even know scratch-offs were possible"
09:14 - It was never supposed to be a Stardew game
12:42 - The legacy mega-sheet that almost happened
18:14 - Walls in the mines, and why they died
19:01 - IV's no-rondel policy
20:30 - A redesigned Monopoly was Toby's first prototype
21:59 - What board games can do that video games can't
34:55 - What Toby would patch in Tend today
37:16 - The one-cow problem
38:57 - The fishing feedback they get most
51:10 - Tend was a deck builder a week before prototype
54:59 - Hive and Cellar come out of the legacy version
56:50 - How Hive's apiaries work
1:08:39 - Awards, without the Kickstarter records
1:16:37 - Cellar: a three-game campaign
1:27:08 - "If you play an expansion, engage with it"
1:36:57 - "Bring me three expansions and a standalone"
1:38:56 - Why ship expansions as a set
1:43:35 - The big box
1:49:37 - A new direction for the scratcher
1:50:18 - Wrap
#cardboard #bgss #tend
