Thanks for visiting my games page!
I’m a board game designer, developer, art director, and illustrator. I taught game design at the University of Wisconsin–Stout. I also write music for board games, video games, and films.
Original Tabletop Game Designs (as of October 2024):
- 6 Published Games – Four Humours, Skyrockets, Guesswork, Alphabet Stoop, Lunar Skyline, Hedge Mage: Blizzard Wizard
- Many Games Seeking a Publisher
- 6 Games Signed with Publishers, Coming Soon
- 3 Self-Released Games, including the Troubadeck songwriting deck
- Many more Games in Development
Awards:
- 18 Thumbs Up – Winner of Button Shy’s “Numbers on Cards, Round 2” Contest (Published as Guesswork)
- Marry Up! – 2nd Place in Button Shy’s Standard Playing Cards Contest
- Four Humours – 3rd Place in the 2019 Cardboard Edison Awards
- Dragon Insurance – Finalist in the 2020 Cardboard Edison Awards
- Darwin’s Desert – Judge Semi-finalist in The Game Crafter Community Anthology Challenge
Podcast:
Co-host of The Tabletop Takeaway with Ananda Guneratne and Trevor Muller-Hegel
Teaching:
2022–2023 – Taught Introduction to Game Design full time at the University of Wisconsin–Stout, in the School of Art & Design
Podcasts & Video Interviews:
- Board Game Design Lab – “How to Live a Creative Life”
- Indie Board Game Designers – #152
- OMG! Nexus – “Four Humours Board Game Kickstarter Interview”
- We’re So Board! – “Four Humours”
- Lunchbox Reaction – “Interview with Charlie McCarron”
Game Developer Work
Floodgate Games
2022–present – Game developer/designer of Skyrockets, Hedge Mage, and other yet-to-be-revealed games. Also composed music for the companion app to the game Décorum.
Fantasy Flight Games
2015 – 2016 – Development intern, worked primarily on Star Wars Destiny.
Published Games
Four Humours
1-6 players, 45 minutes, ages 10+
Status: Published by Adam’s Apple Games
Based on the medieval theory of personality. Influence citizens on location cards with secret tokens, strategically working with or against your fellow players in unique game theory / prisoner’s dilemma scenarios.
3rd Place in the 2019 Cardboard Edison Awards
Skyrockets: Festivals of Fire
2-5 players, 20 minutes, ages 6+
Status: Published by Floodgate Games
Based on mechanics from Floodgate Games’ Kites, my role was to develop a campaign version with 30 unique gameplay modes.
In Skyrockets, players take turns to play cards and flip the matching sand timers (your fireworks) without letting any run out.
Keep the timers running as you advance along the Festival Countdown Track, and work together to amaze the crowds at each festival to earn the highest ratings.
Guesswork
2-8 players, 20 minutes, ages 8+
Status: Published by Button Shy Games
An 18-card cooperative party game where you have to read your friends’ minds as they fill in the blank on questions like “If I had 18 thumbs, how many thumbs up would I give the movie ______?” or “How many ______ could I fit in my mouth at once?” Inspired by games like Wavelength, Timeline, and Mad Libs, and fits in your pocket.
Winner of Button Shy’s 18-card Contest (Numbers on Cards, Round 2) as “18 Thumbs Up”
Alphabet Stoop
2-5 players, 20 minutes, ages 6+
Status: Published by Pops & Bejou Games
A word building, tile placement game. Move your package carriers from stoop to stoop. Drop off your packages on stoops and form words with newspapers (vowels), magazines (wild letters), and other packages (consonants).
Lunar Skyline
Compete to shape the skyline of a lunar metropolis in this trick-taking game featuring double-suited cards.
2-6 players, 15-30 minutes, ages 10+
Status: Kickstarted by Dead Alive Games
Each card you play features two suits, giving you the flexibility to follow either lead suit. You can also win tricks with expert ace pilots, or use your underground connections to smuggle in the resources you need. Every trick you take brings in valuable resources for your architectural masterpiece, but the real challenge is outpacing your competitors to complete your building contracts. Nail those bids, and you’ll earn lucrative bonuses that can make or break your business. Will you rise above the rest and dominate this new frontier?
Hedge Mage: Blizzard Wizard Expansion
A wacky expansion for the wacky maze-building and navigating game Hedge Mage.
2-4 players, 45 minutes, ages 10+
Status: Kickstarted by Floodgate Games
Charlie designed this expansion to Connor Wake’s Hedge Mage.
Games Seeking a Publisher
Chroma Zone: Journey to Europa
Semi-cooperative space survival with a visual twist: players wear red glasses (computer team) or blue glasses (human team), and their vision of the world changes dramatically.
2-6 players, 30 minutes, ages 8+
Status: Seeking Publisher
Earth has fallen to a nasty virus that turns everyday humans into “Biters.” Humanity’s best chance is to start over by sending a spaceship to Jupiter’s most habitable moon, Europa.
Because space travel is stressful, the ship is equipped with a definitely-trustworthy Computer and a few Cyborgs who can hide among the humans and make sure the mission goes as planned.
Unfortunately, rumors abound about stowaway Biters, which the Computer will need to deal with before the journey is complete.
Wearing the glasses that match their team color, the Computer players (red) see each astronaut as merely a number, while the Human players (blue) see astronauts’ stress responses: Panic, Plan, Run, or Bite.
Computer turns consist of alerting humans to ship malfunctions by assigning task cards to different areas of the ship, and deciding when to reveal Cyborgs to help the humans.
Human turns consist of waking astronauts from cryo sleep and working together to complete tasks.
Drawbacks
A game of hilarious drawing challenges!
2-12 players, 30 minutes, ages 6+
Co-designed with Peter Jensen
Status: Seeking Publisher
Video | Sell Sheet | Rules | Print & Play
Drawbacks is a funny, friendly drawing game where the clue giver is faced with artistic “drawbacks,” then all other players draw their interpretation of the clue giver’s often hilariously incomprehensible drawing.
Sitcom
A creativity-building party game. Cooperate to make a TV show!
2-10 players, 30 minutes, ages 8+
Status: Seeking Publisher
Fill the cast with hilarious characters, then try being a writer, storyboard artist, actor, director, and producer.
The Sinking States of America
A climate catastrophe roll & write game.
1-6 players, 20 minutes, ages 8+
Status: Seeking Publisher
Video | Rules | Print & Play
A competitive flip-and-write game where players grow their personal state map with trees, families, and houses. Choices matter; the more greedy and human-centric the group is, the more climate catastrophes will befall your state: floods, fires, viruses, etc. Each game is played in a different state (18 variants) with a unique map, goals, and disasters.
Self-Released Games
The Troubadeck
A deck of chord cards to inspire music makers.
1-8 players, 10 minutes, ages 8+
Status: Self-released, Kickstarting a reprint in 2025
Kickstarted in January 2024 for the Make 100 project, the Troubadeck is a deck of chord cards that can be used for music-making inspiration. While the deck can be used as a standard deck of playing cards, Charlie is also developing a series of games for music-learning edutainment.
Charlie custom composed all the chord progressions and drawing all the silly medieval animal art.
Land of 10,000 Mistakes
2-6 players, 15 minutes, ages 8+
Commissioned by Three Rivers Park District for Silverwood Park’s E-cology event on July 22, 2023.
Status: Self-released, open to publishing elsewhere
In Land of 10,000 Mistakes, players will compete to successfully grow plants and humans on their own mini Minnesota map. Play it safe with plant life, or add more cities and risk catastrophic floods!
Darwin’s Desert
2 players, 15 minutes, ages 12+
Status: Released in The Game Crafter Community Anthology, open to publishing elsewhere
Your dice are the key to strategically “adapting” your creatures each turn, to respond to your opponent’s dice and come up with your own creative path to victory.
Judge Semi-Finalist in The Game Crafter Community Anthology Challenge
Gordon Parks High School Redlining Game
1-20 players, 15 minutes, ages 8+
Status: Seeking educational partners to make the game available for schools & communities
Charlie worked with students and teachers at Gordon Parks High School to design a game that teaches people about the discriminatory lending practice of “redlining.”
Games in Development
Mindsweeper
A fast-paced, physical, and funny guessing game.
2-8 players, 20 minutes, ages 8+
Status: In development
The “sweeper” tries to get everyone to guess the secret word by using a mini broom to sweep together the most helpful concepts and sweep away unhelpful concepts.
Rulers & Rebels
2-6 players, 45 minutes
Status: In development, open to publishing
A puzzle-y and tense polyomino and dice game, where you send serfs, knights, and barons out on boats to claim land. Semi-cooperatively work with neighboring players to sway the tides of the game.
Marry Up!
3 players, 15 minutes, ages 8+
Status: Placed 2nd in Button Shy’s Standard Playing Cards Contest, open to publishing
An 18-card, pick-and-pass drafting game where you’re trying to arrange the best marriages.
Dragon Insurance
2-5 players, 20 minutes, ages 10+
Status: Finalist in the 2020 Cardboard Edison Award, open to publishing
A competitive word-building game where you’re a medieval insurance agent strategically insuring castles, sheep, knights–everything dragons love to burn.
Beaver Team
A quick card game of drafting & score manipulation.
2-5 players, 20 minutes, ages 8+
Status: In development
Draft a team of beavers to create the best dams (runs) and influence the value of your runs.
Prismatic
2-5 players, 10 minutes, ages 8+
Status: Revamped and renamed “Beaver Team” (see above)
Video | Sell Sheet | Rules | Print & Play
A quick-to-learn 54-card drafting game. Build up a powerful hand of followers while simultaneously manipulating endgame values of the colors you’re doing the best in.
Get in Touch
Feel free to reach out about any of these games! charliemccarron [at] gmail [dot] com
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If you’re an aspiring game designer, here are some tips and resources I’ve found helpful.