From PAX Rising Showcase, 2023… To now, 2025… Twinkle Twinkle has raised over $250,000 on Kickstarter!

Twinkle Twinkle is LIVE now on Kickstarter.com Back it now!

Twinkle is my third published game following my initial Kickstarter journey with TACO, and then Gnome Hollow with the Op Games.

Twinkle Twinkle came to me while I was driving with a dear friend to RageCon in Reno, Nevada. I had been wanting to create a game about space for a while. I love space. 

Let me say that again… I LOVE SPACE.

I took this image of the solar eclipse on October 14, 2023.

I am constantly watching news from NASA, and I just adore listening to and reading from the great astrophysicists of our time. Especially Neil deGrasse Tyson.

During that ride, I told my friend Brandt about an idea I had for a game that was based on roll and write principles, but was built with tiles so that it could be more complex. I wanted a game engine that additional modules could be built into.

We talked for an hour about it. When I got to the hotel in Reno that night, I sketched out the tile designs and the basic rulesets. The entire convention, I couldn’t stop thinking about my little space game. :) It was a wonderful con.

As a game designer, a new idea rolling around in your mind is really a wonderful thing. Often the idea doesn’t have staying power or feel like it has the level of interest it needs to be fleshed out into a full game. But sometimes a game really takes hold and doesn’t let go. Like this one.

When I got home, I opened up Illustrator and began drawing out tile designs. One of the ideas that really excited me was to have clear tiles that showed the gorgeous universe behind them. I just really loved this idea. So much so that when I got my first interest for Twinkle Twinkle, I passed because they wanted the tiles to be cardboard. I felt it just lost something special.

My friend has a laser cutter and I showed up at his house with a smile, a cut-file and a large sheet of acrylic. We covered it in masking tape and cut the file. I left on the tape and took home 500 tile designs. I had 80 unique tiles and I had multiple copies of each one. More of certain tiles and less of others, but I planned to use all these tiles to allow me to adjust the quantities of tiles in the bag to figure out the ratios to make the game work.

The designs were etched into the acrylic through the tape, and I paid my daughter to paint them in white with me while we watched movies one day and peeled the tape off when they were dry.

I took my best guess at what should be part of the tile set and we began to play the game. My family loved it from the first day. We played it and tweaked rules for weeks and the game got better and better.

One of my favorite parts of the development for this game was when I went to the hobby store and bought alcohol inks and created the most mesmerizing alcohol paintings that I used to create the universe backgrounds of my prototype. They didn’t land in the final game, but I will use them someplace. Trust me on that!

I added new tile sets and removed others. As the weeks of playtesting passed, I loved the game but didn’t know who this game was for.

Months went by and friends played it and everyone loved it. I still did not know which publishers to show it to. I shared it with 2 and one forgot about it, the other wanted to make it with cardboard tiles.

Me at Pax Unplugged 2023. What an amazing journey.

One day I saw a post about submissions for the PAX Rising Showcase. I entered two games. I was pretty confident in the other game being selected. But it was Twinkle Twinkle! I was SO surprised that my little space game was the game that was selected.

I took it to PAX Unplugged. Being selected into the PAX Rising Showcase meant I was given a table on the convention floor to show off my game. I love that convention. If you have’t been to PAX Unplugged, you should get there this year. It’s one of my absolute favorite conventions and I attend 10-14 cons a year. I sat at my table and played the game from open to close. There were people waiting to play. I had a crowd! People kept asking me who I was going to publish the game with. I would just laugh and say that I had no idea who this game was for.

Two days in and friends began checking on me. I would spend 8 hours at the table playing without food or taking a break. It was grueling and amazing. Nate Jenne from Last Night games brought me a sandwich on the third day and ran my table so I could get a break. Honestly, so many good people came and supported me. Too many to name. Jay Bell came and checked it out. He loved it. I didn’t know it at the time, but he went straight to Joe Wiggins and told him about the game and that it was Allplay’s next big hit. I was just honored to have Jay come and play my game. He’s awesome!

My friend Alex Schmidt came over and checked it out. I asked him who the game was for. He said “Allplay. I think it would do really good at Allplay.”

It is really incredible to me how this community comes together and supports each other. I love that you can sit down at a table with strangers, play a game for less than an hour, and stand up as friends. It is really just a miracle.

A few days later, Jay Bell emailed me. He told me that he had pitched the game to Joe Wiggins and that I should email him. I did. I sent Joe a copy of the game the next day, and less than a week later Allplay signed Twinkle Twinkle.

It is interesting to me that an idea can form in our heads. We do not really understand the scope of what it can become, where it can take you, or how it may bring friends into our lives.

Twinkle Twinkle is my proof of all this.

Every one of you who is backing this game is part of that! Thank you. Thank you for backing my game. Thank you for being a part of this journey. It is because of you that it will be played in homes and enjoyed. It is the highest compliment a designer can get… Someone willing to buy your creation and spend their time playing it.

If you backed Twinkle Twinkle, thank you! If you shared it with your friends, THANK YOU! If you see me at a convention, please come up and say hi! Tell me if you backed it because I would love to thank you personally. I cannot wait to launch this game at GenCon with you all. It’s going to be a party! Keep gaming my friends!

Ammon Anderson