Darren DonBoard game designer

Board game designer · Kansas City, MO

Darren Don.

I design card and party games for publishers: the kind that make you look across the table and wonder, “What are they thinking?” Every game here has a sell sheet, a print-and-play kit and a version you can play right in your browser.

Games signed with

AllplayBitewing GamesSRG Universe

Titles to be announced

Games

Open a game for its sell sheet, mockups, rules and playable demo.

Dim Sum Rush mockup: a red game box, a red cloth tile bag and domino-thin tiles showing dim sum dishes.

Dim Sum Rush

Each team shares face-up tiles the other team can’t touch, so every tile you put out is a play only your partner can make.

For fans of Scout and Rummikub

  • 2–6 players
  • 30–45 min
  • Tiles or cards
  • Partnership climbing game
See the game
Boo Who? mockup: the violet tuck box, a Ghost and a Living card standing in their stands, a candle and one player’s Boos.

Boo Who?

Your card faces the table, so everyone knows your role but you. Read the Boos piling up in front of you, then run or stay.

For fans of Scape Goat and Skull

  • 4–8 players
  • 15 min
  • Bluffing party game
See the game
Too Many Crooks! mockup: the box with a police lineup of dice-headed crooks, loose dice and a crew sheet.

Too Many Crooks!

Crew up from the dice your rivals send over, then pay them from what you kept back. Promises are out loud, cuts are secret, and nothing is binding.

For fans of Intrigue and Batam

  • 3–6 players
  • 20–30 min
  • Dice negotiation game
See the game
Diggers mockup: the red box with a Tyrannosaurus fossil on the lid beside a whole Stegosaurus laid out as nine cards.

Diggers

Fight over the dig sites between camps with runs and sets from a hand you can never rearrange, and poach the bones you need.

For fans of Scout and Schotten Totten

  • 2–4 players
  • 15–20 min
  • Shedding lane battler
See the game
Down for the Count mockup: the bright blue box beside the Suplex, Body Slam, Spear and Superkick cards.

Down for the Count

A shedding game where you don’t want to shed. Beat the move or spend stamina to stay in; the last wrestler standing wins.

For fans of Scout and Love Letter

  • 2–5 players
  • 15 min
  • Shedding card game
See the game
Un, Deux, Trois, Cat! mockup: the plum box beside five felt cat toys and a felt cat on a linen cloth.

Un, Deux, Trois, Cat!

Everyone flips at once. Grab the felt toy shown in its own color before anyone else, or grab the cat when nothing is.

For fans of Ghost Blitz and Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

  • 2–6 players
  • 10 min
  • Cards and felt toys
  • Grabbing game
See the game
Darren Don smiling, holding up an empty gold picture frame around himself outdoors at dusk.

About

Hi, I’m Darren.

I’m a board game designer in Kansas City, Missouri, with games signed with Allplay, Bitewing Games and SRG Universe and titles to be announced.

To me, board games are a way for people to connect with each other. My favorite games are the ones that make you look across the table and ask yourself, “What are they thinking?”

When I design, I start from the games I love and ask how to take the best of them and put them together in a way nobody has seen before. Diggers, for example, plays a Scout-style hand you can never rearrange across Schotten Totten-style lanes.

Favorite games

DecryptoEl GrandeRaTwo Rooms and a BoomDropolter

For publishers

Let’s meet

Play it before you ask for it

Every game has a browser version with a tutorial and bots, so your team can try it before a prototype ships.

A pitch kit, ready to send

A one-page sell sheet, component mockups, full rules and a print-and-play kit for every game. Tell me what format your review process needs.

Find me at

2026
2027

Click a show to set up a meeting there.

Looking for your next game?

Ask for a rulebook or a prototype, or set up a time to talk through a game, on a call or at a convention.

Email Darren Contact details