DANIEL PIECHNICK

Scrabble

My mother and grandmother introduced me to Scrabble at a young age. I attended my first tournament at the age of 12, and joined a club shortly thereafter. I began practising, and soon started winning tournaments.

I came close to winning the national championships in Brisbane in 1994.

In April 2014, I won the Australian Scrabble Championships, after winning 19 out of the 24 games.

This breakfast TV interview covers the tournament, and then I join the hosts for a game.

My highest game score is 742, including six bonus words (where a player uses all seven letters in one turn for 50 extra points).

My highest ever score for a word was for LOXYGENS (meaning "liquid oxygen") across two triple-word scores, for 257 points.

These days, I just play for fun. I run a club, and enjoy teaching the game to new players. I still compete in tournaments, but I don't read dictionaries or word books like I used to.

Board Game Design

Modern board games are rapidly gaining in popularity. They're beautiful, entertaining, social, and engaging. They're not the tedious drek they used to be.

I can spend my time doing what I like, and I'm very much enjoying using it to create board games. It began as a hobby, but I soon took it seriously, and now it's become my main occupation. Radlands was published in 2021, and I now have other games lined up for publication. Board game design is a fascinating creative and psychological puzzle. I now have a team of about 20 people who play and provide feedback on the games I'm working on.

If you'd like to know more about this subject, take a look at my comprehensive guide to board game design. It's free, and understandable by people who aren't board gamers.

Radlands

My first game, Radlands, launched in 2021, is a post-apocalyptic strategy card game.

The game raised crowdfunding of over $600,000 from 9,000 backers.

In 2022, it won a number of industry awards.

Radlands is available at game shops worldwide. It's sold over 200,000 copies, and has been translated into ten languages.

Trailer video for Radlands:

Magic: the Gathering

Magic: the Gathering is a strategy card game I took up while I was in high school, and still play occasionally. The game has an international circuit of tournaments, offering millions of dollars in prize money – second only to poker.

I placed third in the 2005 National championships, and represented Australia at the 2005 World Championships in Paris. I also qualified for and played in Pro Tour Los Angeles and Pro Tour Kuala Lumpur.