Cardboard Edison’s Favorite Tips & Resources - November 2017

This month our list of favorite board game design tips and links includes pointers for getting started with a design, tutorials for a card-making program, reminders for what to watch in playtesting, and more.

theory:

• How a board game's design can keep players in a "flow" state

• Variable player powers: what works and what doesn't

process:

• How to get past the excuses for not starting to make your game

• What to do in the earliest stages of a game design (audio)

prototyping:

• Tutorial videos for using Card Maker Beta, the card-creation program

playtesting:

• Why you should always question every aspect of your game during testing

• Things to think about before, during and after a playtest

• “It’s really easy to blame players for a bad test (and sometimes bad tests will be due to the players). But blaming players instead of treating the test like a problem to be solved won’t help your game get better.” - Nat Levan

licensing:

• Best practices for attending a designer-publisher speed dating event

publishing:

• Seven inspirational reminders for Kickstarter board game creators

industry:

• Where the money flows when someone pays for a board game at a store or on Kickstarter (videos)

• Working with art or themes that can be controversial (audio, starting at 25:19)

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ADVISERS: 421 Creations, Peter C. Hayward, Neil Roberts, Aaron Vanderbeek

SENIOR INVENTORS: Steven Cole, John du Bois, Chris and Kathy Keane (The Drs. Keane), Joshua J. Mills, Marcel Perro, Behrooz Shahriari, Shoot Again Games

JUNIOR INVENTORS: Ryan Abrams, Joshua Buergel, Luis Lara, Aidan Short, Jay Treat

ASSOCIATES: Robert Booth, Stephen B Davies, Scot Duvall, Doug Levandowski, Aaron Lim, Nathan Miller, Anthony Ortega, Mike Sette, Kasper Esven Skovgaard, Isaias Vallejo, Matt Wolfe

APPRENTICES: Nicole Amato, Darren Broad, Kiva Fecteau, Guz Forster, Scott Gottreu, Scott Martel Jr., James Meyers, The Nerd Nighters, Matthew Nguyen, Marcus Ross, Sean Rumble, VickieGames