So you have an idea for a game—what next? A Reddit board game design forum discussion about the earliest stages of working on a design:

https://www.reddit.com/r/BoardgameDesign/comments/1hztygf/how_do_you_start/

3 tips for how to start designing your first board game (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31Urh-jDShY

Artwork from a publisher perspective: gaining a vision for a project, finding the right artist and art style for a game, and more (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irvKUL--mF8

The Public Domain Image Archive is a collection of more than 10,000 out-of-copyright works that are free to use:

https://pdimagearchive.org/

Triangular numbers and why they show up so often in game designs:

https://gametek.substack.com/p/2025-triangles-and-you

Thoughts on doing your own thing as a designer and making games that are authentically yours:

https://bsky.app/profile/travisdhill.bsky.social/post/3leky2uezik2o

A short thread on the fine line board game designers need to walk when considering playtesters’ experiences:

https://bsky.app/profile/nickbentley.bsky.social/post/3leox3netlk2r

Which is harder: self-publishing or pitching to publishers? A Bluesky board game designers discussion:

https://bsky.app/profile/ziongg.bsky.social/post/3leuylez3bs2x

How to create a custom card deck in playingcards.io (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9hXJRHpGns

Our annual Cardboard Edison Best Practices booklet, filled with board game design tips and resources for every step of the process, is back!

• evaluating playtesters’ feedback

• improving your rulebook

• making your prototype more usable with graphic design

• setting design goals for yourself

• and lots more!

  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EPqJLYnwt0LXDEmZaZ8ebbA6M2MS_quN/view

Looking for inspiration for a new board game idea? The Random Board Game Idea Generator does exactly what it says:

https://www.randomgameidea.com/

Making “toyetic” games with a strong toy factor (audio):

Games that do it well:

https://sites.libsyn.com/19999/obg-553-toyetic

Manufacturing and marketing them:

https://unboxedboardgamepodcast.podbean.com/e/s2e3-toyetic-games/

Digging into a fundamental question about games: What are rules? And what kinds of rules come into play with board games? (audio):

https://decisionspace.podbean.com/e/the-5-types-of-rules-what-we-talk-about/

How can tabletop designers make games that are less likely to trigger analysis paralysis in players?

https://www.skeletoncodemachine.com/p/analysis-paralysis

A short thread on better co-designing efforts through learning more about your design partner:

https://bsky.app/profile/senfoonglim.bsky.social/post/3ldjt2gxbsc2x

Player failure: considering what kind of penalties make sense with the game’s theme (audio):

https://ludology.libsyn.com/thinking-beyond-mechanisms-ep-14

What constitutes plagiarism in game design?

https://gametek.substack.com/p/copy-paste

An overview of all the steps you’ll need to take to self-publish a board game (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4jKhdMv8sk

Circles of playtesting: how a game evolves through various stages of testing in terms of the idea, the prototype, and how the designer feels about it

10 types of board game designers—and how to discover what motivates your own design efforts (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xPHJaCYJyg