“Note to Designers: Taking a genre and swapping out components is not an innovation.”

— Grant Rodiek (@HerrohGrant)

“For future Kickstarter surveys, I recommend adding a multiple choice question: “Would you like to receive emails from us?””

— Tasty Minstrel Games (@TastyMinstrel)

“Innovation comes from seeing what everybody else has seen before, but thinking what nobody else has thought before.”

— Reiner Knizia (@ReinerKnizia)

“People, accepting the USPS flat rate box price is usually not the cheapest option for a single game! Use their box, but ship by size/weight.”

— The Noble Gamer (@ianoble)

“Theme is a context to make mechanics intuitive. Theme feedback [from playtesters] can be a flag that the mechanics aren’t “making sense”.”

— Visible Hand Games (@vhgames)

“An elegant, efficient design should be the goal of every game—and every game designer.  After all, most of us don’t really want to feel like we’re doing time on a stationary bicycle when we get together for a game night.  We want the mental exercise, but we also want to go somewhere, and an efficient, elegant design makes the ride smoother and every aspect of the experience easier to enjoy.”

— Jeffrey D. Allers

Antoine Bauza (7 Wonders) on being driven by theme, having the design “virus” and more:

http://opinionatedgamers.com/2012/04/11/the-art-of-design-interviews-to-game-designers-17-antoine-bauza/

Printing a board for a prototype: some ideas from the BoardGameGeek designers forum:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/789815/printing-a-board-for-a-prototype

What Kickstarter backers want to see in your campaign.

Mark Rivera (@blightygamer) and Michael Fox (@idlemichael) canvas the BoardGameGeek forums:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/789720/running-a-great-kickstarter-campaign

“Asking is the best way to learn what folks want!” - @idlemichael

“Ultimately with any game I design, I want that finished game to be as close as possible to a state where it lacks nothing and needs nothing more.”

“Whatever piece you put in or take out should be there or not because it is essential to the very nature of the whole.”

- Todd Sanders (@lackriver) on Why I Design Games

http://whyidesigngames.tumblr.com/post/20899808185/todd-sanders

“My First Principle of Game Publishing: Work with competent publishers, or you will have delays, inferior products and a lot of extra work.”

— Reiner Knizia (@ReinerKnizia)

“Your precious mechanisms are not the primary goal; they are a means to an end.”

— Asger Sams Granerud, interviewed on Bellwether Games

What games can you play to make you a better designer? Turns out there’s a list:

http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/140448/boardgame-recommendations-to-become-a-better-game 

Miscellaneous tips for creating a print-and-play, from the BoardGameGeek designers forum:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/789362/general-advice-on-creating-a-print-and-play

An extensive guide for first-time self-publishers, with lots of specifics, from someone who just did it:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/789423/game-design-and-self-publishing-a-primer-for-self

The 31st Game Designer Convention in Göttingen, Germany is June 2-3, 2012

Preview:

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/9496/gottingen-game-designer-convention-2012

Application:

http://perlhuhn.de/termine.html

Interview with Alf Seegert, designer of Trollhalla and The Road to Canterbury:

“Don’t be afraid to find design influences OUTSIDE of board games. Often the best ideas do not come from games at all!”

“Recently I’ve followed Elton John’s rule: if the song doesn’t write itself quickly, don’t bother. Development can take months (or even years) but if the basic idea doesn’t come together quickly, I move along.”

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/9228/in-the-road-to-canterbury-i-meet-alf-seegert

Make a Better Game – Limit the Player

“Presenting someone with a huge number of options does not give them more ‘freedom’ – in fact all it does is overwhelm them.”

http://jonshaferondesign.com/2012/04/03/make-a-better-game-limit-the-player/

HT @BoardgameNews

“Don’t wait! Get talking about your book or about your game, or about your anything, as soon as you have an idea well formulated.”

http://www.gmsmagazine.com/articles/iyadwyadywagwyag-or-how-to-do-more-and-betterpart-2-the-publishers

“

Light/Medium games emphasize FUN. Heavy games emphasize CHALLENGE.

Medium games emphasize both for sure, FUN and CHALLENGE, but it’s the shared emphasis on FUN that keeps it from becoming a Heavy game.

Don’t get [me] wrong, CHALLENGE can be FUN, but it doesn’t emphasize FUN at its core, it emphasizes CHALLENGE. Make sense?

”

— Bryan Fischer (@bryanfischer)