Tips & Resources for Board Game Designers
Designer Diaries on BoardGameGeek are a great resource for new game inventors. They show how published games were conceived, developed and ultimately licensed or self-published. Along the way, the designers often share some lessons they learned through the process.
You can read every BoardGameGeek Designer Diary here:
Some suggestions for ways to limit the options in your game without curtailing its depth:
http://hyperbolegames.com/2012/06/04/limit-em-good/
SEE ALSO:
Make a Better Game – Limit the Player
http://cardboardedison.tumblr.com/post/20876510726/make-a-better-game-limit-the-player-presenting
Bruno Faidutti’s answers to some of the most common questions from new game designers:
How can I protect my idea and be sure some dishonest game publisher won’t steal it?
Is it useful to pay a professional artist to make a nice looking mock-up of my game?
How can I get in touch with publishers?
Can I submit the same game to more than one publisher?
The publisher wants to give me XX% of his gross sales price. Is it fair?
The publisher wants to change everything, it’s not may game anymore… What can I do?
“No matter how “finished” you think your game is, feedback from a publisher can lead to important improvements even if they ultimately take a pass.”
“Make the prototype quickly from anything you can find. Once you have a game, improve the prototype enough to interest playtesters. Once you get a finely-tuned game, make it shine.”
Can you design a game in 24 hours? If so, there’s a contest for you:
Three best practices for creating a Risk: Legacy-style game, by Daniel Solis:
http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/three-best-practices-of-risk-legacy.html
“You may have a great track record of quality games, but if you are a pain to deal with, future publishers may pass on your submissions and accept games from less difficult designers.”
“There’s a lot of information out there, but the best advice that tends to get repeated over and over is this: Design a game you’d like to play.”
“Your first game will not be your best, so if you have a favorite idea that you’d love to make a game out of, then you might want to save it for after you’ve got the hang of things.”
Reddit has a small but supportive community of tabletop game designers:
http://www.reddit.com/r/tabletopgamedesign/
Is kingmaking a problem that needs to be fixed?
Mechanics that enhance replayability
The Secret Cabal (@thesecretcabal) discuss what aspects of games make them want to play again, starting at about 1:51:00:
A few ways to implement secret positioning or secret movement:
http://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/7492/how-can-you-have-secret-units-on-the-board
First playtest disaster: The BoardGameGeek designers forums share their trainwreck stories and how to get past them:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/810189/first-playtest-disaster-breathe-deeply
The Toy Industry Association’s “Toy Inventor & Designer Guide” has some general information about how to introduce a new toy or game into the market:
http://www.toyassociation.org/AM/PDFs/TIA/TIAToyInventorDesignerGuide2ndEdition.pdf
“As board game designers, we have to make our own magic. But it also means we’re free to.”
Notes from a game design class using The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design:
http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/10866/1st-game-design-class
“Never give up. Rejection is part of the process.”
“Failing to trim your game into a lean mean fun machine will almost invariably cost you publication because extra parts make the game more expensive, extra rules make the game less accessible, and the combination makes a game no one wants to take a chance on.”
