Timing your Kickstarter project: Michael Keller of Visible Hand Games (@vhgames) on using the con circuit and dealing with unforeseen events with his campaign for City Hall:

http://www.thegamewhisperer.com/2012/11/funding-the-dream-on-kickstarter-ep-101-city-hall-with-michael-keller.html

How many dice (to include with a game)?

http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-many-dice-to-include-with-game.html

Some suggestions for programs that let you make cards:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/883432/card-design

What would you learn about board game design if you created and published a new game every month for 10 years straight?

Jonathan Leistiko, who did just that for Invisible City Productions, shares what he’s learned:

http://www.rantgaming.com/2012/11/11/not-so-old-school-interviews-invisible-citys-jonathan-leistiko/

Registration for Unpub 3, to be held Jan. 19-20, 2013, in Magnolia, Delaware, is open now through Jan. 1:

http://us4.campaign-archive.com/?u=555654fce7a68d736c015d4ec&id=840c1d9d6b

Spanish publisher nestorgames has launched a crowdfunding service for games.

It’ll license any successful projects that it can produce, with the designer receiving a 10% royalty. However, the designer must pay a 60 euro fee up front to launch the project.

http://www.nestorbooster.com/

The Game Crafter (@thegamecrafter) is now offering bulk discounts for large orders, starting at 25 units:

http://news.thegamecrafter.com/post/35561758838/new-bulk-pricing-great-for-kickstarters 

Bruno Faidutti discusses factions in board and card games:

http://faidutti.com/blog/?p=1315

Daniel Solis (@DanielSolis) discusses his process of iterating his games through numerous playtests:

I tried to stay patient, making small changes, and testing them out with several different groups in rapid succession. Here’s what I’ve learned over the past year.

http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/rapid-prototyping-vs-reckless.html

“Focus. The designer should pick a goal they want to accomplish. Everything in the game should focus towards that point. It’s easier to do one or two things incredibly well than fifty things.”

— Grant Rodiek (@HerrohGrant)

Grant Rodiek (@HerrohGrant) discusses open design, community engagement, Kickstarting his game Farmageddon, looking professional, what makes a game great, running Hyperbole Games (@HyperboleGames) and more:

http://goforthandgame.com/2012/11/09/a-conversation-with-grant-rodiek-the-designer-of-farmageddon/

Bernd Brunnhofer has some pointers for novice designers who want to submit to Hans im Glück, in this interview:

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/14253/interview-with-bernd-brunnhofer-from-hans-im-gluck

The Secret of Learning from Others

Know that you are not the best. You are in fact, not that good. BUT you are equipped with a formidable weapon that will grant you victory.

You are learning.

http://exampleofplay.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/the-secret-of-learning-from-others/

Some advice for dealing with contradictory feedback from playtesters:

http://www.reddit.com/r/tabletopgamedesign/comments/12epqb/advice_on_taking_playtesting_advice/

Ideas for overcoming designer’s block:

http://www.reddit.com/r/tabletopgamedesign/comments/12fjsl/when_the_idea_store_runs_dry/

Some places to find professional playtesters–and a few words of warning about them:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/878872/is-there-a-market-for-professional-playtesters-org

Designers and publishers are invited to a late-stage playtest session at this year’s BGG.CON:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/10406747

Story Realms creators Angie Hickman Newnham and Julian Leiberan-Titus discuss how to get players hyped up for your game, having the right attitude while playtesting, the importance of collaboration and more:

http://bellwethergames.com/featureddesigners/196-julian-leiberan-titus-a-angie-hickman-newnham-interview.html

Lewis Pulsipher (@lewpuls) looks at economic production cycles in games:

http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-economic-production-cycle-in-games.html

A new website, GameFunders, promises to offer “a better place to fund games than Kickstarter”:

http://gamefunders.webs.com/