Cardboard Edison’s Favorite Tips & Resources – November 2012

Here’s our regular roundup of the most valuable tips and resources for board game designers that we’ve found over the past month.

This month’s list features advice for the design process, playtesting, game design theory, publishing and more. Enjoy!

#industry:

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

#process:

• “I advise new game designers not to play a lot of games, but to design a lot of games. If all you ever do is see what other people have wound up with, you can never really understand what they started with and how they got there.” – James Ernest (@cheapassjames)
• “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)
• “Theme matters but is mutable. Don’t let your mechanics suffer for your theme. Iterate toward symbiosis.” – Jay Treat (@jtreat3)

#theory:

• Different options for keeping track of quantities in games

#playtesting:

• “Your game begins as a rough rock. Submerge it in playtesting. It will be smoothed into its final shape.” – Daniel Solis (@DanielSolis)
• “If you test with only gamers, don’t expect it to ever go to mass market – expect it to be beloved by gamers, and that’s where you’re going to sell it. So you have to figure out ahead of time who the market is that you’re aiming for, and that’s where you test it.” – Dominic Crapuchettes (@DCrapuchettes) of North Star Games (@NorthStarGames)

#publishing:

• Caring for your game after release: keeping the community happy

The virtues (and sins) of using dice in games, by Lewis Pulsipher (@lewpuls):

http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-virtues-and-sins-of-using-dice-in.html

Alan R. Moon on redesigning a previously published game:

When I redesign a game, my objective is for the new version to be both familiar and different at the same time. I want the players who liked the original to like the new game as much or more, but I want them to have a different experience too.

http://meepletown.com/2012/12/game-designer-interview-alan-r-moon/

“I long ago learned that you can’t call a game educational if you want anyone to think it’s fun. You have to let the educational part sneak up on the players.”

— Alan R. Moon

Paul Owen (@PaulOwenGames) discusses forging relationships with publishers, setting the players’ “decision space,” using social media and more:

http://bellwethergames.com/featureddesigners/201-paul-owen-interview.html

A brainstorming exercise for game designers: Using Wikipedia to generate novel game themes:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/892541/just-come-up-with-a-new-theme-already-fun-exercise

Where are the new game mechanisms?

http://goforthandgame.com/2012/11/29/question-of-the-month-where-are-the-new-game-mechanisms/

“Steal blatantly from other games during playtest, then let it become its own thing.”

— Dave Chalker (@DaveTheGame)

“Your game begins as a rough rock. Submerge it in playtesting. It will be smoothed into its final shape.”

— Daniel Solis (@DanielSolis)

An open offer to write flavor text for your game or edit its rules:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/890995/flavour-text-writer-rules-reader

“There’s no set of rules so small that someone won’t misread it anyway.”

— Daniel Solis (@DanielSolis)

Daniel Solis (@DanielSolis) visits the G*M*S Magazine podcast (@gmsmagazine) to discuss open design, observing playtesters, art vs. craft and more:

http://www.gmsmagazine.com/podcasts/the-gms-magazine-podcast-episode-70-with-daniel-solis

Need some sturdy square tiles? The BoardGameGeek designers forum knows where you can get them:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/890440/i-need-some-squares

Advice about playtesting, prototyping and pitching from The Game Crafter’s latest Hall of Fame inductee:

http://news.thegamecrafter.com/post/36668744129/chris-leder-inducted-into-hall-of-fame

What things should a board game publisher consider when setting MSRP?

http://www.quora.com/Board-Games/I-am-publishing-a-game-what-are-some-good-rules-to-apply-when-deciding-on-MSRP

“I advise new game designers not to play a lot of games, but to design a lot of games. If all you ever do is see what other people have wound up with, you can never really understand what they started with and how they got there.”

— James Ernest (@cheapassjames)

James Ernest (@cheapassjames) joins Jennisodes (@Jennisodes) to talk about his design process, advice for new designers, playtesting, publishing and more:

http://www.jennisodes.com/podcasts/cheapass-games/

Ludopolis International Boardgame Design Competition 2013

Deadline: Jan. 13, 2013

Prize: Publication by Portuguese publisher Runadrake

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/889409/ludopolis-international-boardgame-design-contest-2

Colby Dauch of Plaid Hat Games (@PlaidHatGames) and Stephen Buonocore of Stronghold Games (@StrongholdGames) discuss their different paths to success running small board game publishing companies:

http://www.plaidhatgames.com/podcast/70

Caring for your game after release: keeping the community happy:

http://exampleofplay.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/caring-for-your-game-after-release/