“Challenge what you think you know about your design; try new things; you only learn the true boundaries of a design by pushing against them in all directions.”

— Jay Treat (@jtreat3)

Advice for staying focused on your Kickstarter’s goals and not losing backers as a result:

http://www.stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-63-stay-focused-or-lose-backers/

Squeezing “zits” from your game–finding out what’s annoying players:

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/23637/squeezing-the-zits-from-your-game

Designers discuss pitching to publishers, dealing with rejection and more on the Something From Nothing vidcast

Bruno Faidutti on why theme is just as important for a light game:

http://faidutti.com/blog/?p=2463

Corey Koneiczka of Fantasy Flight Games discusses expansions on the Ludology podcast:

http://ludology.libsyn.com/ludology-episode-66-please-sir-can-i-have-some-more

Making prototype icons using Inkscape:

http://boardsandbarley.com/2013/10/08/prototype-art-icons-in-inkscape/

“What I wish someone had told me” about designing and publishing a board game for the first time:

http://thornhenge.com/hey-gabe/

Thoughts on competition, direct conflict, war games and screwage games:

http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/2013/10/competition-direct-conflict-wargames.html

Anatomy of train games

Part 1: Connections http://www.mechanics-and-meeples.com/2013/09/09/anatomy-of-a-game-train-games-connections/

Part 2: Pickup and Delivery http://www.mechanics-and-meeples.com/2013/09/16/anatomy-of-a-game-train-games-pickup-and-delivery/

Part 3: Stock Holding http://www.mechanics-and-meeples.com/2013/10/07/anatomy-of-a-game-train-games-stock-holding/

“The measure of a game designer is not how often they turn out to be wrong about something, but how gracefully they recover when it happens.”

— Gregory Carslaw of 3D Total Games

How to do early-bird Kickstarter levels–if you must:

http://www.stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-62-early-bird-pledge-levels/

“Merely playing games is not enough to be a good game designer. That’s a baby step, a necessary step, an easy step. Playing games shows you what has already been done. However, like an amazing meal in a Michelin *’d restaurant, it does not show you process of the chef/designer. Studying that is the secret. Wondering why. Deconstructing. That is what matters.”

— Brenda Romero (@br)

A broad overview of the game design process:

http://nothingsacredgames.com/the-path-of-the-game-and-the-path-of-the-designer/

How to keep in contact with Kickstarter backers after the project ends:

http://www.stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-61-post-campaign-communication/

Facebook groups for board game creators:

http://www.jamesmathe.com/facebook-pages-groups/

A panel of designers at GrandCon goes over lots of topics of interest to designers:

http://www.buildingthegamepodcast.com/2013/10/02/bonus-episode-26-grandcon-2013-game-design-panel/

Colby Dauch of Plaid Hat Games (@PlaidHatGames) joins Board Game University to discuss growing a game publishing company, effective playtesting, balancing factions, working with licenses, counting the costs and more:

http://boardgameuniversity.libsyn.com/board-game-university-episode-19-colby-dauch

More questions to ask and things to pay attention to during playtests:

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/23715/ajs-game-success-indicator-model

Creating an “idea box” for quick game design on the go:

http://www.cheveedodd.com/2013/10/03/practice-makes-perfect-my-idea-box/