Kickstarter: Go For The Win→

tgcnews:

When you’re running a Kickstarter campaign for your board game, you need a win. Winning is more important than winning big. That’s why we structured our Village in a Box campaign with such low funding goal. Once your game is funded, new doors open to you.

First and foremost, people follow…

“Remember: simple is not the same as shallow. Complex is not the same as deep.”

— Grant Rodiek (@HerrohGrant)

Advantages of card decks with asymmetric suits:

http://kevingnunn.com/2014/02/26/asymmetrical-suits-in-card-games-part-1/

Phil Kilcrease of 5th Street Games (@5thstreetgames) on stress-testing games, designing for everyone, and more:

http://goforthandgame.com/2014/02/23/a-conversation-with-phil-kilcrease-of-5th-street-games-2/

The Bamboozle Brothers (@bamboozlebros) on analyzing feedback, communicating with players and publishers, the “micro-game mentality,” long-distance co-designing and more:

http://bellwethergames.com/designers/jay-cormier-and-sen-foong-lim-interview/

Manufacturing in China vs. the U.S.–pros and cons:

http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/china-vs-united-states-manufacturing/

Things to do during your Kickstarter’s “dead zone”:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/4646/153357-ep-186-tyler-james-9-things-during-the-kickstarter-dead-zone

Panda Game Manufacturing (@pandagm) discusses manufacturing, components, the gaming industry worldwide and more on the Happy Mitten podcast (@HappyMitten):

http://www.happymittengames.com/24/

“For a designer, honest feedback is a beautiful thing. You can’t overreact or underreact. It’s your job to digest and appropriately address.”

— Ben Pinchback (@pinchback21)

Matt Leacock (@mleacock) and A.J. Porfirio (@vanrydergames) discuss designing co-op and solo games on the Something From Nothing vidcast

Some basic assumptions we have about tabletop games–and how they might be subverted:

http://danielsolisblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/game-assumptions-technique-for-coming.html

“Choices need to be partially but not fully comprehensible in order to be meaningful”–thoughts on understanding and choice in games:

http://www.3dtotalgames.com/understanding-choice/

Scoring schemes for large sets:

http://kevingnunn.com/2014/02/18/ties-damn-ties-and-statistics-part-7/

GameTek’s Geoff Engelstein (@gengelstein) discusses the importance of high points and strong endings in games:

http://ludology.libsyn.com/gametek-74-endings

The Game Design Round Table discusses game phases–early, mid, late–and “pivot” points:

http://thegamedesignroundtable.com/2014/02/17/episode-67-game-phases-pivots/

Things to avoid in pitch letters to publishers:

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/27117/submitting-103-stuff-you-dont-want-to-get-caught-d

Avoiding player elimination, by Lewis Pulsipher (@lewpuls)

What’s required for a modern train game?

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/27515/empire-builder-and-the-modern-train-game

SEE ALSO: 

http://www.mechanics-and-meeples.com/tag/railroad-games/

Scoring schemes for small sets:

http://kevingnunn.com/2014/02/14/ties-damn-ties-and-statistics-part-6/

Underused game formats that lie somewhere between competitive and cooperative:

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/27555/game-format-competitive-cooperative-and-semi-quasi