“Creators: Feedback is good, but it will never end. You must eventually make a decision.”

— Daniel Solis (@DanielSolis)

Board Game Design Forum’s March 2014 Game Design Showdown

Design a game using a spinner

Deadline: March 8, 2014

http://www.bgdf.com/forum/game-design/game-design-showdown/gds-march-2014-and-make-mine-random

The theme for the March 2014 BoardGameGeek 24-Hour Contest is “pirate”:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1131254/24-hour-contest-march-2014

How much work should you do to guard against horrible player behavior?

http://hyperbolegames.com/2014/03/01/horrible-person-proofing/

Cardboard Edison's Favorite Tips & Resources - February 2014

This month’s roundup of useful tips and resources for board game designers features advice for finding your place in the industry, detailed stats behind a Kickstarter campaign, lots of thought-provoking articles about the theory behind board games, and more. Enjoy!

#industry:

• “Don’t attend conventions just to sell games. Attend to network and sell yourself. Think long term. Build relationships.”–Ben Pinchback (@pinchback21)

#publishing:

• Hard numbers behind a “pay what you want” Kickstarter campaign

#process:

• “Designers. Expect rejection. Tempered expectations will induce persistence in seeking publication. Never give up on something you believe in.”–A.J. Porfirio (@VanRyderGames)
• Geoff Engelstein (@gengelstein) joins the Game Design Round Table to discuss real-time games, designing with family, learning to play new games, and more

#playtesting:

• “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)

#theory:

• “Remember: simple is not the same as shallow. Complex is not the same as deep.”–Grant Rodiek (@HerrohGrant)
• Reverse engineering gaming mechanisms
• How your scoring system distributes points, and how it encourages player behavior
• Replayability is more than variability
• Examining depth and emergent gameplay—finding the ideal ratio of depth to complexity
• Underused game formats that lie somewhere between competitive and cooperative

#rules:

• Grammatical pitfalls in rulebook writing

Increase the utility of your game–the enjoyment players get and the conditions in which it gets to the table:

http://www.gamesprecipice.com/utility/

Beyond winning, what reasons might players have for playing?

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/27816/the-hidden-assumptions-of-gamers

Shift designer Samuel Strick discusses designing games backwards, discovering why you love what you love, differentiating the sort of randomness you want, designing two-player games and more:

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/27921/samuel-strick-on-shifting-provinces-and-the-art-be

Sushi Go! designer Phil Walker-Harding discusses card drafting, set collection, rebooting a Kickstarter and more:

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/28063/phil-walker-harding-and-the-sushi-go-heroes

Can board games terrify?

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/27805/can-board-games-terrify

Good and bad ways to use asymmetrical suits:

http://kevingnunn.com/2014/02/28/asymmetrical-suits-in-card-games-part-2/

How to run a “humble” (modest goal) Kickstarter campaign:

http://claycrucible.com/2014/02/how-to-run-a-humble-kickstarter-campaign/

Mage Company (@magecompany) offers Kickstarter advice: communication, getting ideas on the table, fixing mistakes and more:

http://www.boardgamequest.com/interview-with-mage-company/

The Flux Capacity Publishing Challenge

Deadline: May 27, 2014

Prize: publishing contract with The Flux Capacity

http://news.thegamecrafter.com/post/78119933487/the-flux-capacity-publishing-challenge

The Plaid Hat Games podcast (@PlaidHatGames) discusses prototyping, the development process and early playtesting of a new design:

http://www.plaidhatgames.com/podcast/127

Jay Little offers advice for designers and discusses working in the gaming industry:

http://trollitc.com/2014/02/indie-talks-episode-43-jay-little/

Game length and maximizing players’ time value: pros and cons of short and long games, setup, downtime, end conditions and more:

http://www.gamesprecipice.com/game-length-time-value/

Advice for quitting your day job–if you must–to start a game publishing company:

http://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-81/

Fixing mistakes before you make them: insights from the Meeple Source Kickstarter:

http://stonemaiergames.com/fixing-mistakes-before-you-make-them-insights-from-the-meeple-source-kickstarter/

“Designers. Expect rejection. Tempered expectations will induce persistence in seeking publication. Never give up on something you believe in.”

— A.J. Porfirio (@VanRyderGames)