Most significant barrier to design and publishing your first game is… you. Dedicate time and energy and you will do it.
— Peter Vaughan (@pvaughan007)
Seeing how intuitive playtesters find various mechanics is a great way to determine what to streamline.
— Adam McIver (@ad7m)
It becomes emotionally easier to streamline after you’ve designed a bunch of games. Ideas less precious.
— Daniel Solis (@DanielSolis)
What can I cut while still keeping the core experience intact?
— Nazca Games (@nazcagames)
The HARDEST part of design is follow-through. PLENTY of amazing ideas never get made because design is hard.
— Adam McIver (@ad7m)
What’s fun? What is the big thing that’s fun to do? Augment that, chop off things that don’t matter.
— Chris Darden (@cbdarden)
If you really have game design on the brain, inspiration will come from every aspect of your life.
— Adam McIver (@ad7m)
It is easy to get a game half-done, and not so difficult to take it to 75%. The other 25% may never come.
— Scott Nicholson (@snicholson)
The reason games are reskinned by publishers is because the designer does a poor job of identifying the market.
— Boyan Radakovich (@thegamesmith)
If your goal in doing a game is to make a game you want to play, then you are the audience. If your goal in making a game is to sell the design to a publisher, then you need to think of an audience.
— Scott Nicholson (@snicholson)
If I design just for myself, I can’t find playtesters. Dead end. I must think about others when I design.
— Daniel Solis (@DanielSolis)
I would never design a game I wouldn’t enjoy myself, but knowing who else would enjoy it is also key.
— Adam McIver (@ad7m)
The feedback you can never deny: “Your game is good, but not yet great.”
— Andrew Federspiel (@AndrewFdrspl)

cah:

Episode four features Rocket Wreckers, a 2-Player card game where competitors battle each other while riding on the back of a rocketship. The game is designed by Rob Couch.

Rob can be reached at Twitter at @poorly_designed, or you can visit his website at www.poorlydesigned.com

For more, check out his interview with Jared Rosen below where he discusses approaching design from a story standpoint, fighting for a spot on the shelf and that last bit of tuning.

Read More

Rob Couch (@poorly_designed) discusses approaching design from a story standpoint, fighting for a spot on the shelf, and that last bit of tuning

When using feedback to iterate, focus on trends over a smattering of individual opinions and data points.
— Grant Rodiek (@HerrohGrant)
The more experienced you are, the more you take production costs into consideration while developing a game.
— Uwe Rosenberg, via @boardgamegeek
It’s possible to be a crazy perfectionist without going perfectly crazy, and it’s possible to find flaws in your best creations and still sleep well at night.
— Kory Heath (@KoryHeath)