“The key to a fun game is interesting meaningful decisions. If you’re making the same decision all the time, you work out the best answer, so to keep things interesting, you generally want a constantly changing situation. And the best way to do that is through interaction with other players.”

— Sebastian Bleasdale

Five beginning steps to prepare for a Kickstarter campaign:

http://www.game-o-gami.com/2014/07/02/kickstarter-and-self-publishing-where-do-i-start/

Designing a game the quick way: how to go about modifying an existing game to create a new one

Board Game Design Forum’s July 2014 Game Design Showdown

Restriction: design a game that uses stacking as a main mechanism

Deadline: July 8, 2014

http://www.bgdf.com/forum/game-design/game-design-showdown/gds-july-2014-game-stacked

The theme for the July 2014 24-Hour Contest is “soccer”:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1195990/24-hour-contest-july-2014

Curious exactly how much work goes into running a Kickstarter campaign? Doug Levandowski of Meltdown Games (@meltdowngames) is logging the hours day-by-day:

http://meltdowngames.wordpress.com/

Learning from Zombicide’s success:

http://stonemaiergames.com/learning-from-zombicides-success/

A view of games beyond theme and mechanics: How context is created for players:

http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/theme-vs-mechanics-the-false-dichotomy/

Cardboard Edison's Favorite Tips & Resources - June 2014

This month’s roundup of useful links and advice for board game designers features a list of what to look for in contracts, a new prototyping tool, reminders about getting started and continuing on, publishing mistakes to avoid and lots more…

#playtesting:

• “You are the greatest limitation to your own game design. Be willing to pursue the uncertainty of an idea you didn’t originally consider.” - Alex Harkey (@GamesPrecipice)

#process:

• “The key to being a game designer is to design games. Just wishing really hard doesn’t cut the mustard.” - Kevin Wilson (@KevinWilson42)
• “The road to success is a toll road. Our failures are the toll. Accept them and keep always moving forward.” - Kevin G. Nunn (@kgnunn)
• “Game design is a very difficult, long, frustrating, lonely process. Stick with it. Your diligence will pay off.” - Grant Rodiek (@HerrohGrant)
• Recognizing and escaping from “monkey traps”—those ideas you just can’t seem to let go of
• “If you just sit on your idea for 2.4yrs, someone else will publish an identical game. Go make something!” - Corey Young (@C_M_Young)

#prototyping:

• A program for turning comma-separated lists into printable playing cards

#licensing:

• Common pitfalls in licensing contracts for board games—and how to avoid them

#publishing:

• 10 Kickstarter mistakes to avoid, from Robert Burke (@robertburke)
• Doug Levandowski (@levzilla) of Meltdown Games (@meltdowngames) joins All Us Geeks (@AllUsGeeks) to discuss getting feedback prior to a Kickstarter launch, recent changes to the platform, marketing and more
• Dominic Crapuchettes of NorthStar Games (@NorthStarGames) joins Ludology to discuss designing party games, dealing with mass-market retailers, starting a game company and more
• Launching on Kickstarter soon? Here’s your to-do list for the final week

#theory:

• Pros and cons of different end-game conditions
• Schools of game design and their “core priorities”

“A theme should make sense with mechanisms and reduce the learning time. A novel theme for its own sake does neither.”

— Daniel Solis (@DanielSolis)

Ludology discusses worker-placement games: What makes them tick? Why would designers use that mechanism? What are the pitfalls to avoid?

http://ludology.libsyn.com/ludology-episode-83-all-work-and-no-place-make-games-a-dull-toy

The Building the Game Podcast (@PodcastBTG) discusses print-on-demand services, take-that games, when to give up on a design, and more:

http://www.buildingthegamepodcast.com/2014/06/29/episode-109-questions-and-magic/

The benefits of working with publishers:

http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/06/dtow-9-working-with-publisher.html

A program for turning comma-separated lists into printable playing cards:

http://card-game-prototyper.herokuapp.com/import

Advice for the process of writing your game’s rulebook:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1194562/how-do-you-write-instruction-manual

Board Game Mechanics Library–a new project to catalog the different ways games have used various mechanics:

http://boardgames.siroak.com/

A reminder about copying and pasting messages to supporters:

http://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-106-dont-copy-and-paste/

What to do when testing becomes a grind–a Board Game Designers Forum discussion:

http://www.bgdf.com/forum/game-creation/playtesting/testing-becomes-grind

Kevin Nunn (@kgnunn) looks at the prisoner’s dilemma and how it can be used in games:

http://kevingnunn.com/2014/06/13/be-ye-friend-or-be-ye-foe-part-1/

http://kevingnunn.com/2014/06/17/be-ye-friend-or-be-ye-foe-part-2/

http://kevingnunn.com/2014/06/20/be-ye-friend-or-be-ye-foe-part-3/

http://kevingnunn.com/2014/06/25/be-ye-friend-or-be-ye-foe-part-4/

The Game Design Round Table talks to the Bamboozle Brothers (@bamboozlebros) about working with a partner long distance, getting picked up by a publisher and more:

http://thegamedesignroundtable.com/2014/06/24/episode-85-bamboozle-brothers/