“If lots of players do something wrong in a game, like consistently misinterpreting how a particular mechanic works, then you either have to spend a lot of effort making it really obvious what they should be doing (by producing reminder cards or lots of rules examples), or you can change the game so that what they were doing is correct. The latter course of action is usually better - fighting human nature is not easy.”

— Sebastian Bleasdale

“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/