A look at the trick-taking genre of games:

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/34227/investigation-trick-taking

To Be Designed Convention

A card and board game design and prototype convention

Nov. 17-18, 2014, in Plano, Texas

http://tbdcon.com/

Designing for brilliant players and for… not-so-brilliant players:

http://nskngames.blogspot.com/2014/09/perfect-to-fault.html

If you want to see your game become a real product, keep these production considerations in mind:

http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/game-idea-vs-game-product/

“If you’re looking for specific feedback, you need to ask specific questions. Develop them before each session.”

— Sen-Foong Lim (@SenFoongLim)

The Building the Game podcast (@PodcastBTG) discusses ways of using different types of end-game conditions:

http://www.buildingthegamepodcast.com/2014/09/21/episode-121-happy-endings-and-turning-tricks/

Bruno Faidutti on board games and the exoticism of other cultures and other times:

http://faidutti.com/blog/?p=3780

The three Kickstarter funding scenarios you must plan for:

http://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-117-the-3-funding-scenarios-you-must-plan-for/

“Design your first 10 games really quickly, so that you can learn how to do it. Don’t expect that the first one is going to be any good or get published.”

—

Jeremiah Lee (@jeremiah042)

“Be open to criticism. If you want to just make a game because you want to make a game, you can ignore criticism. If you want it to be published, then you have to listen to it.”

— Emmanuel Aquin (@Amiral_Aquin)

The Meeple Syrup vidcast discusses how to join the print-and-play community

A guide to demoing your prototype at a convention:

http://whoseturnisitanyway.com/article-game-design-demoing-prototypes/

What you can expect to get out of designing games–and what you can’t

The pros and cons of special powers:

http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/09/design-tip-of-week-19-special-powers.html

A new source of icons, under Creative Commons license:

http://www.toicon.com

Australian self-publishers share tips on how to develop and publish a board game:

http://atgn.com.au/want-make-tabletop-game-interview-allen-chang-jason-kotzur-yang/

10 tips for prototyping and early playtesting:

http://goplaylisten.wordpress.com/2014/09/17/how-to-design-a-board-or-card-game-10-prototyping-tips

How and why you should promote your game before launching it on Kickstarter: “You can’t be a wallflower if you want to run a successful crowd funding campaign. You’ve got to get yourself and your game out there.”:

http://news.thegamecrafter.com/post/97738776643/kickstarter-pre-promotion

Integrating theme and mechanics: “The closer you can tie your core mechanics to your theme, the more your players will accept those mechanics, and the more the game will be ‘about’ what you say it’s about:

http://www.gamesprecipice.com/integrating-theme/

Lessons learned from pitching to publishers at Gen Con 2014 Speed Dating:

http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/designerpublisher-speed-dating-at-gen-con-2014/