“Read between the lines. When a playtester asks a question or gives a suggestion, there’s normally something in your game that they felt was lacking.  Take their question or suggestion, but also try and figure out the driving force behind it.”

— Scott Almes (@Scott_Almes)

“When in doubt, avoid adding complexity to your game. While it’s important to ensure that your game has enough depth and replay value, too much complexity can easily doom a game.”

— Darwin Kastle of White Wizard Games

Ludology talks with Emerson Matsuuchi of Nazca Games (@NazcaGames) about hidden movement and programmed movement:

http://ludology.libsyn.com/ludology-episode-106-hide-and-seek

2015 Game Chef design competition

Theme: A Different Audience

Deadline: June 21, 2015

http://game-chef.com/game-chef-2015/

Kim Brebach of Secret Base Games (@SecretBaseGames) discusses international shipping and fulfillment on Kickstarter with Chaos Publishing (@ChaosPublishing):

http://www.chaospublishing.com/2015/06/11/ep-3-pitching-to-the-world-w-kim-brebach/

“Play as many games as possible. Gaming is a vocabulary with a breadth of history. Knowing how to speak games and what’s already been done and not done, well and not so well will have a big impact on your design and its success.”

— Justin Schaffer of Terra Nova Games (@TerraNovaGames)

Meeple Syrup (@MeepleSyrup) offers con tips: networking, pitching and just plain surviving an industry show

The cast of Flip the Table (@tableflipsyou) joins The Cubist (@CubistPodcast) to discuss what makes games good–and bad:

http://www.thecubistpodcast.com/podcast/2015/6/10/episode-4-signs-of-greatness

Three ways humor can be expressed in a board game:

http://gamesbymanuel.com/2015/06/10/humor-in-boardgames/

Tips for publishers working with artists:

http://theforbiddenlimb.com/2015/05/17/working-with-an-artist/

The Gaming Careers podcast on how to tackle a large project by dividing it into smaller pieces:

http://www.thecompanybard.com/tgc-040-david-sanheuza-breaking-apart-the-vision/

The Game Design Round Table (@TGDRT) discusses collaborating on game designs:

http://thegamedesignroundtable.com/2015/06/03/episode-126-collaboration/

10 cost-saving tips for tabletop publishers:

http://meeplemechanic.com/specials/top-10-cost-saving-tips-for-tabletop-publishers/

Thoughts on the importance of theme in cooperative games:

http://paulowengames.blogspot.com/2015/06/importance-of-theme-in-cooperative-game.html

“Immerse yourself in the community! The gaming community is very welcoming, and in my experience designers are always eager to help other designers.”

— Suzanne Zinsli (@KabrtZinsli)

“It’s important to do bad work. You can iterate on bad work and make it good. You can’t iterate on something you haven’t started.”

— Jay Treat (@jtreat3)

Tips for playing your own game–during development and when promoting it:

http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/playing-with-yourself/

Advice for making time to design when real life happens:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1379846/life-universe-and-playtesting-being-creative-when

Board Game Design Forum’s Game Design Showdown for June 2015

Pitch a competitive game where players are forced to cooperate for a common good

Deadline: June 9, 2015

http://www.bgdf.com/forum/game-design/game-design-showdown/gds-june-2015-enemy-my-enemy-also-my-enemy

“Where haste is useful: going from concept to prototype. Where haste is not useful: understanding and applying feedback.”

— Ed Marriott (@EdPMarriott)