Advice for going into your first playtest outside of your core group:

http://www.bgdf.com/forum/game-creation/playtesting/what-nuggets-wisdom-would-you-give-first-time-person-seeking-play-te

Advice for designing a game system that will support many possible games: 

http://theinquisitivemeeple.com/2016/05/13/the-birth-of-a-game-system

Loops in board game design: core loops, feedback loops and more:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/48513/380368-episode-15-loops-in-game-design

The fuzzy lines between inspiration, borrowing and stealing game concepts--a Reddit tabletop game design forum discussion:

https://www.reddit.com/r/tabletopgamedesign/comments/4ik5jy/game_design_ethics_when_does_inspiration_become/

10 places to find playtesters:

http://galvanizedstudios.com/2016/05/09/finding-playtesters/

Randomization in games: what makes it compelling and how you can utilize it in ways that don’t feel arbitrary to players:

http://ruddygam.es/episode-6-randomization/

“Take advantage of your resources like local game stores to run demos of your game to get feedback. If you are only playing your prototype with friends and family, you are missing out on opportunities. ”

— Ray Wisneski

“Listen for the heart of the feedback. Playtesters can’t always find the exact mechanism, but they know what part they liked & didn’t.”

— Peter Gousis

“Letting go of a design is a hard thing for a designer to do, but holding on to a design long after it is viable can waste your time, energy, and passion.”

— Nat Levan

Advice for knowing when to give up on a design:

https://oakleafgames.wordpress.com/2016/05/05/give-up-on-your-games/

Ways of scaling a game for different player counts:

http://coalitiongames.com/2016/05/game-theory-player-scaling-primer/

Advice for attending early-year conventions as a designer, developer or publisher:

http://breakingintoboardgames.libsyn.com/breaking-into-board-games-episode-17-unpubgatheringtoyfairpaxeast

“Try to play your game as quickly as possible. Find out whether your core idea has the spark to be interesting. Don’t think about it; try it. Forget about balancing, artwork and UI. Instead try to define what you consider to be the core mechanisms, and test whether they are fun at all.”

— Asger Sams Granerud

Cardboard Edison’s Favorite Tips & Resources - April 2016

This month, our roundup of favorite board game design links includes a thorough checklist for designers, fascinating articles on key game concepts, practical advice for a pitching tool and lots more.

featured:

• The Process: Scoville by Ed Marriott

process:

• A checklist for game designers. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. (audio)

• How to find more time to make games (video)

theory:

• Key questions about your design: the core play loop, tension, axes of interaction and more

• The fundamental building blocks of games: resources, victory conditions and player interaction

• “Every theme is pasted on. Our job is to make that paste as strong as possible.” - Jon Gilmour

• “If you’re a first-time game designer, be very careful of the word ‘and.’ It is so easy to add a rule to a game, and the best game designers spend all of their time taking rules out.” - Luke Peterschmidt

playtesting:

• When considering playtest feedback, treat the problem, not the symptom

• “Take notes when given gameplay feedback even if you think you’ll remember later. It’s a social cue that you value your tester.” - Ben Pinchback

licensing:

• What should be in a sell sheet

publishing:

• Preparing a budget for a board game project

• Project-management advice for tabletop game producers (audio)

• How to determine the size of your print run

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Cardboard Edison is supported by our patrons on Patreon.

SENIOR INVENTORS: Steven Cole, John du Bois, Richard Durham, Peter C. Hayward, Matthew O’Malley, Isaias Vallejo

JUNIOR INVENTORS: Ryan Abrams, Luis Lara, Behrooz Shahriari, Aidan Short, Jay Treat

ASSOCIATES: Robert Booth, Doug Levandowski, Aaron Lim, Nathan Miller, Marcel Perro, Matt Wolfe

APPRENTICES: Kevin Brusky, Kiva Fecteau, Scott Gottreu, Michael Gray, JR Honeycutt, Scott Martel Jr., Mike Mullins, Marcus Ross, Sean Rumble, Diane Sauer

Developing your game's core engine: following player instincts, writing things down, creating incentives, changing the numbers and more:

 http://www.justingary.com/core-engine-development/

The requirement for the May 2016 24-hour contest is "six": 

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1569721/24-hour-contest-may-2016

Discussions about shipping games, dexterity games, designing for kids and families, the benefits of networking and more:

https://theactionpointspodcast.com/2016/05/02/victory-pointers-012-designing-for-kids-and-networking-with-peter-c-hayward/

Board Game Design Forum's May 2016 Game Design Showdown

Pitch a game to be played at "human scale"

Deadline: May 8, 2016

http://www.bgdf.com/node/17911

Sources of inspiration for board game designers:

http://ludology.libsyn.com/ludology-episode-127-inspiration

“If you’re a first-time game designer, be very careful of the word ‘and.’ It is so easy to add a rule to a game, and the best game designers spend all of their time taking rules out.”

— Luke Peterschmidt