The requirement for the December 2016 24-hour contest is "charcoal":

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1682701/24-hour-contest-december-2016

Some reasons why you might not want to enter the board game industry (audio):

https://boardgame.business/2016/11/30/reasons-to-not-enter-the-board-game-industry/

Cardboard Edison's Favorite Tips & Resources - November 2016

This month's list of excellent board game design links features advice for getting started, explanations of how the industry works, reminders about what to focus on, and more.

featured:

• The Compendium, a directory of more than 140 board game publishers: who's accepting submissions, what they're looking for, and how to contact them

process:

• Intro to board game design and development: basic principles (audio)

• 17 ways to start a game design

publishing:

• How to get your game into distribution

industry:

• Practical advice for moving into full-time board game work (audio)

theory:

• 10 designers offer advice for creating a card game

• On legacy game design (video)

• Real-time games: What design techniques work for this mechanism? What does it do to the player experience? (audio)

• “Whatever the players do the most in your game should be the most fun. Don’t relegate the best part to 5% of game time. Weave it throughout.” - Kevin Wilson

• “Designers, challenge yourself to streamline. Simplicity is harder than kitchen sink.” - Byron Collins

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Cardboard Edison is supported by our patrons on Patreon.

ADVISERS: Peter C. Hayward, Aaron Vanderbeek

SENIOR INVENTORS: Steven Cole, John du Bois, Richard Durham, Koen Hendrix, Chris and Kathy Keane (The Drs. Keane), Marcel Perro, Behrooz Shahriari

JUNIOR INVENTORS: Ryan Abrams, Joshua Buergel, Luis Lara, Aidan Short, Jay Treat

ASSOCIATES: Robert Booth, Stephen B Davies, Danica E., Doug Levandowski, Aaron Lim, Nathan Miller, Isaias Vallejo, Matt Wolfe

APPRENTICES: Kiva Fecteau, Scott Gottreu, JR Honeycutt, Knight Works, Scott Martel Jr., David J. Mortimer, Mike Mullins, Marcus Ross, Sean Rumble, Diane Sauer

“Designing for publication and designing to play with your friends are two completely different disciplines that require almost opposite mindsets. Start there, and your life/work choices will become abundantly clear.”

— Eric Lang

“Love what you do. Nothing else matters. If you’re not in love with your game, start something else. When you love your game enough, you’ll weather the pain of development and iteration because you KNOW you have to get it out there.”

— Eric Lang

“Build your design process around play testing. Everything else is theorycraft.”

— Eric Lang

“We’re all influenced by other games. The newer and hotter your influence, the more likely you’re parallel developing with hundreds worldwide.”

— Eric Lang

How to get your game into distribution:

http://www.jamesmathe.com/how-to-get-into-distribution/

Real-time games: What design techniques work for this mechanism? What does it do to the player experience? (audio)

http://ludology.libsyn.com/ludology-141-the-realtime-housewives-of-new-jersey

“If a rule doesn’t add to the fun of the game, get rid of it.”

— Byron Collins

Tips for shipping a Kickstarter board game worldwide: 

 http://stonemaiergames.com/how-to-ship-stuff-worldwide-2016-edition/

Tips for attending a publisher speed dating event:

https://castledevblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/27/tips-on-publisher-speed-dating-and-pitches/

“Unless you know for sure that a suggestion isn’t going to pan out, then it’s worth doing due diligence and testing it out. You never know which decent-sounding suggestions will be right for the game, and which just won’t pan out, until you try them.”

— Seth Jaffee

“Designers, challenge yourself to streamline. Simplicity is harder than kitchen sink.”

— Byron Collins

The Lady and the Tiger Game Design Contest

Design a game using 18 specific cards and 25 tokens in five colors

Prize: $250 and publication offer

Deadline: Jan. 23, 2017

http://www.jellybean-games.com/contest

Why complexity, depth and balance are as important as difficulty:

https://davidmullich.com/2016/11/21/designing-a-good-game-is-about-more-than-making-it-difficult-complexity-depth-and-balance/

Ways of achieving the level and type of player interaction you want in your game:

https://www.reddit.com/r/tabletopgamedesign/comments/5efht6/player_interaction_and_its_importance/

Advice for very new board game designers to keep in mind:

https://www.reddit.com/r/tabletopgamedesign/comments/5ec3oe/helpful_advice_on_taking_the_next_steps_in/

Four approaches to starting a new design:

https://boardsandbarley.com/2016/11/23/different-approaches-to-game-design/

Graphic designers on how to make a board game more user-friendly (audio):

http://nerdfountain.libsyn.com/nerd-fountain-83-power-to-the-meeple-53-metatopia-2016-ui-and-ux-in-tabletop-games-presented-by-laura-simpson-chris-oneill-anthony-amato