For established game designers, finishing is the hard part. For aspiring designers, starting is the hard part. Prototype your game NOW.
— Chris Rowlands
New designers should be open to other ideas that weren’t part of the initial vision of the game and be open to outside ideas from developers, friends, and playtesters. You never know when an inspiration will come that will make a good game into a great game.
— Dale Yu
Playtesting your game? Write down the results of each game. You can do extraordinary things with that kind of data.
— Brandon Rollins
Spend as little time as possible creating the first prototype, because you will definitely trash it and build something new just after the first playtesting session.
— Bruno Cathala
Tip for new designers: your first half-dozen games (at least) are going to be terrible. Lower your expectations, iterate quickly, and be prepared to throw them out.
— Peter C. Hayward

Cardboard Edison’s Favorite Tips & Resources - February 2017

This month our list of great board game design links features ways to use dice and cards, advice for designers from a developer, crucial but often overlooked playtesting advice--and an appearance by the fine folks at Cardboard Edison!

featured:

theory:

process:

playtesting:

publishing:


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, 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