“While an understanding of logic, personal motivation, incentives, and information management is important in design, all of it dies without being able to understand how something makes somebody else feel. Empathy >>>>> Intelligence.”
Brief outline for how to start a local designer playtest group:
https://twitter.com/emmalarkins/status/1007437829251612672?s=21
"Faster you get your game design to the table the faster you can identify the problems that any first design iteration will inevitably have. Don't spend too much time building the first prototype or you risk becoming too attached to what you've built and unwilling to tear it down." - Joseph Z Chen
Visualizing various tiebreaker mechanisms:
https://twitter.com/danielsolis/status/1005084307554291715?s=21
Takeaways from the 2018 Tabletop Network conference:
https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/77936/tabletop-network-recap-part-1
Tips for researching games that might be similar to your design (audio):
http://thegamecrafter.libsyn.com/finding-similar-games-with-the-game-crafter-episode-176
Six ways to recover from a failed endeavor:
http://brandonthegamedev.com/6-ways-to-avoid-despair-and-move-forward-after-failure/
Cardboard Edison’s Favorite Tips & Resources - May 2018
/In this month's roundup of great board game design links and quotes, you'll find advice for what to do before and after entering a contest, reminders about the realities of the design process, industry resources, and more
contests:
theory:
prototyping:
process:
Finding time to design while working a full-time job--a BoardGameGeek designers forum discussion
“Understand that a good idea may take as little as an instant, but a good design may take as long as a decade.” - Reiner Knizia
industry:
Musings on plagiarism, copies, influences and coincidences in the board game industry
How to take a licensed property and turn it into a board game
Information on scores of board game reviewers and content creators
“Peers, persistence, passion. All contribute to success as a designer. They support and reinforce one another, forming the base of your practice. The stronger your base, the better you can roll with the highs & lows of a creative field.” - Emma Larkins
“One of the most important parts of game development is helping new devs. Mentoring makes the mentor better too.” - Brandon Rollins
Cardboard Edison is supported by our patrons on Patreon.
ADVISERS: 421 Creations, Black Letter Games, Peter C. Hayward, Aaron Vanderbeek
SENIOR INVENTORS: Steven Cole, John du Bois, Chris and Kathy Keane (The Drs. Keane), Joshua J. Mills, Marcel Perro, Behrooz Shahriari, Shoot Again Games
JUNIOR INVENTORS: Ryan Abrams, Joshua Buergel, Luis Lara, Aidan Short, Jay Treat
ASSOCIATES: Stephen B Davies, Adrienne Ezell, Marcus Howell, Thiago Jabuonski, Samuel Lees, Doug Levandowski, Nathan Miller, Neil Roberts, Mike Sette, Matt Wolfe
APPRENTICES: Cardboard Fortress Games, Kiva Fecteau, Guz Forster, Scott Gottreu, Aaron Lim, Scott Martel Jr., James Meyers, Tony Miller, The Nerd Nighters, Matthew Nguyen, Marcus Ross, VickieGames, Lock Watson, White Wizard Games
Source: @DanielSolis
"Watch for players taking actions that they find really fun, but don't help them win the game. Can you align your incentives so that the fun things to do are also paths to victory?" - John Brieger
"Corollary: Watch for players doing things that help them win the game but they don't find fun. Either make those fun, remove them, or make them weaker than the fun things." - Jay Treat
The requirement for the June 2018 24-hour contest is "queen":
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2002412/24-hour-contest-june-2018
Answers to questions about finding playtesters, creating multiple paths to victory, and more (audio):
https://www.theboardgameworkshop.com/2018/05/episode-39-contributors-6.html