Take ideas that you’ve developed over the years playing other games, and then put those ideas into a new way of playing something old, or a new way of playing a familiar concept. In doing so, you can develop a new game that hopefully many people around the world will enjoy.
— Ken Johnson, designer of Phase 10
Use whatever tools you can to get to a first playable ASAP - scrap paper, rules in Notepad, scribbled diagrams etc. then play it out yourself or with someone ASAP even if (especially if) you realize it’s crap within 5 minutes and have to redo everything.
— Aaron Lim
If it stops being fun and feels like a chore, take a break. Come back to it when you’re feeling it again. When you play a game, you can feel how much fun the designer had making it, so ensure that you maintain your own passion for what you love throughout the process, and most of all enjoy yourself, so you know that your players will, too.
— Tristan Hall