Tips & Resources for Board Game Designers
Julio Nazario on the best places to find prototype components, programs for organizing your designs, game design contests, publisher information, and more:
http://www.weirdgiraffegames.com/carla/wordpress/2020/08/17/rapid-game-making-with-julio-nazario/
Kickstarter’s games team discusses best practices for leading up to a campaign and for after it wraps up (video)
The fun of components plus how one designer took his game from print on demand to signed with a large publisher (audio):
The benefits of collective board game design and development (audio):
The first advice any new board game designer should hear:
http://rockmanorgames.com/2020/08/13/advice-for-aspiring-game-designers-and-publishers/
Grant Rodiek discusses his experiences in self-publishing and licensing his games (audio):
https://breakingintoboardgames.libsyn.com/breaking-into-board-games-episode-122-grant-rodiak
Some different ways that wargames approach “sequences of play”—what happens on players’ turns—and how they affect the feel of the game:
https://hollandspiele.com/blogs/hollandazed-thoughts-ideas-and-miscellany/sequences-of-play
Gamers weigh in: What makes a game replayable?
https://twitter.com/MinimumPlayerCt/status/1293317716258910208
Tips for taking extraordinary photos of board games (video):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2YZA86vsX390VZ8QA2p0Lny3FIreebZ_
Designers discuss if they consider whether a game is “marketable” while working on it:
“Not every game idea is playable. Not every playable game is good. Not every good game is publishable. Not every publishable game is marketable. And not every marketable game will find an audience.”
Considering why Monopoly’s folk rules exist, and what game designers can learn from that:
http://www.phantomknightgames.com/news/a-tale-of-two-monopolies/
Notes on wargame creation from designer Brian Train: choosing a conflict to model, the design process, unconventional conflicts, and more:
How to make your game accommodate higher player counts:
http://www.weirdgiraffegames.com/carla/wordpress/2020/08/10/increasing-player-count/
Thoughts on how the board game industry—and the conventional wisdom about it—is changing:
https://brandonthegamedev.com/in-the-board-game-industry-the-rules-always-change/
Common and not-so-common supplies for making board game prototypes, and where to find them (video)
Tips for running a tabletop game Kickstarter campaign, directly from Kickstarter’s games team (video)
Suggested software for creating rulebooks—a BoardGameGeek designers forum discussion:
Board game developers: who they are, what they do, and how their role is evolving with the industry (audio):
Part 1: https://dicetowernews.libsyn.com/dice-tower-now-689-july-6-2020 (9:44-17:00)
Part 2: https://dicetowernews.libsyn.com/dice-tower-now-691-july-20-2020 (4:44-12:50)
Part 3: https://dicetowernews.libsyn.com/dice-tower-now-693-august-3-2020 (6:53-13:20)
“Ideas are great when they’re in your head, but you can’t really figure out just how much promise it has until you get it into a workable, playable prototype.”
