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Cardboard Edison

Game design & bright ideas for game designers

Bright Ideas

Tips & Resources for Board Game Designers

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July 29, 2023 July 29, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

Tips for a successful pitch event where you’ll be showing multiple games to many publishers:

https://www.thedarkimp.com/blog/2023/07/26/mojo-pitch-an-inventors-guide-part-2-the-pitch/

July 29, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
licensing

Cardboard Edison

July 22, 2023 July 22, 2023/ Cardboard Edison
“Don’t waste time creating nice card or board designs. Make something functional and test it. The game will go through so many stages that everything you created at the beginning will probably be discarded or modified so much that it will be more work to update than to remake.”
— Roberto Pinheiro
July 22, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
prototyping

Cardboard Edison

July 22, 2023 July 22, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

How to prepare for a pitch event where you’ll be showing your game or games to lots of different publishers:

https://www.thedarkimp.com/blog/2023/07/20/mojo-pitch-an-inventors-guide-part-1-before-the-pitch/

July 22, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
licensing

Cardboard Edison

July 22, 2023 July 22, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

How to “find the fun” in your board game design:

https://thecityofkings.com/news/game-design-finding-the-fun/

July 22, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
playtesting

Cardboard Edison

July 22, 2023 July 22, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

Playtester makes a mistake and misses a rule? Here’s why you might want to let it go:

https://subsurfacegames.ca/2023/07/20/when-playtesters-have-happy-accidents/

July 22, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
playtesting

Cardboard Edison

July 20, 2023 July 20, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

How to design a deck-building game (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-v3Oj9ofFc

July 20, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
theory

Cardboard Edison

July 18, 2023 July 18, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

4 quick tips for rapid prototyping:

https://thecityofkings.com/news/4-quick-tips-for-rapid-prototyping/

July 18, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
prototyping

Cardboard Edison

July 17, 2023 July 17, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

Should you ship your own crowdfunded project? Pros and cons of doing it yourself (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgSf8BeRy5s

July 17, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
publishing

Cardboard Edison

July 17, 2023 July 17, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

8 things pretty much every board game publisher is looking for in a game (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UynEcZvRckg

July 17, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
licensing

Cardboard Edison

July 15, 2023 July 15, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

A process for approaching publishing problems once they’re discovered and systematically addressing them:

https://thecityofkings.com/news/what-to-do-when-things-go-wrong/

July 15, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
publishing

Cardboard Edison

July 15, 2023 July 15, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

Book recommendations for board game designers (Adam in Wales, video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOdai8dc9bk

see also: https://firsttakesomedice.blogspot.com/2023/07/three-books-i-found-useful.html

July 15, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
process, theory

Cardboard Edison

July 14, 2023 July 14, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

Scoring in party games: why it can be so hard to create a scoring system in what’s supposed to be a simple game:

https://www.thedarkimp.com/blog/2023/07/14/scoring-in-party-games/

July 14, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
theory

Cardboard Edison

July 08, 2023 July 08, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

Why the question of theme-first or mechanics-first game design is a false dichotomy (audio):

https://ludology.libsyn.com/thinking-beyond-mechanisms-episode-1

July 08, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
theory, podcasts

Cardboard Edison

July 08, 2023 July 08, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

How to calculate shipping costs for your crowdfunding project (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa0cBy0GvZ0

July 08, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
publishing

Cardboard Edison

July 08, 2023 July 08, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

Graph theory and some surprising effects that game designers can make use of:

https://gametek.substack.com/p/the-graph-of-con-nection

July 08, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
theory

Cardboard Edison

July 08, 2023 July 08, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

10 things every board game designer needs (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7cMoP3LHEs

July 08, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
process

Cardboard Edison

July 08, 2023 July 08, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

Questions to ask yourself early on in the design process to help you decide how—and whether—to move ahead with a project:

https://thecityofkings.com/news/should-i-make-this-game/

July 08, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
process

Cardboard Edison

July 01, 2023 July 01, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

An overview of some of the most common legal issues that arise around making and marketing games: copyrights and trademarks, clauses to look for in contracts, NDAs, and more (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YeERH88-Y4

July 01, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
industry, licensing

Cardboard Edison

June 29, 2023 June 29, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

Tips for balancing tabletop game design with a full-time job (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBNThntN0H4

June 29, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
process

Cardboard Edison

June 29, 2023 June 29, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

Considering common table sizes when designing a game that will be played on them:

https://thecityofkings.com/news/how-big-is-a-table/

June 29, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
publishing

Cardboard Edison

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