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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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process
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August 01, 2023 August 01, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

How to fulfill a crowdfunded project: an overview of finding a manufacturer, booking freight, clearing customs, and actually fulfilling orders (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_Jdk123g5U

August 01, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
publishing

Cardboard Edison

July 29, 2023 July 29, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

15 ways publishers can support their own games:

https://stonemaiergames.com/15-ways-publishers-can-support-their-own-games/

July 29, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
publishing

Cardboard Edison

July 29, 2023 July 29, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

How board games with licensed intellectual property get made:

https://thepopinsider.com/features/tabletop-games-development/

July 29, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
industry

Cardboard Edison

July 29, 2023 July 29, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

Player count vs. playtime: thoughts on the tradeoffs that come with various common approaches to scaling a game for more players while keeping its length in check:

https://thecityofkings.com/news/balancing-player-count-and-game-length-in-board-games/

July 29, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
theory

Cardboard Edison

July 29, 2023 July 29, 2023/ Cardboard Edison

Simple actions you can take to advance your board game design plans right now (video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7FDQRJEFeo

July 29, 2023/ Cardboard Edison/
process

Cardboard Edison

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

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