Cardboard Edison’s Favorite Tips & Resources – March 2015

This month’s roundup of useful board game design links features practical advice for making board games a sustainable endeavor, important reminders about playtesting, notes on a taboo game mechanism and more.

industry:

• Advice for finding work in the board game industry

publishing:

• Preliminary steps to take before moving into board game publishing
• Detailed information for how to request a quote from a manufacturer

playtesting:

• The post hoc fallacy in playtesting: why happy players might not be enjoying your game
• “When designing games there’s no substitute for actual playtesting. It may work perfectly in your head. That’s usually not true in reality.” – Ed Marriott
• “If someone plays your game and says it’s great, insist that they give you one piece of criticism, no matter how small. After disclosing one complaint, many more might follow.” – Chris Gosselin

process:

• “We’re all just making this up as we go along. Experiment with crazy ideas when you’re designing.” – Matt Leacock
• “Pay more attention to the ideas that return to you. They strike a chord for a reason.” – Jay Treat

theory:

• The right way to use player elimination

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SENIOR INVENTORS: Steven Cole, Richard Durham, Jeff Johnston, Matthew O’Malley, Isaias Vallejo

JUNIOR INVENTORS: Stephen B Davies, Luis Lara, Behrooz Shahriari, Aidan Short, Jay Treat

ASSOCIATES: Robert Booth, Zachery Cook, Doug Levandowski, Nathan Miller, Marcel Perro

APPRENTICE: Gino Brancazio, JR Honeycutt, Brad Price