11/7/2018 How to Learn Board Game Design and Development

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GAME DEVELOPMENT > HOW TO LEARN

How to Learn Board Game Design and

Development
by David Silverman 29 Nov 2013
Length: Long Languages: English

How to Learn Board Game Game Design



Over the past decade, board games have gained increased prominence within the game
industry. With the growing popularity of Euro-style board games, such as Settlers of Catan,
and the constant in ux of new games and game types such as Dominion, the popular
deck-building game, board games have seen an unexpected resurgence among gamers of
all kinds. While board games share many ideas with video games, they are played in a very
different way, and often use very different game mechanics. Designing for board games
brings about different challenges than designing for video games, but the skills can be
applied universally to make all of your games better.

ROUN D U P S

6 Incredibly In-Depth Guides to Game Development and Design for Beginners

Michael James Williams

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An Overview of Board Game Genres

Before we get started, let's brie y look at a few genres of board games. This should help
acquaint you with a couple of different types of board games, and the concepts behind
them, and give you an idea of where to start if you're new to board games. Remember,
many board games now have digital counterparts that you can play on an iPad or PC, so
even if it's hard for you to play these games on an actual tabletop, you should have no
trouble trying the more popular ones out.

Classic Board Games or Family Games

These games require the players to race around the board or follow a designated path to
reach their goal. Sometimes there will also be a points system involved. These games
have a heavy reliance on luck, and have less strategy than more modern board games.
Games like this work best with groups where the game itself is not as important as the
experience of playing together. Most of the time, these games have very simple or absurd
themes which have little or no impact on the game mechanics.

Examples: Sorry, Snakes and Ladders, and Candyland

Euro-Style Games
Euro-style games are often about gaining victory points, an arbitrary resource that allows
you to win. They usually last a certain number of turns, or continue until one player has a
certain number of victory points. These games have strong themes which inform much of
the design. There is also usually a system of resource management, and some kind of
"political" play between the players as they negotiate the sale and trade of resources.

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Finally, these games have fewer elements of luck or chance, and most issues the player
experiences because of "bad luck" can be mitigated with strong strategic play.

Examples: Settlers of Catan, Power Grid, Carcassone, and Lancaster

Deck-Building Games
Deck-Building Games (DBGs) are similar to Trading Card Games (TCGs) where each player
has a deck of cards they use during play. The difference is that in DBGs the players all
work from the same card collection, and the deck-building occurs as part of the game.
These games usually come with 15-20 different card types, but only ten are used in a
single game. This gives the games a lot of replay value. In these games players build their
deck over time by purchasing available cards from the pool of cards. Games like this
usually end when a certain number of card types are depleted, or when a speci c situation
occurs.

Examples: Dominion, Thunderstone, Nightfall, and Quarriors

Abstract Strategy Games

Abstract strategy games include chess and checkers. The point of these games is for two
players to have a complex strategic battle in which they try to out-match and out-think
their opponent. These games are harder to describe without speci c examples, and the
game elements and goals are not quite as common across the genre. Instead of dice rolls
or card combinations, the goal is often to position pieces in just the right location.

Examples: Chess, Checkers, Quoridor, and Push Fight

Strategy Games
Strategy games are much grander Euro-style games. These games usually have a very
important board and a narrative which drives the game's progress. These games often
involve a heavy amount of co-op and competitive play, forcing players to make and break
alliances over the course of the game.

Players are usually participating as much in the game itself as they are in higher-level
mind-games with each other: trying to get ahead, form alliances, and discern their
opponent's motives. These games are generally marked by very long game sessions (six
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hours or more, for some), and are sometimes affectionately referred to as "friendship-
ending games", because of how passionate players become. Risk is perhaps the most
well-known game in this genre.

Examples: Risk, Twilight Imperium, Arkham Horror, and Battlestar Galactica

Card-Based Strategy Games

Card-based strategy games are strategy games where cards are the primary game
element. Games like this vary heavily, but there is often a drafting mechanic, or an element
of character or base building where players use cards to gain abilities or bonuses. These
games usually have a heavy element of luck or randomness.

The goal in games like this can be based on victory points, trying to complete a speci c
set of cards, or eliminating certain target players, among others. Games like Poker, Spit,
and Egyptian Rat Screw don't t into this category because they lack a central theme, and
don't require anything other than a standard deck of cards. Deck-Building Games could t
into this category, but have become so popular I consider them their own genre.

Examples: Munchkin, Bang, 7 Wonders, and Chrononauts

Before We Begin
Like video games, the creation of board games can't really be boiled down to a speci c set
of steps you need to follow. You could give a general overview, but without going into the
speci cs, it's hard to explain game development of any kind.

To help you understand the concepts, I am going to use this article to walk you through the
process I took while developing one of my ideas. This is by no means a complete game,
but it should still help me illustrate a lot of my points by having a concrete example for you
to learn from.

The key here is that you will get to see both the theory and the actual thought process I'm
using as I develop this idea further. Hopefully by the end of the article you'll understand

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how my idea went from concept to prototype, and how I could turn it into a nished
project.

With all this in mind, let's get started.

Coming Up With an Idea

Image by Daniel Stockman from Wikimedia Commons.

The rst step in any project is to gure out what your project will be. A great way to get
inspired is to take a game you already play and enjoy, and to add or remove a major game
element. Doing this forces you to look at the game from a new perspective.

When you try adding or removing something from the game, you start looking at the
existing components much more critically. The moment you remove something, it
becomes much easier to see why that element was so important or unimportant to begin
with. This can give you a deeper understanding of the game you are playing around with,
and a good insight into the purpose of many of the game mechanics.

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Another great technique is to start with a real world theme or system you like, and to try
building a game around that. If you start working with a speci c theme or system in mind,
it makes it much easier to determine what sort of gameplay you want. Starting this way
can also help you nail down how the players will be interacting with each other.

For example, if you are making a game about zombies you could make some players
humans and some zombies; you could make everyone humans and have them working to
escape or kill all the zombies; or you could have the players competing to be the nal
survivor left standing.

Starting with a theme also gives you the ability to draw from that theme when trying to
think of new game elements. If you are already making a game about characters in space,
then you can always reference books, movies and other materials about space to nd
inspiration for new elements. This was the method I chose to use when working on my
game.

My rst idea was related to drug dealers because I was watching Breaking Bad and
imagining what it would be like to be Walter White. As I thought about this idea more, I
realized that the central con ict in drug-dealing and drug empires is in gaining and
controlling territory, and I knew speci cally that I didn't want to make a game that would
require me to do a lot of work laying out territories on a game board.

With that in mind, I settled on doing a card-based strategy game, and ditched the drug
empire theme since it would be too hard to convey territory in that game style. I then
started thinking about other competitive industries, and speci cally industries where
control over, or positioning on, a map are not important. Eventually I settled on the movie
industry as the system I wanted to base my game on.

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Image by Jelson25 from Wikimedia Commons.

The movie industry is a good choice because it is already a competition-based industry

where companies compete for sales and awards. On top of that, a movie can easily be
boiled down to a collection of parts which you as the designer can quantify and use as
game elements, a screenplay, a director, actors, genre, and release date, among others.

There's also the fact that most people already have some understanding of how the movie
industry works, or can infer many of the details. This meant that the game concept would
be easy to understand, and quickly accessible to most players. Finally, the movie industry
is composed of many different elements and "moving parts", and would give me a lot of
resources to draw inspiration from.

Fleshing Out Your Idea

Once you've settled on your theme, you need to determine what your game is about, and
how it's played. Start by writing down everything you can think of relating to the game, and
putting every idea you have onto paper.

Your initial idea is going to be very rough, and if you described it quickly to ten different
people, they would walk away with ten different concepts of how it works. The goal right
now is to put as much thought into the concept as you can, and to think through every

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aspect of it that interests you. You want to walk away from this with a solid understanding
of what your game is supposed to be, and how it is played.

At this point, it's also helpful to write your intent for each idea alongside the idea itself. It's
not uncommon for me to nd my initial ideas don't work as well after I esh things out.
During these moments, it's helpful to know where the idea came from. This allows me to
re ne ideas I don't like, while preserving the original goals. It's also important to consider
alternative ideas, or variations on your initial concepts. Having a lot of potential methods
to achieve the same results will prevent you from hitting roadblocks when a key system
needs to be reworked.

This is the initial design document I put together when working on the movie studio idea. The yellow parts on the

side of each page are notes to myself or future designers I bring on, about certain important game aspects or about
other ways I could make certain systems.

You should also try to detail exactly how the mechanics could work. Ask yourself
questions about the game while you're working on it. This keeps you from ignoring the
smaller details, and allows you to continually analyze your design and where it's going.

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Ask yourself questions like:

How many players will there be?

How long should the game be?
What choices will the player make, and when will they make them?
How will the player make these choices?
How will one player's choice impact the other players?
How will the players interact with each other?
Are there any choices that can be made by one player, but not by the others?
How does the game progress? Is it strictly turn-based, or is it in rounds with phases?
What actions will the player be able to take?
How will the outcome of an action be determined?
What is the player's goal?
How can the player win?

Even if you don't know all the answers yet, you may nd that keeping the questions in mind
while working will lead you to the answers.

I try not to move forward with development until I can read through the document without
questioning the details of any speci c mechanics. I also know I'm not done with this stage
if I haven't determined how a round or turn progresses, how long the game is supposed to
last, how the player wins, and how many players I want in an average game.

You cannot run a successful playtest, or build a prototype, without answers to these
questions. You will know you are ready to move forward when you can look at this
document and understand what the game is, and how it works, even if it's not perfect.

For my Movie Studio concept I started by determining the goal of the player. The most
logical concept was for the players to create and release movies to try and gain awards
(victory points) and money (the primary resource).

From there I determined that the script, the director, and the actors are the most well
known aspects of a lm, so I thought those would make good game elements as well.
Making a movie also seemed pretty straightforward: buy a script, hire a director, nd the
actors, and lm the movie. This made sense with what I had so far, and seemed like

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logical things for the player to do during their turn, so I settled on this as the structure for
how a round would progress.

After settling on the basic game elements, and how they interacted, I determined how
awards and money would be distributed. For this I created a genre attribute for scripts,
and decided that actors and directors could specialize in certain genres. This gave me a
solid way to link actors, directors, and scripts, and allowed me to quantify a nished movie
based on the ratings the associated characters had in the given genres.

The rest of my development at this stage focused on lling in the details of how a round
progressed, how actors, directors, and scripts are bought, and how the players actually
complete a movie. Once I'd worked through all the interaction the players would have with
the system, I settled on a progression of play for each round, and for the game as a whole.
Finally, with all the major pieces in place, and a solid understanding of my game, I moved
onto the next stage of development.

Content Development
Now that you understand what your game is about and how it is played, you need to make
all the content.

If you are developing an abstract strategy game like chess or checkers, this stage will be
much simpler because it will likely come down to balancing and nalization of rules and
pieces. On the other hand, if you are developing a content-heavy game like the movie
game I'm working on, this stage will require a lot of time and effort settling on what types
of content you need, how much content you need, and what to base your content on.
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No matter what type of game you are working on, it's always best to start by determining
what types of content you need, and how much of it you need.

In the movie studio game I need at least three content types: scripts or movies, actors, and
directors. On top of that I need to settle on awards for the player, and create all the cards
that dictate how much money the players get from their movies.

My game is divided into rounds. If I assume that the maximum number of movies a player
can develop at any time is two, and the maximum number of players is four, that means
the players need to be able to have up to eight unique scripts for each round. If I then
assume there are six rounds in the game, I now know I need 48 unique script cards in the
game, since script cards are never reused. This number tells me the bare minimum
number of scripts my game needs for a single game session.

(Once the mechanics are nalized, I may add more scripts to increase the replay value or
to allow more rounds in a single game, but it's still important to know what the bare
minimum is.)

Next, I need to gure out how many actors and directors can be purchased among all
players in a given round. Unlike scripts, actors and directors are eventually shu ed back
into their respective decks. This means I need to know the minimum number of actors and
directors that can be used before any are reshu ed into the deck if I want to prevent
players from running out.

Currently, actors and directors are not removed from a lm until the lm is released. This
isn't entirely realistic, but it makes gameplay much easier. With this in mind, I need to know
how long a lm can go unreleased to determine the maximum number of actors and
directors that can be occupied at once. Since a round represents a year, I decided that two
rounds was the longest a lm could go without being released by the player. So, with a
maximum of eight lms being developed each round, and each lm requiring one director
and up to three actors, I knew that, each round, up to eight directors and 24 actors could
be bought by players. If we multiply those values by three to account for two rounds of
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unreleased lms, and the lms being made in the current round, we get 24 directors and
72 actors as our bare minimums.

Continue to Simplify
I think it's worth noting here that at one point these numbers were actually much higher.
After doing the math, I realized that I would have too much content to make before I could
test my game. Keep in mind that, even if it's unlikely, your game could end up failing, so it's
good to try and minimize the amount of time you spend making content, until you are sure
the game is worth committing the time to.

At this point I also settled on having six awards each round, one for each genre of lm.
Since the awards would remain the same the whole game this was not a big deal. On top
of that, I decided to make 18 scenario cards which would be used to dictate how money
was distributed in a given round. This gave me the ability to test the game three times and
be guaranteed different outcomes, since in each round you only use one scenario card.
Both of these things were easy to develop compared to the other content, so I thought the
time investment was worth it.

Once you know how much content you need, you have to actually make all of that content.
Until I've started play-testing and know my game is fun, I try to think about my game in
terms of the mechanics I'm working with, and the strategies I want the players to be
implementing, and not so much the avor text or art aspects. This saves time, and
prevents me from having as much work go to waste when I need to redesign things later.

Thinking about the game mechanics, I know I want some scripts to be more likely to give
the player money, and some to be more likely to get them awards. To make this work, I will
look at the stats that matter for both, and see how I can distribute them in different ways
to affect the odds.

I also know that I want there to be interesting ways for actors to interact with directors,
scripts, and each other. To do this I can create special buffs that actors get when they
work with certain other actors, or give some scripts buffs when they have speci c
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directors attached to them. I can also add more unique features, like scripts that
automatically come with certain actors or directors attached if those actors or directors
aren't already being used by other players.

If I used real actors and directors in my game, I could have a Director card for Tim Burton,
and Actor cards for Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Since these three are all
known to work together on almost all of their projects, it would make sense to give them
bonuses when you use them on the same movie. The same thing could apply to James
Franco and Seth Rogen, or Matt Damon and Ben A eck. While it's unlikely I'd use any real
actors in the game, this still gives me a good model for how different characters could
interact.

Organizing Your Game's Interactions

It helps to make a list of all the potential interactions you come up with while working, and
to use that list as a reference when creating game elements. This ensures you don't forget
any potential interactions, and gives you a reference to ensure there is a good variety for
each type if you keep track of how often you use each one.

You should also try writing rules for how character stats should be generated, or how
certain card types should work. In my game, I know there should be an even breakdown of
genre specialties among actors, directors, and movie scripts to keep the game balanced.
On top of that, I might consider making rules like "A character cannot have a buff greater
than X unless a certain condition is met", or "A character should never have more than Y
stat points, or fewer than Z". De ning rules like this helps you keep a your design
consistent and makes it easier to bring new designers in later on.

Iterating the Ruleset

This stage of development may take a while, but it's also very important, so don't rush it.
You should also know that there's a strong possibility some of the work you do here will
become useless or unusable when you realize certain mechanics don't work or need to be
retooled. This is okay, though.

Just because an idea doesn't work now, doesn't mean you can't re-integrate it down the
line. Once you nail down all the game mechanics, the only game design step left is this
one, the rest is about understanding your game, making it look pretty, perfecting it, and
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marketing it. Spend a lot of time on this step, because the more consideration you give
these elements now, the less likely it is that you will have to redo them all later.

Designing and Building Your Prototype

With your content developed, the next step is to actually make a prototype. The rst thing
to remember is that your prototype doesn't have to look pretty. While well-designed cards
with beautiful artwork will improve some players' opinions, it takes a long time to get
those things right. Remember, your game may need major revisions, or get scrapped
entirely, and if this happens, it stinks to know you spent an entire day or week working on
beautiful images and designs that will never get used. Believe me, I've made this mistake,
and it's not fun.

This is the prototype for a game called The In nity Formula, which was made by one of our editors for the Global

Game Jam.

With that said, you shouldn't just throw together your game board or cards without
considering layout or readability. Although these designs are not nal, take some time to
determine what information is most important to have, and how to effectively show that
information. I start by listing all of the information needed on a card or game piece, and
then prioritize that information so I know how important each aspect is.

If your game has multiple decks of cards, you also need to differentiate these decks so
that players can tell which deck a card is from. For the prototype, this can be as easy as
using different paper colors for each deck, but when working on the nal product you
should create clear distinctions and designs for each card or piece type.

You should also consider what the piece is being used for, or what it represents. For the
movie game, I tried coming up with a way to make actor cards look like the head-shots an
actor gives to casting directors. This ended up not working because it didn't leave me with
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the room to effectively list the actor's stats, or the price for the actor. Despite this, I still
used elements of head-shots in the design, and decided that the image of the actor used
on the card still be a head shot, even if it wasn't exactly what I had intended.

This was the format I originally envisioned for the cards. The problem with this was that I had too little room to

include more information without making these images very small. This would make it a waste to have four images
since it would make it hard for the player to appreciate the time and effort any artists put into the images.

While this format wasn't quite as compelling, it made each individual piece of art easier to appreciate, and gave me

more room on the card.

While some aspects of the design, such as my actor and director cards, can be left
incomplete or simpli ed in the prototype, things like game boards may need to be much
farther along before you can really test the game. If you were making a custom Risk board,
you'd need to draw an actual map, since the balancing in Risk relies on positioning,
division of country borders, and the number of total countries.

In these cases, there are a few techniques you could use to make preparing a prototype
easier. You could draw the map on a whiteboard or chalkboard surface so it can be
modi ed easily, or make the map on the computer so you can print it, and wait to draw
territory lines until the map is printed. You could also put each country on separate pieces

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of paper or cardboard which can be moved around and re-positioned until you nd the
ideal con guration.

Digital vs Physical Editions

Also, keep in mind how easily you can send your prototype to others. Many of my friends
are game developers that live hundreds of miles away from me. Since they can give me a
different perspective than the average player, I like sending them early copies of my
games.

This makes it important to consider their limitations when I design items like cards which
need to be printed, or pieces that need to be built. It also prevents me from using too many
colors, since that makes printing more expensive. I have to try and keep everything on 8.5
x 11 pages, so that it can be printed more easily. I could neglect these limitations and build
the prototypes myself and mail them, but this is obviously more expensive. You may not
know any game designers to send your game to, but you may want to do a print-and-
play release on your website, and the same limitations need to be considered for that as
well.

Finally, no prototype is complete without a full copy of the game rules. Your players will
need to refer to these, and you probably will too in the rst few tests. Having the rules
written out allows the playtest to continue with as little interference from you as possible,
and allows the players to read through any rules they don't understand as many times as
they need.

Writing out the rules also lets you make sure there's nothing you're forgetting to build for
your prototype. At the very least, make a reference sheet for the players so that they
can look up the cost of common purchases, or a list of basic actions, whenever they need
to.

One of the most useful game pieces in Settlers of Catan is the reference card which tells
you how much each game element costs. Without the reference card, Catan would be a
much slower game, especially if one or more people had never played before.

Playtesting
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With your prototype built, you are ready to move on to the most crucial stage of
development for any game: playtesting. Like with video games, playtesting is where you
get to see all of your ideas in action, and when you get to see how well the game actually
works. Most importantly, though, you get to see if your game is fun.

If you are working on the game with other people and it's possible to play through some
rounds without bringing in anyone new, I highly suggest you do. Doing this allows you to
work out any small kinks or bugs that are easy to solve, and gives you a better handle on
how the game actually ows.

While it's good to use the opinions and insights you gain from the game at this point, you
should always remember that your opinion will be skewed by all the time you spent
developing the game. Because of this, you may subconsciously try and justify feelings you
already have. Keep this in mind, and take note of anything you see or feel while playing. It's
possible you're right, but it's good to get the opinions of actual players anyway.

Once you've done a few playtests on your own, you can bring in new people and see how
they react. Playtesting board games is very similar to playtesting video games. First,
always try to have the game set up and ready to go, before anyone shows up. Second,
make sure you have a thorough and easy to understand explanation of how the game is
played.

Really, though, the best way to run the playtest is to give the players the rule book and see
how much trouble they have guring everything out. Doing this tells you how easy the
rules are to understand, and how well written they are. If you don't want to do it this way
for the rst few tests, that's ne, but you need to run a few playtests like this before you
say the game is done, to make sure the rule book is thorough and easy to understand.

Record Your Playtest Sessions

If you can, it's also a good idea to videotape the entire playtest and write down the time
signature on the recording when important events occur. Recording the session gives you
a concrete record of everything that happened, and writing down the time signature at
crucial points ensures you don't have to re-watch the entire video to reference just ve
minutes of play. If you can't record an video you should still have a notebook or computer

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that you can take notes on. If you don't, you will inevitably lose some important
information or feedback from your players.

Try to be as detailed as possible with your notes. If you're not, you will end up with
important notes that you cannot remember the context or meaning of. This is even worse
then having no notes at all, since it means you took the time to write it down, but can't
remember why. Finally, take note of how long each game phase is taking, and how long
the game as a whole takes. If your game is supposed to last one hour, and it lasts two, you
need to know what the hold-ups were if you want to x it.

The Playtest Journal is a notebook that's speci cally designed to help you keep track of information while testing a

game. Even if you don't want something like this, you should still keep a journal by your side to take notes.

It's also important how you behave during the playtest. The most important thing is not
getting in the players' way. At the beginning of the playtest, make sure to tell the players to
voice any opinions they have of the game out loud when they have them. This prevents
you from constantly having to interrupt the playtest to ask them whether they like different
mechanics, or if they are having trouble understanding things.

Ideally, you want to simulate an actual game session as much as possible. This means
that you want to see not only which rules the players don't understand, but also why they
don't understand them and how they try to reconcile them. This helps you to rewrite the
rules more effectively, and helps you determine how the rules are awed. So, with that in
mind, try not to interfere with the game unless you absolutely have to.

Ask for Feedback

The nal thing you need to do is an end-of-game questionnaire or discussion with the
players. After the game is over you should be prepared to spend 15-20 minutes sitting with

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your players and asking them what they think about it. Your goal is to gain a greater
understanding of everything that happened during the playtest.

Some questions to ask include:

What was your favorite part?

What was your least favorite part?
What did you have the most trouble understanding? Why?
What one mechanic would you change, and how would you change it?
Do you think the game was too long?
Are there any game elements you felt imbalanced the game or weren't needed?
Would you play the game again?
Did any of the mechanics feel too complex? Too simple?
Are there any game phases you wish were longer? Shorter?
Was it fun?

You may not need any or all of these questions, but always end a playtest by talking to the
players and getting their opinions on the game; don't just assume you understand
everything they felt about it.

Finishing and Releasing Your Game

Playtesting takes a long time and a lot of sessions, but eventually your rules will be
nalized, and your game will be complete.

At this point, you should nalize designs and layouts for things like cards, game boards,
pieces, rule books or sheets, and so on. On top of that, if you plan on selling physical
copies, you should gure out what kind of box your game will come in, and what the box
will look like.

While it's important to consider things like readability and effectiveness during gameplay
when making these designs, a lot of this work is related to graphic design concepts. Keep
this in mind while working, and don't be afraid to use "unconventional" resources for help
when working on your game pieces.

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Finally, try to test your game a few times with the nalized designs in place. Sometimes a
design will seem like it works, but because of how people play the game it is actually
awed in an unexpected way. Play through your game a couple times with the nished
designs, and you should be able to quickly resolve any issues you encounter.

Once you've nished designing all of the game pieces, you need to determine how your
game will be released. There are a lot of options to consider, so I've put together this list of
the biggest ones:

Print-and-Play

The original version of Cards Against Humanity was a Print-and-Play release. This helped them get the funding to do

a Kickstarter, work on the game full-time, and eventually make an o cial print release.

A print-and-play game is one that people can buy online and then print at home. This
option is good for small games like abstract strategy games, card-based strategy games,
and games that don't have many pieces.

Before going this route, you should consider a few things. First, most people don't have
access to high quality printers, or printers that can print larger than a standard sheet of
paper, so try to keep everything on 8.5 x 11 inch paper (or A4 paper, in some parts of the
world). Colors can also be problematic: if your game is too big and too colorful, your game
may deplete someone's ink cartridge and indirectly increase how much they are spending
on your game.

This option can be good, but keep these limitations in mind, because potential buyers
de nitely will. When preparing for a release like this take the time to optimize the way your
game is being printed and how it's laid out on the sheet so that it's not only inexpensive to
print, but also easy to cut out and "build". Always try doing a test-print before releasing to
ensure that it's not too hard to do.

Personal Print Runs

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Personal print runs are when you get the game printed on your own and sell it through a
personal website or business. Print runs like this vary heavily in terms of quality, but they
usually don't work as well for very large-scale games, and work best when the total
number of pieces is somewhat limited.

In cases like this you would want to look into services like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo to try
and gain funding. There are not too many services that will print your entire game for you,
but websites like The Game Crafter, which I talk about in more detail below, specialize in
that, and if you look you can nd many services to buy generic and custom game pieces
all over the internet.

Turning a pro t can be hard with things like this, but if your only goal is to make a game for
personal use or you know there are already people interested in buying the game, this can
be a great option to consider.

Getting a Publisher
Another option is to take your game to a publisher and try to get them to release it. Most
publishers have pages on their sites where you can submit game ideas. The speci cs of
how this works is different for each company, but you will need to send them a copy of
your game either digitally or through the mail, and you will then need to wait some amount
of time while they review it and make a decision.

If this is your goal, take some time to determine which company (or companies) would be
most receptive to your game. Don't pitch a complex strategy game that takes three hours
to play to a company like Steve Jackson Games who are known for making short,
humorous card games.

The theme of your game may also be important. If you send your sci- space opera game
to a company known primarily for games about medieval combat, they are unlikely to
accept it, simply because it doesn't t the theme of their products. On the other hand, if
you send it to a company which has a wide variety of game types or themes, try to keep in
mind what they already offer or are working on, since they may not want too many games
in the same genre or category.

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Just like when designing your game, you need to consider the audience you are pitching it
to.

Video Game or App

This is a screenshot from the popular Settlers of Catan Online, a version of the game which can be played online in

your browser for free.

The nal way you could release your game would be as a video game or app. This allows
you to reach a much larger audience, but it may also makes it harder to succeed if your
game isn't well known. While there are many board games which have created successful
apps and video games, most of those games already had an established fanbase. This
helped them a lot because it meant they already had a guaranteed install base of people
who like playing board games virtually, and who enjoy their game.

The fact is, the market for people who want to play board games in a virtual setting is
fairly limited since the idea of a virtual board game somewhat undermines what makes a
board game compelling to begin with. Keep that in mind when turning it into a video game,
and you may be able to re-orient some aspects so they t the medium better and draw in
more players. If you don't have the money to do a print run, but have the experience to do
something like this, it's de nitely worth considering.

Where to Go From Here

While there are still other things we could cover, at this point you really need to just get out
there and see what happens when you try to make a game. I hope this guide helped you
get one step closer to your goal by showing you where to start with your project, and how
to come up with an idea. If you want more advice, or just need to purchase some supplies
for your game, here are a few good resources I use:

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11/7/2018 How to Learn Board Game Design and Development

Board Game Geek

Board Game Geek is the premiere website for information on board games and board
game related topics. You can nd information and reviews on just about any board game
on the market, and it's a great place to meet and talk with other people who are interested
in the same things.

It also has a great community of developers and has a number of tools and resources on
its forum and all around the site in general. If you are looking for a new game to play, or for
advice on your current project, this is where to start.

/r/boardgames on reddit

Reddit has a number of great subreddits related to board gaming, and /r/boardgames is
just one of them. This subreddit is very active and can be a great place to nd out about
new games, see what people think of popular games, or even to plug games you are
working on. It always has a lot going on and is a great place to connect with other gamers.

/r/tabletopgamedesign on reddit

/r/tabletopgamedesign is another great and relatively active subreddit. I haven't been a

member of this subreddit too long, but from what I've seen the members are often posting
great articles and resources related to board game design.

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11/7/2018 How to Learn Board Game Design and Development

Board Game Designer's Forum

As you can probably tell from the name, BGDF is devoted to the art of designing board
games. The website itself hasn't been updated too much over the last few years, but they
have a very active forum.

This is a great site for getting feedback on, and for nding beta testers for, your game. If
you are trying to nd a good community to bounce ideas off and chat with about the
intricacies of board game design, then that's exactly what you'll get here.

Advertisement

The Game Crafter

The nal site I want to mention is The Game Crafter. Not only does this site have some
interesting articles and videos to check out, it also has a number of great resources for
producing the cards and pieces you need for your game.
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11/7/2018 How to Learn Board Game Design and Development

If you have a game and want to take it a step further by self-publishing it, this is a great
site to order your custom cards and game tokens. On top of that, they also have many
classic pre-made game tokens you can order in bulk, if your game doesn't need as much
specialization.

Conclusion
Like with any project you work on, building a board game will take time and effort. You
probably won't make a perfect game the rst time you try, but you can de nitely learn
something from every attempt you make.

Try getting started with something simple—anything, really—and seeing what sort of
unique or random ideas you can create around it. You may end up with a boring game that
you throw out, or you may end up with something you love that you want to work on for a
while.

Either way, your success will always come down to whether you actually take the plunge
and do it, so get out there and go make something.

ROUN D U P S

6 Incredibly In-Depth Guides to Game Development and Design for Beginners

Michael James Williams

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11/7/2018 How to Learn Board Game Design and Development

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David Silverman

David Silverman studied Game Design, 3D Modelling and IT at the Rochester

Institute of Technology where he also helped run the Game Development Club, and
created an indie puzzle game called Chromathud. On top of his personal and school
projects he also spent time developing games for the One Laptop Per Child program
and taught Level Design and 3D Modelling at InternalDrive Technology Camps.

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Daniel Gallant • 4 years ago

Alot of usefull information here. However, for one thing, I would like to know about steps people
should take to protect their idea and product.
thanks.
12 △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

ZillaGod > Daniel Gallant • 3 years ago

This is never an issue. Nobody is going to steal your idea and make a game out of it while
you are also working on it. More people get hung up on this than almost anything else. You
can list your game on Board Game Geek so it has a date stamp.

We tend to overestimate how great our ideas are. Truth is, most games don't sell very many
copies (5,000 is very rare) and most don't make a profit. So do it for the love of the process,
share your ideas with other designers (it will make your game better), help other designers
make their games better, and keep thinking of new ideas so you have multiple projects at
various stages.
3△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Rafael Perez > ZillaGod • 2 years ago

I would like to agree with you, however.......I think it is necessary to protect your idea
and your product. Some games take a long time to develop and can become costly
(depending on how far you take it), I would not want somebody to benefit from my
efforts and profit from them. I would like to re-post Daniels Question....."I would like
to know about steps people should take to protect their idea and product. Thanks".
3△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Cocinero geek > ZillaGod • 2 years ago

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11/7/2018 How to Learn Board Game Design and Development
Cocinero geek > ZillaGod 2 years ago
That's why some people will never be rich
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

_M AA > Daniel Gallant • 9 months ago

write a detailed description of your game (and/or development progress--including the
persons you have involved in the development) and mail it to yourself. it will hold up as a
legimitate document in court as long as it has not been opened :)
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

The Jackal > _M AA • 6 months ago

This doesn't work in the USA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Kaarin Engelmann • 2 years ago

This is excellent. Thank you for taking the time to put it together!
2△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Marshall • 3 years ago

About the set of questions that ask about some basic concepts of the game, such as how the
player wins, and what actions they can take; I would add "How does the game end?" to that list.
2△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Marshall > Marshall • 2 years ago

most
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Michael James Williams Mod > Marshall • 3 years ago

Good call!
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Findus Maximilians • 5 months ago

I have a question, I'm currently stuck at the "make a prototype" point. I want to make a game where
each card and each field on the board has an individual ability. To do this would be a lot of work,
even for the prototype. Of course I could just make less abilities but then that could get boring more
easily and could create a false image of the final game. Does anyone have suggestions to solve
that? Thanks in advance
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

cookie • 7 months ago

this was very useful!
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Marcia Melbourne • a year ago

Very useful, the feedback questions, recording the testing/game play and other sites to visit.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
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11/7/2018 How to Learn Board Game Design and Development
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Lucas • 2 years ago

Fascinating article! I love boardgames and I want to design one. I came up with an idea. However,
I'm not sure. It's euro based game and the theme is about heaven and hell (very Succinct). It
happens during XI and XII. What do you think? The hole thing is still foggy, but I thought something
about crusaders. What do you think?
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Cocinero geek • 2 years ago

In my opinion... this kind of article is a double edge sword... You may be doing it to help people, but
I think you'll make creativity to stuck... People should be creative and make a game by themselves,
not creating something following a guide, if you can't creating something by yourself, you should
not be creating anything...
Just like Alejandro Jodorosky said once: "We are all good in something, but not everyone's good in
the same thing..." I dunno if it's can be understanded in english :P
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Jack • 2 years ago

Amazing, this helped so much but what program did you use for writing yuo your notes and fleshing
out your ideas ( want to know how to do the sticky notes on the side )
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Cocinero geek > Jack • 2 years ago

Be creative
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Love • 4 years ago

I came here looking for advice in how to proceed with my (and my gfs) idea for our first board
game. This is very helpful in terms of doing work in the right order to avoid losing too much work. I
would add one question after playtesting: "Did you feel that the outcome was based more on skill or
chance?"
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Noppadol Ekpaksakool • 4 years ago

This has given me important first step to move forward to.
A lot of valued information I can explore further....thanks indeed.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Josh Willhite • 4 years ago

Missed a lot of different game types; dice games (big and small amounts, Marvel Dice Masters or
Zombie Dice), ameritrash/dungeon hunts (big boards, complicated rules, typically sculpted models
like Zombicide or Descent), Wargames (large maps, thick rulebooks, hex maps and cardboard
counters like Advanced Squad Leader), and many others. Just the same a very good thorough
article about game design, lots of great advice and suggestions, definitely required reading.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›
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11/7/2018 How to Learn Board Game Design and Development
py

Kat • 4 years ago

What if a game concept is based on a familiar classic game such as Monopoly or Clue? The basic
play and layout is the same, but topic and details different.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Yulia Sokolova • 5 years ago

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing!
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

BE Owens • 5 years ago

Great primer for board game design. Very well-written and informative article. Nice intro to a few of
the different categories of BG and excellent resources provided at the end. -- thank you!
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Shane • 5 years ago

Great article. Hope I have the motivation to build one.
△ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

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