Top products from r/tabletopgamedesign

If you can get away with a required book, I would insist you use Theory of Fun. It's not about boardgames specifically, but more about what is fun and why games are fun. It's quite easy to read (every other page is a drawing), but it's excellent and deep. It would definitely give you a good foundation to go on and talk about games from a more educated standpoint.

"Why do you like this game?" "Ok, do you remember where the book says that's a fun thing to do?"

Or look at some critically acclaimed games and see why they fall under good design, or some popular, yet poorly designed games and why some people don't like them (Monopoly for one).

Scott Nicholson had a great video series called Boardgames With Scott that might have some useful videos. He's currently at MIT on sabbatical doing game design/teaching research (looks like maybe he just finished).

If you're looking for a book for yourself,

• http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965/ref=cm_lmf_tit_1
  
• http://www.amazon.com/A-Theory-Fun-Game-Design/dp/1932111972/ref=cm_lmf_tit_3
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Rules-Play-Game-Design-Fundamentals/dp/0262240459/ref=pd_sim_b_7
  
  You'll notice a lot of them aren't specifically games, but deal with fun and play. It's important to understand those before you can talk about games. That is also a good topic. What is a game? How do you define it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game#Definitions
  I personally like Chris Crawford's definition, but you get a lot of backlash from the general public for such a strict definition, as if forms of interactive entertainment are somehow inferior if they are not "games."
  
  I'm just sort of rambling and vomiting thoughts here, but to summarize some topics I would want to go over:
  
  
• History of games
  
• Definition of a game
  
• What is fun and play and how are those used to make good or bad games
  
• Genres of games and how that affects design choices.
  
• Pick a different game to teach and play each day/week? Perhaps at the beginning tell your students why a specific game is thought to be fun, and by the end ask them if they can recognize the major mechanics. You could start off a lesson this way and then revisit it at the end.
  
  Artificial intelligence could be an interesting side topic. Looking at search algorithms and how they are used to solve tic-tac-toe and how you use the EXACT same method to solve checkers or play chess and go (currently unsolved).
  
  If you do decide to talk about a variety of games, here are some I would suggest you look at:
  
  
• Go, for its simplicity in rules and depth of strategy. I would consider it one of the most pure games.
  
• Settlers of Catan for introducing euro-style boardgames to the USA and popularizing board games. Also involves heavy player to player trading.
  
• The Resistance as a short-form hidden treachery and secret agenda social game.
  
• Dominion as a game that introduced an entirely new genre that is now super successful. Also a good example of a multiplayer solitaire game.
  
• Tic-tac-toe as a game whose depth ceiling is too low and complexity space is too small for humans.
  
• Pandemic as a completely cooperative game (there might be a simpler game for this, not sure)
  
• Can't Stop - a look at chance and how it can be used as an interesting core mechanic and not just a way to make things random
  
  
  As you can tell, I love stuff like this. Let me know what you think about my ideas, or if you want to talk more or throw ideas back and forth, feel free.
  
  Other sources:
  
  
• http://boardgamegeek.com

Hello, and welcome to /r/tabletopgamedesign!

I can see in the comments that you are keeping your idea intentionally close the vest. You don't need to worry about people "stealing" your ideas - that really doesn't happen for three reasons:

• Everyone already has their own ideas they care more about. I'm not going to bother stealing your idea when I already have fifty-billion of my own.
  
• The hard work is everything that comes after the idea. Game ideas are a honestly a dime a dozen, but taking an idea and chiseling away and polishing it until it's a finely tuned machine is the real challenge.
  
• You literally cannot copyright game mechanics. I could release a game that is mechanically identical to Risk but used my own unique art and assets, and could probably get away with it. But, nobody would buy it, because Risk exists.
  
  Eventually, you will need other people to help make your game into a reality, whether it's working with a publisher, a manufacturer, or even emailing your art to [email protected] to print them at your local store. Careful! A rogue Staples employee / aspiring game designer might steal your stuff! /s
  
  If you really don't want to share, nobody here can force you, but the quality of advice we can provide will be much lower. FWIW, I'm not just walking the walk - I have a website for my game, IntraSolar that anyone can visit and download the rulebook for. I'll also be releasing a print-n-play version sometime soon!
  
  ---
  
  My #1 piece of advice, however, is that nobody will design your game for you. Game design itself is not a game in that there are no set rules, pieces, or paths. Your path is your own, and will be more rewarding if you take initiative and purposefully move down it, rather than waiting around for someone to guide you.
  
  For now, I can at least share with you some very high-level information that should help get you started. Looking at your user history, I'm going to assume that you have no-to-little experience with tabletop gaming, but this also could be a completely incorrect assumption.
  
  

  Books to Read
  

  
  

• Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design by Geoff Engelstein.
  
• The Game Inventor's Guidebook by Brian Tinsman
  
• Probably most books on this page.
  
  

  Games to Play
  

  
  I'm going to recommend some boardgame staples. Many of these games are older, but all of them have been very well received in the boardgaming community and have valuable lessons to teach if you haven't played them.
  
  There are many other great games out there, many of which are heavier than this, but considering that you are (likely) new to the hobby, this is a great starting point.
  
  

• Seven Wonders
  
• Pandemic
  
• Dominion
  
• Splendor
  
• Secret Hitler
  
• Mysterium
  
• Sushi Go!
  
  

  Podcasts to Absorb
  

  
  You can also find them on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
  
  

• Ludology
  
• Shut Up & Sit Down
  
• Heavy Cardboard
  
• Board Game Barrage
  
  

  Blogs to Follow
  

  
  

• Boardgame Geek's Blog
  
• The Geek Weekly
  
• Meeple Like Us
  
• Meeple Mountain
  
• Punchboard Media
  
• Stonemaier Games' Blog
  
• Pandasaurus Games' Blog
  
  

  Creators to Watch
  

  
  These last two are more videogame-focused but still contain relevant & great ideas / discussions.
  
  

• Shut Up & Sit Down
  
• Board Game Geek
  
• Watch It Played
  
• Game Maker's Toolkit
  
• GDC
  
  ---
  
  There are so many other great games and resources out there that I couldn't possibly hope to put together a comprehensive list, but these are my top picks for beginners. I frequently listen / watch / read many items on this list myself on a daily basis.
  
  Good luck on your journey, and I hope you open a window into your prototype soon!

OP, can you clarify what you mean by "I've been given a tight deadline of 3-4 months to provide the game for printing." Who's giving this deadline, and why is this deadline a thing?

BTW, totally cool about the lack of experience. We all start there. Many of these questions have been answered (at least partially) in this sub and on awesome blogs around the internet.

So, to partially answer a few of your questions:

2: design is mile 19 of the marathon, and may not be important at all unless you're Kickstarting it. Publishers will likely use their own artists (though to your credit, having art may put you ahead of the game since that's less work for them to do.

3: This is where playtesting over and over again is necessary. Beyond that, fifth grade math FTW – if this card is in the deck X times and the deck is Y big = X/Y.

4: I started with maybe $20 worth of games from a second-hand store (mostly for the pawns, dice, etc.), some index cards and sleeves, and Sharpies of different colors. Get the mechanics and fun right, worry about the design later.

5: This varies by game – how much luck / strategy is appropriate?

6 and 7: Somebody can probably write a book to answer this one. At least one is worthy reading: https://www.amazon.com/The-Game-Inventors-Guidebook-Role-Playing/dp/1600374476

I'm currently midway through Characteristics of Games, written cooperatively by 3 people, probably the most notable of which is Richard Garfield (designer of Magic: the Gathering and RoboRally). It is really good, and has great insights into how games function. Most of what it discusses is focused on board games, though it does discuss videogames at times as well. Highly, highly recommended.

I also find the Ludology Podcast to be invaluable. It's hosted by Ryan Sturm (who also hosts the How to Play Podcast) and Geoff Engelstein (designer of Space Cadets and Space Cadets: Dice Duel). They tend to pick a topic and elaborate on it for an hour or so, and if you start at the beginning, it's a really great way to slowly introduce new things to think about when designing games.

Looking nice, good luck with your playtesting! Try using card sleeves like these if you're using a standard playing card size. They helped us when we had our game in an early state. Sleeves make the cards a bit more durable and easier to manage.

Tangentially related but The Characteristics Of Games is the best games design boom I've read https://www.amazon.co.uk/Characteristics-Games-George-Skaff-Elias/dp/026201713X

Richard Garfield is a co author :)

Since you're asking this kind of question, I would say the first step is to read and listen to all the interviews and literature that's out there first first. Having a base knowledge of the industry is going to help you with all future steps you've listed.

Kolbold's Guide to Board Game Design is a great book to kick off the journey.

There's also many board game design podcasts out there that I found extremely helpful:

The Board Game Design Podcast
Ludology
Tuesday Knight Podcast

As a quick note, add two spaces after your links in order to create a line break for your headings.

Another good resource for icons is http://game-icons.net/.

The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design is a solid repository of advice for designers.

Also, this is a bit specific to me and won't have the same impact for every designer, but this was the single most important piece of advice I've ever read regarding game design: http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/11885/you-have-have-guts-ask-question

The single biggest issue I had with designing when I started is that I would solve design problems by adding new rules to cover any edge cases that came up. "This thing is exploitable? Let's add a new mechanic that fixes that." "This part is confusing? Let's add another system that helps the player better understand the existing system." There was some amount of give and take, but it largely just boiled down to bloated designs. Ever since I started designing with the philosophy that no rule is sacred in mind, I became a much more competent designer basically overnight.

Challenges for game designers is a highly recommended book, although it is not designed to be used with kids. Might have good exercise ideas, though.

Edit: also, will there be time to play games? Playing some simple games and breaking down the mechanics involved, like deduction, set collection, drafting, etc, could really be illuminating.

Pandemic is great for cubes.

For other things it depends on what you want. I am using catan houses in a prototype right now, and before I used an othello board/tokens for something else.

One thing that I have is a bunch of circular colored tokens. (something like this https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-LER0131-Transparent-Counting/dp/B00004WKPM IDK where I got mine)

and a bunch of dice in ten colors. I got this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074C8N5XG/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B074C8N5XG&pd_rd_wg=Y6rqd&pd_rd_r=5YFCCSC3XA4CFKBSB0HV&pd_rd_w=yuvJX two of the dice had a little extra paint on the two side that made them look like a three at a glance, so I threw them away. Still got 98 dice though.

Challenges for Games Designers is a book I regularly recommend when people ask me for a book.

Otherwise it's just lots of work, Games Design is like a muscle it gets easier and stronger through use.

Play a ton of games. Try games that are outside of your comfort zone! the Book Rules of Play is great too

As far as books go, I highly recommend the "Kobold Guide to Board Game Design:"

https://www.amazon.com/Kobold-Guide-Board-Game-Design/dp/1936781042

It has a bunch of articles from board game designing veterans and will give you some great tips on everything from how to get started, to how to polish up your prototype for publishers.

As for making a board game from an existing franchise... that's something where the owner of the IP reaches out to you, not the other way around. They'll typically be looking for industry veterans who have had several best-selling games over the course of several years. So unfortunately for 99.99% of us, designing a product for a franchise like Warcraft or Game of Thrones will never be anything more than a dream.

Characteristics of Games is a touch dry but it goes into pretty good depth.

https://www.amazon.com/Characteristics-Games-Press-George-Skaff/dp/026201713X

I have found The Game Inventor's Guidebook by Brian Tinsman to be a wonderful resource. It is a bit dated since so much has changed these past 8 years, but the book is a great tool nonetheless.

Blank dice and stickers. You're going to change things.

Here's 50 blank dice for nine bucks:

https://www.amazon.com/Nakimo-Blank-White-Board-Teaching/dp/B00BAKWKP2

Here's a thousand half-inch round stickers you can print on for six bucks:

https://www.amazon.com/Round-Circle-Labels-White-Printer/dp/B0731Q24NT/

​

Fifteen bucks and you've got perfect tools for prototyping. Bonus: use colored pencils and you can revise as you playtest.

Following a problem from a book of game design challenges (this one for those curious), I'm starting a WWII era RPG based on the Brothers in Arms video game series. Game play has a focus on combat (is that bad for an RPG?) so I'm currently working out the details.

The intention is for it to be used in a classroom setting with high school students, which means rules need to be simple and easy to learn. This has proved to be quite the challenge to maintain interesting combat mechanics inspired by the core mechanics of the series, while keeping rolls to a D6 and math to a minimum. Feel pretty excited about it though!

I'm currently reading Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop, and it's very interesting because she's heavily involved in a college tabletop design program. Even if you don't go in for that, her book is fantastic as something for you to do on your own. It's filled with exercises for you to explore and do.

> Building Blocks of tabletop Game Design

Your comment got me curious so I checked Amazon. It looks like a very large percentage of the book is available for preview Here https://www.amazon.com/Building-Blocks-Tabletop-Game-Design/dp/1138365491. Gonna definitely read some myself!

https://www.amazon.com/Ideal-0X8-28280-Rage-Card-Game/dp/B00E4H14RI

It's six colors with numbers 0-16 on them. I design a lot of card games or games involving cards, and this has been invaluable to pretty much immediately playtest my ideas, as a standard set of playing cards only has 4 suits, and I usually need more than that (plus I prefer a large number on the card instead of a bunch of symbols or JQKA on them).

You can use a rage deck to play a lot of modern card games, to give you an idea of how useful it can be: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/1907/games-playable-rage-deck-not-ccg-please-add

You can also use a Sticheln game, it's basically the same thing, in fact I prefer the look of their cards, but Rage decks are a bit cheaper as they don't have to be imported from Germany: https://www.amazon.com/Sticheln-Import-allemand-by-NSV/dp/B00A6N4JJE

I also use the 6 Nimmt! deck sometimes, as it's just numbers from 1 to 103, which is useful for a couple of my designs: https://www.amazon.com/Mayfair-Games-ASI5714-6-Nimmt/dp/B013FAC20C/

6 Nimmt! deck can also be used to play several different games: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/24313/games-playable-deck-6-nimmtor-category-5-please-ad

This book does a great job on giving industry tips and tricks on game design in the form of topic based essays and is in my opinion the best way to get immersed in the culture of game design as a newbie. https://www.amazon.com/Kobold-Guide-Board-Game-Design/dp/1936781042

On the topics of game balance, theory, pitfalls, tips, I think I speak in line with many users of this and other game design communities when I say: "Just get something out that is broken and messy and put it in front of a group of unbiased playtesters." Once you get your game/RPG system in front of real players you'll quickly find out what their experiences are with what you've built and where to take your design for its next iteration.

In general:
"Playtest early and playtest often."

In our mechanism book we call this "End-Game Bonuses".

("VIC-06 End-Game Bonuses" to be precise. Defined as "Players earn bonus Victory Points at the end of the game")

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1138365491

We also have a discussion on the difference between public goals and private goals in this chapter, but keep them under the same classification.

Really really good game design book (a lot of university game design teacher use this one as main core of their courses)
http://www.amazon.ca/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965

I really like.

Challenges for Game Designers by Brathwaite and Schreiber: https://www.amazon.com/Challenges-Games-Designers-Non-Digital-Exercises/dp/1542453313/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493469101&sr=8-1&keywords=challenges+for+game+designers

Game Design Workshop by Tracy Fullerton: https://www.amazon.com/Game-Design-Workshop-Playcentric-Innovative/dp/1482217163/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1482217163&pd_rd_r=C4KTX74FX6FRDX63HCJQ&pd_rd_w=EuUkE&pd_rd_wg=y877F&psc=1&refRID=C4KTX74FX6FRDX63HCJQ

*Kobold Guide to Board Game Design: https://www.amazon.com/Kobold-Guide-Board-Game-Design/dp/1936781042/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493469414&sr=1-1&keywords=kobold+guide+to+board+game+design

Challenges for Game Designers is full of non-digital game design exercises. One of the authors, Ian Schreiber, put together an accompanying free online class/blog.

$10 for 50 blank dice, draw on them with Sharpie or wet-erase?

Nakimo 16MM Blank White Dice for Board Games, DIY, Fun, and Teaching, Pack of 50 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BAKWKP2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_RLMXCb45Q39TJ

I highly recommend Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses. It's primarily focused on videogame design, but the topics are broad enough that most are applicable to boardgame design.

I like this one:

http://smile.amazon.com/Theory-Game-Design-Raph-Koster/dp/1449363210/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454009140&sr=1-1

I've printed out my token images and glued the paper to medium-weight chipboard with spray glue and punched them out with this guy, and that worked really well. Of they weren't double-sided though. I didn't even try to glue sheets of images on both sides and have them line up.

What you want is Chipboard (In Europe they call it greyboard) and then you want to print on Linen Paper, and paste it together using Super77. Grab a olaf blade, a cutting mat and a ruler and go to town on it!

I only own of a couple of these, but if I were to throw a prototyping jam I would get:

Color Sharpies

Blank Boards

Blank Cards

Blank Tokens

Pawns

Counters

Dice

I think that would cover 95% of anything you'd want!

This one has decent has decent reviews on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Folding-Blank-Board-Pebble-Cover/dp/B005T3NWOY/

I would always suggest starting with Characteristics of Games before diving deeper.

You should check out Ralph Koster's A Theory of Fun, and Keith Burgun's Clockwork Game Design.

Those were the "eye openers" for me.

Check out this book. Good read. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1449363210/ref=as_li_ss_tl_nodl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1449363210&linkCode=as2&tag=atheoroffunfo-20

I ordered these stickers and these chits

I had to punch out a lot of labels, and this hole puncher for scrapbooking worked for me. I've read online that to sharpen it, use the hole puncher on an aluminum can; I can't verify this because I haven't had to sharpen mine.

Other people have suggested using a leather-punching tool. I used this, and it didn't work at all on cardstock, even after I tried to sharpen it.

If you are just proto typing amazon sells blank quad fold square boards that you can cut down. Print out what you want at any print shop and attach. More professional look would be to print on sticky backed paper.

https://www.amazon.com/Folding-Blank-Board-Pebble-Cover/dp/B005T3NWOY

Likewise. Here is a link to getting chipboard

There's an app called The Art of Game Design: Deck of Lenses.

Its a deck of cards meant to make you think about different aspects of your game. It goes together with the book Art of Game Design, but can be used separately.

It's possible to hire people to do it - there are companies that specialize in finding people to do focus-group testing of various products - but that's a bit expensive.

This book on board game design has a couple chapters on playtesting that would be relevant: http://www.amazon.com/Kobold-Guide-Board-Game-Design/dp/1936781042

Characteristics of Games Doesn't just talk about board games, but Richard Garfield is one of the authors.

This one was just released:
BGG redid their mechanics classification system based on this book.
https://www.amazon.com/Building-Blocks-Tabletop-Game-Design/dp/1138365491

Why not set yourself some challenges and see if you can stick to them? Constraining components can be a great way to spur creativity. For example, create some aspect of your everyday life as a game, but you can only include 20 cards. Next challenge restrict yourself to 10 cards. Then no cards.

Alternatively, maybe try this book? I have it on my bookshelf but have never opened it... https://www.amazon.com/Challenges-Game-Designers-Brenda-Brathwaite/dp/158450580X

Rage decks: https://www.amazon.com/Ideal-0X8-28280-Rage-Card-Game/dp/B00E4H14RI

If heft is an issue, you can swap out uncut white dice for wooden cubes. I imagine you could apply the same process OP did - painting and mod-podging - and get results that feel more like a regular die.

They're cheap, too. You can get 50 blank white 16mm dice on Amazon for under $8, which works out to about sixteen cents a die.

Find a method that is most convenient for you and allows you to make and alter cards as quickly as possible.

What works for me:
I use 3x5 index cards cut in half for my initial prototypes. Once I want a higher quality prototype I use multideck for mac. Multideck takes csv datasources for card content and then you use a wysiwyg editor for card layout. I then print the cards on regular printer paper and cut them with a guillotine paper cutter. Cutting was the biggest time sink for me, so I think a good paper cutter is essential. Once cut, I sleeve the cards with a magic card as a back to make them sturdy. One last tip: If you are going to sleeve your cards, make the layout of the cards you print slightly smaller than the sleeve you plan to put it in.

Links to resources mentioned above:

• Index Cards - https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Ruled-Index-Cards-Inches/dp/B00V5DQJWY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491428498&sr=8-1&keywords=3x5+index+cards
  
  
• Multideck (available on ios app store for $25) - http://multideck.blogspot.com/
  
  
• Paper Cutter - https://www.amazon.com/X-ACTO-Heavy-Guillotine-Trimmer-Inches/dp/B0006HVQH8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491428405&sr=8-1&keywords=xacto+paper+cutter
  
  
• Sleeves - https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-Black-Protector-Sleeves-2-Packs/dp/B009EXIAOC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491428576&sr=8-1&keywords=ultra+pro+sleeves
  
  edit: lists are hard