How to Design a Tabletop Game
March 5, 2024 2:06 PM Subscribe
The folks over at Stonemaier Games have a nice, lengthy set of pages and links about how to design a tabletop game. Game design previously.
An idea only has value when it is executed, and it only has a lot of value when it’s executed well.
This is true across all of the creative arts. Exceedingly, extremely true.
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:58 PM on March 5 [6 favorites]
This is true across all of the creative arts. Exceedingly, extremely true.
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:58 PM on March 5 [6 favorites]
I think I only have one of their games, Scythe, (which I thrifted), and have played and enjoyed Wingspan. But he has been doing good work with all the other stuff he and his people have been putting out. I'd have a beer with him and talk about game publishing/design.
They seem to be making an effort.
posted by Windopaene at 4:00 PM on March 5
They seem to be making an effort.
posted by Windopaene at 4:00 PM on March 5
This is awesome! I just started getting into the world of slightly more complicated board games (started with Wingspan and Sagrada, which seem to be common gateway games) and am so in awe of how complex and beautifully-designed they are. Interesting to get more insight into it.
posted by lizard2590 at 4:09 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]
posted by lizard2590 at 4:09 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]
Damn you, temptation!
(Yes I do have a thing that is maybe a tabletop game, maybe a videogame, maybe just something I kick around in my head forever)
posted by Artw at 4:11 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]
(Yes I do have a thing that is maybe a tabletop game, maybe a videogame, maybe just something I kick around in my head forever)
posted by Artw at 4:11 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]
it's cool seeing that there's something there about the actual publishing pipeline and workflow — I'm a fan of the games of David Sirlin, and he might be the only tabletop game maker I've ever heard of who has funded game publishing on Kickstarter, then delivered not just on schedule but even ahead of schedule (like, with the exception of companies like Oink who just use Kickstarter as a preorder mechanism for publishing runs they could already afford). The big secret seems to be "have everything 99% already ready to go to print by the time the Kickstarter campaign ends," which does suggest that there are still major costs incurred before that wave of funding, just to cover things like art.
Seems like a pretty rough business to be in, honestly!
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:19 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]
Seems like a pretty rough business to be in, honestly!
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:19 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]
DoctorFedora, I've had the same thought. The business is so big now, with so many different way things can go right and wrong. I watched (listened?) to some interviews with Elizabeth Hargrave, designer of Wingspan and other games, and the process she describes from concept to production sounds grueling and tedious... in a pleasant sort of way. Kind of like a lot of artistic endeavors where the most likely outcome is a failure, break even, or modest success, if it even goes to production, and you'd damn well better enjoy the process, or you're in for heartache.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:27 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:27 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]
An idea only has value when it is executed, and it only has a lot of value when it’s executed well.
The specification of a complete game design having been honed by playtesting is, to me, an idea (just a potentially elaborate and precise one), but I think in this oft-repeated formulation, "idea" must be limited in some way that does not include that.
posted by a faded photo of their beloved at 5:10 PM on March 5
The specification of a complete game design having been honed by playtesting is, to me, an idea (just a potentially elaborate and precise one), but I think in this oft-repeated formulation, "idea" must be limited in some way that does not include that.
posted by a faded photo of their beloved at 5:10 PM on March 5
DoctorFedora: Kevin Crawford of Sine Nomine Games (a one man show) also produces his books on time and sometimes ahead of schedule. The trick is exactly what you say: finish the writing before the Kickstarter, although he does art afterwards. But he has over a decade of working with his artists to add confidence.
posted by Bryant at 5:13 PM on March 5 [4 favorites]
posted by Bryant at 5:13 PM on March 5 [4 favorites]
The specification of a complete game design having been honed by playtesting is, to me, an idea (just a potentially elaborate and precise one), but I think in this oft-repeated formulation, "idea" must be limited in some way that does not include that.
No, that’s an execution.
posted by Artw at 6:44 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]
No, that’s an execution.
posted by Artw at 6:44 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]
I can tell you how to do this:
Work on about 10 concepts, then get it down to like 3, then have 2 that are partial designed (never printed) and another one that was printed and wasted and dumb. Then never get to doing anything but testing one of the two partial designs built in tabletop simulator and it's been like 13 years now? damn. Oh sorry I misread the title. This is how TO design a game. Not how to NOT design it.
Carry on!
posted by symbioid at 7:22 PM on March 5 [2 favorites]
Work on about 10 concepts, then get it down to like 3, then have 2 that are partial designed (never printed) and another one that was printed and wasted and dumb. Then never get to doing anything but testing one of the two partial designs built in tabletop simulator and it's been like 13 years now? damn. Oh sorry I misread the title. This is how TO design a game. Not how to NOT design it.
Carry on!
posted by symbioid at 7:22 PM on March 5 [2 favorites]
The specification of a complete game design having been honed by playtesting is, to me, an idea (just a potentially elaborate and precise one), but I think in this oft-repeated formulation, "idea" must be limited in some way that does not include that.
No, that's a creative work, and this sort of conflation between creative works and ideas is one of the major ways creative labor is disvalued. If you believe that creative labor has value that should be respected, then it needs to not be equated with ideas.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:22 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]
No, that's a creative work, and this sort of conflation between creative works and ideas is one of the major ways creative labor is disvalued. If you believe that creative labor has value that should be respected, then it needs to not be equated with ideas.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:22 PM on March 5 [1 favorite]
My first game submission was to Amarillo Design Bureau, in high school. I created my own Star Fleet Battles ship - a Vulcan science vessel - typed in up, and sent it in, unsolicited.
I never heard back, but it was a lot of fun to make. A little bit of world-building, with no military value at all. Perhaps not surprising they had no use for it.
Later, my best friend in high school and I created a boardgame, board, cards, pieces, rules, and all. This was in the 80's, and heavily inspired by Axis and Allies - but it was a fantasy wargame in a very beer-and-pretzels way. He cut out the 4' diameter round board (it was a disk-world) from half-inch plywood, painted on the spaces in bright colors, and gave the board to me as a birthday present. The pieces were also wood - disks sliced from half inch diameter dowel and painted in four different colors for the nations, with letters for the pieces (knights, soldiers, and such). We had little ships and boats you could load up with the land units - and to mark the nation for each ship, we had paper sails (the masts were colored sword toothpicks donated by the local sub sandwich shop).
Cards were printed by dot matrix printer onto thin cardstock (not sure how that worked, but it did?). The feel was a very silly one, with hero, event, and spell cards that provided the flavor of a capricious and farcical world inspired by Craig Shaw Gardner's books and others.
Money was made from plastic tokens spray-painted in gold, silver, and copper, and gem-colored tokens counted mana.
It was a labor of love, and we had *no* idea how to ever market the thing. And so it sat. My cousin, the artistic one, drew up illustrations for the gods and the world to create a mythos - even tried to prototype wax figurines for molding - but that's as far as it got.
The board sat in my basement for decades. It's gone now, left behind in my terrible divorce years ago, but sometimes, I think of that dream we had, and the experience of creation we shared. He was my first man at my first wedding (I had one of those, oddly enough), and so many years later, the first human I confided in to explain that I was, despite appearances, a woman. He was the first person to admit that he felt the same way about himself, in a very hidden place deep inside. I don't think he (she, really, I think?) will ever act on it. I was always the impulsive one.
To me, boardgames are magic. They are rituals we conduct together, ways we connect, ways we share a dream, and I hope I never lose that feeling of wonder I have when discovering a new one.
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 10:02 PM on March 5 [10 favorites]
I never heard back, but it was a lot of fun to make. A little bit of world-building, with no military value at all. Perhaps not surprising they had no use for it.
Later, my best friend in high school and I created a boardgame, board, cards, pieces, rules, and all. This was in the 80's, and heavily inspired by Axis and Allies - but it was a fantasy wargame in a very beer-and-pretzels way. He cut out the 4' diameter round board (it was a disk-world) from half-inch plywood, painted on the spaces in bright colors, and gave the board to me as a birthday present. The pieces were also wood - disks sliced from half inch diameter dowel and painted in four different colors for the nations, with letters for the pieces (knights, soldiers, and such). We had little ships and boats you could load up with the land units - and to mark the nation for each ship, we had paper sails (the masts were colored sword toothpicks donated by the local sub sandwich shop).
Cards were printed by dot matrix printer onto thin cardstock (not sure how that worked, but it did?). The feel was a very silly one, with hero, event, and spell cards that provided the flavor of a capricious and farcical world inspired by Craig Shaw Gardner's books and others.
Money was made from plastic tokens spray-painted in gold, silver, and copper, and gem-colored tokens counted mana.
It was a labor of love, and we had *no* idea how to ever market the thing. And so it sat. My cousin, the artistic one, drew up illustrations for the gods and the world to create a mythos - even tried to prototype wax figurines for molding - but that's as far as it got.
The board sat in my basement for decades. It's gone now, left behind in my terrible divorce years ago, but sometimes, I think of that dream we had, and the experience of creation we shared. He was my first man at my first wedding (I had one of those, oddly enough), and so many years later, the first human I confided in to explain that I was, despite appearances, a woman. He was the first person to admit that he felt the same way about himself, in a very hidden place deep inside. I don't think he (she, really, I think?) will ever act on it. I was always the impulsive one.
To me, boardgames are magic. They are rituals we conduct together, ways we connect, ways we share a dream, and I hope I never lose that feeling of wonder I have when discovering a new one.
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 10:02 PM on March 5 [10 favorites]
I run workshops on how to design your first boardgame and the key piece of advice I can't stress enough is: get to a playable prototype as soon as you can (with written rules), and put it in front of players. Until a game is actually played it's just a bunch of stuff in a box, and you can't learn anything useful until those bits come out of the box and people start moving them around.
(The first thing you will learn is that your rules are badly written. This is also the second, third and fourth thing.)
posted by Hogshead at 7:29 AM on March 6 [7 favorites]
(The first thing you will learn is that your rules are badly written. This is also the second, third and fourth thing.)
posted by Hogshead at 7:29 AM on March 6 [7 favorites]
« Older Ottawa Impact, you so crazy | Today In "Human Bodies Moving Through Space" Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by justkevin at 2:37 PM on March 5 [4 favorites]