I wrote about this a while in the past. I want to develop a board game. Do I have an idea for one? Yes I do. In fact it is not just a game that I have had ideas for. It’s been about three. I say about three because I kind of let one drop off a lot. But when it comes to that idea, I think that I might come back to it. But right now, there are two games that I’ve been work on.

Starting Game Development

Let’s quickly talk about the starting process of game development. I think that this is the idea that people often jump into most quickly and need to come up with more of a plan for. But the basics of it is just that you need to come up with an idea of some sort. I find that when I come up with an idea it’s because someone mentions something about wanting a game of some sort. Or they ask how a combination of things would work.

That is generally what it going to get me started on the process. And it can eve me asking myself that sort of question. One of the biggest games, well the biggest out of the two, that I’m working on, came from the question: why isn’t there a good game with a Sword Art Online feel to it?

Rules

The next part, this might seem wrong, is the rules. These are not your finalized rules. In fact, as I work on that SAO (Sword Art Online) inspired game, I know that my rules aren’t done. Mainly because this is a campaign boss battling game. And I have the rules down, I think pretty well for the campaign. But for combat, that is more of a loose idea at this point.

But you need to start to build out that structure for how you want a game to work. Without some guardrails in place you really can’t jump into the next steps. And you need to jump into those to keep the forward momentum going. And you need to write them down and start to lay them out in a way that is going to make sense to people. Because we’ll talk about one element that I find myself hitting as we go.

The Game Pieces

When you are doing game design you also need to think about the pieces that you are going to use for your game. This is not just for the final product but also for the next step which is the prototype. But you need to know what you want to have in the game because there are so many different ways of handling things.

It also matters a lot for when you are coming up with your prototype. The more different types of things you need the harder that it is going to be to get your game ready to prototype. At the same time, that might be how the game is designed and you need to be comfortable with that. So when you get to the point you want to prototype, what all do you need.

I find that I write out a list of everything at the start of the rule book. This is pretty common way to handle it and it makes it easy for me to reference and keep up on as I add in new things or maybe find that one element is not actually needed in the game.

The Content

Now we get to the part that is taking me the longest. The content of the game. Even if you are designing a game that doesn’t have story, the game is still going to have content. Whether that be how the mechanisms all interact, or if it is the cards, they are going to be there. And you need to spend time on that. This goes hand in hand with the rules that you developed. And sometimes it is more on that. But let’s say you develop a euro style game with worker placement spots, you need to develop how that is going to look. And you need develop worker spaces, symbols, and the interactions with the other worker placement spots.

The Prototype and Repeat

Now we get to the heaviest part of the process. And this is an area that I find that I struggle with. I don’t mean it as a negative thing, but I want to get a prototype out there of a game that I designed. I actually have stuff for the smaller design ready to go, I just need to finish off my prototype for the game. And I probably could do that in an evening, for that one, if I wanted.

But the prototype phase is not just a phase that is done once. Whether your prototype lives on TableTopSimulator (TTS) or somewhere else, it’s going to be something that you want to update and update often, if you can. Why, because this the point where you are playtesting. And I like to call it rules hardening as well. When you start you know what you want, but the rules might be more in flux. A new mechanism can be added. But as you go, you want your game to become more fixed in how it works and not be adding or subtracting as much.

Playtesting

Then let’s talk about playtesting your game. Playtesting is going to be two parts. I did videos on this. But let’s talk about it from a designer standpoint versus a playtester standpoint. The early rounds are testing out the systems. Do the main elements and mechanisms work and make sense. Can people learn how to play your game from the rules or not? And then as you tweak throughout this process, do any changes break anything.

Once you’ve hardened the mechanisms, so to speak, then it is about hardening the content of the game. Is there scenarios in your game? If so, play those, tweak those, and balance them. Balance the text and start to clean up the wording. But also then ask players to try and break your game. This is the stress test portion as well. Once the game has been stress tested, you move on.

Now most everything should be hardened and ready to go. But the final passes over the game are all about usability and understandability in your game. Do players know how to play the game, are symbols things that make sense. Is there any inconsistencies with wording, etc. That is what you are looking for at this point. And if you get past this, you have a game that is ready to go.

The Lull

But I want to talk about one last element. And this is the lull. What is a lull, it is a period of time where you stop making progress. I find that as I design I hit lulls. Not because I want to, but because designing is not just all fun. It is work and you need to figure out how much you need and how much you want in your game.

Or you might hit the point where you are ready to prototype. That is where I’m at with my one idea. I am ready to create a prototype and see how it works. But that is more work as you go.

But often times I think it is because creating content and understanding how the mechanisms and everything works together is taxing on your brain. Not a bad thing at all. Designing a game should not be simple, but it also means that you sometimes need to step back and think about it. Maybe no ideas are flowing for story, if you have story. Or maybe you can see that elements clash. Or maybe you just need to take that break to come back with fresh eyes to balance it all out.

A lull isn’t a bad thing, but know that you are in one. And don’t let your game die on the vine, if you are excited about it, because you hit a lull. Come back to it and develop more.

Final Game Development Thoughts

I think that a lot of board gamers would love to develop their own game. And there are probably a lot of games that die to a lull. So let’s talk about somethings that you can use to help get by that.

Firstly, talk about it with people. Let them know that you have an idea for a game and you go from there. See if it works or not on paper as you get it out there.

Secondly, don’t worry about a great prototype. My first idea was super simple printed stuff for the game. And the small one I’m working on is going to be mainly Sharpie on playing cards to get it ready to go. But if you need more, learn TTS and how to develop for that. Or use Game Crafter to print things for you because they can do. That is my plan for my bigger game.

Thirdly, don’t take feedback personally. One great way to hit a lull is playtest the game and realize that things don’t work smoothly. Get feedback that the game is just fine or people don’t like part of it. That is all part of the process. It sucks to hear that people don’t like your brainchild, but that’s okay. A good game, movie, novel, everything, didn’t work perfectly the first time.

Do you have an idea for a game that you want to design?

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