10 Steps to ACTUALLY Design a Board Game

[@davejeltema3]

What step of the process are you on and which one are you looking forward to the most? I can’t wait to get some art made 😀

[@deadpolgnag8939]

i have map win coddision mehanick but i need combat amd balancing

[@Crafter1146]

Hi

[@Korrik7]

My 7yo son and I decided to make a simpler card battle game recently. Kind of surprised we have been following your steps. Appreciate your step by steps and encouragement. So far the designing and prototyping has been a blast.

[@BananaBotanists]

This is good parenting

[@lordbeetrot]

@@BananaBotanistsfr

[@hotfishdev]

Absolute crime that this doesn’t have more views

[@davejeltema3]

That's kind of you to say! I'm just getting started, give the algorithm a bit to catch up :p

[@ibrahimgamer2069]

I agree 👍

[@slizzardshroomer9666]

Calm down. It's a good video, but lordie

[@hotfishdev]

@@slizzardshroomer9666 it had substantially less views when I wrote that. Chill.

[@hanshatv3737]

I was here because I felt inspired to make my own board game. And after watching your video, it made me even more inspired. I wish everyone who have watched this video, including the one who made this, to be successful in their passion.

[@JovinGhoul23]

Your words have encouraged me!

[@nightjarproductions]

I am relieved to see how closely I have unintentionally followed these steps in my process so far. Thanks for your content, I will for sure be looking at more of your stuff going forward.

[@shibizzl]

I made a board game with my brother a while back (I was 13, he was 15). It was called Airspace, and it was about dogfighting. We made 3D different elevation levels and even built model planes. The game was so well made we went to a small board game publisher and asked to publish it. We got a flat out no. 8 more publishers later and we get nothing but no’s

[@littlelegoside]

Whoa. I was just about to make a portable board game like that. Like LITERALLY THAT. It’s funny how we have so many same ideas lol.

[@asotov]

That is a brilliant video! Thanks a lot, Dave, you are like a guide in the dungeon of board game design.

[@JustinThomas-y8g]

*Board Game name idea I had: Timeliners Trekkers or Timeliners Agency - Players take on the roles of time travelers, each with unique abilities and strengths. - Objective: Complete missions, collect resources, and navigate the timeline to prevent disruptions. - Game components: - Game board featuring a timeline with different eras and events. Maybe have a sideline map of that certain event areas the characters are exploring. - Character cards with abilities and strengths. - Mission cards with objectives and challenges. - Resource tokens (time, money, etc.). - Disruption tokens (representing changes to the timeline). - Mechanics: - Time travel: Move through the timeline, visiting different eras. - Resource management: Manage resources to complete missions and maintain time travel capabilities. - Mission completion: Resolve challenges and objectives to earn rewards.

[@Someone-ry9di]

That genuinely sounds so awesome

[@JustinThomas-y8g]

Timeliners might sound better.​@@Someone-ry9di

[@harrison1401]

I may be able to make that.

[@JustinThomas-y8g]

@@harrison1401 oh?

[@harrison1401]

@@JustinThomas-y8g I’m a new board game developer attempting to make board games to sell, this is actually a good idea I could do

[@quingelfand9295]

These videos are fantastic! I think a more detailed video on the "balance and refine / iterate and improve" section would be exactly what I'm looking for! That step is impossibly hard for me...

[@davidkelly4729]

Your videos are way too useful and way too professional for a channel with 70 subs and 100 views! Given you a sub, look forward to seeing more :)

[@davejeltema3]

Gotta start somewhere! Looking forward to making more :)

[@mr.duck1246]

We have these monarch kits for gel extraction in the lab I work at and the box is so cool and well made so I want to make a board game/card game to go in it haha

[@AndrewRogue]

Serendipitous discovery as I just started converting a game myself. Great guide based on everything I had researched myself!

[@davejeltema3]

Glad I could help!

[@felipepalandri2853]

This video is amazing! Thanks a lot!!

[@alexgloomandor3956]

Nice work! I think it would be helpful to have some kind of flow graph of the steps, especially for the looping where you go through the same processes over and over again.

[@emmiasilk9059]

This is a lot like Agile in software develpment, a paradigm I'm still coming to terms with. Overall, I really like this approach to tabletop game design. The one aspect in your guidance I strongly disagree with is "don't make a complete rulebook" by the time of playtesting with others. This can easily be confused with "don't write down your rules," which I think would be a major mistake for any tabletop project. It's easy for developers to take a lot of information for granted in their rules, so it helps to write them down and reference them early on, forcing you to become aware of exactly how the 'engine' of your game works.

[@Sean10]

Thanks! You helped me with my IB Grade 7 Design Project! This was the 2nd time I built a board game and THANK YOU! (although I had to skip step 3 as my team only had 4 weeks till presenting to the Grade 6s and 8s)

[@LukeEdwardstube]

New sub here. Been binging your videos today. Really great stuff! Really informative, realistic, and surprisingly motivating videos. Keep it up! :)

[@davejeltema3]

Thanks for taking the time to comment! I got plenty more on the way :)

[@cruzthegoldendoodle9348]

This was really helpful , i needed this because almost all videos haven't truly helped me , So Thank you :>

[@sylvainschellenberger]

These advices seem very solid. There's some that bother me though. I am a web developer, so I'm well acquainted with iterations. But shouldn't the key pillars of gameplay be somewhat set in stone? Isn't there a risk you'll be going back-and-forth between all game mechanics that ever existed? Let's say you start with a worker placement game with a set number of turns and victory points, would you change to a deckbuilding game with win conditions amidst your iterations cycle? Also, the video game industry has people working on 'concept art' in very early stage of the game development process. It helps sets the theme and directs the collective imagination for other aspects of the game. Wouldn't involving art this early into the game production helps in the decision making about mechanics and components? Just imagine the Dune Imperium game, how would have they created all the cards effects if the characters and vehicles weren't from a well known science-fiction universe with an extensive documentation and pictured a thousand times? Just a few questions that popped in my mind, thank you for making the video!

[@radenlacquerware4325]

Ive started with the design too early... Shoulf have started with the game mechanism first 😅 thankyou so much

[@aurabozzi228]

Great! Subcribed! Thank you so much!

[@davejeltema3]

Happy to have you!

[@lordllama2548]

Another Good Video

[@orcapodstudio-retronaut]

My board game I’m working on was inspired by the fact that animal crossing new horizons can terraform the outside and play colored squares

[@Dany-rx7rs]

Underrated

[@JovinGhoul23]

As a designer, which is more important to you? Theme or mechanisms? Which do you brainstorm first?

[@Ruchitiwarimakker]

1:38 well I just started😂

[@TheAnythingSurgeon]

I’ve always wanted to make a board game

[@davejeltema3]

You can do it! ;)

[@TheAnythingSurgeon]

Ok

[@plywoodcarjohnson5412]

Should you not try to figure out how the game starts, how to play the middlegame and finally, how to win?

[@TheBlueSquid-k4z]

I’m creating a board game and I’m still creating the main parts of the game

[@deadpolgnag8939]

i have map win coddision mehanick but i need combat and balancing but i dont know how

[@rudigerf.1111]

Good video

[@davejeltema3]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Eddie-yo4bj]

Am a making a game called mediaeval traveller what type?of game should it be

[@Eddie-yo4bj]

Please help me to make my dream come true

[@alastairbrewster4274]

I used to make games all the time , I made loads then I got old and got a job and now I’m 50 all of a sudden I want to make games again , am I too old to do this. Will people think I’m old and irrelevant?

[@davejeltema3]

Don't be silly :P

[@robertcahill757]

my prototype took a week

[@Pokemania-d4u]

Sir i have a idea about a new board game would you mind listening to my ideas😅

[@moonlightgaming1643]

Bro looks like minecraft Steve 💀

[@orvilleredenpiller338]

Yeah. I’ve spent a couple of weeks “planning” without getting it up on its feet and the game just didn’t work.

[@Crafter1146]

I have mine (pacman)

[@Aperson-cw7ll]

I hate tutorials that say things like : "Get Inspired" or "Dream Big" because they are ultimately no help to someone looking for said "inspiration". Saying you need to "dream big" helps no one

[@LaiKoonMa]

Bro shut up

[@LaiKoonMa]

Video takes a lot of time to make

[@hath1725]

Bro hé takes so much efford in these videos and maybe not you but it helps Some people