Board Game Design Time - The First Prototype - Episode 02

[@Joaquim.Oliveira]

Just found out about you guys and it really helped me , I'll go get some crafts this weekend and build as many prototypes as I can and stop just thinking about the games I would like to make it but start really making them and see what happens .

[@MagicManAleister]

Spent a ton of time on my game, worked out great as I thought about it, prototyped it, solo'd it, and realized man.. this just isn't working. Almost trashed it, but came across this, thanks man.

[@onethousandxp]

You're welcome!

[@Elkinsauce]

working on a very big project. a sorta classic Zelda style dungeon crawler. have a lot of mechanics but havnt even built any prototype. this really helped me though. I will keep everyone updated on how it goes! keep up the awesome work!

[@onethousandxp]

Glad to hear it! Please keep us posted!

[@Davearmstrong42]

Love your vids! I'm with JR. I'd like to see how you approach card design but I'm more interested in how you populate the cards needed and then begin the balancing process.

[@turnafraze]

thank you for stopping me. I was in the middle of a very detailed map for my game... but have not had a successful play test yet. I'm usually an artists so I have been eager for that step.

[@onethousandxp]

Yeah, it's always a challenge! I am pretty decent with photoshop, so I have to remind myself to stop sometimes too.

[@ddobrien1]

"No shame in your game"... that's perfect!

[@stefanb7000]

Honestly for prototyping, Image generation AI ist one of the most convinient things to come out in the last few years. Its not a lot of work and you can give prototypes so much more flavour in only a few hours.

[@AndrewChristopherEnriquez]

when i heard mat say "id be happy to bplay a game made with dirt hills and drawn with sticks" I heard "id be happy to play a game about dirt hills and drumsticks" sounds like a design challenge to me! dirt hills and drum sticks

[@delviken]

Great video, thank you for sharing! How do you prototype counters? Like if each player needs to track a number of 2-digit prices? So the game needs some 20 price counters.

[@NevTheDeranged]

I have been using basic Avery document templates for rapid prototyping for ages- you can get the business card, nametag, or postcard pages pre-perforated at any office supply store, throw some text in the Word template, and bam, ready to go. Sleeve them if you need to be able to shuffle them. Now, Word is garbage for layout, so it's no good for anything OTHER than the initial prototype, but it's a really fast way to get something on the table without spending an hour with a pair of scissors. Plus it's just as easy to go back, edit the text, and print another sheet for the next iteration.

[@NevTheDeranged]

Also, for a free art program, Paint.Net is light years better than MSPaint. The simple ability to add layers and manipulate them individually is a lifesaver.

[@Daggerleep]

This episode was perfect for me. I've been stressing over making a prototype that looks good. I am not an artist so its been a hurdle. Its time to make a final product prototype with no art.

[@onethousandxp]

There's no reason to stress about making it look good...get it to where it's fun first, then worry about the rest!

[@Daggerleep]

+One Thousand XP thanks. Thats what I did and we're having a blast with it.

[@TheDudeAbides-247]

I'm with you Chris, regarding going a bit further with the quality than what might be necessary for playtesting. I feel the type of people who playtest your game have an effect on how much effort you put into the quality of the prototype. If it's your non-designer friends and family, they may compare your game with commercial games. If it looks awful, they may not get into the spirit of it or respect it as a game. If they can't read my scribbles, or don't connect my drawings with the theme, it also might not get a fair shake. I scribble in notebooks and on plain paper until I have the concept ready for prototyping. Then it moves to the digital realm. In the prototype, I have to at least find some decent artwork to drop in. Google Images and DeviantArt are great sources for artwork (knowing original artwork will replace it in the future). When I print out the board/cards/tiles, I usually glue them to poster board. It's easy to create cards with perforated card stock and a laser or inkjet printer. I always prototype using digital tools so I can change them quickly and get to the next generation without re-drawing the new images and re-writing the new text by hand. The quicker you can turn around changes, the faster you will iterate the game into something that is good (or put to rest).

[@BlissBatch]

For REALLY rapid prototyping, you can use components from board games you already own! I even find regular playing cards to be quite useful.

[@HuskHunter]

I am really glad I found Tabletop simulator since I have the problem of lacking to many funds to really invest in a prototype. So, with tabletop simulator I can just make decks and images into a good recreation of what they may look like in real life at some point.

[@AndrewChristopherEnriquez]

I do all my Prototyping on TTS as well! as well as development. When i have a con or pulp playtest coming up ill make a physical prototype but other than that it's all digital including pitches to publishers

[@RollDeBonz2112]

I wish I had gone this route. I came up with an idea to expand and re-theme and already produced game. I too have design software and jumped right in headfirst with themed design elements and a map. Part way through, I realized I should have simply taken the game that already existed, added the expanded rules and worried about the re-theme later, once the play testing of the new rules was done. Now I am suffering from the "sunk cost fallacy."

[@onethousandxp]

You don't have tp suffer from sunk cost fallacy! There is always time to cut the things that are holding you back. Best of luck!

[@neilgooge]

As an artist by trade, a game player by passion... and sadly right now, with absolutely no game group, this is something I definitely get caught up on. I end up with fully rendered illustrations and an entire written back story for a project I don't even have a single working mechanic for. Another issue I find is "I want my game to do *insert what you want the experience to be here*" which is also fine, but then I spend all this time thinking about what I want the game to do and end up with absolutely no idea how to do that... and when I do start on that I find I have so many different approaches on how to do it, with so many things added, and directions I can take... I go back to drawing pretty pictures for it ;) of course, having no game group doesn't help... but still, even playing alone, like you say, I need to spend way more time on the building of the game than the making of components, the wouldn't it be cools and the vast, encyclopedia style background for it... only to get to a stage where its just not fun.

[@onethousandxp]

+neil googe Being an artist is a blessing and a curse when it comes to this! (more of a blessing, I'm quite jealous actually) I've spoke with Ryan Laukat from Red Raven Games. He's done Artifacts Inc, The Ancient World, and most recently Above and Below. As an illustrator, designer, and publisher he said that he sometimes has trouble with wanting to do TOO MUCH art. It is easy for an artist to fall into the trap of the art being "free" and run with it, rather than factor in all the time it takes to make. Obviously that is a bit different, but the lesson is the same. Just because somebody CAN do something, does mean that person SHOULD do something.

[@davidvino6018]

+neil googe Hi! :D I aspire to be a game designer, and currently I'm trying to learn as much as I can by watching videos about board game design ;) I have probably several groups of people that would (probably) love to try testing boardgames, some of them online, and I could probably program something in Unity3D (I have absolutely no idea how to add multiplayer yet, though :/ even though I don't think that would be too hard to learn) Anyway... I'd love to co-design games with you, if you're interested in that! Also, I'd love to make a really good boardgame and then publish it online, or perhaps get it to some publisher sometime c': In case you're interested, I'm pretty sure you can find my E-mail in my profile somewhere

[@HuskHunter]

+neil googe Well, I work 36 hours a week, and I have no idea what time zone you are in, but I will totally help you test games or what have you, I love games and I have a group of buddies that also do.

[@davidvino6018]

***** I'd really love it if you could perhaps help me with that too- I'm currently working on a paper prototype for what I think will be a single player (one person needs to be a sorta "dm" though in the paper prototype) and I'd love it if you could help me test it sometimes- also I might be interested in having a multiplayer version of that game, however I have no clue how it would play out and so far I think it will be too much effort for the DM- but having a multiplayer version could definitely be interesting

[@HuskHunter]

David Vino Sure! Add "Sneaky Shrub" on steam and we'll get in contact, or you can email me at [e-mail]

[@VideoGarver]

I like the catch phrase. Don't change it!

[@ImaginaryMdA]

Coins and bottle caps! :D Bottle caps for hills, rivers, trees, and a campfire, coins for people wolves rabbits, ^^

[@laynelarson201]

Hey loving the videos! Where does one get blank cards to use for prototypes? That would be helpful as I'm currently using dominion cards for my idea and its hard to keep track.

[@jonasgreen1918]

Me and my friend were on a vacation and we didn't bring many games so we created a game like chess using rocks on the beach, We called it elemens because each piece is an element.

[@onethousandxp]

That sounds cool!

[@AlexGorskov]

Guys, this was great! +Sub

[@CrickyTricky]

I’m doing this dureing quarantine because I’m bored! I’m make it and I’m 10! (My parents are helping.)

[@onethousandxp]

Awesome!

[@TroyMorris]

This applies to ALL design

[@mulletsquirrel]

This is the first prototype of a game I'm currently working on: i.imgur.com/7HbU4d8.gif

[@kevinqueen6246]

I cant say I do that or would recommend doing that, I write everything down and never over think anything. Everything in game design is linear all else is wasted energy. Think about it.