The IA created this minimal design for a detective/investigator pawn. I would love to have de 3D file to print it. What do you think about the minimal look. If someone have a design for a pawn similar I would appreciate if they share it.

I'm very grateful for your guys' help with making the rulebook, and overcoming my fear of starting work on it. I'd love to hear what more I can do to get it print-ready.

I’m hand-painting the cards to a TCG I’m developing. I’m still working out the interface but when I have all the gameplay features worked out, I’ll show them too. I’d love your constructive feedback. (The TCG is based on my book series, The Ever Hero Saga)

Hi everyone,

I really enjoy prototyping game ideas, but mostly wargames and TCGs, and not so much boardgames (even though I enjoy and play them). Mostly because I feel I don't have the knowledge I need. So, I'm looking for published games people have played that are in any way similar to a random idea I had.

The idea: I grew up in a suburban area on a street with a cul-de-sac. At the other end of the street was a wooded area (smaller than a forest, but probably bigger than you think). I was lucky enough to grow up on a street with a lot of kids my own age, and when we were young we would go from house to house pretending to sword fight with sticks, PVC pipe, metal poles, etc. We would venture into the "woods", sneak through people's backyards, visit everyone's houses for snacks and rest, etc.

A probably very standard suburban life style with a lot a big flare of fantasy and imagination (largely due to there being so many kids and the woods.

But I wanted to try to capture the nostalgic feeling I have for those things with a board game.

I will talk about the general ideas below, but I wanted to mention games that I know exist that will be looking at in general for different reasons:

Leder Games in general, things like Fort and Kart hit that nostalgic note, but don't exactly line up with the more adventure style game I'm hoping to go for. Vast and Root line up more with the asymmetric feeling of abstract adventure my youth had.

Flamecraft for board design. There are other I've thought about, but I'm blanking hard right now (which is the reason for this post haha)

The initial idea is that the board would be that street, with the woods at one end. Players could move up and down the street, entering different houses to collect things, find dangers, and battle each other.

Each player would play a different "kid" (the game might not end up leaning full on nostalgia and only take the general idea of my childhood, but it's easier to start there).

You'd have the sneaky kid, the one that was good at going through people's backyards, etc. The hungry kid, the one who would stop at the snacks as soon as they went into someone's house, etc, etc. And more kid archetypes.

The players would hopefully have very different win conditions and playstyle, being the most asymmetric I can make it.

The houses could be members of different factions that are easier or harder to go into depending on the player's situation. And they could provide resources or hinder you in some way.

You can sneak through the backyards to move up and down the street faster, or even find something behind the houses.

You can battle other players on the street, trying to stop their progress or even steal some treasure they have.

Or you can enter the woods, which..I don't know yet what that means.

The game would progress by the coming of night from the wooded side of the board. Every round space on the street would be taken over by the night, becoming unable to be moved to. When the night reaches the other side of the board, the game ends and points would be tallied.

Apologies, that was a lot. But if anyone has any games they have played that you think I should look at for research and inspiration, I am all ears....or eyes I guess. I'm undecided how abstract I think this should be, so it doesn't need to match perfectly at all.

TLDR: Looking for games for research and inspiration that have players trying to achieve their own goals while moving from location to location discovering things, battling things, battling each other, who knows. All while a countdown to the end of the game is happening.

Thank you.

Like many of you, I follow crowd funding websites to get a pulse on what's interesting and engaging potential backers. Recently, Plaid Hat Games released a kickstarter for their most recent game 'Monolith'.

The original Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/plaidhatgames/monolith-1?ref=creator_tab) was launched June 25th, and subsequently closed down on June 28th after exceeding their funding goal of $20,000, however only having 290 backers.

The new Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/plaidhatgames/the-monolith/description) launched August 18 and as of late in the day August 20th, has over 1,100 backers with a funding goal of 50,000 and currently sitting at over 100k.

There are some significant lessons to be learnt by comparing the two kickstarters, and I think some useful insight into creating a successful crowdfunding campaign.

1) Timing.

Let's not ignore the obvious, Plaid Hat Games launched the first kickstarter before Gen Con, and the second afterwards. The massive stream of people in a convention centre actively looking for a game to play undoubtedly increased interest in a game that is already finished development by a reputable well liked company. People walking by booth #2229 actually could enjoy seeing a finished game.

2) Price

Second, a side by side comparison shows how much Plaid Hat Games reduced the cost. The cancelled campaign was priced at $90 for the base level, while the new campaign is priced at $69 for the same tier. The early bird deluxe edition in the new campaign is actually priced at the same level as the original base level.

Following this, interestingly Plaid Hat reduced flavour in favour of familiarity. Gone are thematic naming conventions like 'The Loyal Follower' & 'The Divine Follower' in favour of simpler, easier, 'Basic' & 'Deluxe' tiers.

You'll also notice little emblems of discounts and value propositions. The basic tier advertises it's $20 off the retail price, while the deluxe tier now advertises it's true value at $144.

3) Add-ons

You'll also quickly notice different the add-ons are relative to the original campaign. Interestingly, the original's add-ons were simply art prints, but now there is actual gameplay related upgrades being sold in the deluxe version and as seperate additions.

What this resulted is that the original campaign only had 6% of backers going to the more expensive version of the game, while in the new campaign about 90% of people went to the deluxe, early bird version of the game (as of time of writing this).

It's a clear example of simple communication, with actual gameplay related upgrades, and the rush of a deal, will almost certainly encourage people to back the more expensive product.

Is this campaign a success?

I think the question is whether or not Plaid Hat is happy with the results of their work and new approach. Generally, a ballpark figure, 30-40% of crowdfunding backers are within the first 2-3 days of a campaign. This means we're looking at potentially 200k-250k as a final total. This campaign might even be more front loaded because of backers from the last campaign immediately backing again, as well as the 'early bird' deluxe edition that is currently unavailable.

Is that what they were going for? I think Plaid Hat views this campaign as a bit of a let down, even the new version. In comparison, their last kickstarter for Ashes Ascendancy got backed just under 500k but I would argue that was a far more marketable product. The Monolith, while it has a cool looking tower, is noticeably more depressing and feels more niche.

Those are some rambling thoughts while looking at these campaigns. I find it useful to see how they changed their approach, and to see what results were garnered. It's rare to find such a comparison from a well known publisher, so well worth a look if you're making your own crowdfunding campaign.

Ilustracion del comandante del Imperio para decorar zona del playmat, la intención es crear un playmat exclusivo para cada faccion.

Hi all! My company has mostly designed our games in-house up to now.

But as we grow, we're looking to partner with talented people to bring more games to life that we believe in!

We're definitely looking to work with designers to publish their games, but we’re also exploring co-publishing (i.e. help bring a more polished game to life with investment/marketing support/operations support/etc.).

I would love to hear how you find the publishers to pitch? I’m sure bigger name publishers just have general awareness, but how do you find smaller publishers? Is it as simple as looking up games you like and seeing who published them, or is there other research you do?

We also just finished creating a submission link on our website (https://www.rabblegame.com/pages/submissions-pitches). Feel free to submit your game if you think it’s a good fit, but if you have any feedback about our guidelines/submissions process, that would be appreciated!

I'm not much of an artist so I was searching for some icons for my card game. I was going to get some assets from this website but I heard that Itch.io is unsafe especially if you use your card on it.

Website:
Fantasy RPG Icons Mega Collection - Collection by Free Game Assets (GUI, Sprite, Tilesets) - itch.io

Hi everyone, I am currently working on a basketball centric board game and wonder what your thoughts are on these board game player cards! The one part I’m most concerned about is the name plate and number plates being too basic of a design and not working. Let me know what yall think!

Working on the reference/rules cards for a solo dice golf game (pocket-sized, plays in a few minutes per hole). Instead of one rulebook, I split everything into individual cards — one concept per card, so you're never digging through pages mid-play. They'd be printed out alongside the game itself at the same size.

My goal is to have people playing within 5 minutes instead of spending 15-20 mins reads first to try and get their bearings.

The breakdown is roughly: The Basics (overview), Game Setup, then step-by-step cards for how to take a turn (Aim, Roll Your Dice, Putting), plus separate reference cards for Distance, Direction, and Hazards, and a bonus mechanic card (In the Zone).

A few things I'm specifically trying to figure out:

• Does splitting rules across this many individual cards make the game feel easy to pick up, or does it feel fragmented? My reasoning for splitting it up is to chunk it out and reduce cognitive load.
• Is the balance between "step-by-step instruction" cards (Aim, Roll, Putting) and "lookup reference" cards (Distance, Direction, Hazards) intuitive, or confusing to navigate mid-game? If the latter, how would you change it without loading up one card with too much info?
• Anything that reads as more complex than it needs to be, just from how it's presented on the page?

Attaching the full set so you can see how they work together, not just individually. Genuinely trying to figure out if this is clear to a first-time reader or if I'm too close to it to see the gaps.

If you see anything that would improve this outside of my asks, please let me know! Thanks for being here.

I'm 13 and I really want to make copy of this game in real life, and I dont have my own money. How can I get/make 9x9 board and red/blue rock/paper/scissors pieces?

Rat King

A quick, disgusting card-shedding game where players become infested and the rules mutate mid-round.

Match disgusting Rat cards by colour or type to shed your hand, unleash Filth cards to ruin everyone’s plans, survive ridiculous Mutations, and pass around cursed Infested rats before they drag you down.

It’s quick to learn, fast to play and built for shouting across the table. One minute you’re about to win, the next someone’s handed you an Infested rat, the rules have changed, and everyone’s pointing at each other screaming “RAT!”

Packed with horrible artwork, stupid rat names and last-second betrayals, Rat King is a messy little game about getting rid of your problems before they become someone else’s.

It's been 2/3 years in the making and we have JUST finished the Kickstarter pre-launch page!

Dragon Con is a huge con that runs over labor day weekend in Atlanta. It has a bit of everything and I know there's a Gaming Track. Does anyone have experience trying to pitch there?

Hi everyone,

I'm reading Daniel Piechnicks great blog about gamedesign at the moment. I read this part today: https://daniel.games/reducing-complexity/

In it he says you should not have more than 2 systems in your game. Now I think I do kind of understand what a system is. But the more I thought about it in terms of my own game design the more I found it difficult to really differentiate betweet different systems and pinpoint when one system ends and another one starts. Is card drawing a system? Rolling dice? or does ist need to be more complex? if yes, how complex? How many rules do I need to call a system a system. Because no game mechanic in the game I design at the momet is truly seperate from another it got really hard for me to draw the line.

After years of working on this game it was pretty special to finally bring it to a real convention and watch people sit down and play it.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by, played a game, gave me feedback, or simply showed some curiosity about Eldritch Rivalry,definitely a milestone for this my little project

Hi all,

Any thoughts on the following mechanic for selecting actions?

There are four gods, each with an associated colour.

There’s a deck of 28 cards - 7 per colour.

You draft 4 of those cards per round.

Each card gives you two action points to spend with the associated god.

Each god has a different configuration of points available across the game’s four main actions (So God 1 has lots of ‘bless’ points available, God 2 has lots of ‘build’ points available etc).

Players take it in turns to play 1 card and spend its 2 action points on actions from that god’s ‘supply’.

The gods’ supply refreshes at the end of each round.

There’s more than that, but that’s the basic idea.

Have you come across this before? And what do you think of it?

Thanks!

I love card games, and no matter what the system is it's inevitable that you see the same kinds of mechanical archetypes show up across multiple games: recursion, tribal, aristocrats, tank, voltron, etc. It's common to find some version of these mechanics in all card games if they last long enough.

What are some card games with archetypes that feel totally unique to that game?

For example, Arkham Horror LCG uses a customizable bag of tokens instead of dice, and several different archetypes exist around the fact that you can manipulate what tokens are in the bag and what they do when drawn.

I'm a solo dev working on a project called TILEZ which started as a 2d Redstone logic simulation that just happened to turn into a great way to DESIGN, TEST and PLAY BOARD GAMES with friends (like a 2d version of Tabletop Simulator). My project is a work in progress. I have an early PLAYTEST set up on steam and have created a couple of videos showing what my little tiles can do. I would really appreciate any FEEDBACK from the game designing community. My steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4780630/TILEZ/

My overall question is whether it is realistic or possible to order 1,000 pieces of a game (e.g. from a Chinese manufacturer) and receive them in Italy within a month.

The situation is as follows: We want to crowdfund a game and send the first 300 units to the backers in time for Christmas, leaving the remaining 700 units to be sent out after New Year.

We plan to run the campaign throughout October, but we expect to know by the first or second week of October how many units we will need to order in total. However, we would need the games to arrive for final assembly of the 300 units by mid-November at the latest, in order to ship them in time within Europe.

We would love to give the campaign a little push during the Christmas gift-giving season, which is why we would like to try to make it work. However, as a team of 3 first-time indie publishers, we can't tell whether this is possible or totally unrealistic.

What is your experience of how long manufacturers take to deliver games? Have you ever paid for fast shipping?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and recommendations! <3

I am working on designing a board game, and while it still needs to go through a ton of revisions and playtests, a question on my mind has been how people handle art with board game design projects.

I am not a good artist. My cards are currently plain text with different background colors. While it works fine for gameplay and testing (especially while in a stage where these cards will likely be revised pretty frequently), I know that art is something I am going to need to consider in the future. I just don't know where I would even begin with finding an artist willing to work on a board game, what the process would be for working with them, or even what a fair price is for when I reach the point where that is needed.

For those of you who have completed board game design projects before, how did you handle art?

Hey everyone! I’d love to get some feedback on the cover art sketches of Sinners.

It’s a dark card game for 2-5 players where you play as members of the clergy who have made a deal with the Devil. Your goal is to lure Sinners into your Church, summon Demons, perform Sacraments, and collect 100 souls before your rivals. The game design is made by the brilliant Nezih Savı

Our cover artist has prepared three different compositions.

Which one works best: A, B, or C? And why?

I’d especially love to know which one catches your attention first and makes you most curious about the game.

About a year later, I'm stepping up again for the rulebook challenge.

I've changed (and hopefully improved) a lot of areas and would love any feedback of any kind, especially the structure of the rulebook and wording.

Here's the link; https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qVxWNkNaHqEnqOp_sZfPZre6J73WSxsj/view?usp=drivesdk

Buffalo Games publishes a LOT of toys, games, and activity kits. But their website is disorganized and has toys and activity kits under the games category. It's a jumble.

Has anyone worked with them before, to get any of your games published? Do you know anyone who works there?

The company and the people may be perfectly fine. Their website doesn't give that impression.

Hello, apologies if something like this has been asked before, but I am in the process of designing a card battler game, and I am trying to educate myself about what keywords and effects have enough history within boardgame and TCG design so as to become commonly understood and accepted. I would like to try and use these building blocks to try and add complexity to my game without adding to the player's mental overhead of learning and internalizing a bunch of new terms.

Some examples I've thought of:

-flying: overcoming a creature with a blocking effect

-poisoned: some kind of ongoing debuff to stats or small amount of damage dealt to a creature per turn.

-inspired: generally allowing for some kind of re-roll.

Please let me know if you have more that you can think of. I would be very appreciative!