Level Up Your Game Design: A Practical Guide to Getting Started
Introduction: Why This Guide?
This guide is for aspiring board game designers seeking a structured approach to their craft. It consolidates common questions and provides a clear roadmap for creating engaging and balanced games. Whether you’re a complete novice or have some experience, this guide offers valuable insights and resources.
Remember, you don’t have to read everything! Focus on the sections that resonate with your current needs.
Part 1: Finding Your Spark – Sources of Inspiration
Inspiration can strike from anywhere! Cultivate an open mind and draw inspiration from various sources:
- Board Games: Immerse yourself in the world of board games. Play a diverse range, analyze their mechanics, observe others playing, and listen to reviews. Even if your goal is to design a specific type of game, exploring different genres broadens your understanding.
- Video Games: Many video game concepts can be adapted for board games. Analyze what makes them engaging and deconstruct their mechanics.
- Storytelling Mediums: Movies, TV series, books, comics, and anime offer a wealth of stories, characters, and settings that can spark your imagination.
- Real Life: Observe the world around you. Everyday situations, human behavior, animal quirks, and personal anecdotes can be surprisingly fertile ground for game ideas.
For a deeper dive into finding inspiration, check out this detailed discussion: Finding Inspiration for Game Design
Resource: Explore BoardGameGeek’s mechanics browser to discover games based on specific mechanics.
Part 2: Crafting Your Design Flow
Starting Simple: An excellent starting point is to modify an existing game you enjoy. Experiment with "house rules" to improve upon the original design.
Developing Your Workflow: While personal preferences vary, a structured approach to game design can be more efficient than relying solely on playtesting. Consider this workflow:
- Take Notes: Capture your ideas, inspirations, playtesting observations, and any insights that emerge during the design process.
- Research: Delve deeper into the themes, mechanics, and existing games that align with your vision.
- Define Core Gameplay: Determine the fundamental gameplay loop and core mechanics that drive your game.
- Establish an Internal Point System: Assign point values to all resources and actions in your game to create a consistent mathematical framework for balancing.
- Build an Initial Prototype: Use your point system to create a basic prototype with cards, actions, and resources.
- Solo Playtesting: Test the game by yourself to ensure the core mechanics function as intended.
- Iterate and Refine: Address any major issues that arise during solo playtesting.
- Playtest with Others: Gather feedback from playtesters to gain external perspectives on your game’s balance, engagement, and overall experience.
- Iterate Based on Feedback: Incorporate constructive criticism from playtesters, but avoid making drastic changes all at once.
- Beyond Playtesting: While this guide focuses on the initial design phase, remember that bringing a game to market involves additional steps like pitching and production.
For a more comprehensive explanation of this workflow, refer to this post: Finding Your Game Design Flow
Part 3: Balancing Your Game with a Point-Based System
Contrary to popular belief, playtesting should not be the first step in balancing your game. Establishing a mathematical model from the outset, even a simple one, can significantly streamline the balancing process.
Creating Your Point System:
- Assign Point Values: Give every resource in your game a point value, including actions, victory points, cards, and limited spaces.
- Start with Larger Numbers: Using larger numbers initially makes balancing easier.
- Aim for Initial Equality: Assign roughly equal point values to most resources to simplify the process (e.g., 1 Action = 1 Wood = 1 Coin = 4 Points).
- Fine-Tune with Victory Points: Use victory points for more granular balancing (e.g., 1 Victory Point = 1 Point).
- Ensure Income Generation: Provide players with ways to gain resources, such as starting coins or actions that yield resources.
- Incorporate Bonuses: Offer discounts or bonuses for actions or purchases that require multiple resources.
- Reward Risk and Opportunity: Provide bonuses for quests or achievements that involve risk or limited availability.
- Maintain Consistency: Adhere to your point system throughout the entire game to ensure its effectiveness.
- Balance Components: Balance all game components according to your point system.
- Playtesting Begins: With a solid mathematical foundation in place, you can now begin playtesting with a more balanced starting point.
For a detailed breakdown of creating a point-based system, see this post: Creating a Point-Based System for Balancing
Part 4: Genre-Specific Resources
This section will feature posts discussing design considerations for specific game genres. While the information may be tailored to a particular genre, the concepts can often be applied to other types of games as well.
Currently Available:
- Trading Card Games (Deck-building): Designing Trading Card Games
- Tabletop Role-Playing Games: Designing Tabletop Role-Playing Games
More genre-specific posts will be added over time!
