#20 in Puzzles & games books
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Reddit mentions of Kobold Guide to Board Game Design
Sentiment score: 8
Reddit mentions: 11
We found 11 Reddit mentions of Kobold Guide to Board Game Design. Here are the top ones.
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- Spiel des Jahres Kennerspiel 2017 nominee (enthusiast game of the year)
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- Part of the North Sea Runesaga Campaign Trilogy!
- Designed for 2-4 Vikings to conquer in 60-80 minutes
Features:
Specs:
Height | 9 Inches |
Length | 6 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Weight | 0.45 Pounds |
Width | 0.33 Inches |
I really like.
Challenges for Game Designers by Brathwaite and Schreiber: https://www.amazon.com/Challenges-Games-Designers-Non-Digital-Exercises/dp/1542453313/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493469101&sr=8-1&keywords=challenges+for+game+designers
Game Design Workshop by Tracy Fullerton: https://www.amazon.com/Game-Design-Workshop-Playcentric-Innovative/dp/1482217163/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1482217163&pd_rd_r=C4KTX74FX6FRDX63HCJQ&pd_rd_w=EuUkE&pd_rd_wg=y877F&psc=1&refRID=C4KTX74FX6FRDX63HCJQ
*Kobold Guide to Board Game Design: https://www.amazon.com/Kobold-Guide-Board-Game-Design/dp/1936781042/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493469414&sr=1-1&keywords=kobold+guide+to+board+game+design
There ARE several good books, I would highly recommend
The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses
Kobold Guide to Board Game Design
BUT neither of those books actually teaches you mechanics and balancing, they just explore problems and ideas that you might run into. Playing games is how you learn different mechanics and how they combine, and balancing is just a thing that happens naturally as you playtest and observe what players do.
The coolest part of board game design is it doesnt require any previous training. Just grab some notecards and a pen and start exploring ideas. When you find something that seems fun, explore deeper into that idea.
You also might wanna check out /r/tabletopgamedesign
[Edit: Spelling]
Are you looking for how to make games? Not just programming, but actually make them? I have some suggestions, but they often aren't about programming. There is a million books about programming, but finding those that talk about the ideas and ways to successively improve is a better point to start from.
Making video games is easy. Put the pitchfork down and let me explain. Anyone can open unity and load some assets and call it a game. Making good games is difficult, and even if you are not looking at card/board games, you should be prepared to test your game on paper. It is easier to make iterative improvement if you can look for mechanical and mathematical issues by scrawling some notes on paper cards.
For a book that covers both programming and game design, I also suggest this one.
These books will cover the psychology, the pitfalls, etc that come with making a game. You do not need a class to make a game portfolio. You can often get things done faster by a book, because it's goal is to teach as you read, not set a timer for 15 weeks. It can assume you will do it over 26 weeks or more if the book is huge.
Anyway, this is a much larger reply than I intended. Hopefully these are informative. If nothing else, they are significantly cheaper than a class.
This book does a great job on giving industry tips and tricks on game design in the form of topic based essays and is in my opinion the best way to get immersed in the culture of game design as a newbie. https://www.amazon.com/Kobold-Guide-Board-Game-Design/dp/1936781042
On the topics of game balance, theory, pitfalls, tips, I think I speak in line with many users of this and other game design communities when I say: "Just get something out that is broken and messy and put it in front of a group of unbiased playtesters." Once you get your game/RPG system in front of real players you'll quickly find out what their experiences are with what you've built and where to take your design for its next iteration.
In general:
"Playtest early and playtest often."
As a quick note, add two spaces after your links in order to create a line break for your headings.
Another good resource for icons is http://game-icons.net/.
The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design is a solid repository of advice for designers.
Also, this is a bit specific to me and won't have the same impact for every designer, but this was the single most important piece of advice I've ever read regarding game design: http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/11885/you-have-have-guts-ask-question
The single biggest issue I had with designing when I started is that I would solve design problems by adding new rules to cover any edge cases that came up. "This thing is exploitable? Let's add a new mechanic that fixes that." "This part is confusing? Let's add another system that helps the player better understand the existing system." There was some amount of give and take, but it largely just boiled down to bloated designs. Ever since I started designing with the philosophy that no rule is sacred in mind, I became a much more competent designer basically overnight.
You might want to give a few of these a read before diving right in. Just because you have some experience playing various games does not mean that experience is going to completely transfer over to game design.
Kobold Guide to Board Game Design
Characteristics of Games (MIT Press)
The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, Second Edition
Thanks for the great question! I'll answer the way my mother always answer my long emails...
It's possible to hire people to do it - there are companies that specialize in finding people to do focus-group testing of various products - but that's a bit expensive.
This book on board game design has a couple chapters on playtesting that would be relevant: http://www.amazon.com/Kobold-Guide-Board-Game-Design/dp/1936781042
As far as books go, I highly recommend the "Kobold Guide to Board Game Design:"
https://www.amazon.com/Kobold-Guide-Board-Game-Design/dp/1936781042
It has a bunch of articles from board game designing veterans and will give you some great tips on everything from how to get started, to how to polish up your prototype for publishers.
As for making a board game from an existing franchise... that's something where the owner of the IP reaches out to you, not the other way around. They'll typically be looking for industry veterans who have had several best-selling games over the course of several years. So unfortunately for 99.99% of us, designing a product for a franchise like Warcraft or Game of Thrones will never be anything more than a dream.
Combine with blank cards, your own blank folding game board, some neutral pawns, and/or a set with pawns, tokens, timers, and more, and you're set!
Need inspiration? Do a Little. Reading.
Since you're asking this kind of question, I would say the first step is to read and listen to all the interviews and literature that's out there first first. Having a base knowledge of the industry is going to help you with all future steps you've listed.
Kolbold's Guide to Board Game Design is a great book to kick off the journey.
There's also many board game design podcasts out there that I found extremely helpful:
The Board Game Design Podcast
Ludology
Tuesday Knight Podcast