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making_games1.7 release!
This is the last one in this series. :)
Previously:
- 1.1 overview; parameters and desired player experience.
- 1.2 research, inspiration, comps.
- 1.3 design document and writing your rules.
- 1.4 rapid prototyping.
- 1.5 playtesting.
- 1.6 iterative design.
This is the fun part!
NOTE: So, for hobbyist/recreational purposes, I will not be discussing things like getting a publisher, Kickstarter, art direction, manufacturing timelines and proofing, print runs, fulfillment etc. Depending on the type of game, that's a gigantic topic in itself. If you're interested in an introduction to those considerations, I recommend Jeremy Holcomb's The White Box Essays or the Board Game Design Lab, with the caveat that this is not an area where I have meaningful experience. But anything in that direction is out of scope for the purposes of this challenge.
If you have expertise/experience here that you're interested in sharing, please feel free!
For hobbyist/recreational purposes, you want to decide on:
- budget, timeline, deadline - if you were doing this professionally, I would recommend these as the first things you figure out as part of scoping the project. We're here for fun, though, so it's okay to defer the question. (Especially if you don't even know if you're going to bother taking a specific game concept all the way to release anyway!)
- audience - we discussed this in 1.1, but now we're looking at production/format considerations for the audience. Kids might find cursive/script fonts hard to read, or be more attracted to a game that involves SHINY STICKERS. (Who am I kidding? I'm attracted to SHINY STICKERS.)
- format - the big divide here for our purposes is digital vs. physical. The terminology here is a bit fucked and boundaries can be weird. A tabletop roleplaying game distributed as a PDF or an epub is still considered a tabletop game even though it's a digital file and has no distribution in physical format, for instance.
For text-based games (e.g. TTRPG, solo journaling game), digital is generally going to be much cheaper. Even a card game will be cheaper as PDF print-and-play than to physically produce.
- actual design of bits, e.g. how information is presented on cards down to font choice, art/logos (if applicable), size/color/whatever of dice (if you're manufacturing dice for inclusion with the game as opposed to the player providing their own).
- distribution - are you putting it up for download on your website or setting it up for download and/or sale on a site like itch.io or DriveThruRPG? Just sharing it off Dropbox? Mailing bespoke physical sets to friends? Passing out photocopies to your tormented family members (hi!)?
I'm assuming as a baseline that most of us are aiming for fast and cheap. Specifics will of course depend on the specifics of your game, but I tend to assume you favor free or low-cost software and design assets, or software you already have lying around. This might mean something as plain/simple as Google Docs or Pages (if you're on a Mac) to type up your rules, or using public domain clipart and 100% free fonts off dafont.com, or doing your own artwork/logos.
Obviously, if you have professional and/or paid software in any of these areas and know how to use it, knock yourself out. :)
My philosophy here is to favor legibility and easily read design, which in turn are related to accessibility. In most cases, if you have a choice between mood/atmosphere and "can the player read this?", please go with the latter. My litmus test for thinning out itch.io TTRPG/solo RPG bundle downloads? If I open up the game PDF and the designer has made some poor life decision like fucking pink text on a fucking orange background, I'm deleting the fucking game without making an attempt to read it. Don't think indie designers are the only ones guilty of this, by the way; I have strong memories of gorgeously atmospheric but absolutely fucking unreadable World of Darkness TTRPG books from the '90s because they were littered with grunge/splatter/whatever textures plus scratchy illegible "handwriting" fonts or Fraktur or whatever the hell. Okay, rant over.
I don't want to downplay the importance of flavor/mood/atmosphere. Puerto Rico and Race for the Galaxy (board/card games) are extremely similar mechanically, but the artwork (what must have been a staggering cost in the latter particularly), design, and card text make them feel distinct. Star Realms (deckbuilder) has extremely abstract mechanics; the "space combat" feel comes largely from the artwork, card titles, and flavor text. Thousand Year Old Vampire (solo journaling game) gets some of its "starting in Ye Olde Times" feeling from the judicious use of a calligraphy-based font for the journaling/gameplay prompts. But you can (i feel) often achieve these effects without sacrificing legibility/usability.
I don't have expertise in design, so I'm going to point at other resources:
- Robin Williams' The Non-Designer's Design Book is typography/layout/design 101. Signed, someone who discovered he had LITERALLY committed every design sin in the book. :facepalm:
- Designing elegant board games [The Board Game Workshop] discusses some design considerations.
I've mostly pointed at visual design resources; making games accessible to blind players is outside my area of experience and I welcome pointers to resources if you're willing to share them. Note that hobbyist game designers, especially if they're DIYing the graphic design (or equivalent in other media), are typically going to have more limited resources in this area.
Challenge 1.7
Figure out
- budget/resources
- timeline
- audience
- format
- design
- distribution
and produce your game - and send it on its way into the world/to its intended audience, if you like!
Bonus Challenge 1.8
If you're willing, I'd love feedback - what parts in this challenge series were helpful? What are areas you wanted to see more or less of? Would you rather see this as one Big Long Post or are the individual posts working for you? etc. This will help me do a better job with the next Challenge (current plan: smol TTRPG design). Feel free to message me if you'd rather not leave your thoughts in a public comment. Thank you!
This is the last one in this series. :)
Previously:
- 1.1 overview; parameters and desired player experience.
- 1.2 research, inspiration, comps.
- 1.3 design document and writing your rules.
- 1.4 rapid prototyping.
- 1.5 playtesting.
- 1.6 iterative design.
This is the fun part!
NOTE: So, for hobbyist/recreational purposes, I will not be discussing things like getting a publisher, Kickstarter, art direction, manufacturing timelines and proofing, print runs, fulfillment etc. Depending on the type of game, that's a gigantic topic in itself. If you're interested in an introduction to those considerations, I recommend Jeremy Holcomb's The White Box Essays or the Board Game Design Lab, with the caveat that this is not an area where I have meaningful experience. But anything in that direction is out of scope for the purposes of this challenge.
If you have expertise/experience here that you're interested in sharing, please feel free!
For hobbyist/recreational purposes, you want to decide on:
- budget, timeline, deadline - if you were doing this professionally, I would recommend these as the first things you figure out as part of scoping the project. We're here for fun, though, so it's okay to defer the question. (Especially if you don't even know if you're going to bother taking a specific game concept all the way to release anyway!)
- audience - we discussed this in 1.1, but now we're looking at production/format considerations for the audience. Kids might find cursive/script fonts hard to read, or be more attracted to a game that involves SHINY STICKERS. (Who am I kidding? I'm attracted to SHINY STICKERS.)
- format - the big divide here for our purposes is digital vs. physical. The terminology here is a bit fucked and boundaries can be weird. A tabletop roleplaying game distributed as a PDF or an epub is still considered a tabletop game even though it's a digital file and has no distribution in physical format, for instance.
For text-based games (e.g. TTRPG, solo journaling game), digital is generally going to be much cheaper. Even a card game will be cheaper as PDF print-and-play than to physically produce.
- actual design of bits, e.g. how information is presented on cards down to font choice, art/logos (if applicable), size/color/whatever of dice (if you're manufacturing dice for inclusion with the game as opposed to the player providing their own).
- distribution - are you putting it up for download on your website or setting it up for download and/or sale on a site like itch.io or DriveThruRPG? Just sharing it off Dropbox? Mailing bespoke physical sets to friends? Passing out photocopies to your tormented family members (hi!)?
I'm assuming as a baseline that most of us are aiming for fast and cheap. Specifics will of course depend on the specifics of your game, but I tend to assume you favor free or low-cost software and design assets, or software you already have lying around. This might mean something as plain/simple as Google Docs or Pages (if you're on a Mac) to type up your rules, or using public domain clipart and 100% free fonts off dafont.com, or doing your own artwork/logos.
Obviously, if you have professional and/or paid software in any of these areas and know how to use it, knock yourself out. :)
My philosophy here is to favor legibility and easily read design, which in turn are related to accessibility. In most cases, if you have a choice between mood/atmosphere and "can the player read this?", please go with the latter. My litmus test for thinning out itch.io TTRPG/solo RPG bundle downloads? If I open up the game PDF and the designer has made some poor life decision like fucking pink text on a fucking orange background, I'm deleting the fucking game without making an attempt to read it. Don't think indie designers are the only ones guilty of this, by the way; I have strong memories of gorgeously atmospheric but absolutely fucking unreadable World of Darkness TTRPG books from the '90s because they were littered with grunge/splatter/whatever textures plus scratchy illegible "handwriting" fonts or Fraktur or whatever the hell. Okay, rant over.
I don't want to downplay the importance of flavor/mood/atmosphere. Puerto Rico and Race for the Galaxy (board/card games) are extremely similar mechanically, but the artwork (what must have been a staggering cost in the latter particularly), design, and card text make them feel distinct. Star Realms (deckbuilder) has extremely abstract mechanics; the "space combat" feel comes largely from the artwork, card titles, and flavor text. Thousand Year Old Vampire (solo journaling game) gets some of its "starting in Ye Olde Times" feeling from the judicious use of a calligraphy-based font for the journaling/gameplay prompts. But you can (i feel) often achieve these effects without sacrificing legibility/usability.
I don't have expertise in design, so I'm going to point at other resources:
- Robin Williams' The Non-Designer's Design Book is typography/layout/design 101. Signed, someone who discovered he had LITERALLY committed every design sin in the book. :facepalm:
- Designing elegant board games [The Board Game Workshop] discusses some design considerations.
I've mostly pointed at visual design resources; making games accessible to blind players is outside my area of experience and I welcome pointers to resources if you're willing to share them. Note that hobbyist game designers, especially if they're DIYing the graphic design (or equivalent in other media), are typically going to have more limited resources in this area.
Challenge 1.7
Figure out
- budget/resources
- timeline
- audience
- format
- design
- distribution
and produce your game - and send it on its way into the world/to its intended audience, if you like!
Bonus Challenge 1.8
If you're willing, I'd love feedback - what parts in this challenge series were helpful? What are areas you wanted to see more or less of? Would you rather see this as one Big Long Post or are the individual posts working for you? etc. This will help me do a better job with the next Challenge (current plan: smol TTRPG design). Feel free to message me if you'd rather not leave your thoughts in a public comment. Thank you!
