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need assistance in board game design

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breich90
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Joined: 12/31/1969

Hello,

Just found this site, looks promising and helpful. Now, to start, I have designed about three different board games since November... nothing substancial, just a lot of notes and some playtesting. But I can't stay on designing one game. I get stumped at some point, like researching information, designing the counters, or figuring a way to create the board of my game, and then print it. For the counters, I'll design something in Photoshop for an hour, then look at it and delete it because it was crap. When I attempt to get something made for the mapboards, I get stopped by the logic of how I would get a drawing of a map to look half-decent and then printed on board. Then I'll get stuck with some part in the instructions, or become confused with an idea/rule in the game, because whenever I sit down to get some notes down I am ALWAYS worrying about authenticity to life (my games are war/combat type simulations, like the old avalon hill stuff).

I'm only 15, so my knowledge of board game design is very vague. I was wondering if any of you 'Expert' persons, as the forum says, have any tips/suggestions/ideas/help with basic development of a game and my struggling with keeping set on one idea/concept, and if you have any tips on keeping a "real life" feel to a board game, whilst keeping the game interesting and not slow and dull.

Thanks, Brett

Hegemon
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Joined: 12/31/1969
need assistance in board game design

Hi There,

I was around 15 myself when I was bitten by the wargaming bug - now, more years later on I publish them. Here's a link to order a reasonably priced and spiffy "How To" book for beginning wargame designers.

http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=SJG82-3001

and the on-line How to Design Wargames Handbook below is free:

http://www.strategypage.com/prowg/default.asp?target=wargameshandbook/contents.htm

These books won't keep your mind from wandering from task to task but they do provide some good background and "how to" ideas when you're ready to buckle down and focus in on what you what to simulate.

Good Hunting!

Scurra
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Joined: 09/11/2008
need assistance in board game design

I guess the best observation we can all make is that our initial playtest versions are almost always truly crap. This is largely because it takes a long time to get the game "right", and tearing things up over and over can get rather dispiriting. See comments in threads like this one (that's the approach I use as well, for card games) and don't worry about the technical quality at this stage. Indeed, my boards rarely get past the "bits of paper stuck together with tape" stage; I don't worry about board backs or lamination or anything for a long time because I know how much is likely to change.
Indeed, there's almost an argument for making the quality deliberately bad: if you and your friends (playtesters) find the game fun without high production values, then you're onto a winner because it can only get better*.

As for the development process - well, that's the hard truth we all have to accept when attempting something creative: it's never perfect first time out. Sometimes it will never be perfect (or, rather, close enough that we can accept it!) May I recommend this article? It's about Magic: the Gathering, so the specific details aren't relevant, but the general rules are very pertinent.

(*having said that, there are a number of commercial examples where the production design detracts from the play experience: the Mayfair version of Medici is a good one.)

Kreitler
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Re: need assistance in board game design

breich90 wrote:
I'm only 15, so my knowledge of board game design is very vague. I was wondering if any of you 'Expert' persons, as the forum says, have any tips/suggestions/ideas/help with basic development of a game and my struggling with keeping set on one idea/concept, and if you have any tips on keeping a "real life" feel to a board game, whilst keeping the game interesting and not slow and dull.

Hi Brett. Welcome to the boards!

Your questions are very good. They are things we've all wrestled with at one point or another.

There are many good links and articles on "how to" concepts here in the forum itself. Check out the "game production" forum and you'll find posts -- often with links to articles -- on making boards, cards, and counters.

If you browse the topics in the "game design" forum, you'll find many discussions regarding keeping rules balanced between realism and playability. Many of these discussions concern games other than war games, but the same theories apply to war games.

So, my first piece of advice is just "browse these forums". It will take a bit of time, but it's not as bad as you might think.

Second, I suggest diving in and making a simple prototype, no matter how crude. I understand your desire to make something that looks like a real game right off the bat. However, you'll probably find that you throw out your first 2 or 3 prototypes, so there's really no point in making them any better than they have to be in order to test your designs.

Here's the world's simplest how-to for such a prototype:
1) Print a hex grid onto regular A4 (8.5x11) white paper sheets. If you need a template of hexes, search the forums for the word 'hex'. Several people have submitted templates in the past.
2) Glue these sheets to thin cardboard backing to make yourself a map.
3) Use colored pencils or markers to fill in the hexes with terrain and man-made features like towns.
4) Use Word to lay out a counter sheet. Print it, glue it to cardboard, and cut it up into individual counters.

You've now got your map and counters. They won't look that good, but you'll be able your rules.

As for making your ruleset fun-yet-realistic, I have only one piece of advice: decide which kinds of decisions you want your players to have to make, then create the simplest set of rules that force these decisions. The mechanics you use don't have to accurately model the real world -- they just have to force the a decision that reflects a real-world decision.

Here's what I mean. Do you want your players to worry about resupply? If so, create a simple mechanic to reflect this. For example, maybe each unit has a color -- red, green, or blue. When you move a unit or fire from a unit, you roll a colored die. If the die matches the unit, you flip the unit over to it's "resupply" side and it can no longer shoot until it stocks up on munitions by coming in contact with a "depot" unit.

That's not very realistic, but it's very easy to understand and quick to use. Most importantly, players now have to consider the location of their Depots when deploying forces. The resupply mechanic isn't realistic, but it enforces realistic decision-making on the players.

I've babbled on enough. Good luck with your designs! Don't get too wrapped up in "how to" and "what rules". Just make a prototype and playtest it (first by yourself, then with others once the solo play is fun). Chances are you will make several prototypes before you get one that's any good, so don't get discouraged.

Keep us posted on your progress!

Mark

zaiga
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Joined: 12/31/1969
need assistance in board game design

From George RR Martin's site (he's a famous fantasy writer):

"Q: I want to be a writer. Can you give me any advice?

A: ... Given the realities of today's market in science fiction and fantasy, I would also suggest that any aspiring writer begin with short stories. These days, I meet far too many young writers who try to start off with a novel right off, or a trilogy, or even a nine-book series. That's like starting in at rock climbing by tackling Mt. Everest. Short stories help you learn your craft. They are a good place for you to make the mistakes that every beginning writer is going to make..."

The same is true for board games. Trying to design a multi-faceted, realistic war game for your first board game is like writing that nine book series, or climbing Mt. Everest for your first rock climbing excercise. Why don't you try your hand at a simple card game, dice game or abstract game first? It may not be as "cool" as that war game, but it'll teach you the basics of designing a game, how to make cards or a simpel game board, how to write rules, etc. Most importantly, it gives you a goal you may actually be able to reach before you get discouraged because you can't make a certain aspect work.

DSfan
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Joined: 12/31/1969
need assistance in board game design

First off, welcome Brett!

Quote:
But I can't stay on designing one game. I get stumped at some point, like researching information, designing the counters, or figuring a way to create the board of my game, and then print it.

Personally, I think the above is the example of almost everyones mind. Most people typically switch from one subject to another with varying degrees of success. My typical day is to come up with 4 to 5 ideas and then throw them away. Why? Because one element doesn't fit, or the game doesn't sound as good on paper as it did in my head.

Quote:
Trying to design a multi-faceted, realistic war game for your first board game is like writing that nine book series, or climbing Mt. Everest for your first rock climbing excercise.

A realistic game, isn't that what most people want? I know I do but the amount of time it would take to play a game that stays true to the world around you would be amazing. Throwing everything and the kitchen sink into a design sometimes doesn't cut it. Take some of your favorite elements and design a game around those. A central mechanic is where most games begin, but changes occur during the design process. I once read an article on Avalon Hill's Nexus Ops. The game started out as king of the hill with a fantasy theme. Then, after being sumbitted to publishers mission cards were added and the central monolith (or the hill) gave various powers instead of a win.

My first design was Tempest. A tile laying, warfare game where each players goal was to be the last one standing. It mirriored the games that I knew: Risk and Diplomacy, but it didn't accomplish anything else. Because of that it sits on the shelf, waiting to be redintroduced to the world.

Quote:
Why don't you try your hand at a simple card game, dice game or abstract game first? It may not be as "cool" as that war game, but it'll teach you the basics of designing a game, how to make cards or a simple game board, how to write rules, etc.

Now, the above quote explains the best thing you can do. Start off simple and progress from there. The above also describes why most of my games never make it anywhere. I never started with a simple game. Thats why I'm back tracking. For now, I'm going to stick with simple games. Later on, who knows. Maybe a monster will be unleashed. Maybe I'll begin to like simplicity and stick with designing card and dice games.

Good Luck!
Justin

*By the way, it's nice to see another teenager on the boards. There's a year difference between me and you (I'm 14), but it's still cool. We should have a chat one day.

NetWolf
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Joined: 12/31/1969
need assistance in board game design

While you have three projects started, I find that multiple projects HELPS me focus on a single work at a time. "How is that?" you may ask. Well, essentially I have worked two or three ideas to a general playtesting stage, but nothing beyond that. When I finally reach testing stage on the most recent project, I find that I have new ideas for one that I started a month ago. While I go back and work on the older project, it gives me time to allow my more recent ideas to 'stew' a bit.

StephenNewberg
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Joined: 12/31/1969
Re: need assistance in board game design

breich90 wrote:
I was wondering if any of you 'Expert' persons, as the forum says, have any tips/suggestions/ideas/help with basic development of a game and my struggling with keeping set on one idea/concept, and if you have any tips on keeping a "real life" feel to a board game, whilst keeping the game interesting and not slow and dull.

Thanks, Brett

Hi Brett,

It has been my observation that focus is very much the key to a successful design and devopment process. During the design phase, that means it is not going to be possible, in any practical way, to get in everything you have read about a particular historical topic. Instead, go over your research notes on the event you are trying to depict and decide what you thing the key 2-3 elements were for the event. Was it a major deployment or movement error by one side, or did both sides make such errors? Was it a particularly brilliant plan by one side? Were both sides competent but did some event from outside have an influence that was major? Was one side or the other particularly good at one thing or another, while the other side had other skills or lacks? That sort of thing. Then, concentrate your design on displaying these key elements. That is, make the major mechanisms and systems of the design around the things you want to show about the event.

Development is the section of game production where hopefully a second set of eyes works on the design and trys to make sure that any initial focus of the design that might have gone astray is returned to the fore and that testing provides an idea of which mechanics need adjusting, removal, or if new mechanics are needed. If the designer is also doing development, you have to be really ruthless with your initial ideas, and willing to toss out most anything that is not working toward the initial goals as well as retaining playability. The finest design in the world is pretty useless if it cannot be played.

Finally, play testing, the second half of development, again requires focus. Here, the goal is to make the game as easy to learn and as easy to play as possible without sacrificing the initial goals of the design, and at the same time to develop whatever mechanisms and scoring systems are required to give each player a somewhat even chance of winning the game.

The main thing is that through out all of this, you really have to focus on what your intial goals with the design were. If you lose that focus, it is very easy for the design to spin out of control and end up not being either what you want or anything that can eventually be played by anyone other than the designer.

Oh, as an aside, I notice that in the various posts I have read since finding this forum, no one has mentioned storyboarding. I have always considered storyboarding to be an essential part of any historically oriented board game design. Briefly, the concept is to find or construct a history of the events the game is to depict from the books you are using for research on the topic, and then step the design through those events. It is essential that an historically oriented game be able to duplicate the events in some rough sort of manner for the scales chosen for the game. If it cannot, they you do not have an historical game, you have an historical fantasy. Or an "alternate' history. A form of Science Fiction, basically. There is nothing at all wrong with this, unless that is not what you wanted. Note please that most designers do not want their design to force the players to a strictly historical result, so I am not suggesting this is the point of storyboarding. Rather, the point is to test the validity of the mechanisms of the design by assuring that if the players make the same moves and actions as happened historically, there is a pretty good chance they will get the historical result. Think of it as a validation check on the design.

Best
Stephen Newberg

Scurra
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Re: need assistance in board game design

An excellent summary, Stephen. I would note that for what might be called Eurogames, rather than Wargames*, the thematic input into the design phase is often radically different. Although you may be tackling a subject that is just as complex (Renaissance Princes, Pirates, Ancient Egypt etc.) what you are often trying to convey is a "feel" for the setting, not a simulationist aspect. Paradoxically, this can make the research process much, much harder!
*cue lengthy debate about game genres and what the word "wargame" actually means :-)

StephenNewberg wrote:
Oh, as an aside, I notice that in the various posts I have read since finding this forum, no one has mentioned storyboarding. I have always considered storyboarding to be an essential part of any historically oriented board game design.
Hence, I guess, the general lack of comment about storyboarding, since much of the discussion here has been about more broadly-based themes. That's not to say that discussion of these precise elements isn't welcome, just that it hasn't happened much. Personally, storyboarding has been a major factor in one specific type of game I have done, which is the "commercial tie-in" game, where it is just as essential that the game captures the spirit of whatever tv show, film or book you are trying to evoke, but without that hyper-real aspect that I guess serious historical simulations require; I just never called it that, so never thought about it that way!

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