Board Game Designers Forum

I lurked for a while... then posted a couple of times... then have lurked on and off from time to time... I like the idea of an introduction section so thought I'd kick off in earnest in order to encourage others to do the same.

I started to get into BG designing when my wife was pregnant with my son about 3 years ago. Being a (hopefully recovering) computer game addict I wanted to come up with something we could do as a family encouraging a social interaction in a way that computer games don't.

I have about 10 amazing but top secret games in various stages of production... (for that probably read: not so good and probably not very original and nowhere near close to being finished!)

I suppose that I'm better at the idea of the game creation and initial stages of design/rules prototyping rather than the dotting the I's and crossing the T's part of finishing it... but my son was only 2 yesterday so I figure I have a few years to go before I have to get one completed.

Finally the 3 mains design areas that I'm interested in are:

1) Designing a game that is equally good as a single player and multi player by having a game run "itself" in order for the single player. (Not the best example off the top of my head - Imagine a set of rules for monopoly/risk so that 1 or more players could enjoy playing against the game itself)

2) Having a game be re-playable but with a player having "experience" the second time round weighted into the game... without it adversely affecting new players joining the second game (maybe even having a dynamic world that the players can dip in and out of)

3) How much a game can be modelled / simulated / playtested / "balanced" / predicted etc with SIMPLE maths/probability before its actually up and running

I hope I will try and make more of an effort in the forums... but I do wonder how much I can contribute at times when there are some seriously strong designers giving good answers to the questions!

YAH! So glad we have this. THANKS sedj.

nine! Welcome out into the light again!
I'm excited to talk with you about your ideas, at least 1 of the 10 surely has some gold in it.

BUT

I forsee a small problem.
If all of our introductions are as full and glorious as nine's, this will quickly turn into a heavy discussion thread.

sedjtroll has given us a whole forum for introducing and identifying ourselves. As he proposed, let's do our in-depth introductions as separate new threads. We could then use this sticky'd thread for quick-style stuff:

"Hi! I'm sounde (BGG:rootbierz). I'm super excited to find this site, and hope I can give as much help as I am sure to receive. My full intro is here."
and subsequent
"Welcome excited sounde, we're excited to have you!"

I think that's something like what sedj was going for and I think it could work :)

Well, hello. I generally use the handle Auroch in various online settings. I'm a college student (Math/CS) and avid tabletop gamer with aspirations toward design.

I play a lot of Magic and deck-building games; my current favorite in-box game is Eminent Domain, closely followed by Dominion and 7 Wonders. When I can find a large enough chunk of time, it will almost certainly be devoted to Twilight Imperium, but since a proper game (6+ players) takes 12-16 hours, this is rare.

I registered so I could enter the GDS (I have a submission in the November contest); I tend to not talk about ideas until they're just so, so a time-limited design competition with intelligent critique seemed like a good way to push myself to design more.

My current project (for some time) has been a drafting-based area control game initially conceived of as a rework of SmallWorld, which my playgroup found to be dominated by the first player; this has not seen the light of day because integrating an initial draft with gradual deployment of forces without adding overwhelming rules or on-board complexity is taking careful thought to plan.

Folks - been here a while, in and out depending on 'real job/kids/other stuff' but very into the games I am designing. The team has been going hard lately on some hybrid game styles that could make for beauty or bust. We'll just have to wait and see. We're hoping to show our first game in beta-test form at some cons this Summer. I'm not quite comfortable sharing a game journal yet (funny how paranoid we can be) but very soon hope to have your attention.

In the meantime, my #1 goal on the site is to network with other designers, playtesters and self-publishers. Recently getting active in North Coast Gamers club in the Cleveland, OH area and would like to network there as well. I'm happy to provide my insights to general forum questions here as I've done in the past. Good luck to ALL of you and the best for success in 2012!

Dom DeCaria

I'm quite new to this site, being here for about 3 days, approximately. Currently, I'm working on two board game projects, which are still quite early in the stages of development. My first game, about ship wars, is currently called Navy Wars, but the name is unfinished. The second game, whose name is also unfinished is Ancient Battles, which takes place in a fantasy world. Now, I don't want to reveal too much about my board games, but I feel they'll be quite fun to play. Recently, for my board games, I've been looking for large cardboard pieces that are 60cm x 60cm in perimeter. I also would like to obtain another cardboard piece that is 50cm x 50cm. So, that's it about me. Also, if your wondering, I decided to make a board game while I was setting up a simple game of Risk with my friend. So, here I am, making my board game.

Sincerely,

AlduinSlayer (Yes, I play Skyrim)

I've been a gamer/game designer for as long as I can remember. As a child--with three younger siblings--I tinkered with the few games our family could afford (e.g. chess and checkers, snakes and ladders, go, dominoes), creating new variants and "house" rules to add challenge and keep the experience fresh. The advent of digital gaming did not appeal to me as I was not in a position to tinker with their guts or programming. On the other hand, the emergence of pencil-and-paper role-playing games radically expanded my horizons; I was a "dungeon master" for various game groups for more than thirty years, creating and using all manner of diabolical schemes to entertain my charges. In my professional life as a language teacher, I began to accumulate my now-mammoth collection of activities and games for students. My personal catalogue now includes nearly 1200 items (not including variations), and many--if not most--of these are games. A common shortcoming I discovered with most games in a learning context is that the activity typically responds to a limited range of objectives, is limited in terms of player numbers, often results in the exclusion of players as the game progresses, and can take much more time to determine winners than is available in the classroom. To eliminate or mitigate these issues, I embarked on a mission to create the ultimate language game. I believe I have succeeded, and I'm currently in the process of moving from prototype development into the production and marketing phases. Overall, I would admit that my intellectual life with games has been immeasurably enriched, and it's this benefit which I now seek to share with learners--and gamers--everywhere.

Hello everyone! A real pleasure finding this wiki; I've only toured through it a short time and it has already helped me a lot. Yes, I'm an amateur board game designer and yes, I have what I think is an original and innovative design for a game that I am keeping tucked greedily out of sight. Just until after Xmas; once the original is safely bestowed on our grand kids and I have copyrighted the design, I'll proudly share it with this forum. I'll be curious to see if anyone has seen anything like it.

As a long time Photoshop artist and illustrator, I've had fun creating all the graphics for the game on a first-gen iPad. Admittedly, it is a slower way to work compared to paper, but the touchscreen is addictive and I love having all my projects instantly available. As soon as I figure out posting to your image galleries, I'll share the game art with you.

Oh yes, profession...I used to be a digital artist and have completed grad school to be a librarian, but I continue to slave away (12-16 hours a day) as a Los Angeles chauffeur. Limo driver to da stars.

Ahoy,
I am officially introducing myself as thread_speaker, a slightly shady and rare breed of game player. What does this mean? Well, you will really interact with me a bit to fully understand.
ANYWAYS!
I come here from my mysterious origins to seek a community to discuss a game I am in the works of making. So far, it looks like I'm in the right place, Huzzah! So, it would seem you may be seeing me around, which hopefully is not a bad event. (At least not too much)

~thread_speaker

Hello,
I’ve always enjoyed board games, being the first among my siblings to discover ‘Hey! There are no strategies in Candyland!”. My favorite newish games are Quarriors, Seven Wonders and the Flux variations. Time honored favorites would be Axis and Allies, Go and Careers. I’m also interested in recreation of lost ancient games such as Senet.

My non-game career got a bit intense for the last 15 years leaving me little time for design but now I’m back to games on a regular basis.

By the way, KrisW is my online handle, not my given name. I use it for writing related stuff. It makes it easier to put mystery e-mails in context and keeps vocation and avocation separate. I hope that’s OK with folks here.

I’ve been a casual designer for quite a while and done play testing and run in-store demos on a professional level. (I was paid in free books – that makes it professional, right?) My never-to-be-published design attempts include a military strategy style game in which player-run NGOs attempt to evacuate the most people from a war torn region without becoming a pawn for various power groups. I also worked with a friend on another game in which player-run cats attempted to claim the maximum number of rooms in a household by depositing the most olfactory marks in any given room (i.e., a pissing contest).

The name for my current project is GUT – Great Grand Uncle’s Treasure. Players attempt to return ill-gotten (and cursed) treasures to their rightful owners and claim the enormous estate before the lawyers bleed off every penny futilely trying to clear the old thief’s name.

It’s great to be here,
- KrisW

Welcome to the community KrisW. Have fun and hope you stay awhile. Glad you can make it here.

Been here a while and try to help when I can. Great place. Instead of my retyping everything I'll just point you to my personal bio/blog that has lot so of resources:

http://www.JamesMathe.com

Hi.

I've been board gaming for just over a year and have been designing games for just over a month. I have fallen in love with the relationship between rules and design. This site seems like a perfect opportunity to exploit some hidden talents of mine and help others in the process.

I look forward to working with all of you in developing and realising our ideas.

-Silas Molino

Been reading a lot of posts over the course of 2 months and figured if I'm part of BGG I should be a part of this forum as well. I am willing to playtest, critique, share knowledge and resources, as well as listen to words of experts and novices alike.

I'm a game designer from Canada and I'm looking to launch 3 of my titles this year in August at Fan Expo in Toronto. It's a big time for me so I'll be running through these threads pretty heavily over the next 3-4 months.

Ciao for now,
cK