New Board Game Design Video Series

I think that you're right in some ways that people...more or less don't really know where to start as far as designing a game, but there are a few of us that have been taught by professionals already in the industry, like me. My mentor/teacher is Alan Emrich, owner of Victory Point Games and has been in the game industry for over 30 years, both analog and digital. He coined the term "4x", which is now a whole sub-genre of analog games today.

Still, that doesn't really mean much other than the fact I'm a little more aware of theory and logistics instead of more practical applications like the actual conceptual process like thinking up the game.

A lot of my free time isn't spent designing...I actually spend most of my free time (besides raising my daughter, lol) examining and researching games that I find interesting. Youtube videos, breaking my own games out and checking out their components, analyzing graphic design on various card games...etc. To me (and what I teach my students) is that the more we experience and examine games...its mechanics, structure, strategies, we place them into bite-sized pieces in our brain...like a metal or wood shop (like at a high school). In a shop, there's various tools, machines, and materials. Not all of them are used on any one project and you usually use the tools that are the best for the job. If you only have and know a hammer (like if all you've played is Monopoly), your build ability is severely limited (all you'll build is something Monopoly-like).

When I actually make a game, I look for several things. I basically create a mental box in which I will efficiently arrange my creative ability. The box comprises of: theme, a unique game mechanic, my ideas, and my potential audience. Sometimes a theme will come first, sometimes a game mechanic.

Whatever I think of, I agree with you that the ideas need to be on some kind of document like Word (I use Word and Excel). I would put EVERY thought I have about this possible game, so that my mind is clear when I come back and start to organize. This happens several times, kinda like refining my idea. When I come back, I rearrange the ideas, play with concepts, etc. on a new Word document. My old ideas are still there (in the older Word document) in case I need to come back.

But I think finding a unique game mechanic and a unique theme is an art form. It's not just getting what's out there and re-skinning it to your idea. That's being a copy cat. It's almost insulting because you're not only saying you don't appreciate the original game design, you're saying that you can do better. I'm not saying this is true of all cases, but when I see some designs, it's fairly obvious.

My trick? Looking for the "gem" mechanics that either was long forgotten in some game because the overall game sucked, or retooling an idea into a game mechanic that feels like an inspiration of game ideas but rebuilt to feel unique.

But along the process I'm always thinking of mechanics to FIT the theme, as it's very important to me. Sometimes I'll look at a game and think...why did they put THAT mechanic into the game? How does it relate to the theme? Does it? A lot of times I see a mechanic that doesn't make sense and was only put in because the designer loved that mechanic and literally forced it into the game.

But I digress...I have so much to say about this, but I'll stop here.

I gotta hand it to you, bbblackwell, you have a lot of genuine content and I respect that. You say you know what you're doing, but there's something good about just putting yourself out there. Keep up the good work!