Priorising game ideas: Should the player be implicated?

I suggest the use of keywords. And from this you might get even more idea's.

But most important is that once you have the same keywords between 2 idea's. The next keyword should differentiate between the 2.

Obviously, some mechanics globally will be used as well as keywords.

If you want players to send in idea's. Have them limited to a number of letters. Or else you get 20 page idea's. You don't want that.

2000 letters is already a lot.

Good luck!

If you have a Game Idea, that idea is pretty much worthless ... UNLESS you develop the idea further and make a prototype. I don't know about YOU but my bet is that outcome of MOST prototypes is sh!t. What do I mean??? What I mean is that once you CONVERT your IDEA to a PROTOTYPE most of those game suck real bad.

The IDEA sounds AMAZING... But when you create a PROTOTYPE and playtest it; the result is something BORING, not so playable and generally speaking NOT GOOD. I don't know if this is your case or not; but it is MINE. When I get the IDEA, it seems ground-breaking or revolutionary. Then IF I WASTE time converting the IDEA to a PROTOTYPE, that prototype is usually very sucky.

And all that is OKAY!!! Because GAMES require development.

I'm not talking about hiring someone to do that work, I'm merely saying that as a Designer you need to take that POOR "Prototype" and RE-WORK the various aspects of the GAME which are BROKEN, NOT FUN, NOT CHALLENGING, TOO REPETITIVE, etc. and the list goes on and on.

The reality is that MOST GAMES that have been DEVELOPED are more SOLID and it shows that the DESIGNER took his IDEA, made it into several PROTOTYPES and came up with "X" as a Final Product.

How GOOD "X" is subjective to say the least. But all the TIME you invest into the IDEA makes for a BETTER and BETTER GAME.

So IF you have 100s of IDEAS ... Your GOAL would be to create a PROTOTYPE AS-SOON-AS-POSSIBLE. This will show you all the FLAWS of the game.

And TBH I don't waste much time with game IDEAS. I've probably got about 12 games in queue at various stages... Some more conceptual others fully playable and ready to be published.

What am I TRYING to say or explain???

Basically you should spend 2 WEEKS on a IDEA the minute you get it. Create a PROTOTYPE and GRADE that product and not your IDEA. Like I said there are a TON of IDEAS that are worthless WITHOUT being developed and playtested. And I am in the SAME "shoes" as you: I get IDEAS regularly and usually they are HOT and I spend 2 weeks to get them to being a prototype and them I know what their REAL POTENTIAL is.

I would use KEYWORDS to describe your games: "Dice Auction", "Action Points", "Push Your Luck", "World Board", "D&D Like" (as a fictitious game).

You can use mechanics combined with THEME elements too. Or have TWO ROWS: one for Mechanics and one for Theme. Something simple like that. You really don't need anything more complicated than that TBH. I mean if BGG does it with Categories (I would have them theme-related) and Mechanics (given like 100+ mechanics) you should be able to categorize your games in that fashion.

Anyhow I just wanted to SHARE a bit of my own experience and what I've seen that works and is used. You really don't need more that 2 ROWS for each game with a 50 Width Column and several KEYWORDS for Theme and Mechanics.

Take "TradeWorlds" for example:

Theme> Dice; Economic; Science Fiction; Space Exploration.

Mechanics> Deck, Bag, and Pool Building; Dice Rolling; Hand Management; Trading.

That's from BGG... Pretty decent CATEGORIZATION TBH... You always need to keep things as SIMPLE as possible so that it doesn't make the process overly complicated.

Cheers.

I've been discussing "Prospector" my Splendor Expansion. When I first DESIGNED the FIRST (1st) Prototype ... I was thinking in terms of HOW I wanted the game to be symmetric like Splendor. And then I had a bunch of things that I wanted to ADD like: Wildcard Dice and Golden Nuggets in addition to some BONUS "Prestige Points".

So ORGINALLY I have ALL TIER #1 Bonus "Prestige Points", ALL TIER #2 "Gold Nuggets" and ALL TIER #3 "Wildcard dice".

Why???

Because I had assumed that "Wildcard Dice" would be too powerful and therefore they should ONLY be acquired on TIER #3 cards. But after making a PROTOTYPE, I realized during the game that the "Expansion" was VERY BORING!

And that turned out to be rather disappointing considering the amount of HOTNESS that this design currently has.

PLAYTESTING revealed that I need to "mix things up a bit". I learnt that the "Wildcard Dice" while COOL and all... Really don't make for a BROKEN game. Secondly the "Golden Nuggets" were similar in concern too... But again my worries were misgiven and both of those two (2) ADDITIONS are pretty well "BALANCED"!

So I had to MIX everything up and come up with a NEW ORDER of cards and THEN the game/expansion started to BE FUN!

Again another example where IDEAS resulted in ASSUMPTIONS when in REALITY a sort of BALANCE occurred already and the design is better in its current form.

Cheers all.

I too have a "G.I. Joe" Game. Mine is called: "Hand of Fate". And it too features both "Joe" and "Cobra" cards with all kinds of vehicles too. This one is on the Bench due to the VOLUME of "Art" required for the game. I may have an artist but I can't afford to pay him to make the art. At least not for 400+ of illustration required for the game.

I have been working on the Card Distribution... I have Air, Navy, Tanks, Vehicles, Joe Base, Common Base and Cobra Base. The distribution is rather interesting in that I have explored the sales model a bit more than the game itself.

But the "Hand of Fate" is a special Cobra Base... And I bet the most sought after card of the entire set. It's not at all impossible to get ... But it is rare never-the-less.

And it's a good card for the Cobra side of the game. Cheers!

Here's a PREVIEW (Partial) of the Distribution:

Note #1: Of course more "STUPIDITY" on my part when I was designing this Table/Distribution to order 108 CARDS... Because I know that Chinese Manufacturer don't really RANDOMIZE cards when they make booster they just use the cards available... And that's why I have 4x 108 (54 Cards per sheet using Black "core") and various positions for the cards.

Anyhow I shared it simply because I wanted to share that I too get CRAZY IDEAS too... And to make them work in REALITY... Takes a HUGE EFFORT!

Whatever... A good Distribution, just to randomize cards. Go figure!

But only do this if there is a need for it. Or else you end up with empty categories.

If you have for example 5 games that use dice. The keywords for those games include "dice".
Then you look into how much dice are rolled together with what kind of mechanics you use on them.

Although, those 5 don't have to be categorized like that at all I think. However, you might use sub keywords like.
Add, Subtract, Compare, Multiply, Discard, Re-roll, etc.
Depending on how the dice are used, mechanically speaking on themselves or other parts of the game.
If the mechanic makes use of other parts of the game, you can use another keyword together with "dice".
"combinated with", "supporting", etc.

Example. If you have cards with stats on them. And one of those stats is compared with the total die roll. Then you could say:
"dice: 'add' + 'comparison'" + "combined with" + "cards: 'stats'"

Categories:
dice
combined with
cards
Sub categories:
add
comparison
stats

So, if you enter those 6 (sub)categories. You would only end up with the game that uses those exact mechanics.

That is how I would do it. Although, my personal designs are mostly the same mechanics but with different value's.

Especially the dice in my case. I use all the mentioned mechanics. But there are 2 that aren't always present.
Subtract is not a case when I don't use health tracking at all.
Compare is not a case when I have health tracking, but the health doubles as armor.

Now, why do I mention this?
There can be a case that some games use less mechanics. And they can only be found in the bigger clutch.

So.... if you are going to make a search option. You might want to include the exclusion of keywords.
Just like google. a "-" in front of a keyword will throw out all games that use that specific keyword.
Not sure if you are going to make this into a worksheet or are going to program something. So, just keep it in mind that the possibility exists.

Also to note is that all games should pop up if you use NO keywords at all.
If you don't want to see any game that uses dice. Simply entering "-dice" would suffice.

Well, whatever you come up with. Once you are done. If you like an "idiot" to look at. I can take a look at it (making it idiot proof).

I am just saying that IF you want the IDEAS to move forwards and get a REAL feel for the "game" you are about to design... I would protorush because like I said, you won't know how good (or bad) an IDEA is unless you protorush it. And yeah, I would keep two (2) lists: one with prototypes and one with only ideas.

You could have a separate spreadsheet for prototypes with a contingency: only 12 games (12 is an example) can be in a protorush phase.

Why? Because when you complete ONE, you choose the most viable or interesting one from your spreadsheet. So one spreadsheet is for prototypes and ACTIVE designs (things you want to work on, things you want to think about, etc.) And this way it acts like a FUNNEL: you think only about the design you feel that are more mature and can be completed earlier.

This way you don't waste time on ideas ... Until a design is completed (good or bad) meaning that the game is Publishable or STUCK or the Development didn't go as planned, etc. As soon as YOU consider it DONE, then you can review your other IDEAS spreadsheet and figure out which IDEA you want to protorush next.

The basic concept is this:

#1> You want to catalog all your ideas and figure out which you think are the best ones.

#2> You want to have a short list of protorush designs which allow you to FOCUS your thoughts on those games since they are the most advanced and you BELIEVED that they had the MOST potential.

True... But I'm investigating the fact that rolling 1D4 is pretty boring. And there are other variants which are boring too. Like rolling for as high as possible. If you don't have a GOAL in-mind, rolling is BORING. You'll always want to roll for the HIGHEST possible result ... And in a way, that is NOT so exciting.

Yes the NAME of my idea was "Hand of Fate", the concept was that each player has a Deck and they manipulate that deck to defeat their opponents. It's either 1, 2 or 4-Players. I was trying to figure out some kind of SOLO AI and how it could be that you play your Deck... TBD for the single player mode.

Yeah I know someone published a GI Joe card game. But it's nothing like I have planned. Some of my ideas are for single player mode, you split the cards into 50/50 Joe and Cobra... You play with the Deck and you need to watch the Cobra cards as they will do harm to you or slow you down, etc. The goal is for the Joes to DEFEAT Cobra (obviously ... That seems a bit redundant... But you get the idea).

I think that IF you have a website, you should PROMOTE The "Ideas" section. And then keep the STAR RATINGS for the IDEAS. And ask people to VOTE on the IDEAS or maybe a sub-set of those ideas, etc. Like you said you DON'T need development help, you just want to know what OTHER people think about the ideas... As such I would KEEP the RATINGS for the list of IDEAS...

I think from what I have seen is probably 100 IDEAS and a dozen of so PROTOTYPES... I believe this is correct, @larienna you can correct me if I am wrong. But if it's all the content you have on your website... You may also have more ideas written down or prototypes that are NEW, etc.

But I think it should be in those two (2) ranges TBH.

Yeah I visit @larienna's website every now and then. To see what is new. BUT TBH... It's HARD to know what is NEW and what is OLD.

Maybe that is something you could HAVE: Date of INCEPTION.

That would help and order the games by DATE. That could be a first approach and then order by RATING next (unrated ideas come FIRST too...) so you can sort of have the ideas which ppl think have the MOST potential.

That could be of HELP too... Because right now just listed on the website... Makes it hard to know what is NEW and what is OLD (and how old it is!) Some older ideas may be GOOD too... I'm just saying it would be nice to be FIRST sorted by DATE for the newest IDEAS to be rated. And then by RATING ...

Something SIMPLE like that could go a LONG way in IMPROVING how your VISITORS react to your website. If you want ppl to RATE then that should be the PRIORITY #1... I PERSONALLY LIKE the RATING IDEA... It help to see what other ppl think is good not only your own opinion.

So:

#1> Sort by DATE.

#2> Sort by RATING (unrated ideas go to the TOP).

That's how I would PRESENT your IDEAS on your website. Right now... I don't know how the order is... But the GI Joe idea struck me as interesting because I too have my own idea for this.

Anyhow that's my take on the issue. I would KEEP the RATING system for IDEAS ONLY... And I would have a PROTOTYPE SECTION (sorted by RATE of COMPLETION) and an IDEAS SECTION (sort by DATE of INCEPTION follow by the RATING).

Something SIMPLE like that.

Don't take this the WRONG way... But the IDEAS I see on the website ... Seem a bit DAUNTING. It's just a BIG LIST of 80 or so IDEAS and well I know NOTHING about the IDEAS.

View it from the perspective of the VISITOR and what you WANT them to SEE/READ.

For example if your GOAL is to get some RATINGS... WELL then I would place the UNRATED IDEAS at the TOP... MOST people may only RATE like 1 to 5 ideas... Consider the VISIT TIME and the ATTENTION SPAN of the VISITORS. Once an IDEA is RATED it goes down into the area sorted by DATE and RATING. Which means that the NEXT visitor will VOTE on the NEXT 1 to 5 ideas which are UNRATED...

That's the thing... Much like IDEAS and GAMES, you need to figure out WHAT(?) is the goal of this LIST of IDEAS. Like I said, if you want to know what ppl like the MOST the focus on RATINGS. If you want ppl to RATE the more developed IDEAS, well then sort according to RATE of COMPLETION, etc.

It's hard because I don't know what YOUR goal is.

Personally if I had YOUR WEBSITE... I would want to get ppl voting on the UNRATED IDEAS and move forwards to the BEST ideas (highest RATINGS and ordered by DATE too). So this will give you some feedback as to WHAT (or WHICH) ideas are the most interesting (which again may rank differently than your own likes)...

Something like that!