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Aspiring Board Game Designer, First Time Poster

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DraconicParagon
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I am a loooong time board game enthusiast. I played Monopoly and Risk as very young kid, the basic basic Risk. My uncle introduced our family to Settlers of Catan when I was 12 years old and my interest in board games snowballed from there. I graduated to Risk 2210 A.D while I was in middle school and then started attending a weekly D&D group run by my friend's dad consistently all throughout High School. I collected several CCG's including Dragon Ball Z, Decipher's Star Wars CCG, and Magi-Nation (died before it's time RIP).

17 years later I'm still playing Catan as well as hundreds of other board games, RPG's and other Tabletop games. (Currently in a Blades in the Dark campaign)

In the past few years I have worked very hard at pimping out and modding other board games (from upgrading chits, cards, and tokens to creating personalized expansions to my favorite games).

Edit: (links taken down while I rework my site based on feedback)

I was spending too much time on improving other people's work and finally last year thought, "Why don't I just create my own game?" So, in the last few months I have begun work on a board game that had only previously been an idea rolling around in my head, but it's time for it to come alive.

Also in the last few months I have become heavily involved in a non-profit board gaming group local in my area called TAG (Tri-City Area Gaming) and their sub-group TAG'd (Tri-City Area Gaming Designers) who focus on designing board games.

I have begun reading a lot of the League of Gaming blog posts and started listening to the Board Game Design Lab podcast (GREAT content). Gabe @ Board Game Design Lab keeps mentioning that a true board game designer needs to start getting involved in the board game design community, so here I am.

My name is Nikolas Rex, and I am an aspiring board game designer.

questccg
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Welcome to BGDF!

Hello Nikolas ... sorry I haven't had a chance to look at your links... Will take a look some time today (probably in the evening).

I see you've "dived right in" and started posting on other threads. Good stuff! Feel free to offer assistance and suggestions whenever you feel you have something to contribute.

Likewise if you are having difficulties with your own designs, don't be shy, feel free to post a thread concerning whatever troubles you may be having and I'm sure someone will be able to offer suggestions.

Cheers!

Jay103
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Hate to say it, but.. Looks

Hate to say it, but..

Looks like you're using other people's copyrighted work in there, without permission? Even if you're not profiting, it's still a copyright violation.. (and also that you're taking the design of Catan, etc.)

Even doing it for purely personal reasons is questionable, but you're also publicizing it (if not redistributing it), which is definitely against the copyrights of the art you used.

Other than THAT, welcome!

questccg
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Fine line

Well I do agree with Jason to some extent... You are using Copyrighted Brands and product, in addition to using artwork that is not your own. I would be generally more concerned about the artwork — because you are NOT crediting the owner of the artwork.

To me it seems like you are "showcasing" how you would expand upon other game which I think is cool. The XTG3 Project is just about that: taking designs that have matured into new and innovative re-skins and/or re-thinks.

But in your particular case, you are using artifacts from other people and not saying who they are. What this does is that it sets up "attribution" in the final works which is sort of like saying: "Hey, this is what I designed." Which is misleading because the artwork in mostly not yours.

So I would be careful — because you are walking a fine line.

No offense, some people may see it as a "creative work" which it is... But at the same time, the various illustrations, artwork and images are not yours. Or mostly not yours. So you need to be careful.

Although you say it is not for profit (which is probably true), you just need to concern yourself with the fact that most of the end product is not your own "talent" more like the end-product (or composition) is yours.

But overall I think some of the ideas are good. Why not have a Catan in Space??? Right?

DraconicParagon
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Art Appropriation/Manipulation

I guess I can see how it isn't conveyed well on my site. My passion for these games and my early graphic design skills led me to want to modify these games, I spent many hours putting the designs together, photoshopping and manipulating, and much of the design aspect of it I created myself, like the borders of the cards, or the layout of the tiles, but yes, the picture artwork used is not mine. I definitely could've tracked better where I found the art, most of it was just google images.

But that is exactly where I found myself; there I was modifying other games that exist and not even using my own art in the process, and I didn't like being in that position. It looked cool, I could print it out, but it wasn't truly mine.

That's why I wanted to do more and actually create my own game and either do the art myself and do a Kickstarter, or pitch the game to a publisher and go that route.

I guess I was trying to convey my passion for board gaming but can see how it doesn't come off that way.

DraconicParagon
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Homage

Yes, I can see now how it's not conveyed well on my site. I'm trying to showcase my passion for board gaming. It was more of a personal exercise to see if I could create expansions or reskins of other games that looked like a professional products, to see if I could print prototypes that looked like actual games. But I definitely see now I should've grabbed links and tracked down artists to say "this is where I found the art".

In the most recent Podcast I listened to (http://www.boardgamedesignlab.com/how-to-get-your-game-published-with-st...)

Stephen Buonocore of Stronghold games was just saying in your Sell sheet for your prototype you will have art that you found online that isn't your own to showcase what you envision for the final design and that's fine as you are not selling the sell sheet, just using it for presentation purposes and that the final product will not feature that artwork.

Looking back I wish I would've kept better track of the images I found, these were projects I did several years ago. I have the utmost respect for these artists, their artwork is amazing and leagues beyond my abilities. I was definitely trying to pay homage to the original board game designers. I guess that isn't conveyed well on my site.

Jay103
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However much work you think a

However much work you think a Kickstarter is, triple it :)

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