Design Tip of the Week #26 (Maintaining Enthusiasm on a Design)

How do you maintain enthusiasm on a design after working on it for months or years?

This is one of the hardest parts of design.  When you have a new project it is easy to work on, but after a while you start hitting walls and the luster wears off a bit.  The "new" mechanics you added to the game aren't new to you anymore.  Sometimes working on a design feels like work.  And most of us aren't doing this for work, this is a passion.  A hobby.

So what do you do?

The easiest thing to do is move on to a new design.  There is no rule saying that you can only work on one project at a time.  Sometimes working on different projects will give you inspiration for your first design.  Even if you don't find a solution, it will give you renewed energy and a fresh perspective when you do go back.

If fact, I wrote a whole article about it in DToW #13.  Here is a link: http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/07/dtow-13-if-you-love-your-design-let-it.html

What if I have a time limit?

This can definitely happen if you are working with a publisher, or are building toward a convention.  In this case you will have to find inspiration inside.  One of the best ways I have found to do this is to bring it out and show it to someone else.  Preferably someone who hasn't seen the game before.  I find playing our games with new people often gets my enthusiasm up for the game, and sometimes a new perspective will lead to new ideas to get past your design issue.

So what if I don't have people to play with?

I would challenge you to find someone.  I assume if you love this hobby so much that you are getting into designing games, you probably have people you play games with.  Even if you have worn these people out, or they have no interest in helping you playtest, reach outside your normal group to find people.

Don't be afraid to take your design to a local game store.  First off, no one is going to steal your design.  Second, don't be afraid of failure.  You know your game isn't 100% ready.  Make sure you set the expectation to your play testers that it isn't 100% ready.  But there are a lot of people out there that would love to contribute to making a game better.  Sometimes you just have to get out there and set up your game, and wait for people to come by.

There are other places to find play testers like the internet.  There are playtest groups.  You can go to BGG (boardgamegeek.com).  There are forums for designers and play testers to meet up.  There are groups on BGG too for people to meet up and play games.  Not everyone will be interested in play testing games, but you will never know who is until you look for them.

Family and friends are another group you can tap into.  Sometimes family won't want to play other games, but if they know they are helping you with a project they will step up.

Still not an option for me.  What else you got?

Consider bringing someone else in on your design.  If you have met people either online through social media, or in person at a convention consider giving them a shot at your project.  You can either send them the files, or just chat online.  Even if they don't become a co-designer, lots of people are very free with their advice or sharing their experience.

I told you I don't know anyone.  Now what?

The easiest thing I find is making small changes.  If the game is too long, figure out one thing that is taking the longest and remove or trim it.  You can always make more changes later, but small changes will make a bigger impact than you think.

If the game is not fun enough, add something small.  Even if the game seems about the correct length and complexity.  If you add something that adds fun you can always trim elsewhere later if you need to.

Any last tips?

Consider playtesting elements of your game.  Not every playtest session has to be a full game.  You can just playtest the beginning, the end, or key elements.  If your endgame is good playtest the beginning over and over.  If the beginning is good, playtest a full game, but at the point you want to make the change save the gamestate.  Write down players positions and then make your changes.  Keep playtesting from that point on.

Lessons Learned.
 Keep your enthusiasm about a game up by:

• Working on another game.
• Play it with other people.
• Work with another designer.
• Make small changes.
• Playtest parts of your game, not the whole game.

What's next?

 That's it for this week, next time I am going to talk about theme choice in your game.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

Design Tip of the Week #25 (Why Not to Have Custom Dice in Your Game)

Tell me about this series.

The first part of the series was about how to make your own custom dice at home for a fairly cheap price with minimal effort.  You can find it here:

http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/11/design-tip-of-week-23-how-to-make.html

The next part of the series covered a few reasons to add custom dice to your game:

http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/11/design-tip-of-week-24-why-have-custom.html

This week we are going to cover why you wouldn't add custom dice to your game.

Take us back.  What was your first negative experience with custom dice?

The first game we ever designed was called Squires.  It has evolved and morphed since then into Bastion, but we have been working on it for years in various forms.  We were so excited about the game and took it to a convention to pitch it to a publisher for the first time.  It had 25 custom dice in 3 different molds.  After looking at the components the publisher didn't even let us get into a pitch.  We turned them off before even getting a chance.  There were too many components, and specifically too many custom components. 

At that time having that many custom dice was just out of the question unless you were Fantasy Flight.  Even now when FFG produced BattleLore they only included 4 custom dice in the box.  If you want 8 more you have to pay $10 for them.  Cost is probably the primary issue when it comes to custom dice.

There are exceptions to every rule though, and Marvel Dice Masters and Castle Dice have shown that you can have lots of different custom dice and still maintain an affordable price.  I think you have to be careful though.  It isn't just the cost of the dice, it is the cost of the dice in addition to everything else you are adding to the game.

So if cost isn't an issue, what else?

Accessibility can be an issue too.  We talked last time about how custom dice can make games simpler, but that isn't always the case.  If you need a result that is randomized between 1 and whatever number, a standard die will work just fine.  You don't need to make something fancier just to have it fancier.  Also, adding symbols could confuse things.  If you symbol represents a 6, then just leave a 6 there.  Sounds simple, but I have seen lots of examples of Cthulhu symbols or whatever else on one side of a die just to make it look cooler.  It can be confusing, and people often need to look at the other side of the die the first few times to figure it out.  Sounds simple, but it could slow your first game experience down.  The first impression could be the only one you get. 

Another thing about accessibility is using symbols people are comfortable with.  If you do choose to use custom dice then don't use a POW symbol as a miss.  Most people associate a POW or Sword symbol as a hit.  Make sure you are familiar with conventions before adding custom dice to your game.

Anything else?

Sometimes standard dice do the job better than a custom die.  If you have changing values for things it may be simpler to use a standard die.  For example in one of our next games we have die that level up as the game goes along.  At first you only hit on a 6.  Later you may add a 4 or a 5 to that type of hit.  Maybe you add another 6, so your 6 results do 2 points of damage.  This would be very hard to do if you used custom dice.  You could have different symbols, but in this situation they would all have to basically mean the same thing. 

Another more common example is monsters in a dungeon crawl, or roleplaying game.  You can have several monsters that behave very differently using the same few die.  This one hits on 3-6 and the other one hits on 5-6.  And you don't have situations like you have in Descent or Star Wars: The Queens Gambit where people are asking "where is that green die again?"

Lessons Learned.

Don't use custom dice in your game if:

• Cost is an issue - Maybe you already have too many components, or the game is too simple to justify a higher cost
• It complicates your game - If your game would be easier to understand or play without custom dice, leave them out.
• Standard dice would do the job better - Sometimes custom dice aren't as flexible as standard dice.  There is a reason so many games use standard dice, they are very versatile.  They could determine your income in one phase and tell you how far to move in the next (not saying to do this in your game, just an example).

What's next?

 That's it for this week, next time I am going to talk about getting through that 100th playtest of your game, and how to keep if fresh.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.