The Crossover is a series of articles exploring themes common to both video and tabletop game design, and examining how each world can learn from the other. Goals might be thought of as an...
Category: Design Thoughts
Are all ideas born equal?
After a meeting with fellow designer Brett Gilbert last week in which we playtested yet another version of Trinity (and no, we are not out of the alpha stage yet!), Brett remarked that I...
How hot does the playtesting furnace need to be?
During my daily catch up with game design articles and threads, I was alerted via Twitter to a thread on Boardgamegeek entitled ‘10 Playtest Principles – Advice on how to be a good playtester‘....
The scenic route
Game design, like many creative pursuits, often involves working towards a goal that is hard to quantify or describe. That being said, I’ve certainly had times where I’ve thought I had an excellent idea...
The importance of a ‘bad’ playtest
This past weekend saw me traipsing down to London for the monthly meetup group Playtest. Organised by the ever capable Rob Harris, this is a group of local (and this month, international) board and...
To prototype or not to prototype
A common piece of advice given to new designers is that of ‘prototype early, prototype often’. The reasoning behind such advice is that the best way to test new ideas, to separate the wheat...