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Game Design Kit

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wraith808:
There was a thread a while back about prototyping games, and the high costs of doing so.  But now, there's a kickstarter for that.



The White Box: A Game Design Workshop-in-a-Box

The White Box is a learning, planning, and prototyping tool for tabletop game designers.

It contains a book of 18 essays on game design and production, covering subjects like where to find a great concept, how to use randomness, what to ask playtesters, and whether it’s wise to self-publish.

It includes an abundance of components to get you started right away, from cubes and meeples to dice, discs, and chits.

Maybe you have a golden idea inside you burning to come out. Maybe you want to tell a story or explore a problem. Do you dream of seeing your name on a box at your local game store? Or perhaps you see game design as a path to fame, fortune, and a satisfying career.

The White Box is for aspiring professionals, creative young people, and literally anyone who’s ever wanted to build their own game without having to plunder their game library for bits.

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mouser:
Awesome  :up:
Looks like a very cool gift to get for someone interested in making their own board game.

Edvard:
OK, the pre-made pieces are cool, and I like that it has a handbook, but this very same idea has been freely available for years:

http://www.piecepack.org
What is a piecepack?

Flexible. Portable. Affordable. Public domain. The piecepack is a set of boardgame parts that can be used to design and play a wide variety of games. Anyone may design and publish a piecepack rule set. Any manufacturer or individual may produce piecepacks.
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Basically, it's a set of printable templates, and a website chock-full of user-submitted games to play with them.  I suppose 3D-printed piecepacks would be the next step.

But I admit, a nice tidy box o'goodies with a helpful manual sounds pretty cool.  Nice find, Wraith808!  :Thmbsup:

wraith808:
Some people have said various things that align with what Edvard is saying.  I think that focus is on people that are already designers.  However, what I view this project as is a starting place for new designers- to get them into getting the ideas out of their head easily.

From the brick and mortar section:

This product was priced to be an auto-purchase for your customers who're interested in game design. What starts with your recommendation will end, we hope, with a lifelong customer who’s grateful that your advice helped them get started in game design, and who's happy to buy dice, meeples, card sleeves, and games from you for years.

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And it isn't just a handbook- but essays from well established designers, that can help with that goal, and more esoteric topics like randomization and other such things.

wraith808:
Meeples Together
From the designers of the White Box comes another look at game design- this time from a cooperative angle.  From the blurb: "A new book from the publisher of The White Box for people who play, discuss, critique, design, and love cooperative board games."

What's in the Book

Meeples Together contains 14 chapters about the nature, mechanics, theory, and frontiers of cooperative gaming.

Along the way, 14 in-depth case studies (or more, depending on stretch goals!) of cooperative gaming’s greatest hits — from Pandemic and Battlestar Galactica to Contract Bridge — demonstrate the concepts and ideas. (Not to mention Appendix V’s capsule reviews of more than 90 cooperative titles!)

The physical edition is a 384-page, 6" × 9" trade paperback containing more than 150 illustrated figures.

Digital editions will include a tablet-optimized PDF version, an Epub version, and a Kindle (.mobi) version.

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More at the Kickstarter.

I know that a lot of people here are interested in cooperative games, so I thought it would be of interest.

Meeples Together is being funded as a digital or hardcover book on Kickstarter.

The project is currently fully funded, and given their delivery on the White Box, the challenges and risks seem to be few.

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