Game Design Kit

[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.

[mouser]

Awesome 
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.

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! 

[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.

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.

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.

[mouser]

Great find.. I'm extremely interested in cooperative boardgames so this is a must read for me. Thanks for sharing 

[KynloStephen66515]

Something like this would have been super useful during one of my uni modules (Design Thinking) - One of my assignments was to make a board game, which...meant me doing a crap load of work just making the pieces and such...was tedious lol.

[Target]

this book came up on Cool Tools this morning - The Art of Game Design

[wraith808]

this book came up on Cool Tools this morning - The Art of Game Design

-Target (November 27, 2018, 04:11 PM)

I actually have that one.  It's a pretty cool take on the subject, applying 'lenses' to the game to force decisions about the game and what it will be. 

As an example, the first lens is "The Lens of Essential Experience", i.e. stop thinking about the game as a designer and think about the experience of the game as a player. 

One of the best quotes in the book is in the beginning - a definition of Game Design as "Deciding what a game should be".  There was a companion app on iOS, but not sure if it's still available.

Though he says that he doesn't really agree with books as texts, it really does read like a textbook.

Recommended.

[wraith808]

Another Kickstarter that's good for game designers.

Fail Faster

What's is it?

At its core, the Fail Faster Playtesting Journal contains pages to keep track of 36 playtests. The journal is most useful if you dedicate one journal to each game that you are designing, but you could easily use one journal to keep track of all the different games you’re designing. Each section has been tested and planned for optimal use of space.

What's in the journal?



More at the Kickstarter.

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

A print and play preview of Fail Faster is available on Google Drive.

[wraith808]

Necro Thread Arise!  I figured that this was not enough for a new thread, so I'd post here.

There's currently a Kickstarter in progress that would be useful for Board Game Design.  The Board Game Design Starter Kit touted as "A box full of everything you need to get that game out of your head and onto a table!"

https://www.kickstar...e-design-starter-kit

The same creator recently ran a Kickstarter for a book about Kickstarter Board Game design advice (https://www.kickstar...e-kickstarter-advice).  I was on it, but forgot to post it here.

The base kit includes the following for $35

Game Design Kit

There's also an upgrade kit for $15 more

Game Design Kit

The campaign runs until September 3rd.  I'm not sure of the value of these items in a kit vs getting them yourself if you're able to locate them.

[mouser]

Awesome -- thanks for posting this.  As for value -- it all comes down to whether it will inspire you (or your kids) to make a game -- if so then it's worth every penny.