[#016] Getting away from board games, real world vs. online playtesting, and more

Welcome to your weekly dose of board game design!

Spring...? Anytime now please...? Can't wait to put my winter jacket upstairs for at least a few months...

Something I learned about game design this week

Ready to get inspired? Get as far away from board games as possible! Last week, I took a train to the NEC, Birmingham's biggest convention center, to attend the Sign & Digital Expo and the Travel & Tourism Expo. This building is so big you can have several large conventions in the same place and have no idea the others are even happening.

The Sign & Digital Expo was primarily B2B networking, but it was still interesting to see the printing / manufacturing techniques on display. The Travel & Tourism Expo was definitely the highlight of the two, though - and the representatives there are the ones that know that 'theme' quite well. Whenever there's a real-world opportunity to be inspired, have your notebook handy, and don't be afraid to ask some off-the-wall questions.

This week's tip

Continuing the series on fundamentals, I'd like to talk about playtesting online and in-person. The COVID pandemic is far from over, and we've had three years of online playtesting. Personally, these three years of online playtesting have ended up being some of the most productive in my game designing career...

But it definitely didn't start out that way.

Most everyone that was playtesting in the real world when the pandemic had a difficult adjustment to make. Fortunately, pretty much everyone had to make it at the same time to keep playtesting, and the communities that quickly formed helped to get each other to speed.

Whether you've been a regular in communities like Virtual Playtesting and Remote Playtesting, or have been meaning to dip your toes in, now's a great time to jump in. While many real-world communities have opened up, these online communities remain a great opportunity to connect and playtest with designers.

Yes, I bolded and italicized designers there - you may also know that designers are great at finding loopholes, breaking games, trying out strategies that really test the game (even if they aren't necessarily fun), and so on. Some players will also do this, but from a designer, it's far more likely to happen.

Today, I'm grateful to have opportunities to playtest online and offline. I see two different purposes from these two different platforms:

• Online playtesting: perfect for earlier designs to playtest with designers. Break games, find loopholes, and get the mechanical core loops humming along nicely.

• Real-world playtesting: perfect for later designs to playtest with players. I'm looking for rules comprehension, ability to play strategically, multiple paths to victory, player interaction, table talk, but most importantly, FUN. I'll see bits of these with designers, but there's a marked difference between playing to playtest and playing to have fun.

What I’ve been working on last week

• Went to the Travel and Tourism Expo here in Birmingham to be inspired

• Met client and showed them the newest version of the game I'm making for them

• Client consultations to help them make their game in Tabletop Simulator and iterate on their game design

What's coming up this week

• Upcoming client meetings

• Meet my two co-designers about the two games we're working on

• Iterate on Smite, playtest a couple of other games

ICYMI

Trying to get a ballpark estimate for how much manufacturing would cost? No idea how long it's been up, but it's new to me: Panda has an online estimator tool. It doesn't have every single option under the sun and doesn't include a ton of customizable options, but for getting a basic, ballpark quote in about 5 minutes, it's great.

Thanks for reading!

Got a question about game design you'd like answered? Find an amazing new resource that would help fellow game designers? Reply to this email and share =)

Thanks for reading, and see you next week!