[#017] Painters and sculptors, how to organize and save your files, and more

Welcome to your weekly dose of board game design!

Well, you've made it through the first quarter of the year - how did you do? Reply and share =)

Personally, it's been a lot of fun - I went to Airecon, playtested a lot, and have finally carved out some time to feel confident about current games to begin working on some new ideas that have been waiting in the wings for awhile now...

Something I learned about game design this week

Two styles behind designing games: painters, who start from a blank canvas and add layers of paint until they're finished, and sculptors, who start from a huge block of stone and cut out everything that isn't the sculpture. In game design terms, painters start from the bare minimum of a core loop and add complexity, while sculptors throw the kitchen sink into the game and aim to reduce complexity. I'll hold that both methods are valid, but knowing which camp you fall into helps to define your next steps.

Are you a painter? Remember that added layers aren't permanent. If they're getting in the way of what you want the game to be, remove them and see what happens.

Are you a sculptor? Remember that all those little pieces and layers are never gone, even if cut. The more organized your notes are about what you cut and why, the easier it will be to incorporate those notes into this game or other ones in the future.

This week's tip

Third week of fundamentals - how are you enjoying it?

This week, let's talk about your game files. You know to back up your files (and yeah, now's probably a good time to do that), but let's go even more basic: what sort of files do you even have?

First and foremost is whatever you're building your cards or other components in. For me, that's PowerPoint (read why here), but whatever you're using is valid. In my system, PowerPoint has versioned files - each new version is saved as a new file with version number and what’s changed, added, or removed.

Rules? One Google Doc to rule all the versions, since it keeps all previous versions available (File > Version History > See Version History).

Data? One Google Sheet, but lots of tabs. I’ll usually have a tab for each type of card, and each version gets its own tab. I’ve started adding a blank tab with the title '<<< CURRENT' just so I can separate old stuff from current stuff in the tabs.

What about the photos, images, etc.? I have a folder on my computer for each game, and in that folder there's usually a few other folders:

• Archive (for older versions)

• Images / Assets / Pictures / Icons (I haven't always been consistent at naming this, but its use is obvious enough)

• For TTS (when I export JPG's from PowerPoint, or whatever else that needs into the Tabletop Simulator version, it's exported into a folder)

I’ve personally used Dropbox for years. Box.com also works, but my current favorite is a cloud storage service called Internxt. I picked it up on Appsumo awhile back as a lifetime deal (which sadly isn't available anymore, but Appsumo is one of those 'get on their email list and see some cool stuff you might use' sorts of websites).

Oh, and there's a Kickstarter coming out...!

Allow me a moment to compose myself.

Breathe in...

Breathe out...

Breathe in...

OK, I can't hold it in any longer.

I'd like to announce my first signed-with-a-publisher game is coming to Kickstarter this week.

Presenting Snorkel

Snorkel combines Memory, Set, and Three Card Monte - on your turn, flip three cards from a 3x3 grid face-up. Look for sets of SUPER CUTE fish (three of a kind or three that are different - you've got different colors, different quantities, and different layers of the sea). However many you find, you'll take that many cards from the ones you flipped face-up.

Which cards do you take? Each card scores you a point, but at the end of the game, you can make bonus sets from the cards you collect for even more points, so choose carefully! It'll fit in your pocket (36 cards) and comes from a new indie publisher - what more do you want?

Go hit that 'Notify Me On Launch' button on Kickstarter.

What I’ve been working on last week

• Playtested Smite, Dice Cream, and Downward Facing Panda

• Client work (meeting and developing their games)

• Updating Tabletop Publishers

• Getting the first versions of three new games ready for playtesting

What's coming up this week

• Playtest the aforementioned three new games

• Make some sell sheets and videos for a puzzle game, Shell Company, Dice Cream, How Does Your Garden Grow, and Taco.

• Update Tabletop Publishers

ICYMI

Graph paper, anyone? Hexagons and squares and other stuff, oh my...

https://incompetech.com/graphpaper/hexagonal/

Jasper over at Pine Island Games has published a blog post with some spreadsheets to help you calculate margin, profit and loss, etc. Go check it out here.

Finally, inpainting is the fancy term for 'deal with a specific area of a photo I select', and this website has a number of inpainting tools available for free: theinpaint.com.

Random picture of the week

Love the promise of these titles - can't speak for the quality of them, of course, but it at least got me to pick it up.

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!