The Board Game Design Lab

Latest Episodes:

Our Best Game Design Advice with Peter C. Hayward Jun 08, 2022

Show notes

Peter C. Hayward, from Jellybean Games, is back, and we’re talking through our absolute best tips and advice for game designers.
We split the conversation into two parts: new designers and experienced designers. And we talk through our own successes and failures.

And be sure to check out Peter’s latest game, Sunshine City, which you can download for free HERE!

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Designing Games with Your Kids with Patrick McNeil Jun 01, 2022

Show notes

Patrick Mcneil, from McMeeple Games, discusses what it’s like to design games with his children.
Patrick has been creating games with his kids for years and has gotten many of the designs to the point of being fully published games. We talk about being intentional, setting the right expectations, overcoming negative feedback, and more.

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Designing Games Based on Real-Life Systems with Ben Rosset May 25, 2022

Show notes

Ben Rosset, designer of The Search for Planet X, talks about how to design games based on real-life systems and processes.

Ben has designed games based on aging cheese, brewing beer, finding planets, manufacturing board games, and many other themes that happen in the real world, so we have quite a bit to chat about.

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How to Design Take That Games with Steph and Jess Nguyen May 18, 2022

Show notes

Jess and Steph Nguyen, from Hot Potatoz, talk about how to design take that games.
We talk about finding a good balance of fun, game length, and hurt feelings. And we get into finding the right audience, playtesting, and more.

The post How to Design Take That Games with Steph and Jess Nguyen appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

[BGDL Community Spotlight] How to Design Drafting Games with Jesse Stacy May 11, 2022

Show notes

Jesse Stacy, from Triceratops Games, discusses how to design drafting games. Jesse has been working on a drafting style game for a while, and we dive into the different types, how to keep a game moving, stacking other mechanisms, and more.

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[BGDL Community Spotlight] The 3 Stages of Prototyping with Gino Brancazio May 11, 2022

Show notes

Gino Brancazio, from Tinkerbot Games, talks about the three stages of prototyping, and we discuss what you need to know depending on which stage you’re in.

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How to Get the Most out of Your Crowdfunding Campaign with Andrew Lowen and Sean Bradford May 04, 2022

Show notes

Andrew Lowen and Sean Bradford, from Next Level Web, talk about how to get the most out of your crowdfunding campaign.
We spend most of the time talking about different aspects of marketing and break down examples from our own campaigns of what worked and what didn’t.

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How to Run a Publishing Company with Rob Dougherty Apr 27, 2022

Show notes

Rob Dougherty, founder of Wise Wizard Games, talks about how to run a successful publishing company.
We talk about how Rob got started, how to actually make money, how to use Kickstarter effectively, and more.

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Designing Open World Games with Ryan Laukat Apr 20, 2022

Show notes

Ryan Laukat, designer of Sleeping Gods, talks about designing open world games.
Sleeping Gods is a phenomenal example of how a board game can pull off the open world experience, and we do a deep dive into basically every aspect of its design. I’ve also been working on an open world game of my own over the last couple years, so we get into the ways we overcame similar issues.

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Teaching Board Game Design with Matt Bivens Apr 13, 2022

Show notes

Matt Bivens discusses how to teach game design. Matt has been teaching design to high school kids for years, and we get into the usefulness of game design concepts, feedback, and more.

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