Hi, I'm running a small tabletop company in Korea. While we were creating our game, I always felt that so much time is being spent on physical prototyping (printing and cutting, etc.) and running a playtest. Since my original background was in digital gaming, my team and I decided to quickly put together a simple tool to solve this issue. Then, I wondered how others are doing - especially in other countries where tabletop games are more popular.

I see lot of people are using tabletop simulator and some other tools, and I want to hear more about it. How do you guys prototype and playtest? Are you guys satisfied with it? Any other methods you guys recommend?

This is a quick survey I drafted (sorry for any broken English), and I'd love to ask for your 5 minutes! Also, if you're intersted, I'd share a link to our tool once the beta version is ready.

Survey Link: https://811qiuuiiy6.typeform.com/to/bi7Fr2Ms

Does anyone know of a good playtesting group in Miami? If not, anyone interested in starting one up?

What would you chance in TCGs? What mechanics would you like to see? What setting or theme would you like to see? What things you think makes TCG bad or good?

Hi everyone!

I am designing a dungeon crawler to see how far can i take it, but a question came into mind that doesn't goes away: Can simple dungeon crawlers be classified as TTRPG? and What is necessary to make them a TTRPG?

From what I understand, there are TTRPGs that have dungeon crawling options, missions or are their whole theme. But if I make a single player (mostly) roll-to-generate dungeon crawler with narrative options akin to "choose your own adventure", will it be classified as such or TTRPG?

Mechanically speaking, is nothing out of the ordinary. Roll to generate everything and hope you survive enough to finish the generated mission.

Thanks in advance for your wisdom!

I recently replayed Terraforming Mars after many years. I enjoyed it, but I remembered why I hadn’t played it in so long: the scoring.

In principle, Terraforming Mars is exactly my kind of game because you can choose how you score, combining particular types of cards to focus on this, that or the other. It’s a “min-max” kind of game, which I like. BUT because it’s just a card draw, and there are so many cards, you have almost zero control over what strategy you actually pursue — it’s really just “what have I drawn, and how can I maximise it”. Which is fine, but frustrating for me.

Another game I play a lot is Twilight Imperium, which has its “secret objective” mechanic. A great idea, in principle, but again your victory conditions are determined by lottery; you can’t choose to pursue this or that type of gameplay.

I understand how these games ended up here, but I wondered if there are any games I could look at that do this sort of thing “better” — games where you can not only choose what victory type you’re going to focus on, but where that choice is something you can actively pursue. Ideally, I’m also looking to retain an element of secrecy within this choice as well, but that may just not be viable.

Hey all,
I've been developing a strategy card game (sort of like Dune meets Terraforming Mars) for a couple of years, and now I'm deep into the playtesting phase. The game itself takes about an hour and a half to play and is pretty heavy on card-based strategy, with over 300 unique cards. I really want to make sure the game is as balanced as possible, but with so many cards, it feels like I need thousands of playtests to really work out all the kinks.

I started building a rough digital version in Unity with the hope of being able to rapidly test it. But now, I'm wondering—would it make more sense to focus on fully developing the digital version and publish that first? My thought is that I could use player feedback from the digital version to fine-tune the balance before going all in on a physical release.

I've seen a lot of games get converted into a digital version after they release, but I don't know of any that happened the other way around. If any of you have tried this approach already, I'd love to hear your thoughts on how it went. Also, if you can think reasons this isn't a great approach I'd love to hear feedback.

Thanks!

Prototypes are always either time consuming or expensive to make! When I was ready to start making prettier versions to test out icons and art direction, I didn't want to have to go to GameCrafter and spend $200 per game. So here's some ways I made pretty prototypes for cheap. *All art shown here is obsolete and will not be the art used in the final print version of the game. Some AI images were used as placeholders while the mechanics were being developed.

• Print out your box art at Staples as a poster and use a gluestick to glue it onto a different box. In my case, I used the game Horrified: Greek Monsters' box and glued my art over the box. Panda Games Manufacturing has a automated template tool on their website to help you get the flat shape of your box.

https://preview.redd.it/6wp9wsv9hsqd1.jpg?width=480&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=24f9680198daee9399d091e1f96ad192a6720c49

https://preview.redd.it/sy0fbedhhsqd1.jpg?width=450&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff2667be6963a6e9a7206d10f0b5fc13bba33d90

• Same with cards. Go to Staples and print your cards on the heaviest paper they have. Then slice them out at home. Using a paper guillotine will speed this up a lot!

https://preview.redd.it/wcdgg2ewhsqd1.png?width=508&format=png&auto=webp&s=461e9ef78af735583bc472b60d30414f68585c0e

https://preview.redd.it/0bb5p3k1isqd1.png?width=511&format=png&auto=webp&s=6718f61c8f578256559cfd44bc84a2487f8b5bfb

• For tokens, buy "Grey Board" on Amazon and (surprise!) print your art at Staples and glue it to the gray borrd. I use a leather punch and hammer to cut out circular tokens.

https://preview.redd.it/yoor69m7ksqd1.jpg?width=2193&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1cc3a641483632c81893138ad2023260b846d990

Comment any prototyping tips you have as well!

Hey there, i am working on my game RAD Echoes.

Main mechanic is roll/flip and write with resource management, so tracking resources is relevant.

The pnp contains 2 boards and cards (+ dice and marker) and i dont want to add more components like cubes or tracking tokens to improve mobility, so i want to promove write and erase gameplay.

What do you think about this mechanic? Dont get me wrong, this is nothing new in roll and write games but due to resource tracking write and erase in my game is present throughout the gameplay.

"Why dont you add both?" due to the size of the track bar on the board sheets (small cubes are 8mm) and the amount of components.

I have been testing and this is not uncomfortable at all but of course, this is my perception on my own game.

Do you know another game that includes this?

Please let me see your thoughts and of course your suggestion, thanks!.

I have designed a board game and am looking for some print shops that can assist me to get some samples made.

I am based in Dubai, when I am speaking with online print shops or Chinese based ones the MOQs are super high. I need to get only a few made for now whilst I run further gameplay tests.

Does anyone know of any places I can check? Happy to go to Sharjah or other emirates if needs be.

Thank you

UPDATE: Thanks, all! I appreciate your insights, and it's really helpful for me to think of this as a UI/UX issue (which I can handle) as opposed to a making-it-pretty issue (which I can't). Cheers!

OP: I have zero design skills. I've messed around with Creative Cloud, GIMP, Inkscape, but because of job and family obligations I do not have the time to put into learning them well. That said, I have always been comfortable with hand-making my prototypes. I'm not an artist but you can tell what everything is and what it's for (or so I keep telling myself!).

That said, I see so many prototypes here and on other forums -- even very early prototypes -- that look professionally designed. Maybe it's because a lot of designers are much younger than I am and were digital natives who grew up using Photoshop and Illustrator. Good for y'all! But I wonder if that means it will be harder for fossils like me to get my prototypes noticed or even looked at by publishers.

I know the game play's the thing, when all is said and done. But... anyone have some anecdotes about how publishers responded to games that aren't possessed of professional or semi-professional design? Thanks!

For my upcoming card game, I'm looking for a European manufacturer of playing cards which provides the highest quality of cards.

So far, I've been looking at:

• Fabryka Kart (Poland): have a good experience with them. They printed my first game. The linen card quality is good in general and they last pretty long as well.
• Noir Arts (Ukraine): They seem good, especially their tuck boxes, but this BGG post mentions: While they do offer embossed card stock, their playing cards tend to clump quickly, and do not shuffle very smoothly or consistently, making them poor for faros, fans, and spreads. So the quality and handling of the cards themselves is noticeably less than what you will typically get with a deck printed by USPCC, Cartamundi, or EPCC/LPCC. This makes them less than optimal for cardistry or for magic or card games, and better for decks intended specifically for collectors.
• Friedmann Print (Germany)
• Piatnik (Austria)

Anything I'm missing?

Do you have any experience with any of these parties or with their products?
How is their card quality?

I am making a game where you focus on using cards with AOE attacks, economy buffs, and defenses to find your opponents hidden base first. Does this layout effectively communicate potential cost ($), card type (💣) and effect of the card. Does it have cool factor.

I am developing a game where you mark hits in a similar way to battleship. Is there a manufacturer who offers pegboards/ peg style pieces? I want to avoid having to 3D print an entire run if possible.

Over the weekend I completed my first play test with my wife. I have a lot of things to tweak (or overhaul) and I’m hoping to prototype a little bit faster and better the second time around. One of the major mechanics in my game is tile placement involving hex tiles which are placed on a grid. For my first play test, we used Tabletop Simulator to set up the 4 markets with bags containing tiles that come default with TTS. Each tile represented a tile in the game and when buying a tile, we just wrote it down on the gird. Overall this worked pretty well except it slowed the game down significantly. It was also a pain when a tile had to be removed from the grid, which is a semi-frequent occurrence in my game (using pen was definitely not the wisest decision 😅)

Has anyone had luck with other prototyping strategies for a tile placement game?

Power Scrolls is an action card game where players gather Power Scrolls & pair them with Chakras. Once a Power Scroll has been assigned an affinity towards one of the seven chakras, the seal on the scroll is lifted, granting the user power of the paired chakra type.

Any feedback would be awesome, thanks.

I tried to make a Teaser for my game before and I just wasn't good enough.

I then saw this video randomly, and it changed my perspective:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WwEyT5Bzj0

I then I did this video:

https://youtu.be/cI03VkJn2qM

What do you think?

I highly recommend watching the tutorial if you want to make professional product commercial yourself!

Hello all,

A rather open ended question I know, but I'd like some generic input anyway.

We are a small company that have developed and play tested a TCG for the past year.

We currently have starter decks and a first 100 card booster set fully designed, playtested and balanced. We have gauged interest with a decently wide variety of players, and it really appeals to them.

We have phsyical copies of the cards and have run quite a few 8 man Swiss tournaments.

We have the capital, supply lines and connections to at least get the game in most of the card shops in the Belgium and Netherlands region, which is admittedly a small region.

Now, we want this to be globally successful more than just make a nice profit in a small market.

For this we need a lot more capital, connections and most importantly, we need to set up a solid competitive scene, since all polling has revealed that people want events to go besides locals.

For this reason we are considering trying to sell to a large publishing company.

We have multiple meetings lined up, but we really just want a bit more info before we go into these meetings.

So, our ideal publisher wants to support this game on a competitive level and has global supply lines.

We want to get a royalty.

We are completely down to have our company be basically absorbed into the publisher after which we keep further designing the game set after set, year after year.

The issue is that most information we can find is about board games or other "1 off" toys. Where a royalty is agreed, a print run or 2 is done and the parties move on to other projects.

So, my question is basically this:

What do royalty / publishing agreements typically look like for games with continuous development and releases?

Is finding a publisher that is willing to invest in a competitive scene realistic?

And I guess: in the case we find one, we get a royalty, would we then continue to develop the next sets as a separate entity and have the publisher print them as interest continues or would we sell our company to the publisher and become a subsidiary?

Thanks in advance!

Please be honest, I know the chance of finding what we are looking for is small, and our backup is organising a kickstarter, getting some venture capital and self publishing, which we are reasonable sure in that we can have some succes. But getting a big player would be our ideal scenario.

I'm in the process of designing a fantasy-themed card game that revolves around schools of magic. The core idea is that players will select from different schools to build unique decks, allowing for strategic combinations of spells, curses, and magical abilities to outwit their opponents. Below is a more detailed breakdown of how the game works and some concepts I’m still refining.

Game Overview

Players will build decks around specific magical schools. Each school offers a distinct playstyle, focusing on different types of spells, buffs, or debuffs. The aim is to use your spells and abilities to reduce your opponent’s health to zero, combining strategy with a bit of luck through dice rolls for mana generation.

Core Mechanics

1. Schools of Magic:

   • Players will have their decks built. Each school will have unique spells and abilities that align with its theme (e.g., elemental magic, necromancy, illusions, etc.).

   • Players are encouraged to either focus on one school for a consistent playstyle or mix two schools for more versatility.

2. Mana Generation – Dice Rolling:

   • At the beginning of each player’s turn, they roll 3 six-sided dice (3d6) to determine their mana for that turn.

• 1-2 dice will correspond to the chosen school(s) of magic, meaning the mana can only be spent on spells from those schools.

• The third die represents colorless mana, which can be spent on any spell, providing flexibility in spell casting.

  • Mana Balance Considerations:

• I’m still working on balancing the dice rolls. One idea is that each school could have different mechanics for how they generate and use mana. For instance, certain schools might have abilities that allow rerolls or manipulation of dice results, while others could have ways to store unused mana between turns.

3. Turn Structure:

   • Each player takes turns in a straightforward structure:

4. Roll for Mana: Players roll 3d6 and calculate their mana for the turn.

5. Play Spells: Based on their available mana, players can cast spells, curses, or activate abilities from their hand.

6. Combat: If applicable, some spells may directly damage opponents, while others may set up long-term effects (e.g., curses or buffs).

7. End Turn: Players end their turn after spending mana, and any unused mana (unless a specific mechanic is involved) is lost.

   • The game proceeds in this back-and-forth fashion until one player reduces their opponent’s health to zero.

8. Winning the Game:

   • Players win by depleting their opponent’s health to zero through a combination of offensive spells and tactical defense.

Spell Types:

Each school of magic will have various card types:

• Offensive Spells: Direct damage to opponents or their resources.

• Curses: Lingering negative effects that hinder your opponent over time.

• Buffs/Enchantments: Enhance your spells, protect yourself, or power up future turns.

• Utility Spells: Manipulate your mana, draw cards, or alter dice rolls.

Since this game relies on both deck-building strategy and random dice rolls, I’m looking for feedback on how to make sure the dice rolls don’t overshadow the strategy. How can I maintain the tension of luck without making low rolls frustrating or game-breaking?

I’m excited to hear your thoughts and suggestions! Feel free to share any ideas for improving the mana system, adding depth to the schools of magic, or any other elements you think would enhance the gameplay experience.

I’m designing an exploration / dungeon crawler and I’m trying to flush out the exploration aspect. What are some of the most fun/ memorable things you’ve explored in a game ie “a dark mage who grants powerful potions at a cost of morale, a blacksmith who can provide weapon upgrades, a Church planter who helps increase hope in the village”

Thanks in advance!

I’ve received some feedback on having a simple How to Play across my website and KS as to give a better simpler idea on the gameplay. What do you think about this guide?

I've been asked several times how much it cost me to get ready to launch Pantheum so I thought I'd share a rough breakdown of my total costs before launching.

Rough Pre-launch Costs

A breakdown of costs was honestly the number one think I was hunting for when I was considering self publishing so hopefully this can help out others in the same boat I was in. I've saved up for a few years to make this happen and most of the major cost are scalable depending on how big you want your campaign to be.

-LaunchBoom coaches you on how to prep for a successful launch and provides great resources and community.
-I set up an LLC and had my logos trademarked.
-Traveling to major conventions was a mistake. I overspent here a lot! Local conventions and meetups are much better.
-Mailchimp was useful for collecting and organizing emails from the Pre-launch campaign.
-All of my Pre-launch campaign was done through Meta ads over about 3 months. I gained 5,000 email subscribers which cost about $3 per email.
-Creating cohesive art is shockingly hard! I found my illustrators through the facebook group "Illustrators for hire" and on Fiverr.
-For my initial prototypes, I went to my local Staples and printed on thick paper. I cut the cards at home and made my box by gluing a paper print out of my box art over a different game's box.
-My manufacturer is DoFine games and were able to make each prototype for about $130 each. These are helpful to send to testers, reviewers and photoshoots.

I spent some money on Influencers and making game renders, but I don't think the ROI is high enough and I could have done without those. Hope these help and let me know what other information you are interested in hearing about!

I need to start running ads with Meta to get people to sign up on my mailing list or my Kickstarter prelaunch page

https://reddit.com/link/1fmq8dq/video/gz1g3c5h9cqd1/player

I've built this shortened video for the game to highlight its vibe and catch attention quickly (I read somewhere that 15-20 seconds is best for this). What do you think? Is it readable enough? I need to add some audio to it (just music and SFX), but anything else I'm missing?

I want to try an AB test with the same advert to see if it's more successful as an ad when I'm asking people to sign up to the mailing list with the inbuilt Meta forms, or sending people to the Kickstarter prelaunch page. Has anybody done this kind of testing before and had some results they can share? My main aim is to get people on the mailing list so that I can use BackerKit's launch for ad money when the game releases.

Any help appreciated

Owen