1st Edition

Game Production Prototyping and Producing Your Board Game

By Geoffrey Engelstein Copyright 2021
    198 Pages
    by CRC Press

    198 Pages
    by CRC Press

    Description:

    Many new games are from first-time designers or are self-published, so there is a tremendous thirst for information about the nuts and bolts of tabletop game design. While there are many books about the design process in terms of mechanisms and player experience, there are no books that cover the arts and crafts aspects of how to create a prototype, software and physical tools that can be used, graphic design and rules writing, and considerations for final production. Gamecraft: Prototyping and Producing Your Board Game presents this information in a single volume which will be invaluable for up-and-coming designers and publishers.

    Key Features:

    • The text compiles information from many websites, blogs, Facebook groups, subreddits, and the author’s extensive experience in an easy-to-read volume.
    • The text illustrates how to lay out and assemble the physical aspects of an effective board game.
    • The book is divided into two sections for readability and covers a large array of different techniques.

     

    Geoffrey Engelstein is the designer of many tabletop games, including The Ares Project, the Space Cadets series, The Dragon & Flagon, and The Expanse. He is the founder of Ludology, a bi-weekly podcast about game design, and a contributor to the Dice Tower podcast with his bi-weekly GameTek segments that discuss the math, science, and psychology of games. He has also published several books, including GameTek: The Math and Science of Gaming, Achievement Relocked: Loss Aversion and Game Design, and Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design. He is on the faculty of the NYU Game Center as an adjunct professor for Board Game Design and has been invited to speak at PAX, GenCon, Metatopia, and the Game Developers Conference.

     Section I General Topics

    Chapter 1 ◾ Tools of the Trade 3

    Chapter 2 ◾ Graphic Design 41

    Chapter 3 ◾ Writing Rules 75

    Section II The Development Lifecycle

    Chapter 4 ◾ Alpha Prototypes 97

    Chapter 5 ◾ Beta Prototypes 115

    Chapter 6 ◾ Production 137

    Chapter 7 ◾ Conclusion 167

    Biography

    Geoffrey Engelstein is the designer of many tabletop games, including The Ares Project, the Space Cadets series, The Dragon & Flagon, The Expanse, and more. He is the founder of Ludology, a bi-weekly podcast about game design in its ninth year, and a twelve-year contributor to the Dice Tower podcast with his biweekly GameTek segments discussing the math, science, and psychology of games, and has published several books, including GameTek: The Math and Science of Gaming , Achievement Relocked: Loss Aversion and Game Design, and Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design. He is on the faculty of the NYU Game Center as an adjunct professor for Board Game Design and has been invited to speak at PAX, GenCon, Metatopia, and the Game Developers Conference. When not talking about, designing, or playing games, Geoff runs Mars International, a product development firm focusing on consumer and medical device engineering. He has a BS in Physics and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.