The Board Game Designer's Guide: The Easy 4 Step Process to Create Amazing Games That People Can't Stop Playing

“Without a doubt, if I had read Joe’s book back in 1989, it would have accelerated my progress and potential as a game designer by decades.”

– Jamey Stegmaier, designer of Scythe

Do you have a board game idea, but don’t know how to get it out of your head and onto the table? Have you made a game, but now it's just sitting in a closet somewhere? Have you been working on your game for a while, but you don't know what to do next?

Discover how to create your own game, make a memorable experience for your players, and be confident knowing how to share your game with the world in the way that’s right for you.

The Board Game Designer's Guide will give you all the tools and inspiration you need to create the game you’ve always wanted to play. It’s the definitive guide to getting started in board game design.

Here is a look at the Table of Contents:

Section 1: Getting Started and Generating Ideas
1 Why You Need to Design a Board Game
2 Play Lots of Games!
3 Write it Down!
4 Protect Your Idea?

Section 2: Mindset
5 Stay Focused!
6 Finding Motivation to Work on Your Game
7 You Have to Give Before You Get (Help Others First)
8 Working on One Game vs. Many
9 Getting Unstuck

Section 3: Key Elements and Considerations
10 Your Vision for Your Game
11 Player Experience and Feeling
12 Theme vs. Mechanics
13 Things to Keep in Mind

Section 4: Designing and Playtesting Your Game
14 Tools and Resources
15 Minimum Viable Prototype (MVP)
16 How to Run Your First Playtest
17 Ongoing Playtests
18 Iterate Quickly (Test, Test, Test!)
19 Finalizing Your Rules
20 Unguided Playtesting

Section 6: How to Turn a Good Game into an Amazing Game
21 How to Create an Innovative Board Game (and Why This is so Important)
22 Marrying the Theme and Mechanics in Your Board Game
23 Why You Need to Simplify Your Game
24 How to Surprise Your Players (and Why You Want to do This)
25 Creating Memorable Moments in Your Game
26 Incentivizing Players and Providing Them With Some Direction
27 How to Keep Players Engaged
28 Balancing Your Game
29 3 Things You Can Do to Make Your Game a Better Product
30 Creating Compelling Victory Conditions
31 Applying Restrictions in Your Game the Right Way
32 The 2 Types of Randomness and How to Apply Them to Your Game
33 Why Nobody Likes Ties and How to Break Ties in Your Game

Section 6: Finishing Your Game
34 Knowing When Your Game is Done
35 Art/Design/Layout (Look and Feel)
36 Prototyping

Section 7: Now That Your Game is Done (What’s Next?)
37 Choices/Options
38 Pitching to Publishers (Traditional)
39 Self-Publishing
40 Other Alternatives
41 Don’t Quit Your Day Job… Yet

Appendix
Glossary of Terms
References & Suggested Resources
A Partial List of Board Game Publishers

“If you have a game idea and [are] wondering how to bring it to life - this book is your definitive first step.”

– Artem Safarov, designer of smash hit, Unbroken

“Having something like this two years ago when I first started to get into the hobby would have been a big help.”

– Matthew Hester, game designer