I don't have any intention of ever designing a board game, but I've just binged through your entire channel because it was cool to learn about a whole new world that I'd never thought about before! Thanks for sharing your passion, and all the best for your upcoming games!! :)
I will add that after your playtest, you may decide to archive the game rather than update it and play it again. My video How to Tell Your Board Game Idea Sucks goes through how to tell when your game should be archived rather than continuing to work on it: ruclips.net/video/vknx1fcpe88/видео.html
2:00 it's not just about etiquette or giving back to the community either, you get so much more of a 360 view by playtesting other people's prototypes. You might get some inspiration, it helps tremendously with letting go of your own tunnel vision, getting in the creative atmosphere and helping others with their design choices is a great feeling and helps you better contextualize your own ideas and prototypes. Besides, it's just great fun! :)
So true! Like, if you don't get excited over other people's cool ideas just as much as your own, can you even really call yourself a gamer? That's why finding a community of like minded folks is such a blessing.
@@emmanuelukachu_lups No, you don't need to get a copyright for your game. The benefit from getting feedback from playtesters far outweighs any potential risk that someone will steal your idea (which is very low).
@@emmanuelukachu_lups copyright exists upon the moment of creation. the benefit of registering it is that it gives you essentially an official timestamp if there are any legal issues down the road and you otherwise have no way to prove when it was made. note that the 'poor man's copyright' is nonsense -- mailing it to yourself without opening it isn't going to hold up in court.
First and foremost: Did you have fun? I can usually tell if the mechanics are working the way I want or not. What I can't tell is whether it's enjoyable to play, especially since my brain works so differently than most people's. So the main thing I want to know is, *is there something worth pursuing in this design*. If nobody had fun, it's time to go back to zero and reevaluate.
@@NevTheDeranged I got the meetup app and paid for the organizer thing, but almost nobody uses the app here. I still try to convince people to use it, but it has little to no effect... As for conventions and events, we have a few, but most of them have us (the board game designers) as the extra thing at the back, so people are not interested in playing most of the times. For example, in the last event (final weekend of last mont), I was there for 2 days, and ended up deciding to play solo so I had at least tested my game once in the event... There's one event that is 100% for boardgames, but that happens once a year, and even then the participation to test national games is low in my standards. I "lived" in london for a month and a half at the beginning of this year, and had more chances to test my prototype there than the rest of this year here...
I don't have any intention of ever designing a board game, but I've just binged through your entire channel because it was cool to learn about a whole new world that I'd never thought about before! Thanks for sharing your passion, and all the best for your upcoming games!! :)
Oh wow, that is so cool, Steve! Thanks so much for watching and I’m glad you enjoyed my videos :)
I will add that after your playtest, you may decide to archive the game rather than update it and play it again. My video How to Tell Your Board Game Idea Sucks goes through how to tell when your game should be archived rather than continuing to work on it: ruclips.net/video/vknx1fcpe88/видео.html
2:00 it's not just about etiquette or giving back to the community either, you get so much more of a 360 view by playtesting other people's prototypes. You might get some inspiration, it helps tremendously
with letting go of your own tunnel vision, getting in the creative atmosphere and helping others with their design choices is a great feeling and helps you better contextualize your own ideas and prototypes. Besides, it's just great fun! :)
Yes, yes and yes! 🙌
So true! Like, if you don't get excited over other people's cool ideas just as much as your own, can you even really call yourself a gamer? That's why finding a community of like minded folks is such a blessing.
@@NevTheDeranged 💯
I'm new to the Boardgames family. I'm glad I came across this channel. I have designed 35+ different boardgames
Wow that's great! Thanks for being here 🙌
What questions do you like to ask your playtesters?
Should I do a copyright on my boardgames before letting it out to playtester?
@@emmanuelukachu_lups No, you don't need to get a copyright for your game. The benefit from getting feedback from playtesters far outweighs any potential risk that someone will steal your idea (which is very low).
@@emmanuelukachu_lups copyright exists upon the moment of creation. the benefit of registering it is that it gives you essentially an official timestamp if there are any legal issues down the road and you otherwise have no way to prove when it was made. note that the 'poor man's copyright' is nonsense -- mailing it to yourself without opening it isn't going to hold up in court.
First and foremost: Did you have fun?
I can usually tell if the mechanics are working the way I want or not. What I can't tell is whether it's enjoyable to play, especially since my brain works so differently than most people's. So the main thing I want to know is, *is there something worth pursuing in this design*. If nobody had fun, it's time to go back to zero and reevaluate.
@@NevTheDeranged yes, for sure! If the players aren't having fun, then what's the point?
where I live, getting playtesters is extremely difficult, and the other designers never test their games
Do you have a local meetup? Or even an annual Protospiel event? If not, maybe it's time to start one!
@@NevTheDeranged I got the meetup app and paid for the organizer thing, but almost nobody uses the app here. I still try to convince people to use it, but it has little to no effect...
As for conventions and events, we have a few, but most of them have us (the board game designers) as the extra thing at the back, so people are not interested in playing most of the times. For example, in the last event (final weekend of last mont), I was there for 2 days, and ended up deciding to play solo so I had at least tested my game once in the event...
There's one event that is 100% for boardgames, but that happens once a year, and even then the participation to test national games is low in my standards.
I "lived" in london for a month and a half at the beginning of this year, and had more chances to test my prototype there than the rest of this year here...