 http://bit.ly/2bF76cW Good Day Internet! Last week we took a look at some lessons from Protospiel Michigan. This week, we’re moving on to lessons we learned from attending our first Gen Con! Overall, the experience was great and we had a lot of fun: we played some games (including our own), met great people along the way, did our best to explore the entirety of the convention areas, and stayed under budget somehow (probably because we only bought two games the entire weekend). From this amazing experience we came up with 10 takeaways that every new attendee should know before their first time at Gen Con: 1) Book Early We booked our Gen Con hotel about a month after initial registration opened as our plans relied heavily on Allysha’s dance training in Buffalo the week before. We got a hotel about a 25 minute drive away with a free breakfast for me, which we thought was pretty good at the time. The drive down and back each day was clear, even on Thursday when we arrived during rush hour. However, as soon as we started walking around the Indiana Convention Center (ICC) we immediately regretted our decision. Gen Con involves a lot of walking with a backpack for water, snacks, and games, which quickly becomes tiring. Having the ability to go back to the hotel to take a nap during the day, or to leave some of your items there is very valuable. It also gives you the freedom to individually decide when your day ends (instead of having to facilitate everyone’s bedtime needs), plus you get an extra hour of gaming activities in each day. Luckily, there are many hotels close to the ICC (many with skywalks that connect them directly to the ICC) that if you book early enough you can get into. They basically sell out immediately though, so make sure you’re waiting for the housing portal on gencon.com to open, or booking a room via another route ASAP. From what we saw, you’ll be paying close to $200/night (approximately $50 more/night than what we paid) plus about $25/night for parking at the hotel. Despite the extra cost, we’ll definitely be going that route next year (and I’m pretty frugal).  Allysha thought this was nice, but not nice enough to make up for the longer walk to the ICC. 2) Parking is Quite Excellent If you do stay further away like we did this year, driving to the Indiana Convention Center and finding parking isn’t as much of a nightmare as you may think. There are plenty of parking garages and lots near the ICC (as in multiple in every block) with varying rates. We paid between $12-$30 for parking each day, depending on the day, how long we stayed, and at which parking lot. We highly suggest researching the parking lots ahead of time at downtownindy.org. To get a spectacular parking spot and avoid walking multiple blocks to get to the ICC, you’re going to have to get there pretty early (about 8am or earlier on Thursday and Friday). The furthest we walked was about 6 blocks on Thursday, and personally, I thought it was worth it as we got to see some awesome architecture on our walk to and from the ICC. Allysha, with a sore back, begged to differ. On Saturday and Sunday though you can definitely afford to sleep in (which we did) as we were able to get a parking spot in the mall parking lot a block away from the ICC at around noon both days.  http://bit.ly/2bpQRLV 3) Do a Recon on Wednesday Gen Con is MASSIVE. The Indiana Convention Center is 2 floors and covers 1.3 million square feet. Gen Con takes up all two floors of the ICC, many of the meeting rooms and lobbies of the 8 connected hotels, plus part of Lucas Oil Stadium where the Indianapolis Colts play. It is easy to get lost and overwhelmed, which we did during our recon on the Wednesday night. Luckily, there are program maps, plus general layout and Gen Con specific maps littered throughout the convention center. Take as much time as needed to walk around the convention center, get yourself acquainted with the maps, and ask questions on the Wednesday night to prevent stress come Thursday morning (especially if you have an early event).  http://bit.ly/2blMZ2R 4) Don’t get Intimidated by the Will Call Line When we arrived Wednesday night for our recon the Will Call line was approximately the entire length of the ICC, and then looped around some. We heard rumours of the line being 2 hours long and that they’d stop accepting people in line at 10pm so we decided we’d take our chances Thursday morning instead. When we arrived Thursday morning the line was only slightly smaller. We asked how long it would take and were told about 45 minutes, which we almost couldn’t believe. Turns out, 40 minutes later we were at the front desk grabbing our event tickets. Next year, we’ll definitely get our event tickets on the Wednesday evening (even if we do have to wait a little longer) to get it out of the way and give ourselves some extra sleeping time.  If you have booths you want to hit, make sure to get yourself acquainted with this map on Wednesday. 5) The Exhibitor Hall is a Dreamland We already mentioned that Gen Con is massive, and the Exhibitor Hall is one of the biggest spaces at Gen Con. There is so much going on and it was so hard to not spend all our money in the first half hour and instead simply walking by most booths to check them out. Allysha may be the one with ADHD, but we both felt like a kid in a candy store wanting to see, try, and buy everything. In terms of what you’ll see there, you’ve got: tons of publishers demoing and selling games, a lot of “geek” accessory and clothing booths (gaming table manufacturers/sellers, dice rings and geek jewellery, t-shirts, onesies, etc.), plus an artist section for both artists and writers. For a lot of Gen Con attendees this is Gen Con, and you can definitely tell by the crowds you’ll run into there (explore in small bits if you’re claustrophobic or have anxiety). However, it is only a small portion of what makes up the totality of Gen Con halls and events. It was definitely a high point for us, but we’ll probably only spend one full day, maybe plus a half day there next year because there is so much to do and see elsewhere too. If you are looking forward to a game that is releasing at Gen Con, or has a lot of buzz around it, we 100% recommend going in early on Thursday. Seafall by Plaid Hat Games sold out in a matter of hours! Our lovely friend Jonathan Lavallee also premiered his game J’accuse! at Gen Con and it sold out by Saturday (of course we got a copy), leaving many others empty-handed. If there’s a game you’re interested in get it early or it’ll be gone!  http://bit.ly/2b33QUJ 6) Seminars are Debatable We originally signed up for a lot of seminars and events, waaaaay more than we probably ever would have been able to attend. After doing our own research before the event and finding this guide (which is very useful and covers different items than we are here), we decided to cut down our seminars and events for the weekend. After cutting down, Allysha ended up with 2 scheduled seminars on Thursday and I had 3 scheduled. At the end of the last seminar on Thursday, we decided to not attend anymore for the weekend. For us, the seminars didn’t give us enough (or any) new information to justify them taking away an hour and half of our day (one hour for the seminar, plus 3o minute travel and waiting time). There was simply way better ways for us to spend our time and make connections with other gamers, which what we really wanted to do. That being said, if you see a seminar on a topic you know little or nothing about and what to learn, then you may want to check it out. As far as we know, they’re all free and you can’t beat that.  http://bzfd.it/2aY0HU0 7) Avoid Spacing out Your Schedule too Much It sounds very counterintuitive, but if you have multiple events at the same location you will suffer from splitting those events up. For us, we decided to split up our First Exposure Playtest Hall (FEPH) gamemaster slots to one each day, which ended up being a terrible choice (for us). We would have been much better off doing them all back to back and save the travel and setup time (about half an hour at least each time). In total, we could have saved at least 2 hours and not have been as worn out from walking around so much if we had done it all back to back. Of course, if we had a hotel that was connected to the ICC, this may not have been such a big deal as we also wouldn’t have had to carry around our prototype all day. Still it would have been nice to get all done and then get rid of that burden on our backs for the rest of the convention.  http://bit.ly/2bwxf9p 8) Hidden Open Gaming There are a lot of open gaming areas at Gen Con; there’s the games library (which you need to pay for, but then can stay as long as you like from what we understand), others are small events that are usually ticketed, some are just open tables in lobbies where people decided to start playing (usually pretty loud), and somewhere there’s a designated open gaming area (for free) that we didn’t find until Sunday. Turns out it was located in the tunnel connecting the ICC to the small part of Gen Con that is in Lucas Oil Stadium. It was Sunday, but it seemed to be a very quiet area (a nice bonus) due to it being tucked away from the rest of the convention and not having any secondary entrances/exits. We were fine without it this year, but will be taking advantage of it next year. Open gaming times are 8am-2am Thursday-Saturday, and 8am-3pm on Sunday.  http://bit.ly/2bm3NFD 9) Explore the Food and Architecture of Indianapolis Beyond parking lots and garages, downtown Indianapolis seems to be littered by great restaurants and amazing architecture. Although not a part of Gen Con, the nearby restaurants are often main highlights for frequent attendees as they get to get away from the mayhem of Gen Con, relax, and catch up with friends over good food and drinks. We had the great fortune of being invited by the first playtesters of Pulled into Darkness on Thursday at the FEPH, Aaron and Tara, out to lunch on Friday at Yard House. It was a fantastic time, and I only wish we had more time to try out all the draught beers they had on tap. Additionally, there are many outstanding food trucks that take over part of Georgia street for the weekend to provide quick meals to attendees. Some actually even spill over onto South Capitol Avenue and are less busy despite still having great food and the farthest one being maybe 50m away from Georgia street.  http://bit.ly/2b2W653 10) Don’t go to Dick’s Last Resort This is a public service announcement for attendees going with young children or for those who just don’t appreciate or can’t handle the humour and kinds of shenanigans that go on at Dick’s Last Resort. Dick’s Last Resort is one of the closest sit down restaurants to the Indiana Convention Center that looks to be something like a rough around the edges jungle themed cafe. However, it’s the kind of place you would suspect those who think Cards Against Humanity is absolutely the funniest thing ever would not be able to get enough of. Their motto is “service with sarcasm”, but it’s usually just crude. For example, part of the experience is a server coming by and placing/forcing a paper hat with some sort of “funny” insult on your head. The nature of the “joke” varies, but at least a few are something you would expect to see on a Cards Against Humanity card. It was also clear that they weren’t general remarks but were personally made to put on your head, so if you do have issues and insecurities with yourself watch for that. You can take your “hat” off but the waitstaff may or may not comment about how you are “being rude”. We actually watched someone who had young children walk in and immediately walked out after hearing the server getting the restaurant patrons to yell “You suck!” to a patron to wish them a happy birthday...good choice on her behalf. So if you have young children or struggle with Anxiety, mental illness or other personal insecurities, we highly suggest not going there as it can be stressful and demeaning in your eyes. And if you love that kind of humour, knock yourself out. To Conclude:
It’s been over a week since Gen Con finished and it feels like we still haven’t caught our breath. Last night we were at Snakes & Lattes Designers Night playtesting an updated version of Pulled into Darkness and this weekend we’re helping to run Toronto’s first prototype convention: ProtoTO. Designer tickets are sold out, but there are still plenty of playtester tickets available for those who want to help design the games of tomorrow. Many of the participants are published designers, including Eric Lang, Chritopher Chung, Paul Tseng, Daryl Andrews, and Francois Valentyne, or are playtesting games soon to be published. We’re going to be exhausted by the end of it, but it should be a great weekend. Next week, we’re going to get back into game design posts with “The Playtester is Right...Usually”. Thanks for dropping by! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. Take Care! Kevin
3 Comments
Good Day Internet! Welcome back! We hope you had a great July :) Our July was very hectic, but also quite enjoyable. Part of our many July travels included heading down to Protospiel Michigan from the 15th-17th. This was my second Protospiel in Michigan and third overall. During the weekend I learned a few lessons, and was reminded of some that I failed to recall from the previous year. Hopefully the following list will help to improve your prototype convention experiences (and remain fresh in my mind for next time).  http://bit.ly/2aI5zjn 1) Bring a Sweater This has nothing to do with the weather, which was quite hot all weekend, instead, it has to do with convention halls trying to make sure visitors don’t overheat by blasting the A/C. The downside to this is that by the time the sun begins to set it stops being refreshing and starts becoming uncomfortably cold. Every evening I was forced to wear my bright yellow jacket to keep warm (even then my hands were very cold and I looked forward to getting back to my hotel room to warm up). To be honest, I should have known better, but bringing a sweater never crossed my mind when packing. Beyond a sweater, I was very happy to have a water bottle that I could fill up in the bathroom after the water jugs emptied (taking one of the provided glasses to do the same just doesn’t feel quite right). Snacks were another great thing to have to survive until the typically late lunches and dinners, and I just found out this year that the area is licensed so you can bring in some beers if you’d like (it’s an easy way to make friends assuming you’re sharing).  http://bit.ly/2bfCVEG 2) Dinners are a Great Time to Connect My plan was the same this year as last year: when I got to Michigan I went and bought enough groceries to last the whole weekend. That turned out to be a mistake (something I should have known and remembered from last year). My thought process was that by not having to go out for meals I would get in more valuable playtesting time, but I missed out on the lunches and, especially, dinners with large groups of great designers and publishers. So although I managed to maximize my playtesting time, I missed out on the other half of what makes Protospiel so great: making connections. Of course, I did have the chance to make connections during playtesting, and I met a lot of great people. In terms of meeting publishers though, I didn’t. I played exactly one game with a publisher over the whole weekend, but never actually talked to them directly. Part of that is my fault for not seeking them out, which is something I definitely need to work on in the future. Next year I’m going to bring some extra cash and expect to go out a few times for meals. That way I won’t only get the bonus of making those connections, but I can potentially negotiate getting one of our games in front of a publisher after our meal. From what I’ve seen, it seems that groups that go out together for meals always come back and immediately sit down to play a game by one of the designers. I can only assume that happened by discussing it during their meal.  http://bit.ly/2baxMjY 3) The Best Designers ask Questions This is something we’ve been touting for a while, but it comes to light every prototyping convention: There is no shortage of people with (strong) opinions on games at these conventions (including the game designer). Opinions are fine (you’ll always hear a wide range of opinions on your game(s) at prototyping conventions), but when a designer asks for feedback and then defends their game to no end (especially experienced designers), it’s very tiring. When I see a designer looking for feedback by asking more questions, writing them down, and processing/working them out, I get excited about the development of the game (regardless if my feedback is taken or not). This indicates to me that they are open to trying new ideas that they may not like but instead, may be good for the game. More importantly, it indicates that the designer is passionate about making the game the best it can be, and making themselves the best designer they can be. That’s the kind of designer you want to be. The one who is eagerly asking questions for feedback and willing to try new things. If you make it to Protospiel, Unpub, or another prototyping convention, pick the brains of the designers and publishers on general game design and the world of publishing. There is a lot of great knowledge out there so take advantage of it (at Protospiel Madison 2015 we got to pick the brains of Jay Little which was awesome). Your game, and your knowledge of game design will improve by leaps and bounds.  http://bit.ly/2avViYV 4) Conventions are Better Together Somehow I managed to be the one person out (literally) near the end of the convention on Sunday. Everyone was in game or mid-discussion for playtest feedback, which I didn’t want to interrupt. Last year I went down with three other people (including Allysha). This year I definitely missed them and especially Allysha for the times when I didn’t know what table to head too (when they were clearly all full), and when I needed someone to bounce ideas off of. Find someone to bring down with you to these conventions. It’s a great time for everyone (including playtesters who have never playtested games before) and it’s so much better to have someone you can always just hangout with and discuss ideas. July was hectic and August is only slightly less so. We were in Buffalo from July 26th to August 2nd for dance training for Allysha (there’s a reason we’re called Dancing Giant Games). During that time we headed out to meet Dan of Letiman Games in Rochester to do some playtesting and I headed down to playtest some games at Spielbany on the Saturday in Albany. At Dan’s we had the privilege of playing the very cute Gadgeteers which will launch on Kickstarter at the end of the month. Spielbany was a much smaller gathering than usual, but still a great time with some great people (and we still highly recommend it). We’ve also been working on revamping Swept Ashore and making minor adjustments to Pulled into Darkness.
Speaking of which, we had a great time at GenCon this past weekend and specifically playtesting Pulled into Darkness and Swept Ashore at the First Exposure Playtest Hall. We met a lot of great people and learned some lessons there too, which we’ll mention in next week’s recap blog. Hopefully our hiatus wasn’t too long for you guys, it’s really great to be back! Thanks for dropping by! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. Take Care! Kevin  http://bit.ly/294serh Good Day Internet! Today we’re going to discuss some of the things you may do during a regular game night that you should avoid when playtesting and explaining your game. We’ve already covered explaining your game to playtesters and preparing for external playtesting, but with us getting into the heart of convention season (Protospiel, GenCon, and so many others) we thought it would be a good time to revisit these topics from a slightly different perspective. So this week we’re talking once again about presenting your game to playtesters with more of a focus on how it’s different than a normal game night: a semi-formal presentation with a purpose compared to playing with friends at home. 1) Avoid Discussing Tactics or Strategy During a regular game night, you may help new player(s) by giving them some tactical and strategic tips as well as suggestions to help them contend with the rest of the group. When playtesting though, you need to avoid this at all costs: you’re not interested in how “well” your playtesters play the game. What you are interested in is seeing how your game performs under as many different circumstances as possible, including different tactics, strategies, and player experience--which in turn may reveal why certain players do well. You also need to recognize that not every playtester is going to be clueless on what to do. Experienced board gamers and playtesters will usually figure out a strategy or potential way to break your game quickly and put it into action--your job is to let them figure that out on their own and stay out of their way. You’ll get way more useful feedback by observing how they play and manipulate the game rather than by telling them how they should play your game.  http://bit.ly/290dAiB 2) Don’t be an Alpha Gamer You should always be available and willing to help with rule clarification and interpretation. However, under no circumstance should you be playing the game for your playtesters. The decisions should always be in the hands of your playtesters without any interference from you. You should do your best to tell playtesters what their options are as they would be described in your rules. Don’t give them examples of plays they can make, like you might do during a regular game night. Let the playtesters ask questions and figure it out themselves. Part of the data you want to collect is how easy your game is to learn and how intuitive it is; the only time you want to step in with what a player can do is if they literally are doing nothing and have no idea what is going on. Sidenote: if this happens during your playtest there’s a good chance you have something to fix either in your game or explanation. Try not to look at this as a negative though; rather, look at it as a learning experience in improving your game and/or explanation.  http://bit.ly/292oCoC 3) Avoid Discussing Other Playtesters’ Feedback Until After the Game Gamers usually love discussing how previous games and situations have played out as well as previous players’ plans and thoughts on/for the game. Although a big part of the social aspect of board gaming and playtesting, it can be detrimental during playtests. You want to avoid influencing your playtesters’ feedback before they’ve made their own conclusions. Hopefully your playtesters will think for themselves, but you don’t want to take a chance that they’ll just agree with what you’ve told them a lot of playtesters have said before. Besides, you’ll most likely have the chance once the playtest finishes to let playtesters know you’ve had similar feedback before and are working on solutions. Before you do though, listen attentively to your playtesters feedback, ask followup questions, and don’t shut down ideas. Then you can talk about the feedback you’ve had before and have a discussion around those points.  http://bit.ly/296Qjwc 4) Be Helpful, Kind, Happy, and an Active Observer
Okay, you probably want to be some of these things at your regular game night, but they’re even more important during playtests. You should make your playtesters feel comfortable even while you’re attentitively watching them play your game. It’s important to remember that your playtesters aren’t machines or guinea pigs--they have feelings and want to be heard too. Appreciate and accept incoming opinions, and keep an open mind when it comes to feedback and critiques you receive. The only thing you don’t want to do in terms of attitude is bring in artificial enthusiasm for your game. Part of being an active observer is being involved in the playtest--give the group your time and attention, even if you are not playing. Pay attention to aspects of the game you did/didn’t expect, think about those moments and ask questions about them. Playtesters will only comment and give feedback on what stood out to them in the experience. By being observant you can ask questions and get feedback on other important aspects of your game that may not immediately come to mind for your playtesters. That’s it for this week. We hope this helps you as you go around playtesting your game during convention season. Speaking of which, due to our participation in Protospiel, GenCon, and helping to organize ProtoTO (plus other commitments) we’re going to have to take a small hiatus from the blog for the next month. If we get a chance though, we’ll post some content on our adventures at Protospiel and Gencon. We will also still be active on our twitter and facebook--so make sure to follow us there. Along with moving, and travelling for Allysha’s work, we’ve got lots to do to get Pulled into Darkness and our island survival game: Swept Ashore updated and ready for critique. However, we’re getting pretty confident with the play of Pulled into Darkness, and depending how these events go we hope to start working towards getting Pulled into Darkness published! Thanks for dropping by! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. Take Care! Kevin  Good Day Internet! Today we’re going to discuss what to keep in mind when creating your own Print and Play (PnP) for blind playtesting. For those who have never heard this term, a Print and Play is a set of electronic files that allow willing playtesters to print off (almost) everything they need to play your game at home. This would include the rule set, and files to create paper copies of all components. Many PnPs are available online on various forums and websites, but you also have the option to email your files or grant access to them on platforms like Google Docs to select personnel. Through creating our own Print and Play for Pulled into Darkness and playing multiple Print and Plays from other creators we’ve learned a lot of tips and tricks on how to make a Print and Play more playtester friendly! 1) Provide a Theme and Mechanics Overview in Your Post You need to be able to catch potential playtesters’ attention before they even open any of your files. Therefore, it’s important to have a short, well-rounded overview of what your game is in your post. That way potential playtesters can get an idea of if your game is for them and worth looking into more. Furthermore, most playtesters aren’t going to click through to your PnP files unless you give them a reason to; they’ll most likely skim the overview and decide whether or not to from there. So only cover the basic theme and mechanics, and keep it short. As an example, take a look at our original post for Pulled into Darkness on boardgamegeek.  http://bit.ly/28Lq7oG 2) Provide the Basic Board Game Stats Number of players, play time, and type of game should be prominently shown near the top of your post. Some of these should also be included in your post title if posting your PnP on a forum. These stats let your potential playtesters know at a glance if they can play your game or want to. However, don’t deceive your playtesters. If your game doesn’t play 2 players and takes 2 hours, don’t say it plays 2 players and only takes an hour just to get more interest. It’s hard enough to get people to play Print and Plays, don’t chase them away with lies. 3) Be Upfront About Required Additional Components Whether you post your PnP on your own site or on a forum like the boardgamegeek Works in Progress forum, part of your original post needs to tell players if they will require any additional components not provided in your files. There is nothing more frustrating than committing to printing off a PnP only to find that you don’t have all the components you need to play the game. Let your players know upfront in the post (not just in the rules) if they will require extra components. Additionally, you need to be practical about how many extra components you can reasonably expect your playtesters to have on hand. If your game requires 150 tokens in 10 different colours and shapes you’re probably going to want to provide files for those in the PnP. Even if it’s not that many, you could still provide them on their own sheets in the PnP and then if a playtester happens to already have those components they simply don’t print off those sheets. Again, if you do such a thing, remember to explain that in your original post.  http://bit.ly/28MKuB0 4) Avoid Round Components if Possible For your first PnP, you want to make it as easy as possible for players to get up and running with your game. Round components are more time consuming to cut out than triangle, square, or rectangle components, so you should eliminate round components wherever possible. Also, when it comes to cards most playtesters won’t cut rounded corners, so don’t waste your time putting those in. When you have a game that has proven to be good, and art that brings out the theme and looks aesthetically pleasing your playtesters will be more willing to spend the time cutting out components. 5) Provide a Black and White Version Not everyone wants to spend the money or has the option to print in colour, but there can be information loss printing a coloured version of a PnP in black and white (the amount of information loss depends on the number of similar tones and how they’re combined). Therefore, you should provide a black and white version of your game for those people, but remember to keep colour variants where it matters. For instance, unless your game is strictly solo or 2-player, you should keep colour in player pieces. You could also use symbols instead which is more friendly to colour blind players. Although you may not have any colour blind playtesters for your game, it’s always a good idea to keep them in mind and be inclusive when choosing player colours or by utilizing symbols for player pieces instead.  http://bit.ly/28MxuO1 6) Appropriate Access
If you’re granting access to your documents online be careful to make sure your playtesters don’t have full access to edit your entire documents. Chances are they won’t destroy everything you’ve worked so hard on, but they might (even if only accidentally). If sharing access on a PDF or Google Docs use ‘Can View’ on your share settings to make sure your playtesters can’t do anything to your document. You may also want to use a watermark on your documents to prevent any fraud or theft (although I’ve been told removing a permanent watermark is easy if you know what you’re doing). The other option on Google Docs is to use the ‘Can Comment’ share setting to allow your playtesters to put their feedback directly into your rules without finalizing any changes. This is extremely helpful for applying your playtester feedback afterwards, but it will make your rules messy and harder to navigate for later playtesters. If you looked at our PnP you may have noticed that we didn’t follow all of these tips and tricks. All of our spaceships are circles, we didn’t put a mechanics description on our website, and we didn’t provide a black and white version (although that would have required some creativity on our behalf). In retrospect, we probably could have made the spaceships triangles, and it would have been easy to include a mechanics description on our website. The reality is that you’ll probably never create an initial PnP for a game that everyone loves, but there are ways to make it stand out a little better. We’ll definitely be trying to improve our PnP for the next version and apply what we’ve learned so far. After we return from GenCon we’ll be working hard to get that up and running so check back soon for updates! That’s it for this week. Next week we’ll put out a last minute, scrambled blog post after a week of packing in preparation for moving! Perhaps the packing will inspire us to write about organization of mechanics and making a working ‘turn order’ in game. We’ll see. Thanks for dropping by! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. Take Care! Kevin  http://bit.ly/1UQ3tdm Good Day Internet! Today we’re going to discuss our top 7 tips on editing your rulebook. We’ve tried to tailor this list to focus on tabletop rulebook specific editing, but of course we can’t ignore good old editing practices. We’ll go over what to look for, and what you can do about it to make sure these mistakes don’t make it through to your final rulebook. Use Board-Game-Specific Terminology While trying to be as specific and detailed as possible, new(er) board game designers sometimes forget there’s common board game terminology they can use to simplify their rules. We’ve seen designers write multiple sentences on the step by step procedure on how to shuffle cards when the deck runs out. This, of course, is unnecessary. You need to recognize what common terms in board gaming players are going to understand without further explanation and then only explain what differs from that standard. To give a clearer example of what simple board game terminology is think of the games you played when you were little: Candy Land, Connect 4, Chutes and Ladders. Those instructions are simple enough for kids to learn (roll and move, shuffle, tallying methods) that they became common board and card terminology in later years (they’ve also been around forever), so remember to consider this when writing your rules.  http://bit.ly/1UQ4q5D Avoid Unspecific Pronouns You need to be absolutely certain when using pronouns (you, it, one, that, they, each, few, many, who, whoever, whose, etc.) in your rulebook that they can only be interpreted as referring to a single noun. You should always identify which nouns are within the sentence with the pronoun and in the previous sentence to make sure that pronoun can be used without confusion. Remember as well that one type of component (for instance, a particular type of card) can have multiple locations in game (in hand, in a market, on the board, in the discard pile, etc.). So even if it’s clear that the pronoun refers to a single game component, it may not be clear in what location that game component is (see our Tsuro example from last week’s blog). In general, it’s usually better using the noun or proper noun instead of a pronoun because then there’s no confusion or room from misinterpretation on behalf of the reader. Also, don’t forget about those old editing techniques you learned in high school or other secondary institutions--don’t start a sentence with “and”, “this”, “that”; never use the word “thing” or “something”; that sort of stuff. Appropriate Tone In general, we suggest that you don’t use comical or conversational writing in your rulebook. It usually unnecessarily increases the length of the rules and can decrease clarity (both bad things). Of course, it depends on the type of game you’re making though. Your rulebook should be written more as an instructional so that it gets the point across clearly in the fewest words possible. The only time you may want to include something like a comical tone in a rulebook is if it adds to the theme of the game. Even so, writing in a comical or conversational tone usually works better when you have a shorter rulebook. Players want to play your game, not read your rulebook. If you increase the time between learning the game and playing, your players won’t be impressed. Therefore, it’s best to stick with a tone that informs and instructs with authority to get players up and running with your game as quick as possible.  http://bit.ly/21joqlU Write in Second (not Third) Person You should be writing as if you’re speaking directly to the reader; using terms like “you” and “your” instead of “a player” or “their”. It makes the rules more personal and assists in reader comprehension and retention. If players actually see themselves playing the game when reading the rules, they’ll be more interested and involved in reading them. Formatting Consistency The general rule for formatting is if you’ve done it once, you need to do it all the way through. If you put a component in quotations, you need to do it for every other component throughout the rulebook. Your formatting consistency is going to assist in players understanding what you’re talking about in addition to making your rulebook easier to read. The same goes for overall rulebook format--group things together (or put things near each other) that are connected to one another. Part of editing means considering flow of the rulebook, how much you have to flip through pages and how many questions can be almost immediately answered by the rules. Have Multiple Sets of Eyes Edit This is mostly to make sure that mistakes aren’t missed, but it’s also important for making sure the style and tone (as previously mentioned) is appropriate. Different editors like certain things done different ways, and you want to make sure that your editor’s bias or preference (or your own) towards a certain style or tone doesn’t conflict with what’s best for your rulebook. Every single person interprets every single thing differently--so although you might think you’re being professional and forward, others might think you are being passive and not explaining things fully. Basically, two editors is better than one.  http://bit.ly/1Uh1MbJ Print It Out and Read Aloud
Both of these steps help to ensure you don’t miss anything in the editing process. As humans, we have a tendency to skim over words when we’re editing a familiar piece and that is magnified when you read off a computer screen and in your head. When you print out your rules and read aloud, you may notice you’ve left out a word that hasn’t been caught the first ten times you went over your rulebook. Other things you may want to consider when reading aloud: does it flow? Does the order make sense? Can you actually read this without tripping over the words? Other tips to help ensure you don’t miss anything are reading your rulebook backwards or changing the font. These tips trick your brain into thinking you’re reading something new so you don’t skim ahead. By following these 7 tips, you’ll be able to greatly improve the quality of your rulebook, as well as constructively critique other rulebooks. That’s it for this week. I’d like to thank Allysha for telling me what I was supposed to include in this blog post (and for editing my occasionally lackluster writing every week). Next week, we’ll do a post on things that don’t require me to bother Allysha so much as she’ll be studying for her Summer exams ;) Thanks for dropping by! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. Take Care! Kevin |
Kevin CarmichaelBoard game designer and developer discussing the ins and outs of game design. 
Archives
June 2018
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
|
|
Copyright © 2016