where to start ?

Welcome comfused!

This is just a quick basic rant, there are many other ways to go about creating your first game. But I suggest you start with a theme and then add and remove game mechanics that help you portrait your theme.

There is a lot of information here in the forums, but it might take you time to read through the posts.

One simple way to *start* a game, think about a theme that you would like to create a game around. Once you have the theme you can start breaking down game ideas (or game mechanics) that help portrait the theme.

For example:
Zombie Pirates take New York City!

From this theme you might start to think about how do I portrait Zombie Pirates invading NYC? One idea, maybe they come in on pirate ships off the coast line. So maybe you create a game mechanic that causes zombies pirates to invade from the coast line each turn. Thus the longer the game takes the more zombie pirates that get a chance to invade NYC.

From there you might think, ok what should the players be doing? They are going to stop the zombie invasion, but how? And you start to think about ways to allow your players to stop the zombies.

You will continue the iterative process until you have a game that seems to fit your theme, and plays well enough to give players enjoyment!

Hi comfused,

Reading BGG is a great start, knowing what's out there and what's possible should give you a good foundation to start. I've learned a lot about game design from reading the The Games Journal, there's a fair number of articles on game design organized in the Topic archives http://thegamesjournal.com/Archives.php?Sort=1.

For their first game, (myself included) I've seen many people take the kitchen-sink approach and throw in everything they've liked in other games; this normally turns out poorly and requires a lot of revision to get the mechanics to mesh. My advice is to start out small with just a few ideas and build from there, either inspired by a theme you like or an interesting mechanic you've seen that might be tweaked.

In any case, get a working prototype (quality doesn't matter, as long as it's playable) as soon as possible, don't let it just stew in your head for weeks or months, because the best way to see how a game works is by playing it.

Good luck,

Mark

Naughty boy.

Traditionally one misses the forest for the trees, not the other way around.... but this still works!

~Josh

Eh, whatever. Just dont try to lead your chickens to water before they hatch. :-D

seems everybody starts with a theme
but what with these fast paced cardgames ?
geschenkt - nicht die boone - take 5 - ..

Hiya comfused... There are basically two ways to approach game design. One is to start with a theme, and then think about what kind of mechanics would work with that theme. Another way to approach is to start with a mechanic, and then think about what kind of theme that mechanic could fit into, or perhaps one could decide to leave the game abstract.

Both ways are valid. There's no "best" approach. Designing a game is a fluid proces. Sometimes you come up with a theme that suggest a mechanic, which suggests another mechanic, but which goes better with a different theme, so you adjust your theme, etc. Just go with whatever inspires you most and don't try to get locked into a certain theme, or a particular mechanic.

Hi there newbie ^_^ (as if we all never been).
as most of the people replied, start with the theme and build around it the mechanics, that's the easy way. but I have a slightly different approach, after I think about the theme and the ganre of the game, I take it as alive RPG and start convert it to a board game, and that's gives you a mechanic. that's at least gives me the basis of the game and from there imagination can only stop you.

about your game, well the "Ultimatum game" can be a good mechanic but not the core of the game, that's my opinion at least, and in any case try a few games with your friend and see how you feel about it...testing is not less important than sitting next to the skatch board.

Intersting Ideas

I am also just beginning need to know what to do next.
I have an idea for a game somewhat similar to chess but where the pieces actually "plug in" to the board. Have written most of the steps for the game and some general rules and the idea for basic board design is in my head, but need a few suggestions on the design/style for "plug in" pieces. The other thing that would be helpful would be suggestions on marketing/ further development etc.