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A platform for helping board game designers create games

9 replies [Last post]
Thu, 07/11/2019 - 01:40
riverole
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Joined: 06/27/2019

Hi!

I apologize in advance if this is not the right place or format for this post. I have been working on a web platform to help board game designers create their games. This is (and will be) a completely free platform (and with no ads), which I hope that if the interest is high enough, the new features can be implemented with the feedback from the community.

Right now, you can create your team (company), and then register your prototype game (and create a version number), create a survey with custom questions, and create a playtesting session relating a game, a version of the game and a survey. Then, you can share the code that is generated (or you can just print the QR Code) to any playtester, so you can collect the feedback and see the summary and the individual results (with some nice charts).

In the future, I am planning also to add more features, such as pdf highlighter for feedback on rulebooks by multiple people at the same time (so you can see the aggregated comments), a crowdsourced cost calculator, where a designer can enter the production and fulfillment costs, so other new designers can use them as a reference, etc...

If anyone would like to give it a try, you can test it here: www.meepleworkshop.com

Thanks a lot, and again, sorry if this was not the appropriate spot to put this.

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Thu, 07/11/2019 - 08:53
#1
Jay103
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riverole wrote:Hi! I

riverole wrote:
Hi!

I apologize in advance if this is not the right place or format for this post. I have been working on a web platform to help board game designers create their games. This is (and will be) a completely free platform (and with no ads), which I hope that if the interest is high enough, the new features can be implemented with the feedback from the community.

Right now, you can create your team (company), and then register your prototype game (and create a version number), create a survey with custom questions, and create a playtesting session relating a game, a version of the game and a survey. Then, you can share the code that is generated (or you can just print the QR Code) to any playtester, so you can collect the feedback and see the summary and the individual results (with some nice charts).

In the future, I am planning also to add more features, such as pdf highlighter for feedback on rulebooks by multiple people at the same time (so you can see the aggregated comments), a crowdsourced cost calculator, where a designer can enter the production and fulfillment costs, so other new designers can use them as a reference, etc...

If anyone would like to give it a try, you can test it here: www.meepleworkshop.com

Thanks a lot, and again, sorry if this was not the appropriate spot to put this.


Not being able to see it without creating an account is a bit of a turn-off for me :(

Obviously the main thing is what it means to "create a game" within your platform. Is it just a site that organizes play-testing sessions and feedback?

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Thu, 07/11/2019 - 09:28
#2
riverole
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Hi! Yes, next thing I wanted

Hi!
Yes, next thing I wanted to do is a better landing page with a bit of explanation of what the site is for, I agree that just a login/sign in page without even the name of the site is kind of weird. I am just using a predefined authentication block, so getting it customized is a bit of work, but I will work on it next.
You are right, registering the game (right now) is basically just to organize then the feedback that you gather. Once the functionalities expand, it might serve other purposes like you might be able to enter the costs of production, so other people can then use the anonymized data to help them estimate costs, etc...
Given that I still thing everything should be behind an account and the prototype feedback by invitation (so you cannot randomly give feedback for a game you haven't played, and that no one can see your stuff until you want the.to), do you think that aside from a better landing page with what the tool is, I should maybe do a video explanation? Or do you think something else would be helpful? Once you create the account there is already a Getting Started in the home page with the steps and a brief explanation on how to get started.

Thanks for your feedback!

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Thu, 07/11/2019 - 11:02
#3
larienna
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I am also working on a

I am also working on a platform to help designer making games. But it might not be the same thing.

My objective is to be able to implement the rules of the game in a minimalist user interface.

So that mechanics could be rapidly tested and modified. Without having to make prototypes and manually play them.

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Thu, 07/11/2019 - 11:44
#4
riverole
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larienna wrote:I am also

larienna wrote:
I am also working on a platform to help designer making games. But it might not be the same thing.

My objective is to be able to implement the rules of the game in a minimalist user interface.

So that mechanics could be rapidly tested and modified. Without having to make prototypes and manually play them.

Hi Larienna,

That sounds interesting! I would be totally open to joining forces so we can integrate your features and my features in a global platform for game designers. My only must is that it has to be free.

If this sounds like something that you would be interested in, you could PM me and we could start a conversation! I am totally open to share my github repository and backend with you, or to integrate what I already have in yours, in case you have it more advanced. All my stuff is in Github and I use AWS for the backend. Also, the name, design, etc, totally changeable, I just needed to have something so it was not a blank page, but totally open to change.

I think that having a common platform would help both of us (less generic tasks like user creation, mails, domains, etc..) and possibly other people that would want to develop other features, plus it would have easier adoption if the platform offered multiple options and was the central hub for designers tools, rather than a spread set of tools with different logins, pages, etc...

Thanks!!!

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Thu, 07/11/2019 - 14:22
#5
larienna
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Hmm! interesting. You are

Hmm! interesting. You are working on something web based? Web based stuff is not really my cup of tea.

Here is the thing, I am currently working on the "core" library in java where designer put the rules of theie game.

There is a command line terminal that interfaces with the core module called the RuleBox.

Now, Eventually I want to make another library with LibGDX that will use those rulebox but for a graphic implementation on PC and Android.

Still, basic idea is that the RuleBox could be interfaced with almost any platform. But I am not sure if it could work with a web platform.

I am also wondering if it's worth doing a web based platform. If I really need to, I could wait and use LibGDX which support WebGL.

Here is my project if you are curious. It's not very mature yet. (note: there are multiple branches)

https://gitlab.com/larienna/javalib_blackbook

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Thu, 07/11/2019 - 19:12
#6
ceethreepio
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Java can totally run on a web

Java can totally run on a web server. You just need to output in something like JSON and then write something in React/Angular/Vue etc to respond.

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Thu, 07/11/2019 - 20:11
#7
riverole
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Hi, From what I saw, it seems

Hi,

From what I saw, it seems what you are building are libraries for creating games and prototypes (eventually 3D ones). Is that correct? Would that be eventually similar to Tabletop Simulator, which allows you to create prototypes with 3D models and so? I assume then that this is more for a segment of board game designers that are also sofware developers, right?

Definitely a bit different from what Meeple Workshop is, but if there's any chance of integration I would be more than happy to talk about it. For the moment, my idea for Meeple Workshop is more focused on helping with non-technical tasks regarding the creation of a board game, like playtesting, rulebook feedback, etc... However, in the future I was thinking to maybe even allow some content from the game to be stored and accessible there, such as more flavor text based on QR code in a card, or even simple trees of decisions. Kind of similar to Chronicles of Chrime, so designers can implement similar concepts on their game without having to know anything about programming.

Anyone wants to give it a try and let me know? The UI is a bit rough, but the functionality should be there.

Thanks!

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Fri, 07/12/2019 - 12:57
#8
larienna
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Quote:From what I saw, it

Quote:
From what I saw, it seems what you are building are libraries for creating games and prototypes (eventually 3D ones). Is that correct?

Yes, but not in 3D. I hate 3D games. Right now I am only working to implement core game mechanics called the rulebox. Then once implemented, it should be possible to port the rulebox on different platform (if I did my job right).

But in the end, the main objective is an 2D Android and Desktop app that can execute the rulebox.

Quote:
Would that be eventually similar to Tabletop Simulator

Not exactly, I am designing this to break free from the restrictions of board game design (mostly time and space). Yes, you will be able to implement some board game with it, maybe not all kind of board game. But you will also be able to make turn based strategy games which cannot be "ported" as board games. So there is an overlap between both medium, but there are not exactly the same.

Quote:
so designers can implement similar concepts on their game without having to know anything about programming

For now, it will require programming, but maybe in a far future, it could be possible to implement certain type of game with only data editing. But you might still need scripting. Still, even if you need to know programming, you might not need very advanced programming knowledge. Basic conditions and loopings could be enough.

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Sun, 07/28/2019 - 00:47
#9
riverole
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Joined: 06/27/2019
New feature! Rulebook feedback!

Hi!

I have been working on this a bit more, and I have added a feature that I think should be of use for game designers! Now you can use Meeple Workshop to gather feedback for a rulebook. Basically, you can upload the pdf of your rulebook, and then create a feedback session (that creates a link), that you can share here or wherever and ask for someone else to provide comments inline in the rulebook (see the picture below). Basically the interface is similar to any word comments or similar.

https://meepleworkshopimages.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Screen+Shot+2019...

The advantages is that you can see what the other people commented (so you don't have to point out the same typos 234 times), and you can place your comments while you're reading the rulebook, which makes it very fast and it gives all the context (avoiding: "in third page, second paragraph...". Of course, it helps a lot also the person receiving the feedback, so there's not millions of comments of the same thing, and all the context is there. You can even comment pictures.

As a reminder, Meeple Workshop, this is a totally free platform: no payments at all, no advertising, and not selling your data to anyone, :D. For the moment the platform hasn't had much interest yet, so I'm going to probably take a break developing it (but keeping it alive and using it myself), until I see someone actually using the website or interested in it, :P. So, if anyone is interested, please let me know!

Anyways, thanks a lot for reading!

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