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Building First Prototype

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Fri, 07/18/2014 - 15:30
Foulstrike
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Joined: 07/18/2014

So, I'm designing my first ever board game and I'm about to build my first prototype. Any tips on materials to use or just other first time advice?

Also, I'm very serious about getting this game play tested and a final product ready within 1 year. I'm going to build my prototype for some local play testing at my local game store and just other avenues in my city, but I really want to hit up some Cons and high volume events where I can present a polished prototype to help raise interest in my game.

As such I've started a gofundmepage: http://www.gofundme.com/bp9ojg

I'm asking for help in making this dream come true. If you find the information on my game interesting, all I ask is that you share the page and just help other people see it that might also be interested. I'm just trying to get help with funding for producing the polished prototypes that I will travel with once I've play tested in my local community thoroughly.

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Fri, 07/18/2014 - 15:45
#1
jejboulet
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Joined: 01/11/2014
have you taken a look at print on demand companies?

Hi John,

If you are ready to take the game to your local store you probably have in mind something beyond paper and sharpy components, right? Have you looked into print on demand companies like The Game Crafter (http://thegamecrafter.com)?

Print on demand is a great option for your prototype because you can get yourself one or more copies quite affordably. If the components required for your game do not need to be custom designed you might even consider trying to sell a few of those copies. One of the only downsides I've run across with print on demand is that you sometimes have to make do with whatever plastic or wooden tokens they have on hand, but for many games their selection is more than you need.

I'm working on my first game as we speak and have started a small blog to store helpful advice and links for people like us at https://www.tumblr.com/blog/jejboulet.

Good luck!

Jacques

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Fri, 07/18/2014 - 15:48
#2
Foulstrike
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Joined: 07/18/2014
I'll definitely have to check

I'll definitely have to check into. Thanks for sharing that info with me. Once the prototype is done I'm ready to take it to the game store for play testing, not to try and sell yet by any means. Our game store does a lot of open gaming and I could probably get them to work with me on play testing a new game. I'd definitely like something a little more professional looking that I could probably do myself, but not too expensive as I'm sure a lot of little changes will need to be made.

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Fri, 07/18/2014 - 22:15
#3
DifferentName
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Joined: 09/08/2013
I recommend keeping your

I recommend keeping your first prototypes incredibly simple, cause it might not play like you imagine, and rules change a lot in the beginning.

I print all of my prototypes. Just for play testing of course, not for reviews or early sales or whatever.

For cards, I print images, 9 to a sheet of paper, then cut them out, and put them in a card sleeve along with a magic card to give it some weight. For tiles, I recently used mat board, gluing a printed sheet of paper to the mat board, then cutting it after it dries. There are sticker sheets and blank dice to make custom dice.

What components do you need for your game?

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Sun, 07/20/2014 - 22:24
#4
Zag24
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Joined: 03/02/2014
Your first prototype tool...

I've prototyped a few games. My first pass was just to get packs of index cards and write on them with markers. This is only good enough for solo playtesting, which you should do a fair bit of. (That's where you play all the players and try to make reasonable plays for each one. It's very hard to do in the simultaneous-action games I like to make, where bluffing or outguessing your opponent is a big part of it.

Anyway, the first real outlay you should make for tools (besides your computer and printer, I guess) is a guillotine-style paper cutter. You can buy card stock pretty cheaply, then cut out very serviceable cards with your cutter. Once you get the hang of it, you can crank them out pretty fast. It's probably the same cost, per card, as drivethrucards.com or makeplayingcards.com, but the ability to go from images to in-your-hands in an hour or two is worth the slightly reduced quality.

If you have a significant number of cards (that is, more than four), I recommend you search for the free product Nandeck and learn how to use it. There's a little bit of a learning curve, but it is totally worth it. When you realize that you need to make the circle surrounding the card cost a couple of pixels smaller, just for the two cards that are a bit crowded, you'll be glad that you make that change in one place for all the cards and just reprint them.

Good luck!

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Thu, 07/24/2014 - 20:30
#5
Ecarots
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Joined: 08/23/2013
use cardstock

If you're going to print your own cards to test do it on 110# card stock,office stores carry it. it is stiff enough to give you cards to play with without mounting or mating them with playing cards for stiffness.

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