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2022 Tabletop Mentorship Program

8 replies [Last post]
Thu, 07/21/2022 - 14:47
The Professor
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Greetings, Fellow Designers!

I'm curious to know if there are any BGDF folks who have signed-up for this year's Tabletop Mentorship Program. There are hundreds of Mentees and quite a number of Mentors, of which I'm proud to to have been selected and serve as a Mentor for this iteration. For those of you are interested, here's the link to see what it's all about: https://www.tabletopmentorship.org/

From the site: Mentorships connect one up-and-coming tabletop creators with an experienced creator in their field. Mentors and mentees meet for a minimum of 30 minutes online twice a month for three months, and they join our thriving community of creators. Our mentorships are open to tabletop creators of all interests and experience levels.

I'm excited to be a part of this Mentor community. As such, I've pushed off my Professor's Lab work with Academy, Stonemaier, and Thunderworks Games for a few months as I'm working with a designer out of Toronto, Canada. I'm curious to hear your stories of past (or current) experiences with the Tabletop Mentorship Program.

Cheers,
Joe

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Sat, 07/23/2022 - 03:55
#1
gamesomuch
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maybe next year

Hi Joe,
I didn't know about that program until I read your post - thanks for the heads up. I'll be looking into it next year once I have more of a grounding in game design. It appears to be aimed at designers of all levels but I'm guessing it would be more fruitful if the mentee has a design (or several) well underway and looking to take it to the next level.
Glen

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Sat, 07/23/2022 - 14:15
#2
The Professor
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Understandable

Glen,

Your thoughts are spot-on. Take the time to design your game to a point at which a developer (speaking from this perspective) can assist you. Many of the Mentees from whom I could have been paired were not so far along that road.

Now, I should tell you that this program also has Mentors who can assist with advertising, marketing, running a KS, fulfillment and delivery.

Good luck and I hope to see you out there next year.

Cheers,
Joe

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Fri, 08/05/2022 - 23:45
#3
MarkD1733
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I am a mentee/protege this season

I heard about it at UNPUB and learned about it from a fellow game designer. I have had two meetings with my mentor so far. It has started out good with my mentor giving some good feedback based on his game design philosophy. Overall, I think it is a great program. It's good to have a goal in mind so that the mentor can help focus appropriately, but you request the type of mentor you want according to three categories. If anyone wants to know more about how it's going, let me know, and I will keep you posted on here.

Mark

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Sat, 08/06/2022 - 03:33
#4
gamesomuch
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I'd like to hear about your experience

Hi Mark, I'd like to hear more about your mentee experience. What are the 3 categories you mentioned? What is your main goal?
Thanks
Glen

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Sat, 08/06/2022 - 07:09
#5
The Professor
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Great stuff

Mark,

That's wonderful to hear that you've received guidance and direction from your Mentor. Hopefully, you're able to forge a relationship which will last well beyond the several months of the program.

Cheers,
Joe

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Sun, 08/07/2022 - 02:00
#6
MarkD1733
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categories and goal

The categories are:

Challenger
Cheerleader
Connector
Educator
Ideator

...and you can choose more than one as appropriate to your goal(s).

My goal is simply to get to a pitchable prototype by the end of October, with my ultimate goal of pitching to a particular publisher by the end of the year. The goal aligns well with the timing of the program...basically 3 months to get my game set up both in physical and digital form (for virtual gameplay).

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Tue, 08/09/2022 - 20:04
#7
The Professor
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Mentor Category?

Mark,

As an Educator-Cheerleader Mentor, what type of Mentor is assisting you?

Cheers,
Joe

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Sun, 08/21/2022 - 19:46
#8
The Professor
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One month down, two to go!

The first month has proven exciting and fruitful as my Mentee and I have had two successful meetings. Following the first meeting, during which we talked about broad concepts, I recommended that he takes the next two weeks to outline the rules.

During the second meeting, we discussed the rules with greater specificity and a number of already published games and their mechanics. Next time, we'll talk about potential publishers, as I've had the opportunity to work with a number of them across the industry.

The Mentorship Program has a great number of benefits for budding designers.

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