I recently reflected on why I design games (See my blog: http://berlingamedesign.blogspot.com/2011/06/why-do-i-design-games.html)
and I thought it might be interesting to open up the question to all of you here at BGDF.
So, why do you do it? Any other reasons other than those I've mentioned? Feel free to post answers on my blog as well!
-Jeff
Simple, on my point of view, most board games are bad (my average rating in BGG is 4.85)
Every time I play a game, I always say that either "it's boring", "I could do better", or either "if you change X and Y it will be better". So that is exactly what I do, make lot of variant, and make better games in my point of view
The real problems seems that my taste are different from the average board gamer. My taste fit in between board games and turn based strategy video games. So I want to design games according to my taste in hoping that it will attract a category of people who also does not like most of the board games out there.
Jeff, I would have to say that I design games because it is all I know. That is not to say that I have no other marketable skills, but that I have been designing games in one way or another since I was a small child. It is in my nature to create ways to have fun with my friends. Why fight your nature?
Levi Mote
www.bonsaigames.net
I would say I feel the same way as Levi. There are plenty of good games out there, but there is some strange internal drive that tells me to create something better. Though I don't know if I necessarily want to compare myself to artists, I think it is a similar drive. What makes people paint instead of just buy pictures, or write songs when they could simply cover them (or even play instruments when they could buy CDs or mp3s)?
That and of course it's a lot of fun. Somehow creating your own board game is an interesting experience that is wholly different from buying one off the shelf.
Simon
...sleep is over rated. ;)
It seems a natural extension of the hobby I enjoy. Even as a child, I was inventing new games to play or tweaking the rules to the ones I loved that needed changes.
In the same way, I love reading and so I write.
And while I have had nothing published in either games or writing, I continue to enjoy doing the work in the wee hours of the night.
Thus, the lack of the aforementioned sleep. :)
I'm a typical "non-math" guy... so it's quite challenging for me to explore this part of my brain... plan things, get everything clear enough and playable...
I'm also a musician and graphic designer and it's very interresting for me since I noticed each field of creation feeds the others...
Oh, and I don't sleep anymore, of course ^^
I'm an engineer. I can never see a device without wanting to know what makes it tick, how it works; and then I may find that I want to build one of my own, for the fun of it and as a path to better understanding. But I'm not a mechanical engineer: I'm all thumbs, and building actual physical mechanisms is pretty much out of the question for me.
Fortunately there are other kinds of mechanisms. I'm a software engineer by profession, so I'm used to building gadgets out of logic, so to speak. And when I discovered modern boardgames, I realized that I'd found another kind of non-physical mechanism. Every well-designed boardgame is a kind of machine, with rules for its springs and gears and buttons and levers, and players are its power sources and operators. As soon as I realized this, I wanted to try to design my own: because that would help me understand the beautiful designs that others had created, and because it would be so much fun.
I haven't yet designed a really drop-dead-good game. But I'm still learning, and getting closer all the time, or so I believe!
Growing up, I can remember creating games from my childhood, and dragging my siblings into helping me test them. I can't remember exactly why I started but once I did, I was hooked. I prefer to create strategy war games and card games, as well as a few family themed board games.
I just really enjoy the challenge of trying to make a good board game where all the mechanics flow together and are a lot of fun. Often times I get an idea into my head, and I have the whole game fleshed out within a few hours, all the rules included. Sometimes, once I build a prototype and try it out, it sucks, however that is part of the whole fun and challenge of it. Then you tweak it, or chuck it and move on. I never have a shortage of ideas so to me it's not a big deal to put something on hold.
I've never been published, and I don't know if I ever will, but I'll probably always have this hobby and be making games for my kids and my wife and I to enjoy. I guess you could say board game design is a passion of mine.
My brothers and I lived this way our entire lives. Long after we all left the nest and started our own families, we still are working on developing games that we think are fun as can be. Our goals are to leave a tiny bit of brotherly legacy behind for our kids, even if it is just teaching them the fun, skill and mindfulness that games help to bring out of people, while also bringing people together. It's seemingly mindless, yet eternally developmental.
Actually I was designing games since my childhood , too . Strange :D
It all started with a little book full with blank sheets of paper which i then filled with games you could play on them ( some were replicas of games i wanted to play but couldn't because my parents would not buy them, while others where completely new games)
after that i could convince the neighbour kids to start making a trading card game with me ( we made over 1000 cards, some serious some unserious but still they were all fun (expect the ones like: you cannot loose the game but yeah, this ones could be removed too:D)
after that at the age of 17 i started to really design proper games with written down rules etc.
I design games because i have the urge too, I always get some new ideas which i then have to add to a boardgame.
I have an active mind. Sometimes I see something and think "would that make a good game?". When that happens, I can't stop thinking about it until I have designed enough to tell if it would work or not. Unfortunately, once the itch gets scratched, I lose interest. So I "create", sometimes even prototype, many games. But I rarely finish any, and so far have published none.
BTW, the GDS is a great trigger for me. I read the rules and let it percolate for a few days. If an idea pops into my head, I develop it. If it seems to work, I submit it. If nothing else, it is good practice at developing games. And practice can make for a better end product.
Jim
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I can appreciate your desire to make games better than they are. Even when I play a game I do not necessarily enjoy, I am often inspired by something good I seen in the game that I would like to take in a different (and, from my perspective, better) direction.
On the other hand, boardgaming is much more of a social experience than computer gaming of any kind, and I wonder if it might be difficult to approach it from a more impersonal perspective? Then again, there are so many multi-player solitaire games out there that are so much like turn-based computer games.