Hello I am new here!

Welcome to BGDF Xelaranger! Happy holidays to you too!

...and welcome to BGDF! :)

Well BGDF is here to HELP make that a "reality"! But I must admit, 10 years into the "craft" and I still think about projects that can afford some form of sustainability. And what I have learned is the "Game Design" in general is a good "serious hobby".

Don't take my note of negativity the wrong way...

It's just that with all the designers (past or present) that I have seen, everyone of them had one (1) main game they wanted to "bring to life" and then the journey to that happening was the focus of all their efforts.

Sadly to say, one (1) design is not going to make a difference (really). The key is what Reiner Knizia said before his journey on designing games. To paraphrase, he said that it would take several games before becoming a household success. And that is very true.

Other well known giants like Jamey Stegmaier manage to pump out one game a year... Enough time to get the game from concept to finished product... Again proving that one game is just not good enough.

However if you want it to be a testament to your ingenuity or cleverness, one game can prove that you are capable of understanding the nuances of Game Design and that you have a knack for design. It's merely a question of reputability.

So I would go to saying: your first few games will help define you as a Game Designer. But in order to continue in this hobby, you will have to balance real-life (job & family and such) with the "wonders of designing" (part time efforts) if you plan to be successful.

Welcome to BGDF and understand, I'm just sharing with you the experience of 10 years of Game Designing has led me to understand (from not only my own experience but also that of others too...)

Cheers!

Note #1: And again welcome... don't take my undertones too seriously... BGDF is a great place to share ideas and get feedback to more broader topics.

Hey I used to play the Accordian! Why not the guitar or piano... Wish I had learned either-or...

You'll find a lot of "semi-popular" games designed by Reiner. They're not the best in their category... But are still interesting games considering I'm sure he's like pumped out about 500 or so games...

My FIRST game concept was "Quest Adventure Cards(tm)". And the basic idea for the game was that instead of "Battling", you would compete to COMPLETE Quests. Ergo "Quest Adventure Cards(tm)". I thought that I had a GREAT concept. And I had printed 100,000 cards. The game was OKAY but it was only my first game. It never sold and I could NOT get distribution.

On to question #2 (Impact). Well I would LOVE to create a "Quest v2" but this time with "Engine Building" and actual Booster Packs. It's a DREAM PROJECT. Alone on art it would be upwards of $20,000.

For the impact... I would say that having designed Quest and lost money, having designed TradeWorlds and lost money again ... I am heavily focused on finding SOME GAME that can actually MAKE MONEY.

That's the real challenge. Not designing the game, not writing the rulebooks, not blind playtesting, not creating a video, etc. THE HARD PART is making money TBH. First time creators usually get about 250 to 350 backers. Enough for a 500 unit print run at a higher price. If you are lucky and work with a publisher, you could expect 1,000 units.

But Kickstarters are notorious for NOT MAKING ANY MONEY. Unless you are John Avon from Magic: the Gathering Art Fame (His art is so cool BTW!) and are selling play mats for about $40 USD each and probably costing half or $20 USD each... Making it FINANCIALLY in this business/industry is rather HARD. Many people BREAK EVEN... And that's like a moral victory.

So I would say that I'm minded on TRYING to make some money from my games.

Secondly I am trying to create games with different mechanics and play styles. So Quest was a CCG (sort of), TradeWorlds was a Deck-Builder, and Monster Keep is a tile laying game with area control... As I said earlier, I would love to design "Quest v2" an Engine Building CCG, SpellMasters is a word game (in concept only)...

This means that my designs are all DIFFERENT from each other. Some may be card-intensive, others less like tiles (for example). So I like experimenting with difference "mechanics" and make very different games from one and another. I can't say this is Reiner's philosophy... But I feel like diversification allows me to LEARN more about Game Design than strictly sticking to one TYPE of design...

It's a VERY COOL "serious" hobby (so far).

Xelaranger, what kind of games do you play? What kind do you create?