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Hey guys!

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Wed, 11/11/2015 - 22:34
Rangerlab
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Joined: 11/10/2015

Hey guys, I'm RangerLab. Just started here, thought I'd follow the forum advice and introduce myself.

I'm 18 years old, almost out of highschool, and I've developed a dream of designing and creating games. I've been playing games all of my life, and I'd always wanted to make games myself. My brother and I actually would make silly RPG games on paper (if I'm not mistaken, that's PnP for pen and paper, right?) And such. I've recently discovered that it's actually a reality that I can make games for a living, so I started reading articles and such. Thought one day that it might be nice to find a forum, and stumbled across this place (which seems very nice from the posts I've been reading).

Currently, I'm working on a hybrid board/tcg, that I'm hoping I can make a post about soon in the "New Game Ideas" section.
Thanks guys, hope I'm not too much of a bother!
RangerLab

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Wed, 11/11/2015 - 22:56
#1
Stormyknight1976
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Joined: 04/08/2012
Welcome

Hey Rangerlab and brother,
Welcome to bgdf. You have found a great forum to get great feedback from other game designers from around the world.

Pace yourselves, playtest your games, ask for suggestions, ideas, concepts here on bgdf.

Some one will definitely respond to your post.

Good luck gentlemen.
Play on. Play forward and happy hunting.
Stormy.

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Wed, 11/11/2015 - 23:10
#2
questccg
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Small correction

PNP stands for "Print-aNd-Play" not "Pen-aNd-Paper"...

And from experience - I would stay away from anything TGC-ish! What works for big franchises like Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh! does not work for "Indie" designers. I speak not only from my personal experience but the experience of other veteran designers/publishers.

It's best to focus on games that are single entities and work on expansion ideas like FFG "Living Card Game" concept. Which basically mean you get the game and there will be expansions.

I started with a CCG and lost a bunch of money... A combination of many mistakes - the biggest one is failing to understand that distributors don't buy games - they buy ONLY popular games! Stores only sell what customers ASK for... If nobody asks for your game, stores won't buy it...

Fortunately we live in an age with things like Kickstarter, that allow you to earn some money from your designs. I can't talk much about this aspect since I have not yet done one... Soon - but not yet.

So stay away from TCG-ish ideas. Work on game ideas (as a whole). At least that you can pitch to backers and make some money doing so. Again just some advice from a 40 year old that has tried to market/sell a CCG (which is almost identical to a TCG). The production of the CCG/TCG is not the problem, it is the SALES of such a game.

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Thu, 11/12/2015 - 08:41
#3
Rangerlab
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Joined: 11/10/2015
Thanks!

Stormyknight1976 wrote:
Hey Rangerlab and brother,
Welcome to bgdf. You have found a great forum to get great feedback from other game designers from around the world.

Pace yourselves, playtest your games, ask for suggestions, ideas, concepts here on bgdf.

Some one will definitely respond to your post.

Good luck gentlemen.
Play on. Play forward and happy hunting.
Stormy.

Thanks! I'm pretty excited, and thanks for the advice!

questccg wrote:
It's best to focus on games that are single entities and work on expansion ideas like FFG "Living Card Game" concept. Which basically mean you get the game and there will be expansions.

I started with a CCG and lost a bunch of money... A combination of many mistakes - the biggest one is failing to understand that distributors don't buy games - they buy ONLY popular games! Stores only sell what customers ASK for... If nobody asks for your game, stores won't buy it...

I'm sorry to hear about that. Thanks for the advice, though. I actually like the idea of it more as a single entity. Does deck building really work for single entities, though? Just curious, for future reference.

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Thu, 11/12/2015 - 11:23
#4
ElKobold
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Joined: 04/10/2015
Things to consider: If you

Things to consider:

If you ever plan to go the kickstarter way, cards become a substantial additional investment, since cards = lots of artwork. And artwork is exepensive, unless you are an artist yourself.

However, for your first designs I wouldn't bother with thoughts about monetizing. Do lots of different prototypes first. Playtest a lot. See which of your designs are more successful, then refine those. Then consider the way to bring them to reality.

And main advise - do not expect to make money from this or make it your 'career choice'. This is something you can do as a hobby (even if you do go the way of monetizing). You do need a job though to... you know... eat. And pay rent while you are designing your first smashing boardgame hit :)

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Thu, 11/12/2015 - 11:35
#5
questccg
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Deck-Building is expandable!

Rangerlab wrote:
I actually like the idea of it more as a single entity. Does deck building really work for single entities, though? Just curious, for future reference.

Well my current WIP is a Deck-Builder and I am working on designing expansions. It has 85 cards and it works for me... so it should work for you! Just design with the idea that expansions will be a future part of the game!

As far as Deck-Building being a single entity, well Dominion has a whooping 400 cards. But admittedly it allows for several different types/styles of game play to occur (based on the cards you choose to play the game).

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Thu, 11/12/2015 - 15:10
#6
Rangerlab
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Joined: 11/10/2015
Teams or Solo? & Shop system

ElKobold wrote:

And main advise - do not expect to make money from this or make it your 'career choice'. This is something you can do as a hobby (even if you do go the way of monetizing). You do need a job though to... you know... eat. And pay rent while you are designing your first smashing boardgame hit :)

Lol, yeah. I imagine going the Kickstarter route requires a lot of dedication and time. Is it often that people form teams or do they try and do all of the work themselves?

questccg wrote:
Well my current WIP is a Deck-Builder and I am working on designing expansions. It has 85 cards and it works for me... so it should work for you! Just design with the idea that expansions will be a future part of the game!

Cool. My current project is actually 86, though I think I want to turn it more into a shop system, where every turn, you fill it up, and discard the last cards of the shop. Both players can purchase them, and a player might need to change their strategy based on what's available, or if a player has a bit of extra income, they can counter-buy, if that makes any sense.

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Thu, 11/12/2015 - 15:42
#7
questccg
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I understand

Rangerlab wrote:
...I think I want to turn it more into a shop system, where every turn, you fill it up, and discard the last cards of the shop. Both players can purchase them, and a player might need to change their strategy based on what's available, or if a player has a bit of extra income, they can counter-buy, if that makes any sense.

You want the currency of the game to be used to buy cards themselves. So does that mean you have a central area to discard cards (like buy piles) or is it just the topmost card of a discard pile???

I also get - you want a bidding mechanic to pay for said cards. The card goes to the highest bidder. Right?

In this case having four (4) buy piles in the middle might be something of interest.

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Thu, 11/12/2015 - 15:51
#8
I Will Never Gr...
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Joined: 04/23/2015
Rangerlab wrote:ElKobold

Rangerlab wrote:
ElKobold wrote:

And main advise - do not expect to make money from this or make it your 'career choice'. This is something you can do as a hobby (even if you do go the way of monetizing). You do need a job though to... you know... eat. And pay rent while you are designing your first smashing boardgame hit :)

Lol, yeah. I imagine going the Kickstarter route requires a lot of dedication and time. Is it often that people form teams or do they try and do all of the work themselves?

Successful Kickstarter projects require months and months of preparation, dedication, a nearly complete (if not complete) product and, most importantly, a crowd developed before you even launch (don't ever think you can just throw up a KS project and they will come .. develop your fan base and crowd first).

Basically .. don't even think about KS until you are just about ready to publish your game.

Many people do entire game projects and kickstarters themselves, but the most successful ones have a small team working on them. You can never have too many opinions and eyes looking over your work to make sure everything is just right.

Most of all .. playtest extensively! Once you think you have a working game, try it out dozens (if not hundreds) of times yourself. Then get your friends and family to do the same. Then get strangers to do the same. Collect feedback from these groups every time so that you can refine the game even more. Once you've done that, then you're on your way to a final product.

Welcome to the hobby! It's great fun and rewarding as heck but at the same time can be incredibly frustrating. :) A labor of love really.

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Thu, 11/12/2015 - 18:12
#9
Rangerlab
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Joined: 11/10/2015
More to come & Thanks again!

questccg wrote:
Rangerlab wrote:
...I think I want to turn it more into a shop system, where every turn, you fill it up, and discard the last cards of the shop. Both players can purchase them, and a player might need to change their strategy based on what's available, or if a player has a bit of extra income, they can counter-buy, if that makes any sense.

You want the currency of the game to be used to buy cards themselves. So does that mean you have a central area to discard cards (like buy piles) or is it just the topmost card of a discard pile???

I also get - you want a bidding mechanic to pay for said cards. The card goes to the highest bidder. Right?

In this case having four (4) buy piles in the middle might be something of interest.

Pretty much. I'll explain more once I make a post over in New Game ideas. I'm hoping to do that in the next few days, hopefully I can get some actual play testing in by then, I've only really played a few times.

I Will Never Grow Up Gaming wrote:
Welcome to the hobby! It's great fun and rewarding as heck but at the same time can be incredibly frustrating. :) A labor of love really.

Thanks! I'm pretty excited about the forum, and hopefully bringing my game to life with the advice and help I find here. I'm surprised already at how helpful everyone's been!

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