Hello my name is Christopher Monski. I was a member on this site over a decade ago. I owned a company that specialized in pro typing and assembling small production run games I have have made art and constructed prototypes for over 3 dozen games, all small independent publishers.
I know a lot about that whole process, as well as how to make games for cheap. Feel free to ask me questions about that stuff.
Rules I have found
1. know the print standards you want to use. You pay for resolution and color.
2. never pay for assembly for your first run. Even putting together 10k games can be done with a few friends, pizza and beers over a weekend. shrink wrap machines are cheap.
3. Have a market defined for your game before you try to sell it
4. Plastic pieces make games look cheap. Metal pieces are expensive, but not as expensive as custom plastic. Generic metal
beats custom plastic.
5. Write rules on note cards. They are easy to change when you are experimenting.
6. Story board your game from start to end. think of a great game experience like a movie, There should be inclusive beginning, a rising action, a climax and a conclusion. Risk is a great example of this. If you have 4 or 5 players, the arc will happen perfectly almost every time.
7. Make your art amazing. The more it looks polished, the higher perceived value to the consumer . People really judge games by their covers...
I also love "breaking" games. I like to play test looking for rule exploits and tricks. When I had my business a decade ago, I did this as a service for customers. It is in important step in the design process. Players of all ages are more clever than you would first guess. A game easily exploitable is not a fun game
At the current time I am opening an app devoted to multi player same room games.. Aka board games on the phone.. I was wondering if any one here has any experience developing phone games. I would like to talk about that.
