The post [BONUS] Morten Pederson on Writing Rulebooks for Non-Native English Speakers appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Morten Pedersen, designer behind the solo modes for games such as Scythe and Viticulture, discusses how to scale a game down to one player and create a great solo experience.

Morten has his own design company that focuses on creating single player systems for games and has even won awards for it. For more, check out Morten’s blog here.

The post Creating a Great Solo Variant with Morten Pedersen appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

The post [BONUS] Patrick Leder on How to Know When a Game Is Done appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Patrick Leder, designer of Vast, discusses what all goes into designing an asymmetrical game. In Vast, each player takes on an incredibly different role with different actions, different win conditions, and different ways to play. And creating a game of this scope is no small task.

The post Designing an Asymmetrical Game with Patrick Leder appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

The post [BONUS] Chris Rowlands on What RPG Elements He’d Like to See More of in Board Games appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Chris Rowlands, designer of Last Garden and host of NPC-Cast, discusses creating awesome content that helps people as much as possible and also builds up goodwill toward you and your games.

The board game community is incredible, and there are tons of opportunities to help fellow designers and add value to what they’re trying to create. And in doing so, you build relationships that will likely lead to people wanting to help you when the opportunity arises.

The post Content as Marketing with Chris Rowlands appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

The post [BONUS] Rob Daviau on What Themes Need a Legacy Version appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Rob Daviau, designer of Pandemic Legacy, and I discuss how to run playtests like an absolute pro.

Rob started designing games for Hasbro before moving into the designer game space, and he has a TON of insight on how to playtest your way to an amazing game.

The post How to Playtest like a Pro with Rob Daviau appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

The post [BONUS] Brent Kinney on Underutilized Printing Opportunities in Games appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Brent Kinney, vice president at Panda Game Manufacturing, discusses the details and nuances of getting your game printed. We talk typical setbacks, what the different phases in the process look like, ways to make the process easier, and much more. Panda GM is one of the major manufacturers of board games in the world, and Brent brings a ton of experience and insight to the discussion.

The post The Ins & Outs of Printing with a Vice President from Panda Game Manufacturing, Brent Kinney appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

The post [BONUS] Tom Vasel on Where He Hopes the Gaming Industry Goes Next appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Tom Vasel, founder of the Dice Tower, discusses some of the many things he’s learned after playing an astronomical number of games. We talk themes, mechanics, Kickstarter, publishing, trends, and tons of other stuff.

Tom has played and reviewed thousands upon thousands of games which has led to some interesting insight on what makes a great game.

The post Lessons Learned from Playing 5000+ Games with Tom Vasel appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

The post [BONUS] Sen-Foong Lim on Where to Find Components for Your Prototypes appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Sen-Foong Lim, designer of Belfort and Junk Art, discusses the many things a good game design space needs and ways to organize it all.

Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the show:

Gimp

Canva

Cropodile

Rotary Cutter

The post How to Organize a Design Space with Sen-Foong Lim appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

The post [BONUS] Edo Baraf on How to Create and Manage Kickstarter Stretch Goals appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Edo Baraf, designer of Herbaceous, discusses the many different types of custom components you can add to your games and the challenges and considerations that go with each one. We talk custom dice, boards, boxes, inserts, meeples, sleeves, and more. (Not miniatures. That will be its own episode.)

Edo has experience with lots of custom components and offers a ton of insight on the things to be aware of when adding them to your game.

The post Custom Components in Your Game with Edo Baraf appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

The post [BONUS] Dan Peterson on Themes that Need to Be Explored appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Dan Peterson, chief developer and head of new acquisitions at Mayday Games, discusses why a publisher might reject your game and how to handle it.

Dan looks at close to 200 unpublished games a year and has years of experience in finding new games to publish. This episode is packed with great wisdom for anyone wanting to travel down the traditional publishing path.

The post Why a Publisher Might Reject Your Game and How to Handle It with Dan Peterson appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

The post [BONUS] JT Smith on How to Come Up with Expansion Ideas appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

JT Smith, designer of The Captain Is Dead, talks about how to design a great cooperative game.

We talk creating tension, alpha players, and the math behind a good AI system. Personally, I think The Captain Is Dead is one of the best co-op games on the market today, and it was great to get JT’s insight on its creation.

The post How to Design a Great Cooperative Game with JT Smith appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.