In this episode, Elan Lee, the creator of Exploding Kittens, talks about his venture into creating games for small children. Elan has been designing the games alongside his four-year-old daughter, and we talk about the process of designing games both for and with small kids. We also get into the business side of things and discuss marketing, manufacturing, and more!

And be sure to check out the games HERE.

The post Designing Games FOR and WITH Young Kids with Elan Lee appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, Geoff Engelstein and I chat about design theory and break down Geoff’s favorite examples and how they relate to designing games.

Geoff’s book about loss aversion can be found here: https://amzn.to/3rIgi7y

More info about the Tabletop Network Conference can be found here: https://www.tabletopnetwork.com

The post 4 Amazing (and Useful) Examples of Board Game Design Theory with Geoff Engelstein appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, Jason Greeno and I chat about the current boom in the print-n-play side of the market, and we dive into how and why more designers should create printable versions of their games.

You can find a ridiculous number of PnP games on Jason’s website, PnP Arcade.

And you can find his game, The Cursed Managerie, on Kickstarter HERE.

Here’s the best PnP Facebook group.

The post Why You Should Create Print-n-Play Games with Jason Greeno appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, Pam Walls and I chat about the games on our “must play” lists if you’re a game designer. And be sure to check out Pam’s awesome channel about game design here: https://www.youtube.com/@pamwallsgamedesign

Here are the games we discuss:

-Imhotep

-Dungeons & Dragons

-Catan -Chess

-Magic: the Gathering

-Robinson Crusoe

-Kemet -Creature Comforts

-Twilight Imperium

-Dune

-Century: Spiced Road

-Le Havre

-Vast

-Root

-Concordia

-Istanbul: the dice game

-Sagrada

-Gartenbau

-Silly Street

-Tyrants of the Underdark

-Legendary

-King of Tokyo

-Sleeping Gods

-Charterstone

-Arkham Horror: the card game

-RoboMon

The post The Games Every Designer MUST Play with Pam Walls appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, Rob Daviau and I chat about how to playtest, receive feedback, iterate, and playtest a whole lot more.

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

In this episode, Jay Cormier and I chat about how to teach game design concepts to others and help them become game designers.

And be sure to check out Jay’s new game design activity book HERE.

The post How to Create More Game Designers with Jay Cormier appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, I chat with Ben Downton who designs games and runs the publishing company Prometheus Game Labs. We chat about how lonely design work can be, how to balance being creative with running a business, Board Game Arena, and more!

And here’s the Board Game Arena article mentioned in the show: https://prometheusgamelabs.wordpress.com/2023/08/14/how-a-game-gets-on-board-game-arena/

The post How to Design AND Publish games with Ben Downton appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Kyle Sussenbach and I chat about how to get started in creating a publishing business and how to go from absolutely nothing to launching a crowdfunding campaign.

The post 10 Steps to Go from Nothing to Crowdfunding Campaign with Kyle Sussenbach appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, I talk through pretty much every tip about game design that I can think of!

And if you want to see the video version, you can check it out on YouTube HERE.

The post 71 Ways to Become a Better Game Designer with Gabe Barrett appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, I chat with Jason Tagmire about everything related to 18-card games. We talk about designing, publishing, manufacturing, shipping, marketing, crowdfunding, and more!

The post Small Games that Pack a Big Punch with Jason Tagmire appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, I chat with Jonny Pac about how to create games that fully engage players and keep them coming back for more. We talk about the difference between puzzles and games, designing for different types of players, utilizing randomness, fuzzy logic, and a whole lot more!

The post How to Craft the Perfect Player Experience with Jonny Pac appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, I chat with James Ernest about how to make a game that doesn’t just work mechanically but is also a lot of fun to play. We talk about how to identify when testers are having fun, the design decisions that create fun experiences, utilizing surprise, and a whole lot more.

You can find James’s game design lectures and articles here: https://crabfragmentlabs.com/lecture-hall

And here’s that video he mentioned about goats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58-atNakMWw

The post How to Design Fun Games with James Ernest appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, I chat with Amy and Dusty Droz who raised over $1 million on Kickstarter as first-time creators with a game that only costs $39.

You can late back their game, Botany, here: https://botany.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders

The post How to Have Massive Success on Kickstarter with Amy and Dusty Droz appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, I give my best advice on how to reach out to content creators and get featured on podcasts, and I chat with my friend, Justin Kral, a professional audio engineer about how to create an audio setup that sounds great.

The post How to Get Featured on Podcasts and Sound Great with Justin Kral appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, I chat with Andrew Lowen, and we break down a recent crowdfunding campaign I ran that I had to cancel. I talk about the mistakes I made and what I’m doing to fix things as I get ready to relaunch the campaign.

The post My Crowdfunding Failure: A Post Mortem with Andrew Lowen appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Jorge Velez, professional illustrator, discusses topics related to art and creativity. We talk about how comparison destroys creative people, how to make your own luck, the different paths to becoming a pro artist, best practices for finding and working with artists, and a whole lot more.

The post Art, Working with Artists, and Becoming Your Best Creative Self with Jorge Velez appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Zachary Strebeck, a lawyer who specializes in games, dives into the many legal issues that arise when bringing games to life and getting them on the market. We talk about clauses to look out for in contracts, the pros and cons of NDAs, what you need to know about copyrights and trademarks, and a whole lot more.

If you want to contact Zachary, you can find his website here: https://strebecklaw.com

The post The Legal Side of Creating Games with Zachary Strebeck appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, Sen-Foong Lim talks about how he balances his 50+ hour a week teaching job with working on 40+ games a year. We talk about how to design like crazy without burning out, how to get into a flow state, the myth of being self-made, how to work with co-designers, and a whole lot more!

The post How to Balance Game Design with a Full Time Job with Sen-Foong Lim appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Peter C. Hayward, from Jellybean Games, is back, and we’re talking about how a hyper-creative person can pursue lots of different projects and actually get things done.

The post How to Work on Lots of Projects at Once with Peter C. Hayward appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, Jamey Stegmaier talks about how to make money creating games.

We talk about how to monetize creativity and the many roadblocks people run into. Jamey unpacks what he would do if he had to start over and build a publishing company from scratch. He opens up about his biggest financial mistake. We talk about why people should design games. And a whole lot more.

The post How to Make Money Designing Games with Jamey Stegmaier appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.