Board Game Design Advice: From the Best in the World (Board Game Creation Advice)

Great book with fantastic insight from all your favorite designers! I really appreciate the "games created" call-outs for each. If I've been a fan or interested in a specific game, I'm more likely to take their guidance to heart. Great resource to hear from thise ww may not have heard from before!

Few books exist right now in the board game hobby that really get to the nitty-gritty of that special sauce. How in the hell do you have the idea, cultivate it, evolve it, pitch it, get it published, and make a profit? All of those are not answered in this book. Some of those skills aren't taught here or anywhere, for that matter. And that's okay. But you need to know what you're getting with "Board Game Design Advice." So what is that?You're getting one of the very best springboards into design mentality.Your'e getting a phase one in to finding your zone.You're getting a starting pistol shot in a foot race of lots of failures.But from those failures, you can succeed in the end. You will fall, but you can rise, as well. It's like what Alfred said to Bruce Wayne. There are inspiring insights you'll get from this book, but they are not going to supply you with the disciplined time you MUST give to playtest, playtest, playtest the hell out of your projects with various other designers and blind playtesters. You will have your ego bruised. Get up. You will rewrite rules and ultimately bury many of your various games. Get up. Almost all of your designs will never be produced. Get up. You need to understand that from the beginning -- you will get knocked down. "And why do we fall, Bruce?"Between this book, which does feel like a collection of blog interviews, in tandem with "Fail Faster: a Playtesting Journal" by Jay Cormier, you will be better equipped to design something fun that strangers actually want to play, and despite my lukewarm description of the book, that still puts you up on a better footing than 99 out of 100 other people trying to do the same thing you're doing without the right resources and mindset. What are we ultimately trying to do here? Become Givers of Fun.Play everything. EVERYTHING. Think of themes outside the box. Be open-minded. Learn new mechanisms constantly. Take walks. Travel. Read novels. Exercise and eat right. And whatever you do, make time every single day to play, design, or reflect. And read books like this one and Fail Faster. Cheers. 4/5

When I bought this, I bought it for the title alone. Little did I know it had contributions by more game designers than I could have hoped for! I've enjoyed reading the different answers to different designers but also finding the common themes they recommend. Each has its own personality written into their answers as well. My favorite answers to questions are the best purchase under $50, for it gives great, cheap ideas on designing prototypes for your own games or other resources in helping you take your idea from your head into reality.The main criticism of other reviews seems to be the repetitiveness of it. This may be a valid concern if it doesn't appeal to you, but in my opinion, it does just as much good. Reinforcing the ideas that many designers put forth is a good thing to have. And despite that, there are enough unique answers to every question that provides a little more insight into how these designers differ in their own philosophy of life and game design.

I've been a huge fan of the Board Game Design Lab podcast and website, and this book is a fantastic addition to what BGDL has to offer. Chapters are short and easily digestible, there is a fantastic range of industry professionals, and the question index is an EXCELLENT tool for when you hitting a specific wall in your own designs. Topics also invite very different answers from designer to designer, so just about everyone should be able to relate to someone/something and hopefully move forward with their own projects.

Not intended to be a textbook on the entire design process from start to finish, but serves greatly to be an easy read (very short chapters) when looking for encouragement as a designer. Enjoyable to see how different designers think and to see often a common thread of ideas helping to solidify that point of advice. Many ideas can be applied to any creative endeavor not just to boardgame design. An easy book to recommend and an enjoyable, encouraging and enlightening read.

This book is exactly as advertised. It isn't deep game theory or any sort of textbook, however I love listening to this book while doing game related work, and or running. It gets the background processor running, and really helps generate ideas/ creativity.

When you are creating a game, and you ask 100 people for their thoughts, you get 100 different responses. It is maddening. I used some of the suggestions in this book only to be told they were wrong and was scoffed at. I would ask advice from FB groups and always got different advice from different people. I don't know what the answer is except 1. listen to everyone 2. Be ready to spend a LOT of Monet 3. go with your gut and 4. Don't do it.

Not something that's best read cover to cover in one sitting, but rather wonderful to pick up and flip to at random when needing some inspiration/insight for your designs. Or, you can do what I did when I first got it, which was to look up and read the advice from your favorite designers! But it was also nice to discover *new* designers through reading this as well. Lots of content!

Great knowledge

Perfect in short burst, but also good for longer sittings. Keep it on your desk, and anytime you're stuck you can just open it and read advises from the best designers in the world.

Great book, amazing author!

Valuable tidbits to know, when designing games.

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