I am a banker and I heat my job every moment of it,, yesterday I told my wife that I would go on and work on my game I have had the Idea in my brain for over 10 years, and she motivated me positively and I told her that I don't know how to start, she told me is it a thing to search for it? , I live in EGYPT (no Board Games), and I found u ,, I cannot describe how happy I am right know

"Create a prototype." Im currently using a mixture of index cards, and pieces from Villainous and Dice Throne to test my game out 😅

I had a job a few years ago where I was on the road a lot, which gave me the opportunity to listen to your podcast regularly. Now I have a job where I am in front of a computer most of the day, so I listen to / watch KZfaq videos all day while I work. So glad I am able to reconnect with your content on here. Looking forward to starting at the beginning and bingeing them all! :)

I miss hearing your voice after it has been absent from the podcast for so long, it makes me long for and eagerly await it. The nostalgia and joy your content brings are truly remarkable, and it triggers me to start creating board games again and begin playtesting them.

"How do you win" is different to "How does the game end" In a lot of games the most points wins, but when do you count? Figuring out how and when to end my game was one of the hardest parts and still something I need to balance. Right now it's when all the cards run out, but occasionally one or more players runs out of things to do before that point.

Ive been developing a board game over the past 7 years. Once i get enough money i want to fund producing it. I believe in it very much. Everyone ive told about it so far seems intrigued by the theme and features. Hard to just sit with it on my own. I want to produce it so bad. There's so much i want to say about it but i cant. Ive been obsessively working on it for years now.

Great video. So enlightening how multi-staged (and complicated) game development, publishing and distribution is. For someone on their first game, you really spelt out what a long and difficult journey it is.

Hey BG! Thanks for the video! I was happy to hear from you after the podcast ended. It was nice to see how you crammed hundreds of hours of podcast info into one coherent video. I loved it.

Love this video! Can clearly tell you have walked the (board) game design path and overcome obstacles along the way. Going to dive into more resources BGDL has to offer

Great video! Your willingness to share you experience and time is much appreciated. 👍🏻

Based on the quality of the video, I was expecting thousands of comments. I hope you continue to grow, awesome video!

Im currently in the first semester of game Design (Digital game) but in the fiest semester we need to design our own board game and this video did a perfect job much appreciated

1k subscribers? The quality of the videos deserves far more than that

Thank you sm man! I started working on a board game to play with my friends and realized how much effort I was actually gonna have to put in. This helps a lot though. I'll check out some of your other resources

Thanks for this video, it's brilliant, very helpful and informative! I'm working on the early stages of games, and a games company, and this has provided a lot of motivation and practical advice. I've subscribed, and I'll definitely be watching more - and I'll tune into the podcast!

Thank you for sharing your enthusiasm, expertise, and experience!

Thanks for the video, really inspiring! :) Hope my games reach your shelf one day! :D Happy boardgaming!!

ON IT!!!!! I cannot WAIT to test my game! Even if it totally crushes my soul lol! Thanks for all you do!

Thank you for this!

This was really htough-provoking and inspiring for me, thank you.

Awesome vid! Thankyouuu 😊

Excellent video, Gabe!! I especially liked your advice about prototyping. That is pure gold! I always tell my clients (I'm a patent attorney) to make a cheap prototype as fast as possible and start testing and refining their invention. Way too many people get so hung up on wanting a nice looking or perfect prototype and then don't end up completing it. I loved your advice about finding trash or dirt around the house to make the prototype!! Hilarious and 100% true. Also liked your advice on being humble, professional, and courteous when approaching manufacturers. Words of wisdon there as well!

really good advices in a great way of communication 😊

This video helps me to continue my board game plan... Thanks....

Great content as always!

Just a thought on decisions before anything I’ve created a decision table where the “unknown” player can present his decision without your own input. I’ve created a number of them as I run across a decision

Cool video. Im currently on a last stage before showing my surrounding my prototype. But before doing that, I've already written a whole rule book. I simply don't have enough free friends to playtest my game. So im going to use this resource as carefully as possible. If im wrong in this im looking forward to your advice about how to handle this.

I'm aspiring to create my own card game and this video was so helpful!! Thank you so much :))

Great video. Lots of food for thought. I have about 5 months to make a game for my Masters Graphic Design course. Got the theme and visual style kind of worked out. Now I just need to make it play. I have bitten off a lot, haven't I? Could have done any project I wanted, lol.

This is a GAME changing video. Thanks a lot :)

I feel seen. I get stuck trying to optimize stats and numbers on an excel sheet, even though I KNOW I should just make the prototype and start learning how the game feels. As an actual scientist, I will absolutely concur that the research process and game design process are incredibly similar!

Great video. Looking forward to engaging more with the BGD community!

Just commenting to help the algorithm.

Amazing, amazing video! Been working on a tabletop dungeon crawler a while now called Brave the Grave! Been quite the fun ride on my end! Hoping to eventually make the idea full reality. All the product and parts are pretty much finalized but I am still playtesting for marketing purposes my end. Hope you have a nice day, I subscribed.

wooohoo first video! let's start the gaming engine!

I don't actually want to make board games but rather video games so I'm using this video as a way of getting other perspectives. I have to say this is a very good video and it's been very helpful

I'm a software developer, and we have a thing called "Bike Shedding". The premise is that if you are talking about hard engineering problems in a meeting with the people in your company no one will want to throw out ideas. As soon as you start talking about the name or the logo, EVERYONE has input. The saying comes from building a nuclear power plant. When the engineers were going over technical issues the room was silent, but the plant was so huge, that people got around on bikes. When they started talking about the bike sheds everyone had input on how they should look and what color they should be. Kind of sounds like what you were talking about at 11:50. 😀

great video

I have listened a lot to your podcast a few years ago. It's funny to see your face for the first time 😊

Great job, Gabe! Your podcast among others inspired my wife and I to work at this long-term as designers seeking to license with established publishers. We just launched Peach Goose Games, our board game design company, this month - I look forward to meeting you someday soon.

I have a question about reaching out to publishers. Does the initial contact email need to provide information about the game? Should it have an attached file with rules and images? Or should the first cintact just be a vague overview to see if they're interested? Also, if you didnt protect yourself, whats to stop a publisher from taking your good idea, not responding to you, and just publishing a slightly different game on their own, essentially cutting you (the developer) out.

Actually, my first game got positive comments in the first playtest. Although experienced board players told me that I only need to balance it a little, I still decided to change it almost completely. I realized that the mechanics have little to do with the theme of the game itself and now I'm back at the beginning, and enjoying the process again :)

I published a game called anthromancer, and I have a new version of it in the pipeline called Mercenarium. If either of these games grace your table at any point in the future, this message is to let you know that you’ve helped me make sense of my next moves. Thanks for putting your creative energy into the world; it matters.

I have a hard time creating prototypes of my games because I feel like no one cares about my ideas

I have a game I am at the play test stage.. it started as an art project to parody a board game, and evolved into an actual game. Played one time so far and made some alterations... I have made 3 prototype boards, from concept piece, to board to revamped board... I have cards, and some cards I want to make into tokens.. I want custom designed player pieces.. and I can make the art myself, but I keep seeing another artists style in my head... anyways this game will be a learning and experience game, which should be fun.. IT was fun the first time though it lasted 2 hours and no where near done.

Thank you 🖖

Put the bar on the floor 😂😂😂 I needed that laugh

Great information & encouragement! 2 questions: After prototyping my first 5 games, I have had them copywritten in 2015, before leaving my home for playtesting, You didn't mention protecting your rights on your games. Is copywriting necessary? Is Blind/Unguided playtesting possible while you're present? For examples: at 'game nights' with people you may or may not know or at with strangers at board game cafes. I'm present, but silently taking notes.

I´m currently working on a board game for me and my friends to play. I´ve started work on it a while back, but have since stopped. Gonna work on it again today. The idea is that you run a ´´blueberry´´ *wink wink* business. It´s not gonna be serious at all: very unbalanced, random things that can turn your game upside down yet also fun with multiple endings, a crafting system, etc. The crafting system especially is very fun, because it gives you a reason to play more than you usually should: for example some items can only be obtained by the first player to get it, so you have to be a bit lucky. Some items can be purchased, or have to be created to then be used to make another item. And most importantly: it allows you to make items that let you complete the game. How do you complete it? There are multiple endings, kinda like in a video game. You can get a nuclear ending by blowing the world up with an V-1 flying bomb with a Nuclear bomb strapped to it, or have a stray kitten you saved from the streets become a god. Ofcourse, there are also more simple ways to win, like being the last one standing, because everyone is dead or bankrupt. I hope this idea-dump will help you figure out your own game :)

In your first play test of a game you should expect to make it a single digit number of minutes before realizing you need to change everything.

I think I will just do drills or exercises first before getting into it.

Charity shop/ second hand shop buy a ton of board games, i bought 10 board games for $5 from my local charity shop. Guesso paint (or just cheap poster paint), paint over everything, and you got yourself a load of prototypes, which you can store in their very own box! :)

Hello i am making a board game with tiles that are a 4x4 how many should i use to get a 2 hour game

i had a game idea yesterday from when i was playing toy soldiers with my friend bruno im 11 btw, iv been messing around with a stat called loyalty,[thier buffs or debuffs after a battle is lost] and my friend said that it was to complicated only with the base unit [trooper] and he got mad at me when game testing because i used my super[frag grenade] and exploted his entire battalion because they were behind seramic type cover[wich is in no mans land] soi gave it the buff that no bullets can penatrate it BUT when explodes its non reparible [the engineer unit can place down cover and repair already existing cover] so yeah...

hey i would like to ask if you need a patent for a board game and if yes how do i get one? and i also want to ask if it is "illegal" to put peoples faces like donald trup in a board game for like a little figure or something like that.

Thanks for creating this video. I really enjoyed it.

If I were to license a game out to a publisher and that’s the only game I’d ever license out would that publisher expect me to keep putting out games?

Hey, I'm a graphic designer and illustrator and been playing TCGs since 1998. I made a prototype for a game that you might want to check out. I'm looking to publish but I live in a third world country and it's very hard to get anything commercial going here... Is there a way you can help me out?

literally no sensible board games in my country, but i want to make a card game, just wondering if i should make a board as accompaniment

Can anyone provide a rough guide to costs for getting to the quality prototype stage? I have several (dozens) of games i have "ugly" prototypes for. But the idea of paying for graphic designers/illustrators and game components is a step i havent made due to finances. What sort of costs (even rough) would i expect for a board game similar in compenents to monopoly?

So when finding a Publisher, what keeps them from stealing your idea?

thumbs up

have you made alot of money on designing board games?, are you releasing this on your own or do you have investors?

What if I want to make game that is more like Warhammer, where game isn’t in a single box?

Is it possible to copyright your game prototype prior to submitting your game cell sheet with a license publisher?

You get 4% of the profits? Wow, and people say Steams 30% cut is harsh.

Hi I'm not sure if this helps anyone but I use AI Art for my "artwork" obviously it isn't the final product but I don't spend hours and hours "stuck in the mud" as you mentioned. Hopefully someone can get some help (and save some time) from this :)

my wife ans i prototype our future game by frankenshtaining cards, two games token from a poker game and a dice XD

this video made me cry harder than grandpa's funeral! very informative

Ive been crafting a board game based on an RTS game series (Command amd Conquer) and its been in a fully playable state for several months now on Tabletop Sim, the only things im adding at this point is colors and pictures/art. But I have 15 subscribers rn, meaning at least 15 people have downloaded my game, but I've yet to get any sort of feedback, so im wondering how I can get more people to either play or leave their feedback. My game is a faction based deck builder with an RNG based resource system and lasts avg. 30-45mins but there are some cases where a player can lose very quickly (first 10 mins) or two players play for up to 1hr before gaining any advantage. I playtest by myself but a friend of mine played it ywice and said "its fun and interesting but takes too damn long"

He changed the title to 2024!

I like this advice. Make an ugly prototype. I said my prototype would be slightly better than WADDED UP GUM WRAPPERS.

If you are interested in, I can create online version your game

Sir i have a idea about a new board game would you mind listening to my ideas😅

No one cares! Hear me out. That is another big part you missed. As I have been on my game journey that is one thing I noticed. As with anything creative, movie short, book idea, game, etc... no one will ever care about it as much as you. Including family & friends. Not that they don't like/love you, they are busy with their own lives. They will be supportive but you have to limit the times you draw from the well as to not turn them away later. They hope you sicced & will be glad to see it but won't feel the pains & small successes you have along the way as you do. I think knowing this will help you mentally on the journey to not get discouraged if you get some radio silence now and then.

I like monopoly.

I made a prototype out of legos😂😂😂

I am a digital artist, leave a comment if you need some designs

Projects are never finished, they're only ever abandoned.

'PromoSM'

im gonna make a card game for children about making a really big sandwich

Edit, edit, edit…😅😩

Alot of negative thinking. I made a game and I made ALOT of money.