The Best Tool for Rapidly Prototyping Your Board Game

Рет қаралды 41,888

Күн бұрын

This is the best method to rapidly playtest and create your board game. When prototyping and playtesting your board game, Dextrous is the best tool for a rapid prototype, and it's free. When paired with Tabletop Simulator and Google Sheets you level up your game design skills.
In this video, I'm showing you the best tool for rapidly prototyping a board game - Dextrous. When you add Tabletop Simulator and Google Sheets this becomes an amazing method for testing out your game ideas and rapidly creating a playable version of your game. It's perfect for beginners and experts alike, and it's free to use!
This Dextrous tutorial is an excellent resource for rapid prototyping digitally, and it’s perfect for beginner board game designers who want to spend more time making their game than making their game playable. In this Dextrous guide I'll walk you through, step by step on how to use Dextrous to create a rapid prototyping board game so you can make changes to the prototype of your tabletop game and be ready to playtest them in minutes! So be sure to watch the video to learn more about this great tool for rapid prototyping!
Tabletop Craft is a series dedicated to and tailored for newbie game designers: welcome to the realm of tabletop game creation. This series will provide practical tips and tricks you can implement for your game and demystify some of the core principles of board game design to help you develop your ideas further and bring them to the table. Follow along as I provide practical insights into problem-solving, balance, and player engagement. I hope you find the lessons valuable! Join the community and find some of the best resources available to beginner game designers.
You can check out Dextrous here: www.dextrous.com.au/
🎲Get your free starter kit! All the hard work done for you and a step-by-step walkthrough to do this for your game. / discord
Connect with fellow enthusiasts, access invaluable resources, and foster your passion for tabletop game creation by joining us on the Tabletop Craft Discord!
💬Join the Tabletop Craft Discord! / discord
00:00 Playtesting is crucial
00:43 Level up your game design
01:39 Rapid prototype and playtest in 90 seconds
03:56 Dextrous
05:06 Tabletop Simulator
06:12 Google Sheets
07:44 Playtest
08:58 Quick tip + Lesson learned

Пікірлер: 130

@ZaltySean 9 ай бұрын

BRO WHERE WAS THIS VIDEO ALL THESE YEARS I HAVE DESIGNED CARDS IN PHOTOSHOP. This is a literal godsend!

@davejeltema3 9 ай бұрын

Same lol. Glad you found it!

@xChikyx 4 ай бұрын

I do the same spreadsheet thing in photoshop, it's not that difficult actually. It's slower to produce because it renders each card individually, but the spreadsheet can be used for everything. I am currently using it for a game, and yeah, making the cards there is way easier than just one at a time.

@loganpark2530 4 ай бұрын

You might literally be me. :) Saaaame vibe about sinking a bunch of time into tools less well fitted to the game design workflow.

@SacredScribble777 8 ай бұрын

I've been painstakingly (and unsuccessfully) trying to design a game in MS Paint for months now. The day before yesterday I found this video and I now have several complete variations of my board, my event cards, and every token in my game. Your videos are a godsend. Subscribed!

@xChikyx 4 ай бұрын

why paint???

@lovethecaptive 4 ай бұрын

I can't tell if this is genuine or trolling haha.

@Christian-wr4ge 10 күн бұрын

Yo, your video legit changed my life. Here I was printing and cutting all day. Props!

@Greg_M1 9 ай бұрын

Super glad to hear about these tools. Going to check them out. Thanks

@Xoopams 7 ай бұрын

This was basically what I was looking for! Thanks for sharing it!

@urossinigoj4196 4 ай бұрын

Very helpful. Thanks for taking the effort to make this tutorial!

@travisbuschette8609 9 ай бұрын

Wait, what?? This is a game changer!! (Pun absolutely intended). Thank you for showing us this, updating pdfs that quickly will save me so much time. I'm a level 2, making cards in Illustrator and testing with a physical copy. Trying to learn simulator, and this may be the push I need. Thank you again!!

@sheanstanks 5 ай бұрын

Amazing! Thank goodness I found this early. I was in-between level two and three. I had the good sense to start with Photoshop design so I only had to change art and text and numbers. This will make a big difference I think. Thank you!

@chrisburgos8672 9 ай бұрын

Likes subscribed and going to test this stuff out. Can't wait to try it out. Can't wait to test me game out in the near future.

@markusbiewer2756 Күн бұрын

Thank you for this video! I created the cards in Word table and had to print and cut them after each change. I will switch to Dextrous for sure!

@ShadowEclipex 4 ай бұрын

Man! This is just what I needed! I mad my first 2 prototypes in drawing programs on my PC, and have been putting of my 3rd version cuz time it takes to do so. XD

@vizdotlife 5 ай бұрын

Thank you for sharing this great insights! Best wishes for your game development in 2024!

@MrGeniusTelevision 3 ай бұрын

Great tips, you are a legend!

@Nonartrach 6 ай бұрын

Thanks a lot these tips, you are going to save me a shit ton of time

@ConleyPMusic 20 күн бұрын

Unreal. You're a godsend dude.

@guilhemebaccari6511 4 ай бұрын

Amazing video, community and process! Dude, you got it all figured out! Thanks ;)

@davejeltema3 4 ай бұрын

I don't think I'd go that far :P Thanks for the kind words!

@Envy_May 8 ай бұрын

oh great this seems like exactly the kind of thing i have been searching for maybe this means i can finally get started for real

@JustDante_Te 10 ай бұрын

Haven't tried it out so I can't confirm it works but if it does then this video is gonna save people hours

@claytonsmith3749 2 ай бұрын

Amazing content from someone who clearly cares about the craft and is earnestly wanting to help others. Thank you!

@davejeltema3 2 ай бұрын

Thanks for taking the time to send kind words!

@Spilzu 4 ай бұрын

THIS is what I've been looking for

@jecabreradc 3 ай бұрын

thank you very much !

@chadzombiehunter 4 ай бұрын

Great video

@josht9058 9 ай бұрын

My Man! Thanks, this is great.

@davejeltema3 9 ай бұрын

Glad you liked it!

@taylorabrahamse8345 5 ай бұрын

You're a Saint sir!

@Zero-4793 3 ай бұрын

while making my current game i was looking for a game in mind i couldnt remember the name of so i could credit it for inspiration (stolen mechanic). i failed in this mission. but i stumbled upon something greater. your videos about this app. This will help me greatly, thank you for informing me!

@Binzob 4 ай бұрын

Damn super useful stuff. I've been wanting to make my own game for years, ideally a video game but can't for the life of me learn to code. Though I think a board / card game is something I can actually make progress with. Thanks.

@LordTyw1n 8 ай бұрын

WHAT? I've wasted days of time. But you've also saved me days.

@benknudsen382 2 ай бұрын

You're Awesome!

@dankmctavish4281 3 ай бұрын

Thank you so *&!@ing much! This was a lot of help and saved me so much time.

@davejeltema3 3 ай бұрын

yay!

@kevinmontoya43 2 ай бұрын

Wow this is perfect, literally what i need, i love making games i have tons of creativity but sadly always hand make every thing im gunna try this

@drillerdev4624 4 ай бұрын

MVP! Now maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to finish a project (I have some playable level 1 prototypes lying around, tho) However, you forgot level 0: Cheap deck of playing cards + permanent marker I have a bunch of those, too...

@geoliese4150 9 ай бұрын

That is exactly the video i was looking for! I was trying to make my cards with inkscape but i was already scared of needing to do little changes on every card individually

@kosterix123 Ай бұрын

cool to see it in all its glory. You can do the same with indesign and file structure to generate card icons. Ira has a video on how he uses this for Arydia. all we need from you now is a step by step tutorial on - how to set up a card game entry in tts, and - how to create a new project with 1 card in that dextrous tool of yours.

@NexusBaum 4 ай бұрын

Thanks for showing us! I'll use it for my .... wait .... 14th prototype, I guess. :)

@jlbrooks74 5 ай бұрын

Freaking lifesaver!! ❤💪

@npuneon Ай бұрын

You literally saved me thousand of hours

@sebastianm5665 5 ай бұрын

You're a Godsend!!! This is exactly what I was describing to my wife, the gaming community honestly, never disappoints! Thank you for the tremendous help, Dave!

@elijahdixonowens5036 6 ай бұрын

I can tell this is what I need, because your spread sheet LOOKS JUST LIKE MINE!!😂😂😂

@imanaxolotl4717 10 ай бұрын

Henroh, I am da 80th subscriber!!!

@davejeltema3 10 ай бұрын

Glad to have you!

@imanaxolotl4717 10 ай бұрын

@@davejeltema3 Thank you, great video!

@TheBlackbeansoup 5 ай бұрын

You are my effing hero.

@Xerceth 9 ай бұрын

Nice :) Could you point us to tutorials on how to replicate your dropdown lists like in "Card Type", "Stone" and "Action Type" ? It looks really useful.

@davejeltema3 9 ай бұрын

Sure thing, this should get you started on the right track! support.google.com/docs/answer/186103?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop

@obakengmothusi9149 7 ай бұрын

im new but i am a fan

@teamcyeborg 4 ай бұрын

I'm super excited to start getting into this site, I have a handful of half-finished card games sitting in Sheets that really would want this kick! The one catching point, though, is the price of TTS... Are there any free alternatives/demo versions to use?

@whatshendrix 2 ай бұрын

Level 5, hell yeah!

@davejeltema3 2 ай бұрын

Woot woot!

@ATable4You 9 ай бұрын

Holy shit, this is pretty good. Hopefully the full functionality is free to use.

@davejeltema3 9 ай бұрын

I found it to be more than enough for a single game. Unless your building a monster you shouldn't need to pay.

@Gnostic_Plague 16 сағат бұрын

The discord links aren't working for me. Tried joining through a community search and that also didn't work. Would love that Google Sheets template. Thanks for the great video either way!

@runfurbyrun3052 9 күн бұрын

Love this video! i went to look for the spread sheets example but it seems to not be the one you mentioned in the video. Would you beable to go check on the discort again for us?

@davejeltema3 9 күн бұрын

The starter kit I put together is just a simple example to get you started, the stuff I show off in this video was a snapshot of out game at that time and not something I intended to hand out.

@vincenttremblay5266 3 ай бұрын

Thats super cool and efficient but i really am a sucker for handcrafted components. I buy blank playing cards and design them with a graphite pencil so that i can erase and change information or costs on the cards. I only do very minimum doodles for the art on a 1st prototype so crafting a new card takes me a minute or two. Might not be the fastest way to do it but me and my friends enjoy live play with a couple beers!

@chrismcpherson7582 3 ай бұрын

I'm gonna build an all in one software in Godot that combines all three of these

@makersguildpublishing 4 ай бұрын

Is there a way to save these cards into a PNG or JPG file to be used by a game prototype company to make a hard copy of the game? something like "The Game Crafter" I only see the options to save the project as a JSON file to be used by Tabletop alone.

@sizarrazis 5 ай бұрын

thank you for this video Dextrous it seems to work verywell for me but i have a question how i can put icon background to text? for example in order to create a damage symbol with a broken shield as background or cross sowrds and the damage number front this broken shield.. hope I was understood 😅😁

@davejeltema3 5 ай бұрын

You could place the image in the layout and have text over it, but if you want it in the text then there a few things you could do. Place the number before the icon or you could put multiple icons. If you specifically want a number over the icon then you'll have to create a specific image for each number value you intend to use and then place the image string in the text.

@user-zc4qg6jk8b 3 ай бұрын

你的胡子好像肉松，很可爱:D

@GuardianAngelEatos 2 ай бұрын

Where has this been all my life?! Thank you for this man! I have a question. What do you do about adding game icons with ability text since it appears you can't add both images and text to google spreadsheets, so you can't make quick changes that way. I'm trying to think of a way to not have to manually add my game icons with ability text to every different card and make easy changes without needing to move the ability text and icons. I know you mentioned in a video using icons for common abilities instead of text, so I imagine you know of a good way to do this.

@davejeltema3 2 ай бұрын

You can edit the layers in dextrous to have a text field over the image if the images location is static. If you'd like it to be in something like effect text then you can duplicate the image 3 times instead of having a 3 on it, or you can edit the image itself.

@GuardianAngelEatos 2 ай бұрын

@@davejeltema3 I don't understand. How does duplicating an image three times help? I used your starter kit and am also having trouble figuring out why it deletes the zone for card type, Type Underline, and text box when I delete the Effect Container zone even when I move all of them off of the Effect Container. I want to change it to something else but seeing that I added other zones with zones added on top of them and I did not have the same problem when I deleted a zone that was on top, I don't want to mess with the Effect Container zone without understanding why it's removing the other zones. I wish there was a guide for what everything does somewhere and how certain features work. I can't find anything that explains why the zones are being deleted.

@GuardianAngelEatos 2 ай бұрын

@@davejeltema3 Also how do you paste into all of the columns like you did here in Google Sheets? I have been trying to figure out if there's a way to do that and couldn't find a way and noticed you did that here. 2:07

@davejeltema3 2 ай бұрын

@@GuardianAngelEatos The Dextrous website has some tutorials that might help, also their Discord is the place to ask questions like these. The guys over there are super helpful.

@GuardianAngelEatos 2 ай бұрын

@@davejeltema3 I've looked through the tutorials that sound like might be helpful, but to no avail. Okay, I'll try Discord. Thank you.

@sixbirdsinatrenchcoat 9 ай бұрын

Uhm - WOW! I am definitely gonna try this out. Do you know if I can use Excel as well as Google sheets? Also, new sub 😊

@davejeltema3 9 ай бұрын

I haven't looked into it, I imagine it would work, but the only reason I work in google sheets at all is so I can worth with my co-designer at the same time.

@The_PolterGhost 9 ай бұрын

It should work, Dexterous is looking for a CSV file, which both Google Sheets and Excel can provide.

@deanjamess1969 2 ай бұрын

H O L Y $ H I T - This would most definitely have been helpful years ago. Thanks brother, this is absolutely insanely helpful!

@iamthedutchguy 3 ай бұрын

Where is the link in the description?

@a.williamcook2926 6 ай бұрын

This is great! I've been working on cards using illustrator, is it possible to import them to dextrous without losing the progress I've made designing them?

@davejeltema3 6 ай бұрын

Unfortunately no, I don't believe so. You could check with the guys over on their discord to be sure.

@a.williamcook2926 6 ай бұрын

@@davejeltema3 ah well. I'm sure it'll be easier to create now that I know what I want it to look like. Thanks anyhow!

@AkFortyMuppet 4 ай бұрын

How does this compare to Nandeck? They seem similar but this is probably more polished. What I worry about is that this probably won't be free forever so might be better to learn nandeck

@roby8124 4 ай бұрын

I love nandeck, but what I'm interested about this is that it has an auto-upload to TTS feature. nandeck doesn't currently have that. However, nandeck does have an easy upload to the Game Crafter, for order print on demand versions of your cards quite easily.

@NickBeenackers Ай бұрын

the starter kit/ step-by-step walkthrough link to your discord server does not seem to be working anymore?

@davejeltema3 Ай бұрын

It's no longer pinned, you can find it in the resources section or type !dextrous in any channel for the autoresponder to link it.

@Arthur-jf7hg 9 ай бұрын

I gave it a try and wasn't unable to modify the back of cards. Any idea? I watched the tutorials but they are using a different tool version, which looks nicer 😢.

@davejeltema3 9 ай бұрын

They update very rapidly, which is awesome. Just to check the obvious: have you created a separate layout for the card back and then gone into the project to assign it to a specific component? If that doesn't help then I would highly suggest heading over to their discord, they are very active and will be able to help you with this anything else you come across. discord.gg/BB9tMEdv

@shanthagopian7559 Ай бұрын

How to import images from PC?

@skylermikesell1108 7 ай бұрын

Did you shut down the discord server? the link isn't working for me in the description.

@davejeltema3 7 ай бұрын

Thanks for reaching out! I have no idea why the link isn't working for you, I've had others say something similar, but the link is still active and working properly for others. I guess the first place to start is if you have discord installed, if you have a brand new account in the last day my community has a bit of protection to prevent spam from new accounts. Beyond that I'm at a loss, simply click this link to be invited. discord.gg/sjtRZsMAWt

@ajlynch123 17 күн бұрын

Can Dextrous be used to make a card file that can be physically printed for a finished game for the actual table???

@davejeltema3 16 күн бұрын

Yup, easy as hitting a button and selecting your printer settings. Exports to pdf or other formats. I've made a handful of physical prototypes printing at my local ups store.

@cci.starrbby 10 ай бұрын

Do you know how to add custom fonts in Dextrous?

@davejeltema3 10 ай бұрын

I did a quick search through their discord and found this response to someone else who asked the same question: "as long as you have the font installed locally, you can just add them as your own custom fonts in the layout editor. Just type " 'Ariel MT' " (with the single quotes) into your custom fonts and hit save. From now on you should be able to use that custom font in any design." Hope this helps!

@cci.starrbby 10 ай бұрын

@@davejeltema3 Didn't work. Whenever I do that it still comes up as the default font. Thanks tho

@davejeltema3 10 ай бұрын

@@cci.starrbby I would go to their discord to ask them then.

@davejeltema3 10 ай бұрын

I’m curious, what level were you at? Level one, two or three?

@lordllama2548 10 ай бұрын

Probably one or two all my projects are forever text documents

@jdlucke8967 10 ай бұрын

Just leveled up from 1 to 2 haha.

@ChrazyPenguin 10 ай бұрын

@@jdlucke8967Hardly anything feels better than having your game in front of you, we all come back to level 2 at some point!

@LordTyw1n 8 ай бұрын

I've been making a 120 minute roundtrip by bus to the printer weekly for about 6 weeks

@davejeltema3 8 ай бұрын

Oh no! lol. @@LordTyw1n

@shanthagopian7559 Ай бұрын

Is the board game I use there visible to the devs? In other words, can they see or steal my idea since Im using the platform?

@davejeltema3 Ай бұрын

I can't imagine a site where that wouldn't be the case... regardless, no one is going to steal your idea, quit being silly. :P

@uncolorr 5 ай бұрын

dang I don't have tts

@aarontuggle3120 9 ай бұрын

do you have a link for dextrous?

@davejeltema3 9 ай бұрын

dextrous.com.au

@aarontuggle3120 9 ай бұрын

@@davejeltema3 Thank you

@matthewharris-levesque5809 3 ай бұрын

No link to the site you're promoting?

@davejeltema3 3 ай бұрын

Fixt.

@bmluz2276 5 ай бұрын

How can I get the free starter kit?

@davejeltema3 5 ай бұрын

There is a tutorial and small download of example files to play around with in the discord. Come say hi!

@cheerecheere1996 10 ай бұрын

Discord Invite / Kit link is invalid

@davejeltema3 10 ай бұрын

Double-checked with a friend, and the link works. The only thing I can think you might be running into is that my server is a little ban happy against new accounts.

@skylermikesell1108 7 ай бұрын

My account is 6 years old and it's also saying it is invalid for me too@@davejeltema3

@invincible3246 Күн бұрын

DAMMIT I DONT HAVE STEAM OR A COMPUTER

@Moris91 5 ай бұрын

That tool is nightmare to use XD

@bobbykbobette7426 Ай бұрын

Looks nice but sorry i don't have $100-$200 a year to spend in it.

@davejeltema3 Ай бұрын

I've been using Dextrous for a couple years now and haven't spend a penny (unless you're talking about something else?) I did pay $20 for Tabletop Simulator though, could have saved $10 if I waited for a sale.