Miscellaneous Advice

These are valuable pieces of advice that I can't find a home for.

I constantly cull and compact articles, and there are often useful sections or quotes left over. I relegate them to this article. Also, new ideas that don't justify an article are put here, rather than on an "ideas" list. Most items here eventually find a proper home.

Make a good game

There is no substitute.

Radlands is still selling better than the vast majority of new games. Yet, no one is promoting Radlands. There is no marketing. The artwork and design have certainly helped, as did the good name of Roxley. However, if the game had been mediocre, or even just reasonably good, it would be long forgotten by now.

You'll need to make a game better than 99.9% of other games.

People buy a game. They play it with others. Those others like it, and buy it. The game spreads. People talk about the game positively in posts, reviews, and videos. It's very meritocratic. This is what happened with Radlands, and I've seen it with the viral spread of Codenames.

Players must enjoy their first game

The first time someone plays your game, their enjoyment is crucial.

Each copy of your game will be played many times by its owner, but by many other players once. This is because they're playing it at a games club, or after a dinner. That impression really counts. The game must become fun and understandable during that first play, or they won't play the game again (or buy it). Maybe a game is great after ten plays. I'm not going to invest the time to find out.

Many fans of Radlands have told me that they've played the game with someone once, and that person bought the game immediately afterwards. I was told that one player even stopped playing mid-game, and started using his phone. When his opponent asked what he was doing, he said he was buying the game online.

Include a "beginner setup", which specifies the setup of the game, for the players' first game. This setup should use the simplest and most straightforward game elements, and skip all pre-game choices, if any.

If your game is very complicated, you can go even further, and create a "family version", where you remove some systems from the game entirely, for the players' first game.

Be more efficient

You don't need to just get better at game design — you need to get more efficient at it.

I originally did playtesting with the occasional friend. Later, I would pay people I knew $50 to come to my place, and playtest for two hours. That could get me a playtest every week or two.

Later still, I got into groups on Discord, got Tabletop Simulator, and joined some small groups. It was inefficient, and I wasted countless hours playing some terrible five-player games. However, it was the first time I could get relatively easy playtests. I worked with a few different amateur designers over the years: virtually anyone who wanted regular playtests, regardless of their skill or demeanour.

Since the publication of Radlands, I've been recruiting the fans of the game as playtesters. They've been generous and eager helpers, and they're not game designers, so I don't even need to playtest their games in exchange. More recently, I've been recruiting the readers of this site.

You need to do revisions faster and faster.

A game will likely take more than a hundred revisions. One revision a week means one game will take two years.

If you're really serious about game design, you should be aiming to do one revision (which is changes to the game plus a playtest) per day. If you're busy some days, you should be doing one revision per free day. I try to do a revision every 12 hours. I've done four in a day before, with different playtesters, and changes after each. You don't have to reach any particular speed. Just speed up.

Feelbad situations

Feelbad situations are where the player feels bad about something that happens during the game. It doesn't matter why players feel bad, or if their misfortune is actually fair. Avoid creating these situations.

It doesn't matter if the player made the choice to get into a feelbad situation. You probably shouldn't let the player do that at all.

In general, winning players should gain points or resources, rather than losing players losing them. They may be equivalent, but the feeling is very different.

No one gains any points. Ben, you lose 5 points!
Aww...

Don't interfere with the players' stuff. If you need to penalise them, make them lose points, or temporary resources, not their progress.

Ben: I spend the ten gold I've collected, to buy this cool horse! Yeah! Now I'll be able to gallop around. I'll go and attack the dragon now.

Tom: The dragon attacks you. It rolls a 6. Your horse and all your equipment are destroyed.

Humour

My gangster game often veers into dark or ludicrous humour. Players are always amused by the "Gatecrash" card, depicting an obnoxious "party bro" with an air horn bursting in through the door. The game is about criminality, but there are plenty of wholesome locations thrown in. Why wouldn't a brutal criminal want to visit the Ice Cream Van? People always smile, upon seeing Goths and Anger Management Class. Unless your game is deadly serious, throw some humour in there.

However, the real humour in my games and others, comes from the interactions. If there's a dog, and it goes to a restaurant, that's funny. A card called "Dog Goes to a Restaurant" isn't funny.