I didn’t manage to spend 2020 travelling the world – two months in Europe was the next best thing. The last photo I took was this view of Mount Olympus: On returning home I decided to take my hobby back to basics and got some cardboard and building blocks out. First up was a game… Continue reading Diary #41 – Simple Pleasures
Diary #40 – Debris
This photo shows the outcome of five years’ gaming and designing. It’s a bit of a mess: those chocolate boxes and biscuit tins contain prototypes, components and Lego, but I couldn’t tell you which is which. My various designs are in a similar state of disarray. Test of Time was rejected from the UK Games… Continue reading Diary #40 – Debris
Diary #39 – The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me
The title of today’s diary entry comes from a book of the same name (publisher: Penguin, 1985) by Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake. It tells the story of a boy who moves to a new town and meets a giraffe, a pelican and a monkey who work as window cleaners. In this analogy I am… Continue reading Diary #39 – The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me
Diary #38 – How’s My Island?
My recent adventures left me with a huge to-do list: everything from fundamental card design to promotional material needed tweaking. I despaired of ever knowing where to start, until a couple of Gweeples came to my rescue. David and Pushpendra were keen to playtest the game a second time; this necessitated updates to the cards… Continue reading Diary #38 – How’s My Island?
Diary #37 – Pressure Point
It’s interesting how pressure can be motivating: virtual games lead us to download new software, conventions to refine prototypes and competitions to celebrate and share our work. I’ve just flirted with the third of these and the result has been some useful insights into the industry. Of the 124 entries into the Board Game Design Challenge… Continue reading Diary #37 – Pressure Point
Diary #36 – The Promised Land
In my last diary entry I hoped that the gaming community would migrate online. I didn’t realise that some were already there: they have led the rest of us to new lands, as Moses once did, and we owe them our thanks. One such person is Simon Milburn (Alley Cat Games, Dranda Games), who has… Continue reading Diary #36 – The Promised Land
Diary #35 – The Silver Lining
“We could do with a virus day,” I joked at work a few weeks ago, “We haven’t had any snow, and it’d be nice to have a day off.” Be careful what you wish for. The past week has been dominated by a gathering cloud of uncertainty. When it finally broke, it flooded us all… Continue reading Diary #35 – The Silver Lining
Diary #34 – Into the Woods
Today we’re going to talk about playtesting: a process which, for designers, is like being lost in a dark and scary wood. You can only find the exit and finish your game with the guidance of your playtesters. Between them, your playtesters know of many different paths to many different exits, so a single project… Continue reading Diary #34 – Into the Woods
Diary #33 – Protospiel
A convention for designers and playtesters: it may sound like the work of the Birmingham Game Designers, but the UK’s first Protospiel was actually the brain child of Chris Kingsnorth. As dawn broke on a cold November morning I hopped in car with the Dranda Boys and sped off to Nottingham’s Hilton Hotel (interiors the image of… Continue reading Diary #33 – Protospiel
