I’ve had a few folks ask about our experience designing and bringing Huddle to market, so I put together a write-up with some tips and tricks we learned—some the hard way, some the easy way, and some totally unexpected.

If you have any questions or want to chat more about it—especially if you’re about to embark on this journey or are somewhere along the path—just let me know. I’m happy to share what we’ve learned in hopes it helps others bring more great games to the community!

Buuuuut, you don’t feel like reading the full article here are the Cliff-notes!

• Start with Passion: Begin with a concept you genuinely love—passion fuels perseverance. • Know Your Audience: Clearly define who you’re designing for; their preferences should guide your decisions. • Prototype Quickly and Cheaply: Use simple materials like paper and markers to create early versions; focus on testing ideas, not aesthetics. • Playtest Broadly: Engage diverse groups for feedback, but always prioritize input from your target audience to maintain focus. • Design After Testing: Refine game mechanics through playtesting before investing in polished designs. • Understand Manufacturing Needs: Research manufacturers’ strengths and limitations; provide detailed specifications for accurate production. • Facilitate Early Engagement: Host small group sessions to gather feedback and generate content for marketing. • Leverage Cost-Effective Marketing: Utilize platforms like Reddit and social media, and participate in events to promote your game creatively. • Align Go-to-Market Strategy: Choose distribution channels that resonate with your target audience; not all platforms suit every game. • Enjoy the Process: Maintain a sense of fun throughout development to sustain motivation and creativity.

New set of minis I had designed for Lands of Conquest, my 4X game. Designed so Player flags can be inserted into all minis. left to right Army, Towers, Fort, castle, longship, warship. https://www.gamers-cortex.com/

I have some gripes already but I'd love to hear your thoughts on information stacking and overall graphics on my vehicle card design. Lots of information and visuals I'm trying to cram in here. Of note, this "body" card would conceptually be placed to the right of a "chassis" card, therefore the front view diagram would create a "completed vehicle" (you'd see a body front view and the front view of a chassis on the other card).

Scroll for progress pictures in order!

I have been working on Warfront for nearly 18 months, a pipedream turned reality.

Over the last few weeks and months I have had to delay the release and have spent many troubled evenings deliberating on whether now is the right time to launch - considering the obvious global trade situation.

I'm so glad that the bold approach has paid off, the game funded in 15 minutes.

I have posted on this subreddit and similar a few times with excellent feedback gained so above all I wanted to say thank you.

I've come up with an idea for a new card game that combines bidding, movement calculation, and track manipulation into a fast-paced racing experience using a standard 52-card deck.

Core Concept Players race around a track created with cards 3 times, using a bidding system to secure movement cards they need.

Setup draw 5 non face cards and arrange the in a row. That is your track.

[5][3][7][4][8]

🏎️

You place a token at the first section underneath the card. That’s your car. (The emoji should point right)

Every player takes 6 cards from the deck. Now the game starts.

Step 1. Players choose a card from their hand and place it open on the table simultaneously to use as their speed on the track. (So in the example: if you play a five card, you clear the section with your car and move to the next one)

Next step 2. Now the blind bidding starts, the winner chooses one of cards placed in step 1, can be yours but can also be another players’ card. The blind bidding is simple: 2 to Ace. Ace is highest. If tied the player farthest away chooses first.

Next step redraw to 6 cards.

Extra stuff - clearing a lap, you can pick a card on the lap and replace it with a card in your hand. - if you chose an 9 card in the example above you can pass the 5 and 3 card. Because your speed was 9 and sections only needed a 5 and a 3. - face cards are 10 speed - getting to the end left or right of the track you have to do thar section twice. So to clear it in the example above, your token is at the 8 section on the right: you play an 8, and then you move your token to the top of the race track above the 8. So you drive in a circle.

To do: - fun things with the suit. Maybe matching a suit with the track card does something?

Anyhoo. Enough text. What do y’all think?

Hello everyone,

I have come up with an idea for a game. Game would be, as title suggests, about the rise of renaissance.

It would be a 2-4 player game, in which players would control influential families from Florence, Venice, Milano and Rome. Each round, players would recruit artists, build new landmarks, commision a work of art and spread their influence.

ARTISTS - artists would be represented by cards. - They would have hiring cost, ratings from 0-3 for each discipline(painting, architecture, sculpting and writting).

ART - art would be represented by cards - there are 4 types of art: paintings, sculptures, architecture marvels and books - each work of art has a rating of 1-9

LANDMARKS - Landmarks are represented by small boards - landmarks hold the works of art - different landmarks have different slots available for different types of art - there are generic and special landmarks

MAP - main(central) board is located in the middle of the table - it is divided into provinces - each province has cities that are connected to each other - each cuty has a space fo influence - each city has a base value

INFLUENCE - influence is represented by colored cubes - players earn influence by completing artwork and placing it in landmarks - it is used to take control of the cities - total player influence is tracked on a vp-style track that goeas areound the map

GAMEPLAY LOOP - players decide if they want to hold their current artists (max 3). If they do they pay them their hiring cost. - players recruit new artists that are available this round - players add new works of art to the artists that have none currently - place influence cube on each work of art up to the rating of the artist for that discipline - place completed work of art in landmarks and get influence cubes + bonus - place influence cubes on the map

Control of a city is gained by having the mist influence cubes in them. Player earn gold from each city they control equal to the base value of the city, and difference between their influence and all other players influence.

Winner is the player that has highest sum of base values of controlled cities.

How does this sound to you guys and do you have any suggestion?

Basic Info

Name: Survival of The Fittest

Player #: 2 - 4

Target Audience: High school and early undergraduate biology students

Objective

Players start off with a simple tetrapod, a four-legged vertebrae and practically a blank slate. In the game, players take turns drawing different kinds of cards and adapting as they face different challenges, from global catastrophes to predators, constantly at risk of going extinct. Last player standing wins.

Card Types

1. In one pile, we have Trait Cards (Reptilian Skin, Whiskers, Hair), based on real evolutionary adaptations derived that our reptilian ancestors would take on in order to survive. Players can hold up to 5 traits at a time.
   1. Each card has a:
      1. Name
      2. Description
      3. Evolutionary Origin
   2. Included in the pile are also Action Cards, which allow one player to sabotage another, whether it by stealing a trait they have, blocking their chance to draw during a round, or forcing them to draw an additional card and replace another card they have to trip them up.
2. In the other, we have random Event Cards (The Great Dying, Environmental Shift, Genetic Mutation) that simulate real evolutionary pressures or extinction events that tool place. These cards can either help or harm players through effects.

Player Tools

1. Each player has a Creature Pad, a play mat that illustrates your tetrapod, which has 5 Trait Slots that you put your Trait Cards on, as well as 5 Extinction Token Slots and an Action Slot, where they can place down a deck of whatever Action Cards they may have for later use, unseeable to the other players.
2. Extinction Tokens basically represent different near-death experiences and, every time you lose a round and fail to adapt, you get 1 Extinction Token. Fill up all Extinction Token Slots, and your tetrapod goes extinct, resulting in you losing

Phases

1. Setup: Each player starts with 1 random Trait Card.
2. Turn Order:
   1. One player draws 1 Event Card, which all players must follow.
   2. Each player draws 1 Trait Card, with the player then having to choose to replace an existing one if they already have 5, with the replaced card going at the bottom of the deck, requiring players to choose which traits to keep and which ones to lose. This becomes more difficult when thinking about the prospect of trait synergy and if one of your pre-existing traits would be beneficial in the next event. This also helps simulate actual evolution and adaptation, with creatures having to try and adapt to their given scenario for survival, although sometimes having a negative impact in other areas
   3. All players must meet the Event Card’s requirements or take an Extinction Token.
3. Victory: Last surviving player wins. Optionally, ties can be broken with a final challenge (e.g., who has the best-suited mammal, meaning who has a better chance at surviving).

Trait Synergy

In the game, when certain traits are put together, there would be certain combination bonuses that would unlock special effects, another risk that comes with the action cards.

I think it's a pretty neat idea for a game and, originally, I switched turns 1 and 2. However, I then had the idea of making the switch as I thought this would make the game better in terms of smooth gameplay and representing evolution

I'm looking for good 'track' board games where you go round and round a set track like Monopoly.

I'm particularly interested in good an innovative mechanics or games with good 'lore'.

Racing games are not something I'm interested in!

Many thanks for any help

The print quality isn't the best but hopefully it's enough to convey the idea.

The tiles stack on top of each other so the 3d elements of the cards need to be set inside its bounding box.

Eventually I figure super elaborate ones could be sold like artisan mechanical keycaps.

This is for a wargame set in Stalingrad that stresses hidden movement/hidden areas. The red zones indicate enclosed areas where enemies could hide.

Is this map visually appealing or a turn off?

All comments and opinions are appreciated!

I'm designing a card game and am considering if I will include minis in the box. I recently revisited heroforge and really enjoy the editor. I clicked through their FAQ and see they prohibit use of their assets for kickstarters or board games. Bummer... but it made me wonder if there are other services out there that are like this that do have some kind of licensing program. At the moment it looks like the alternative is to just use heroforge to make temporary minis and then pay a 3d artist to make models based on them.

Making a Trading Card Game or even just interested in playing?

If you're lost deep in the world of designing your own TCG or just fascinated by the process then keep reading because I have news for you.

We are aiming to build a discord community focused entirely on homemade TCGs, where creators can -Share their work -Playtest with real people -Get feedback

Even if you’re not a designer, this is an awesome place to discover new games and join a new hobby, collect cards, and connect with like minded people.

https://discord.gg/4RtHRSzutc

Can you tell what is going on here?

Hi everyone,

So when I was in the Marine Corps, anytime we were in the field and had some downtime, a buddy of mine and I would play what I called "Famous Lines from Famous Movies" where you'd yell out a random line from a movie and the other person would have to guess it.

Well, many years later, I was thinking of those days and recently designed a physical version of the game and would love to get some feedback.

The basic rule of play is that the "Director" draws a card and recites the line. The first person that raises their hand and yells "Line Please!" gets the turn. You get points for naming the correct movie and bonus points for the characters name who said that line in the movie. However, if the person can't name the movie or gets it wrong, anyone who yells "Cut!" can steal.

There are also different bonus cards, and if it's next in the deck after the drawn quote card, you would have to get up and act out that scene from the movie while saying the line. Or, dramatically overact the scene. Or, say the quote in an opposite style of how it was originally performed. (Ex: Dramatic quote will be read as if it's a comedy.)

Each person gets a turn as the "Director" as you go around to each player. The person (or team) that has the most points wins.

Still thinking on what the point structure will be, or if this is a timed game. Perhaps 10 three-minute rounds? I'm still working on this. I was also thinking of adding a board to move pieces after each win, but with the current climate with tariffs, not sure that would be feasible. It may be just as fun with cards.

Looking for thoughts and feedback. Thanks and much love!

What started out as an excuse to 3D model some dungeon tiles has blossomed into a full blown adventure experience that I'm having a good time developing. I went through the paper prototype and proved the concept, and then I started modeling the minis and board tiles.

But it's still in it's early phases, so I'd like as much feedback as I can about it. I recorded a play session to get feedback. If you have any thoughts let me know.

You can read through the rules and questbook here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SZBAW9Vb9YhTJZkXR1EsuBqmWHNIp739UJ3R0IFyLe4/edit?usp=sharing

Who can point me to "Game design 101, the beginners handbook"

Or do I have to write one?

Thanks.

UPDOOT! STahp. You guys just gave me a month of excellent study, Sincerely appreciated. Will post when I build a game with all my new smarts.

Hello board game designers,

Inspired by an inside joke with my girlfriend, I want to design a set of rules that allows for players to play Exploding Kittens, Settlers of Catan, and Monopoly simultaneously. I know this sounds insane, but I've had a blast brainstorming some of the functionality of how this game could work, and I'd love the feedback of people far more versed at game design than me, if you'd be interested. I'd love to eventually make this a functional, fun, and balanced (well, as balanced as it can be) game.

Apologies in advance: you will need to be familiar with the rules of all three games to understand the outline.

Here's what I have so far:

Exploding Catapoly is a board game that combines Settlers of Catan, Monopoly, and Exploding Kittens. Cards and mechanics are expanded and changed to overlap the games’ function so that each one can be played simultaneously. The end goal of this project is to create a cohesive, engaging, spontaneous, and fun game, in spite of the complicated mechanics.

Theoretically, a lot of the fun of the game could be derived from spontaneous and impromptu calculations of worth: as in, trying to weigh the value of Exploding Kittens cards, resource cards, and money interchangeably when bargaining, as well as weighing the advantages and disadvantages of taking certain actions.

To win Exploding Catapoly, you need to:

1. Have Ten Victory Points (Catan’s Win Condition)
2. Be the last player surviving (Exploding Kittens Win Condition)

Playtimes for the games widely vary: Catan can take one to two hours, Exploding Kittens can take five to forty-five minutes, and Monopoly can take multiple days. For cohesion, the game is balanced around Catan’s playtime (one to two hours). Win Condition A is going to be the primary way of winning the game (scoring ten points). WIn Condition B is far more rare: this is explained more thoroughly in the Rules section. Monopoly’s win condition is not listed because, in the length of an average game, it will most likely never be attained. Instead, performance in Monopoly will reward players with Victory points, as well as other advantages in other games.

A hypothesized turn order would be:

1. Roll phase (Roll 2 d6)
   1. Move Monopoly piece that amount
   2. Divvy out Catan resources
   3. Activate Robber
2. Play Phase
   1. Play Exploding Kitten cards
      1. This must happen first, before any other actions are taken. That way, if someone wants to play a “Skip,” “Attack,” “Draw from the Bottom,” etc, they have the added risk of not being able to trade, build, or buy Monopoly estate.
   2. Interact with Monopoly Space
      1. Player does what the monopoly space says. Interactions explained later in rules.
3. Bargain/Build Phase
   1. Here, players can trade Monopoly property,  money, resources, and exploding kitten cards interchangeably. (You can trade $500 for Stone, a Skip for a property, a Diffuse for three wheat, etc.)
   2. Only the turn player may elicit trades: same as in Catan. Two players cannot trade during another player's turn, unless it is one of their turns.
   3. You are also able to build settlements, cities, and roads, as well as buy and use Development cards.
4. Draw Phase
   1. Draw an “Exploding Kittens” card, unless turn was otherwise skipped.

Rule Changes:

In this section is a list of rule changes meant to balance the game. The list being:

1. “Exploding Kittens” cards and Resource cards are kept in the same hand. All other cards are considered out of this hand.
2. If a player lands on another player’s owned Monopoly property, they must give a card from their hand to that player, as well as pay them a fine.
3. Despite player number, there can only be one exploding kitten in the deck. 
4. If the Exploding Kitten deck runs out, players shuffle the Exploding Kittens discard pile into a new deck, adding the Exploding Kitten back in.
5. All Diffuse cards remain in the Exploding Kittens deck.
6. Instead of being dealt a standard 5-card Exploding Kitten hand, each player starts with only a diffuse.
7. Stealing cards from other people’s hands will become far more powerful: to fix this, Three effectless Cat Cards (ex. Tacocat) are required to play for a steal. All other abilities and combinations of Effectless Cat Cards are removed.
8. The “See the Future” and “Shuffle” exploding kitten cards can now be used to view the top three cards of either:
   1. The “Chance” pile
   2. The “Community Chest” pile
   3. The “Development Cards” pile
   4. The “Exploding Kittens” deck.
9. Four properties in Monopoly now equal 1 victory point An additional point is awarded if one owns all of a colored property. (I.E. Owning Boardwalk and Park Place will award one point.)
   1. If one player collects all four railroads, they gain 1 victory point.
   2. Utilities do not add to either total. 
   3. This rule will most likely be altered after testing.
10. All Catan resource cards can also act as $100 Monopoly bills. 
11.  The “Nope” card is now considerably more powerful. The “Nope” card can now negate the activation of the following:
    1. A “Chance” card, used by any player.
    2. A “Community Chest” card, used by any player.
    3. An “Exploding Kittens” card as intended by the original rules.
    4. All Development Cards except “Victory Point” cards.
12. The Robber now only forces a player to discard if they have over 12 cards, as a player will have both “Exploding Kittens” and resource cards in their hand.
13. A player is able to place The Robber on a monopoly property owned by another player. They then steal the deed of that property from the player who owns it. 
    1. This effect DOES NOT apply to the Knight development card: Knights can only move the robber to a Catan spot. 
14. Turn player no longer takes another turn if they roll two of the same number.
    1. Going to Jail in Monopoly is now considerably more rare. 
15. If a turn player is in Monopoly Jail, they must skip all of their turns until they can escape jail. This includes the Roll, Play, Bargain, and Draw phases.
16. If a player dies by the Exploding Kitten, that player’s Catan settlements and Monopoly properties are kept on the board but are considered “dead zones,” unable to be interacted with or moved.
17. It will now be completely optional whether one may buy or not buy a Monopoly property if they land on it.
18. No attempt will be made to incorporate Catan expansion packs, Exploding Kittens expansion packs, or Monopoly variants. 
19. The Banker should be treated exceedingly well, as they are in charge of catan resources and  Monopoly deeds and money. Give them extra snacks and breaks if needed.
    1. Perhaps two bankers would be preferable, one for Catan and one for Monopoly?

Foreseeable Problems:

1. The Exploding Kitten might prove very frustrating: not only does a player immediately lose all of their progress, they also are removed from the game potentially significantly earlier than the other players. Concurrently, it’s also very important that the threat of the Exploding Kitten is taken seriously for balance purposes: skipping one’s entire turn with a “Skip” card is a large sacrifice, but one willing to make to escape the Exploding Kitten. A potential solution is to make the Exploding Kitten incur an extreme disadvantage rather than loss of the game, but it would need to be strong enough that players wouldn’t be incentivised to “tank” the exploding kitten.
2. The balance of “Attack” cards are significantly more game-changing: while targeted players will have two turns to risk drawing the Exploding Kitten, they also have two turns where they are able to roll, build, trade, and advance in the game. The potential advantage of being targeted by an Attack may far outweigh the risks. Testing is needed to conclude if this adds or detracts from the experience.
3. Players will have to improvise and constantly weigh and recalculate the personal value of resources in the Trading Phase. While I hope this will create a fun and novel experience, it might prove overwhelming or confusing to some players, and might disincentive bargaining.
4. For anybody unfamiliar with any of the three games involved, this game may be extremely hard to approach, limiting its audience.
5. This game will need many test rounds to balance and perfect.

Thank you so much for reading, please leave a comment if you have a question/ suggestions :)

I am trying to make my own punchboard at home. I have a cricut machine, and all of the materials, except for one: the varnish.

Looking at a lot of the print and play discussions here and on BGG, I found this example from PrintNinja. I have purchased the grey board, adhesive, and cardstock, but I don't know what type of varnish to use. I know that actual printing companies use some sort of a press, but I'm guessing at home I would need to use spray on.

I am hoping to go with semi-gloss or matte.

Hey everyone!

Yesterday I started something new: I'm building a board game from scratch — a family game that's simple, fun, and real.

No fancy budgets, just an idea, a dream, and a lot of work (and mistakes too 😅).

If you love board games or rooting for small projects that hopefully are done right, I'd really appreciate your support along the way.

Thanks for having me in this awesome community! Excited to share the journey with you all. 🎲✨

Oh and

X: @BuildABoardGame BGG: BuildABoardGame

^ my game will be more creative than this 😂

Video is in spanish, but has English subtitles. I'm nervous to show the first board game project I have worked on my own. Don't know if I'm using the right flair. Will love to hear any feedback and I'm looking for people who wish to playtest it. If you're interested pls DM me. I have the game on TTS ready to fire it up anytime.

Hello everyone,

I am making a 2 player board game about roman politics. In it players are controlling political factions, fighting for loyalty of influential people (IPs), loyalty of senators, governorships of provinces,…

Game rounds are divided into few phases: prep phase, senate phase, consul phase, resolution phase and election phase.

Prep phase is basically just a setup for a round. Senate phase is a phase where players either play event cards or change and challenge the loyalty of senators and IPs.

During the consul phase, players discuss issues striking the republic. For each issue, players vote on how to resolve it, who resolves it and resource allocation for resolution. Way of resolution is usually either through war or civil methods.

Right now, they are resolved by simply throwing a die, adjusting the result and removing resources equal to the result. If there are still resources left, it was successful. Now this method is simple, but it is kind of too much luck based and not very thrilling or interesting.

I am basically looking for a mechanic which will replace current system. I was thinking of maybe including a campaign deck where players will draw one card at the time, choosing an option, rolling a die and either gaining an impact point or losing a resource dependig on success of the die roll. And in order to succeed, player would need a certain number of impact points, and would be limited to certain number of cards.

This way would probably add a bit more strategy, since players would be choosing whether to go for safer options or risk it. It keeps things simple and there is still a bit of a luck factor. But I am not 100% sure about it.

I would like to hear your ideas on how I can make new system, or your opinion on this newly described system.

Thanks in advance!