Playtesting with Purpose

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Playtesting with Purpose

A core tenant of game development is playtesting. You must playtest a lot in order to refine ideas, improve the flow of play, gain insight and new perspectives, and to simply make sure what you have is fun. This article is about best practices when playtesting, taking notes, identifying problems, developing solutions, and tracking this information in a way that saves time and improves your playtesting efficiency.

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Ruling the Roost

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Ruling the Roost

This post is about boardgame rulebooks. The following represents my opinions on the subject – the elements I consider to be necessary for a rulebook to be good, and the things that I consider to be mistakes that are commonly made in writing them. This article describes the process that I use when creating rulebooks for my own games, and my reasons for doing so. Although I cite specific examples of design elements that I agree and disagree with, I do not do so to disparage any other’s work. You may not agree with my opinions, but I welcome comments, other examples, and suggestions for improvements.

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In Living Colour

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In Living Colour

For the most part I don’t dream in colour. Oh, sometimes I can vaguely remember a splash of red or blue on infrequent occasions, but for the most part all I remember is shades of black and grey. I can’t visualize colour either, I can’t see it in my mind’s eye. I can see shapes and silhouettes (vague, grey, and indistinct though they may be), I can hold 3d objects in my mind and rotate them around, and intellectually I could tell you the colour of something I remember… but the colours are just words to me. Red is “R” “E” “D”, not RED. I understand why this means that I do not draw or paint well. I cannot capture an image in full definition in my mind so that I might reproduce it on paper.

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