BEGINNING A NEW DESIGN

I've made dozens of games. Most don't survive. Here's how I do it quickly and efficiently.

Do not create a whole game

In the first playtest of your game, you will learn very important things within a few turns. There won't be much point playing past that point. Then, you'll be back to the drawing board, and lots of things will change.

If you've created an entire game, you'll have to alter the whole thing, repeatedly — even the parts you're not using.

I've spent weeks creating and printing/uploading a game, only to play it for a few minutes before abandoning the playtest.

For my designs, there's a 50% chance the game is never played again after its first playtest.

These days, I don't even bother with a name for the game, at first. I just use a description. I'd rather have a game graveyard full of descriptions than mysterious names.

Just create the beginning

Create the first ten minutes of the game, if that's possible. If there are rounds, only create the first round. Just make enough of each component to enable that. This means extremely small decks of cards, which you just recycle if they run out. A deck of ten cards isn't very random, but it's enough to play the game. It doesn't matter that the game isn't random. You'll only play that deck once, and then you'll change it.

Only create the two-player version of the game.

If the game has a board, create a small corner of the board. Do not make the board modular or variable.

If there are different "characters" the players can be, just create two. Even better, leave them out. Every "extra bit" that the game doesn't necessarily need, can be left out completely.

Keep the game very small and non-variable, for many revisions.

Resist the urge to make content.

The fact that every game will be samey is actually a good thing. When the game goes bad, in playtesting, you know it's the rules, not just an unlucky draw or one wacky card.

The game doesn't need a proper end, until you're many revisions in. You can often leave the objective out. I often tell players to "just do stuff." Or, you can just create a small, temporary win condition, like "gather 10 resources."

Writing a Rulebook

Obviously, do not write a rulebook. Playtesters do not want to read it. They want you to tell them the rules. Make one of the cards a reminder card, with only a few lines, explaining the rules such that an experienced gamer will understand them — just the objective, and how to play their turn. Players know that icons in corners are probably costs, and that played cards are probably discarded. Most icons are obvious. A reminder card also helps you come back to the game if you step away from it for a while.

Fix one thing at a time

Once the game works, be careful with your revisions. The game is fragile. Everything is interlinked, and the game is probably only barely functional. You've just had a successful playtest, and so you're continuing work on the game. Don't redesign the whole thing. Just fix one thing each revision, and put up with the rest of the problems. If you keep fixing the one biggest problem, your game can't accidentally drift into becoming something else because you changed too many things at once. This also keeps your motivation up, as huge revisions are a huge drag.

Obviously, don't worry about balance, replayability, or any other smaller factors early on.

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