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"Wow Daniel! This is an excellent resource for people who want to get into game design; it is filled with great language for them to learn the craft, and the hard truths of getting something to be worth publishing."

—Richard Garfield, Creator of Magic: the Gathering

Who am I?

I'm Daniel Piechnick.

I'm a board game designer from Australia, and former national Scrabble champion.

I'm the designer of the award-winning game Radlands, Published by Roxley Games. It has sold over 200,000 copies, and been translated into ten languages. It sits in the top #200 of all games designed, at BoardGameGeek. I also have other games approved for publication.

What is this site?

This site teaches you how to design board games that people will love, or that a publisher would want to publish.

Many board game design websites I see are troves of analysis. These sites just explain how things are. Others give lots of general advice, and best practice. Many relate specific stories that yield no general advice. Some go no further than pointless abstractions and theory.

I wrote this site because I see a lack of comprehensive, actionable advice for aspiring board game designers.

In this site, I tell you what to do.

How to create a board game

Board game design is iterative. You come up with an idea, you create a playable prototype of the game, and then you play it with someone. From that playtest, you learn things, and you modify your game. Then, you play it again. You repeat this process many, many times, until the game is great.

There is no manual that can teach you exactly how to create a great board game, just like there's no manual that can teach you exactly how to write a great book.

Board game design sits at the intersection of logic and psychology.

Game design is far too complex to be fully understood or solved. I can give you my best advice, but it's just a raised platform you'll still need to skilfully build upon. Most of your expertise will come from your own practice and reflection, and a huge amount of trial and error.

My approach to writing

I've written this site for people who are serious about board game design, as most designers are.

This site is purely my opinion, but be warned: it's my brutally honest opinion. I'll tell you exactly what I think, including things polite people won't tell you. I write for brevity and clarity. I don't couch everything with "this is just my opinion". I'm also aware that what works for me may not work for you.

Some of what I have to say is directed not at your game, but at you, and at designers in general. I'll also be going into the harsh realities that must be faced by those who wish to be successful in this industry.

Most of my methodology is my own, but a small amount was learned from outside, particularly from the popular fantasy card game Magic: the Gathering (usually abbreviated to just Magic.) Some of my advice lines up with common wisdom. Most doesn't.

This site is not a scattering of thoughts. The 90 or so articles I've written cover my entire design methodology, and amount to a complete course in board game design.

This site was mostly written during 2018. It was published in 2023, after the success of Radlands.

You should only be heeding the opinions of successful game designers. Many of the books and resources on game design were created by people who are not successful game designers, or are only marginally successful. Radlands has been a hit, but it's my only one. You can choose whether or not my advice therefore merits consideration.

Reading this site

This site is written to be understandable by people who are not board game enthusiasts.

The foundational articles are first, so I suggest reading the articles on this site in numerical order.

If you don't know about the booming industry of modern board games, start here. If you already know about this, please continue.

Let's begin.