2017

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How to Test Your Storytelling Powers & Make People Connect with Your Board Games

Brand Game Development

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the eighth of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. This suite is based on the Five Levels of Communication through Game Development , my own personal board game development philosophy.

Art 130
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Continuous Integration for Unity 5.6.1f1 with Docker and Bitrise

The GameDev Guru

I bet you know already the productivity boost you get by adopting continuous integration processes, so I will roughly skip that part.

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Dev snapshot: Godot 3.0 beta 2

Mircosoft Game Dev

Edit 22.12.2017: Windows binaries (both the editor binaries and the export templates) have been replaced by versions without OpenMP support, the latter forcing the installation of the MS Visual C++ Redistributable 2017 to get the OpenMP DLL. If you downloaded export templates before 22.12.2017 at 23:59 UTC, we advise to download them anew to get the proper portable Windows binaries.

Beta 52
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Death is Canceled for Space Halloween

Tom Francis

For the duration of Space Halloween (27th of Space October to the 1st of Space November), life and death in the Drift will be a little different: Removed: Death. Due to science, you cannot die during Space Halloween. Bleeding out, suffocating, or being incinerated in an exploding pod will permanently turn you into a living skeleton. Once Halloween is over, you’ll remain a skeleton but any lethal damage will finish you off.

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Annapurna’s First Video Game Thinks It Belongs on Your Shelf Next to Kafka and Borges

Game Writing Blog

Annapurna’s First Video Game Thinks It Belongs on Your Shelf Next to Kafka and Borges : A rave review for movie company Annapurna’s first video game! But is it an “indie” game?

Indy 52
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Creating opportunities – the stuff of great conferences

Rindoku

Reboot Develop 2017 was amazing. Let’s get that out of the way first. It was by far the best conference we’ve attended so far. Looking back at the experience and attempting to answer why I felt that way, I got to thinking about what makes a great conference for an indie dev in general. Read on for some thoughts on what really matters to an indie when going to an industry event.

Indy 52
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My 2017 Year in Review

Grumpy Gamer

I released a game on eight platforms and didn't die in the process. Isn't that all we can ask for?

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Observer – Podcast – Dein Sonntag

Rat King Blog

Observer ist purer Cyberpunk im Krakau der Zukunft. Da das Spiel vom "Layers of Fear"-Team Bloober entwickelt wurde, darf man hier kein typisches Adventure erwarten. Auch diesmal steht wieder ein durchgeknallter Gang durch Räume voller weirder Charaktere, Effekte und einer Auseinandersetzung über den Verlust der Menschlichkeit durch Konzerne und Körpermodifikationen auf dem Programm.

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Bernie DeKoven

Game Design Advice

Last month I had the privilege of presenting Bernie DeKoven with the inaugural Lifetime of Play award at the Games for Change festival. Here’s what I said… It is my great honor today to give the very first Games for Change Lifetime of Play award to Bernie DeKoven. This award is very appropriately named, because Bernie has definitely dedicated his lifetime to playing games, making games, thinking about them, writing and teaching about them, changing them, intervening in the world to m

Balance 40
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How Many Blind Play-Tests Does Your Board Game *Really* Need?

Brand Game Development

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Click here. In my quest to test Highways & Byways 100 more times before I release it to reviewers, I’ve found myself with relatively little to say. That’s a good thing!

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How to Tell Great Stories Through Board Games

Brand Game Development

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the seventh of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. This suite is based on the Five Levels of Communication through Game Development , my own personal board game development philosophy.

Mechanics 130
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The Long Haul Project: Why Making Games Takes a Long Time

Brand Game Development

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Click here. In the frozen Canadian arctic of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, there is a famous road known as the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road. It’s a long haul road for ice truckers that’s over 300 miles long and most of it is built on frozen lakes.

Games 130
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How To Play-Test the Rules of Your Board Game

Brand Game Development

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the sixth of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. This suite is based on the Five Levels of Communication through Game Development , my own personal board game development philosophy.

Mechanics 130
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The Final 100 Play-Tests: How to Put Final Touches on a Board Game

Brand Game Development

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Click here. Highways & Byways is basically complete. I’ve started the final 100 play-tests. This is a process I follow to ensure a game’s quality. This method may not be appropriate for every developer, every team, or every game, but it is one I like.

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How To Design the Rules of Your Board Game

Brand Game Development

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the fifth of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. This suite is based on the Five Levels of Communication through Game Development , my own personal board game development philosophy.

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7 Ways Making & Playing Board Games Could Make You Smarter

Brand Game Development

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Click here. I’ve been making games for about 2 1/2 years now, and a lot of things in my life have clicked because of the ways of thinking I have adopted by making and playing games.

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How to Play-Test the Mechanics of Your Board Game

Brand Game Development

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the fourth of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. This suite is based on the Five Levels of Communication through Game Development , my own personal board game development philosophy.

Mechanics 130
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The Agony of the Almost Finished Board Game

Brand Game Development

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Click here. Last week, I talked about how time-consuming and difficult it can be to get a board game working. It takes a long, long time for a board game to be fun. Fast forward to the future, though, and let’s say your game has been working for a while.

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How to Design the Mechanics of Your Board Game

Brand Game Development

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the third of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators. This suite is based on the Five Levels of Communication through Game Development , my own personal board game development philosophy.

Mechanics 130
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4 Things to Expect on the First Play-Test of a New Board Game

Brand Game Development

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Click here. This week, I talked about How to Play-Test the Core Engine of Your Board Game. This is the process by which you confirm that the game you ultimately want to make is possible.

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How to Play-Test the Core Engine of Your Board Game

Brand Game Development

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the second of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. I am going to teach you my own methods every week for the next four to five months. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators.

Engine 130
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Birth of Byways: A Peek Into My Early Board Game Development Process

Brand Game Development

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Click here. This week, I posted the first article in my 19-part suite on game design. It’s called How to Design the Core Engine of Your Board Game. The basic idea of the core engine is “what’s left when you strip a game of mechanics and obstacles.

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How to Design the Core Engine of Your Board Game

Brand Game Development

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the first of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. I am going to teach you my own methods every week for the next four to five months. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators.

Engine 130
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Performing a Board Game Autopsy: Learning from Your Mistakes

Brand Game Development

Few words carry the emotional weight that “autopsy” does. It’s a morbid term associated with an analysis of what we’re all afraid of deep down. In a business context, autopsies don’t help us diagnose death, but rather failure. It is a way of helping us learn from our mistakes and adjust our behavior accordingly. A business autopsy is when you use evidence to determine why and how a project failed.

Games 130
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5 Lessons I Learned at a Play-Testing Convention (Protospiel Atlanta)

Brand Game Development

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Click here. Last Saturday and Sunday, I attended my first board gaming convention – Protospiel in Atlanta. I’ve been in board game development for a bit over two years now and many people are surprised to hear I’ve not attended a convention prior to then.

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How to Work in a Team in the Board Game Industry

Brand Game Development

I’ve talked about the benefits and challenges of working alone in the board game industry. That’s how I do things. Yet I’m a bit of an odd beast in the board game development world since most people prefer to work in teams. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators.

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How to Turn Negative Play-Test Feedback into a Brilliant Game

Brand Game Development

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Click here. This week, I posted How to Work Alone in the Board Game Industry. I wrote it several weeks prior to this article and now one particular paragraph seems oddly prescient. Find people who will check your work and give you honest negative feedback.

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How to Work Alone in the Board Game Industry

Brand Game Development

In order to self-publish a board game, you will have a lot of responsibilities. These responsibilities include marketing, sales, fulfillment, accounting, and…oh yeah…designing the game. It is a lot to organize and do no matter how many people are involved. Some people find it most effective to work in teams and some people prefer working alone.

Games 130
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The One Thing That Can Sink Sales for Board Games

Brand Game Development

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Click here. This week, I posted A Crash Course on Selling Board Games , which is my way of helping demystify that which terrifies many first-time game developers. Selling can be scary.

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A Crash Course on Selling Board Games

Brand Game Development

Selling is one of the most nerve-wracking and technical parts of getting a small business off the ground. You must absolutely master it to achieve the financial success you desire when self-publishing a game. When you’ve put in the hard work, it’s only natural to want to reap the benefits. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators.

Games 130
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How I Fulfilled a Kickstarter & Bought a House in the Same Week

Brand Game Development

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Click here. Sometimes the pace of life is hectic. I’ve had one of those weeks. My daytime job has me extremely busy on an important project. In the same week, I’ve released a blind play-test version of Highways & Byways and ordered a physical prototype.

Dev 130
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A Crash Course on Kickstarter for Board Games

Brand Game Development

Kickstarter. The name alone evokes a lot of feelings in hopeful entrepreneurs and board gamers alike. Whether or not you’ve backed or started a campaign, you probably have an opinion about the site. At the very least, you probably share the sort of ogling fascination that people inevitably experience when they first hear about the site. Kickstarter – Maker and Breaker of Dreams.

Games 130
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4 Clever Ways to Market Your Board Game Online for $30.00

Brand Game Development

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Click here. Highways & Byways is nearly complete. It still needs some art and I’ll want to do lots of double-blind play-testing. Yet I don’t see it dramatically deviating from the framework it currently follows.

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How to Choose Your Board Game’s Theme

Brand Game Development

Board games can be about all sorts of things. You can conquer nations, build cities, explore space, solve mysteries, and so much more. Games, at their core, might just be a series of mechanics and rules, but themes keep us from feeling like we’re playing out the logical conclusion of mathematical functions. Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators.

Mechanics 130
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How to Play a Lot of Board Games with Little Time and Little Money

Brand Game Development

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Click here. This week with Highways & Byways , I’ve been making little improvements to the game to make it more usable and easy-to-understand. I’m at a stage where I’m optimizing instead of iterating, which makes me thankful for the extensive background in board gaming that I’ve gained in the last cou

Dev 130
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5 Games to Make You a Better Board Game Dev for $64.63

Brand Game Development

Getting started in board game development can be both intimidating and expensive. I’m almost certainly not the only blogger you’ve looked to for advice, and I can probably guess one thing you get told a lot: “play more games!” (Yeah, gee thanks, Sherlock.). Need help on your board game? Join my community of over 2,000 game developers, artists, and passionate creators.

Dev 130
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How to Tell When Play-Testing Feedback is Useful or Not

Brand Game Development

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Just here for Highway s & Byways updates? Click here. Play-testing is so critical in board game development that I’ve dedicated several articles to the subject. Yet I’ve never seen article that deals with one of the biggest issues with play-testing: being able to tell the difference between signal and noise.

Balance 130