How to Design a Board Game – Stonemaier Games

How to Design a Board Game

This blog is about crowdfunding and entrepreneurship. But it’s hosted on my company website, which is mostly about the “games” portion of “Stonemaier Games.” I’ve designed many of our games.

About once a week, someone sends me a game design question. For a while I’ve pointed them towards the “Develop Board Game Projects” page on our website, though that’s focused on the aspects of a board game crowdfunding project.

So today I made a change. I created a new page on this website specifically about game design: How to Design a Board Game. It’s not going to be a topic I explore in blog entries (that’s what my YouTube channel is for), but I will try to keep it updated as I discover helpful resources.

The new page isn’t meant to be a compilation of all game design advice. Rather, it’s just a starting point for newer designers and a resource for experienced designers to expand their wealth of knowledge.

I’d love for you to check it out and see if your favorite game design resource is listed. If not, let me know! Or you could take a look at my newly posted Top 10 Favorite Games list on my personal blog.

12 Comments on “How to Design a Board Game

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    1. Chris, I hadn’t come upon Greg Carslaw’s excellent broad-ranging insights prior to visiting the link you suggested. Many thanks! 🙏🏼

  1. Jamey,

    I would love to contribute in order to assist those who have a passion for board game design. Folks need to understand the hard work, patience, and persistence which is vital to seeing your idea through fruition.

    Cheers,
    Joe

  2. After 18 months in the trenches, I feel confident that I can contribute a tome of knowledge about how NOT to design a board game. Ha! There are so many nuances that only come from hands-on experience that make failure such an important part of the success process. I really connect with your approach on this, and would love to see more stories from aspiring or veteran designers about how to avoid pitfalls along the way. You can’t see all of them coming. You just can’t. I’ll be assembling some for sure!

    1. I love the idea of failing quickly and often. “Sanity testing” in design was an eye-opening idea for me. Those first few iterations of a design likely don’t make sense. I didn’t know that until I tried to explain my current design to someone. It was humbling.

    1. Mike: Absolutely! While it’s not meant to be a comprehensive list (just a starting point), you can at least mention resources you value in the comments.

  3. WOW Jamey! It’s like you’re tapped into my thinker! I have just recently had a wild and fun new idea for a game and started brainstorming. Just yesterday I was wracking my brain with a few nuances of the game and thought WWJD -you guessed it, What would Jamey do?!
    Well now I know!!
    Thanks Jamey!!

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