I am continuing my blog series documenting my board game design process. In Cup of T #1 I talked about coming up with an idea, and the initial ntoes I make about the game and where I keep them.
In this entry, I will detail the next step in my process, which is turning an initial idea into the skeleton of a game, and how I do this.
Design Thinking
What I am thinking about at this stage iof the process are game details including:
player range
how long I want the game to take
what components do I envision the game having
what are the core mechanics
what type of game I want this to be
In short, this is the very beginning of starting to think of the game idea as a product. Knowing what kind of product I might want the game to be allows me to start thinking about the target audience for the game, what kind of price point the game might end up, and what my complexity budget is.
Although premature, these considerations can be very useful in shaping design decisions, though I will stress at this stage of the design process, rule nothing out! Let the game take you where it wants to take you and make choices that make sense for the game you want to make.
PUTTING IT TO PAPER
To document my thinking on a game, I create a folder in my Google Drive, and use a rough template to prompt me to think about certain aspects of the design. It can also be helpful to create a moodboard of imagery associated with your idea, or that captures a potential visual style for the game.
For a recent game idea, Sea Life, my Google Document ended up looking something like this:
In the Google document I capture all the essential elements of the game that I feel I need before I start prototyping. This allows me to move into prototyping with a clear plan of what cards or components I need, and what information I might need to convey on my game elements.
I'll talk more about initial prototyping on the next entry in this series.
I'm curious to hear about your process? What is your next step after coingup with the initial idea? Do you flesh it out, or jump right in to prototyping and why?
