Brief Advice to Would-be Game Designers

Brief advice to would-be game designers/developers:

First, read Game Inventor's Guidebook by Brian Tinsman. This tends to cover marketing far more than design, but it's short and sweet. Unfortunately it's out of print, but sometimes a used copy is available through Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0873495527/sr=8-1/qid=1144850887/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-3833292-6136003?%5Fencoding=UTF8

There are several online sources.

Yahoo Groups Board Game Design often involves questions by novice designers, and sometimes more meaty design questions. There is a lot about self-publishing. The archives are all there, so read all those old discussions and messages! http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/BoardGameDesign/

The Boardgame Designers Forum is an online discussion group that can be useful for many purposes. I don't check it regularly, but it has many regular inhabitants. http://bgdf.com/

Boardgamegeek, a general online discussion group for boardgames, has a game design section with many interesting dicussions going back years. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/

USENET rec.game.design is mostly useless, often overrun with junk.

Someday I may have a book out about the nuts and bolts of game design. There are no "nuts and bolts" books presently available, though there are many books that talk about games, analyze games, and talk about computer games in particular. They are not "how to" books, for the most part. Check Amazon for a selection.

Some articles I've written are on my own web site at: http://pulsiphergames.com/gmarticles.htm

(Disclaimer: I own Amazon stock.)

"Always do right--this will gratify some and astonish the rest." Mark Twain

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery

"A teacher is never a giver of truth - he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself. A good teacher is merely a catalyst." (Martial Arts quote)