Teaching Games

Morning Table Talk is a series where our designer Trevor Harron takes Sunday mornings to muse about games and game related topics.

We all have that game we love, whether you have created it or bought it, there might come a time where you need to explain this game to another person and teach it. Today I will cover the seven things I have seen work best when teaching a new game to someone. Keep in mind that this may not be a complete list and many of my readers may have already implemented some of these:

1. Set expectations: make sure they are aware of how complex, how much time it will take, and what the basic mechanics and theme is since no one wants to feel like they were tricked into a 5 hour board game with gameplay they weren’t expecting.

2. Know your audience: are they german-boardgame loving hobby game players? Family? People from a convention? It is important to gauge and know if the game you want to teach is a good fit for the group. If it isn’t then you should probably find another game to suggest. Also let everyone know that there are new players so that they can help as well.

3. Find common points to other games: what games are similar in mechanics or gameplay to the game you want to teach? Even before cracking open the rule book if you can give some context a new player might need is critical so that they can focus on learning the new rules and concepts.

4. Explain goal of the game and how to win: This (on top of the other common points you have just explained) will help the new player get a focus on the important aspects of the game without becoming bogged down in the nitty gritty gameplay at first. Also knowing how to win and what to do to win is vital for playing and understanding a game as a whole.

5. Have the rulebook ready: While always a good tool for breaking up disputes, the rules can provide additional explanation into the nuances into the game and even provide imagery that would aid the explanation.

6. Have the new player end the round: Start the game with a player that knows how to play so that the new player can see as many turns in action as possible. This will help the new player understand all of the rules they were just explained with real world examples.

7. Listen for and answer questions: You can try to cover everything but inevitably a scenario will come up that the new player has a question on. Answer these questions as they come up so that the new player can understand what is going on and use that new information in their play.

Teaching a new player  or players a game you love can be difficult but hopefully with these seven tips you can help any new player learn quickly. This list of tips is what I have found to be effective in teaching games to players and especially in teaching games I have/in the process of creating. Your goal is to share something you like with other people I hope you find these suggestions useful.

All of this is just food for thought so take some time, sip some of your morning beverage,  and have a great day!

On Intellectual Property

Hello everyone! 

Now bear with me for this post because this is an issue that many people don't understand or take for granted: Intellectual Property Law (IPL).

I am not a lawyer and frankly in an ideal world we wouldn't need IPL to protect our ideas. However, this is not a perfect world and we need IPL to protect ideas. I would like to direct this post to my fellow game designers who may be new; even though you are my competition I will say this: Please protect your games. 

I cannot stress this enough. I know several of you are tight on your budget because you are new developers and you are trying to save money. I understand that and am going through the same thing as you guys. But it is worth the cost to protect yourself and as the phrase goes: 'Trust but verify'. 

Now serval of you are thinking "who is this guy to tell us?" and to you I will say "your competition". Now for a minute think of the law as the rules to a game. Now imagine that one player in your group who is a Rules-Lawyer and that they will debate the exact meaning of a rule in its nuances and try to leverage that to their advantage. Now recognize that people will do that in the real world and if given a chance will take a good unprotected idea and file the paperwork to make it theirs or even just print it themselves. Now that is money that you've lost and will keep losing as they make money off of your idea and you have to now hire a lawyer and try to prove that it was yours to begin with. Is it impossible to do? No but it will cost a lot of money and time you could be spending making new exciting games.

Now some of that scenario is theoretical but ask yourself: is it worth the risk? 

If you have legal counsel that is great! Talk with them about what you can and should do. If you do not have counsel: fear not! There are several sites and services to look at including avvo.com.
Also your local game design group (such as Playtest Northwest or The Indie Game Alliance) may have either sage advice or legal groups you can talk to.

So talk to a lawyer, make sure you have contracts protecting your ideas, and make sure you have your copyrights and trademarks filed.

Trevor Harron
Designer for Blue Heron Entertainment LLC
 

The Campaign: a Post Mortem

It has been a while since the completion and successful funding of Collectors and Capers!  During that time I have been gathering my thoughts on how the Kickstarter ran and what I would change the second time around.

First and foremost, running a campaign is stressful! Watching the flow of backers (and sometimes ebb) and drumming up support is a lot of work. From the first day we raised 27% of the funding for the campaign goal which indicated a strong start thanks to friends, family, and ambitious backers. With that strong start in mind it is easy to imagine that the momentum will only grow or even stay the same, however, that is not the case. The pledges tend to trail off and level off towards the middle of the campaign.

Even there are backers who cancel their pledge. Seeing the number of backers decrease or stay the same for a day is disheartening. It is important to follow up with the backers that cancel if for no other reason to to let them know that they are important and thank them for their initial pledge. Frequently backers realized that they overextended themselves in number of pledges or have other life circumstances happen and as a creator that is out of your control. I will repeat, some of these things are out of your control.

In order to offset the potential for losing backers and the slowing down of number of pledges keeping up with your online/marketing presence is crucial. This can come from interviews, reviews, in store demoing events, updating the Kickstarter, and social media posts. This took up most of the time duringand it is a lot of work.

If I have learned anything from this campaign it is that you cannot be discouraged and accept that some things are out of your control. What is under control is how you follow up with your backers and reach out to new ones and that work comprises most of a Kickstarter.

Social Media, Podcasts, and Reviews OH MY!

Last we left off, I had a game, I have art and for the most part a manufacturer lined up, things are going smoothly. But....

You need fans to play a game and people to know about Collectors and Capers in order for a Kickstarter to be successful. 

Prior to making Collectors and Capers I had a Facebook page, a twitter account, and no idea of how to market or where to look. The first thing I decided while I was play-testing Collectors and Capers (then No Honor Among Thieves) was that I needed relative strangers to play and provide feedback on my games. Enter Playtest Northwest. Playtest Northwest is a group of game designers for game designers so that we can get our games played and to get feedback. They also helped provide access to a wide variety of events and venus including PAX, Emerald City Comic Con, Evergreen Tabletop Expo, and many more. Here I decided to try and get more exposure and for the most part it has been successful, I was able to show my game to several different people and eventually got enough positive reviews to decide that I would submit Collectors and Capers for an award. 

Prior to the submission this I had met some great people who have supported me in this endeavor (my family and loving girlfriend as a starting base) as well as several of my game playing friends from college (shout out to Xenia of MIddlebury College) as well as some podcasters, BJ Shea, and other designers (the previously mentioned Billy) and with their support I began my social media push. I cannot stress enough how helpful it is to have a network of people who support you and your idea it is overwhelming and amazing. From this network (mainly Billy again) I was able to find a solid list of reviewers and podcasters. From this list I have been trying to find a wide variety of people to review my game.

Back to the competition, I got to the semis and from their was interviewed by several podcasts and a few twitch streamers and more importantly some of them are interested in playing my game on and off their show. From this and seeing the reviews of other colleagues games and reaching out to those groups, I am still working on sending off prototypes for review so that at the start of the Kickstarter people are talking about Collectors and Capers. More to come as the presses run.

The Start of the Kickstarter Experience

After many conventions, play testing sessions, and iterations of design (and many late nights) Collectors and Capers is ready for the final stages of development, a Kickstarter and Production. Before this first post I (Trevor Harron) have been researching many different manufacturers and have been getting familiar with Excel/Google Sheets to determine the manufacturer I will use and will post about that process later. First though let me give you a small introduction into Collectors and Capers.

Collectors and Capers is a 3-6 player bluffing game I starting working on for over a year now. Since I wanted there to be a few components as possible and to make it simple for those who don't play games on a consistent basis. The final spec then looks like 120 cards with a box and rule sheet.

In trying to get ready for a Kickstarter there were a few things that I realized a few things needed to happen:

• The game design needed to be complete

• The art should be complete

• I need a manufacturer lined up

So the first thing that needed to be tackled was design and that process is game play iteration and revision. This is a VERY simplified description of the design process and I will have a post about my process at a different post. The second thing I could tackle by involving the artist early on especially since I had a vision of the artwork. The third item however is the most difficult.

There are a lot a manufacturers out there in places ranging from Poland to the U.S. and to Hong Kong. In trying to pick a manufacturer I looked for a few things. One was obviously quality for a good price that could allow me to at least recoup my costs. The second was a good level of communication in terms of response time and English skills. Third I wanted the manufacturer to help with fulfillment as well to minimize the number of moving pieces. With the recommendation of Billy from Liminal Games who have a great game and successful Kickstarter I have decided to go with WinGo Industries Ltd.  With working through them I have for the most experienced great service and am happy with their pricing. This process started 2 months ago in preparation to for the campaign. With this final pieces almost in place I can focus on building press!