The Secret Sauce

Every game idea is an egg that, given effort, can hatch into a fully playable game. Not all of these games will get (or need to get) published. Every designer is capable of designing bad-to-mediocre games. But spending time on a design that will never transcend mediocrity can be a waste of time and effort (depending on your design goals). How do you figure out which of your designs has the greatest potential to succeed? 

If you're still in the idea stage, you don't. You don't know how a game will play out until it's been played. Get some notecards, a pencil, a dry erase board and marker, and cubes from the nearest copy of Pandemic, and make a prototype. Play it by yourself and then with other people. Make improvements. Eventually, you will have a playable game. Should you keep working on it? 

The truth is, knowing when to abandon a game is an important skill. But in practice that skill looks more like a deep understanding of what makes a game publishable.

The first question I ask myself with a new design is: "Does this game excite me?" If the answer is no, hit pause on that game and work on something else. If you aren't excited by your own ideas, no one else will be. I get excited about different aspects of different games: the theme, the mechanics, the table presence, etc. But I have to have something that I'm invested in, because that usually ends up being the selling point of the game at the end of the design process. 

The next question I ask myself is: "Is this design a step forward for me?" In interview after interview, designers and publishers have said variations on the idea that whatever their latest game is is the best thing they've ever worked on. It doesn't matter if it's objectively true; it needs to feel that way to you. Something about your game needs to feel better than what you've done before. This is similar to my first question and is also about my investment level in my own design. It's also about approaching game design with a mindset of discovery and growth. 

Later in the process, I focus on finding the hook. A hook is what makes a game interesting before you play it. It's a single sentence that 'hooks' players into playing the game. Games will change during the design process, and sometimes that means the hook will change as well. I need to pay attention to what resonates with playtesters and lean into that if I can. If I can't locate an interesting enough hook, my conclusion is that, until I can, my game would not be very marketable. If my game looks and sounds too much like a dozen other games on the market, I will probably abandon it because I don't need to put that much effort into something that already exists. 

Before I even think of submitting to a publisher, my game needs to excite my playtesters. A game isn't finished when it's playable. A game needs to generate interest and excitement with playtesters, especially ones who have played it before and want to play again. Friends and family don't count here. Playtest with gamers, designers, and your target audience. 

When I've taken a game as far as I can with regular playtesting (including playtesting with other designers), I make an effort to playtest with publishers.  Sometimes this looks like submitting a game to a publisher for their consideration, but I don't recommend that as a first step. There are a lot of small publishers (who are also designers) at conventions and protospiels (including online events). Get at least one to play your game. Developers are also a good option, but I like the cold dose of reality that a publisher brings to a playtest. If your goal is to have a traditionally published game, at some point you need to seek out serious critical feedback. My biggest redesigns are always after conversations with publishers. Publishers know how to get a game to become a product. 

Sometimes I develop games for months before abandoning them. You can't always tell right away which games are worth pursuing. If my game excites me, excites playtesters, and works as a product with a marketable hook, that's the secret sauce. That's when I would shift gears to pitching (or self-publishing). At any step along the way, I might shelve or abandon a game. My goal is to identify and move past mediocre games so that I can put my effort into the games with the greatest potential. 

ShippBoard Games is a board game design blog that updates most Mondays.