On Success

I have two small games signed but not yet published. I am under no illusions that I am the next big thing in game design. That isn't what this post is about.

There are two big factors in success: putting in the work and not being so attached to your own ideas that you can't grow as a designer. The second factor is a state of mind that, which while important, can be hard to develop. So many, many people rely on the first factor as a way to brute force success. And it can work. 

My problem is that 'putting in the work' has had scope creep to match up with certain ideas of success. Some of the ideas of success are untrue; some merely raise expectations higher than I believe is healthy. Ideas such as "success looks like designing indie games as a full time job" (untrue) or "success looks like signing a game at least once a year" (too high expectations). 

Popular advice says that if you want to work in the industry you need to go to conventions. Multiple per year. The right conventions, too, so your local con might not cut it. You need to network. You should be playtesting regularly in a local group. You should also be online, in forums and playtesting discords. You should be playing lots of published games and listening to design focused podcasts. You should give back to the community through playtesting (at the very least), but really there's so much more you could be doing. 

And you just have to get over any hang ups you may have about doing any of that because that is how you become a successful designer. 

Just to be clear, I think this attitude is highly ableist. 

Let's start over. What is success? 

Success is achieving a goal or goals that you set for yourself (or that you consent to but were set by others). Setting healthy goals is an important step in the process. Healthy goals are achievable if you put in a healthy amount of work. What is healthy for you may not be what is healthy for someone else. 

What is the minimum amount of work to get a game signed by a publisher? You need to playtest with both designers and non-designers. That can be local or at a convention or online. (If online, also playtest some physically if at all possible.) Your game needs to be as done as you can get it. You need to research publishers who take submissions and what kinds of games they want. You need to submit, either via an online form or an in person pitch. That's it. You should also playtest other designers games whenever you get the chance. 

That's not to say that there aren't other ways of getting published, other routes to success. The route you take and the goals you set should be tailored to what you can reasonably accomplish. 

I have a hard time pushing myself to attend all the things I could otherwise fit into my budget and schedule. I don't like traveling alone, so I try to make any cons I attend have as high an impact as I can. Unfortunately, I have a harder time with online events. Online playtesting events send my anxiety through the roof. My skills are not as a community organizer, so when my local group has a hard time meeting in person, I just don't get playtesting done. I am not complaining. I am explaining that I have to prioritize what I have energy for. I end up prioritizing the events that will put me closest to achieving my goals. My industry presence looks like 2-3 cons a year (one of which is local to me), local playtests when they happen, a semi-active presence in online forums, and this blog. And it's apparently enough, because I'm reaching my goals at a speed I am comfortable with. I don't have the capability to fully design more than one small game a year (excluding shelved games) and I've been doing this for almost four years. Two games are signed, and I have two more I'd like to find homes for. That's good enough for me. 

If you find fun and/or fulfillment by being constantly active in the design community, that's great. But if you're like me, it's valid and okay and healthy to slow down and focus on manageable goals. You might find that some things you're told are important to do don't actually forward your goals at all (like participation in design contests). What's healthy for you may be significantly less than what I manage in a year. That's okay. I have found I get more done by working within my limits than by constantly trying to exceed them. 

Of course, there's the other factor of not being too attached to your own ideas and also luck to take into account. But I think you can get 80% of the way there by setting healthy goals and healthy expectations of how you will meet those goals. 

You don't have to do everything. Do what works for you. 

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