Game Design Journeys: Thoughts from a Life Long Gamer

My work space

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

~J.R.R. Tolkien

From as far back as I can remember, I have been a gamer. My early years were filled with many hours of early and, by today's standards, primitive video games, from the twilight days of Atari to the early days of the Golden era of PC gaming. I spent many hours destroying aliens in Galaxian or killing laser robots in Berzerk, but those were nothing to my time with early Nintendo and PC games. The summer the first Civilization game was released, I think my whole world changed. Nothing to that date could compare to the feeling of "just one more turn" that Civilization created. Yes, having a large stack of armored tanks destroyed by the randomest of chances by a single stone age warrior unit was frustrating, but there was a charm and complexity to the game that kept me returning for more. And of course, there were the early RPGs such as Dragon Warrior , the Legend of Zelda, and Wizardry that brought my love of Tolkien to life.

My early days with board games, however, were not so classic, or rather, perhaps they were too classic. I played the typical American games that almost everyone has played at one point or another: Monopoly, Risk, with an occasional Sorry or Trouble, or perhaps a Hotels or Fireball Island thrown in. Of my early games, Hero Quest was probably the most nontraditional game I encountered, kind of a simplified tabletop RPG turned into a board game. I remember it being a ton of fun, but looking back on it today, it lacked much of the complexity I so love in tabletop games such as Dungeons and Dragons or Traveler. It wasn't until my high school years that I made my first acquaintance with Eurogames, like Settlers of Catan, or with collectible card games, like Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh!

All this isn't to say that I didn't have other interests in my life. Of course I did. I was heavily involved in Scouts until I was 18, played on a number of sports teams through my grade school years, and dabbled in photography, astronomy and I loved to read, among other things. But still, gaming remained at the center of my life, then and now. And yet, in all those years of gaming, game design was never at the core of my experiences. I did make a rather simple board game for a class project in the 5th grade, and I seem to recall my friend Pete and I sketching out a draft for a card game that never quite came to fruition, but I have to admit, I never really considered game design until many years later when my then girlfriend and now wife introduced me to the wide world that Eurogames have become.

Board games have come such a long way from the traditional games I played growing up. Each year, even each month, seems to bring a new game that I find I just have to have on our shelves. Some of my favorite games include Spirit Island, where you play as one of the spirits attempting to protect the Dahan and island from the destructive invaders; Gloomhaven, a insanely large (literally, the box weighs 20 pounds) RPG type game where each player takes the role of hero and you unlock new classes and stories as you progress, with each choice excluding some paths as you go; and, Caverna: the Cave Farmers, a sort of dwarven farming game where you develop your cave and surrounding lands to support a growing family and farm. And these are but three of the many games I play on a regular basis (my next post will likely be devoted to favorites from the many different genres and types of board and card games I enjoy).

When I look back on my journey in board games, it is difficult to determine just when I found myself beginning to dream up different board game ideas. It was bound to happen at some point, as I have always been a rather creative individual, though much of my early creative energy was funneled into writing, particularly poetry and fantasy writing. But be that as it may, at some point over the past several years, I found myself sketching down board game ideas, the first ones involving my favorite author's Middle-earth. Even as I began to flesh out some of these ideas, I never quite considered myself a game designer, or contemplated developing a game to completion until the past couple of years.

Much of the inspiration for doing so I have to give to my wife, who is herself a very creative person and who decided just a couple years ago to turn her love of crafting into a business (Uplift Crafts, for those of you who are interested). Her drive to make this a success and to pursue something she is passionate about as a business got me to wondering, should I perhaps combine my love for gaming with my own creative urges and pursue game design? It took another year and a lot more sketching in my notebook to finally decide I should begin researching how to proceed (I have always been some one who believes you should thoroughly research any endeavor you hope to pursue before you take those fateful first steps on that path).

As I began to more deeply engross myself into gaming history, game lore, and the world of game design, I have discovered there is a ton to learn and to consider for anyone wanting to pursue game design, even just within the board and card game industry. While I don't feel overwhelmed (just yet), there are many, many choices to make on this path, from which genres and types of board games to create (the obvious decisions); to which conferences to attend (the not so obvious decision); to whether to self publish or to seek out a publishing company for your prototypes (the deceptively not so simple dilemma, especially with platforms such as Kickstarter out there today); and even what materials or even what suppliers to use for your prototypes (the I hadn't even considered it an issue decision I most recently discovered).

With so many decisions ahead of me (and also being naturally inclined to writing), creating a Game Design blog is one of the few decisions that felt like a no-brainer (please excuse the cliche). I am certain I am hardly the first person to chronicle their game design journey with a blog, but it is for that very reason that I want to record my own thoughts as I begin this journey as a game designer. I have a ton to learn about this, and engaging with a community of fellow game designers offers all of us a chance to learn from each other, as well as providing myself and perhaps other newly aspiring game designers some guideposts along the way.

I am sure I will make many mistakes on this journey (though none, I hope, that will be too difficult a detriment to my end goals). I welcome your own thoughts and advice as I move forward; many of you are deeper into this wood, with myriad branching paths already taken. For those of you who, like myself, are just beginning your exploration of game design, I hope that the record of my own experiences here will help you in some small way. Good luck on your path, and remember to keep your feet, because if you don't "there's no telling where you'll be swept off to." ~Bilbo Baggins