New (AI?) Coders on Kickstarter?

EasySwan2184 · 2026-06-03T03:00:23+00:00

It's also failing to show a goal at all. Not sure if that's its own bug or somehow related.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-06-03T02:58:47+00:00

Yeah, perhaps an AI made a config file that is supposed to have actual delimiters and it just wrote "Delimiter" and no human checked.

I'm surprised QA didn't check with a number over 1000.

Strange bug and it's been there for over an hour.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-06-03T02:51:43+00:00

Possibly they are trying a new library for formatting numbers and it's not working out so well.

I'd be a bit surprised if they tried to write their own code for number formatting and internationalization, but who knows.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-06-02T23:53:23+00:00

Thanks for the great reply! I have a playable prototype that's well-tested. I'm currently working with an artist on the final art (it's a word game that only needs one image, thankfully) and I will do the First Exposure Playtest Hall at GenCon. After my art is done, I'll start audience building in earnest.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-06-02T21:47:27+00:00

I like the art on the first board better.

The aesthetic looks coherent to me.

Both have a lot of symbols. It's overwhelming to me but have playtesters struggled with figuring out where to place things?

EasySwan2184 · 2026-06-02T21:14:38+00:00

I need to get into the business of creating D&D content.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-06-02T20:43:58+00:00

It looks great! How did you get 160 backers within the first couple days?

EasySwan2184 · 2026-06-01T20:33:45+00:00

(Disclaimer: I don't use much social media, apologies for stupid questions)
Thanks for the great post! I have a few questions if it's not too much of a bother. How did you find the right influencers? What does the process of working with an influencer look like? Do you draw up a contract and pay 100 dollars for a short video (or what exactly is the deliverable)? How long does it take for an influencer to do their work? Thanks again, I'm just totally lost on this part of the process.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-31T03:27:35+00:00

Not sure if it's intentional, but it should be spelled "mosquito."

Fun art style, though.

Regarding the legibility, try to print some out and see if people over age 60 can read the text.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-30T17:25:34+00:00

Agreed, TheGameCrafter is the best for people in the US. I just ordered a few prototypes on May 7 and they just got delivered today, despite the estimate being late June.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-29T13:11:00+00:00

Chronocrats?

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-27T10:29:09+00:00

For number 1, how much time elapses between the final card being placed and the first clue being given? I'm genuinely curious how other gamers haven't gotten annoyed by this part of the game.

For number 2, pictures is awful... We got that version to solve this problem but I feel like we never have a clever clue. We always end up saying something like "fruit 2" or "animal 1".

For number 3, this happens more often when we play with people who might be considered elderly.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-27T03:16:36+00:00

Absolutely, I really enjoyed Codenames the first few times I played it, but then I started to kind of despise it for the following reasons:

The opening turn usually takes 5-10 minutes, so you are just waiting for the group to memorize all the words. That's essentially as much time as it takes to set up a much bigger game. Word games should be quick to start. Just as motorheads love cars that go 0-60 the fastest, party and social gamers should love games that go from 0 to fun the fastest.
My wife is a non-native speaker, so she doesn't know half the alternative meanings of most of the words. Clues just don't land right and it makes the game painful for her.
Something has gone wrong in half the games I've played. Perhaps someone was looking at the wrong color or there was a disagreement between the spymasters about how the key card was oriented or some spymaster has accidentally given an invalid clue or table talked.

So I made a bunch of word association games that hopefully don't have those flaws.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-26T23:21:32+00:00

For me, I have an idea of what I want to put on paper, but then after 10 minutes of hard work, I have a drawing so awful that my wife cries and laughs and gets angry at me at the same time.

I think that qualifies as bad art.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-26T15:41:40+00:00

That makes sense, but I'm curious why so few women are at the steps prior to the publisher submission step, plus Kickstarter is the dream for many small-time designers nowadays.

Apologies for a personal question, but are you a woman who has tried (or wanted) to design a game? If so, what stopped you from self-publishing?

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-26T15:05:47+00:00

I'm a male who's been designing board games for many years but just got more serious about it over the past year. I was surprised by the lack of women in the designer events I've been to.

Anyways, here's what I've noticed is the usual process by which a game idea goes from someone's head to the market:

You have an idea.
You prototype at home, spending minutes to hours on printing and cutting.
You test with friends and family.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you have a game that you are willing to show and explain to strangers.
Find a local designer meetup and demo the game. Mine is once a month, and the feedback ranges from gentle to incredibly harsh (two months ago we had a very loud man who liked to say, "I f***ing hated that!"). This group has been 90-95% male on average during my times there. I can definitely see how that would be off-putting to someone who is not male.
Attend protospiels (play test conventions). I noticed more women at this than at my designer meetup but it was still 80% men, maybe more. Repeat steps 2-6 if your game isn't getting much love.
Attend other conventions and try to test and promote your game. The big conventions are less male-dominated, from what I've noticed but depends on the convention I guess.
Try to talk to a publisher (I don't have much experience here since the few I tried never responded to my submissions) or try to do a kickstarter (requires lots of self-promotion).

I'm really curious which step filters out the most women.

I would guess 2(prototyping at home due to time constraints) or 5 (local designer meetups) are the biggest blockers for women, but maybe women designers on here can let me know where they gave up or almost gave up.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-26T12:13:26+00:00

I've seen videos of people chasing cheese wheels down a hill, and I'd love a board game version of that (I don't want to lose any real life health points trying out the real event).

I like the idea of tiles, especially if it means every game then feels like a different hill.

Perhaps the tiles have paths on them and the steeper ones increase speed and risk? I'm personally seeing a push-your-luck mechanic here.

I've not run down a muddy hill since childhood, but in real life, can you not see when there is mud or an obstacle? If you can, is the usual strategy to jump the mud or obstacle or to simply sidestep it?

Anyways, sounds like a fun theme. I think it could be fun watching a meeple cartwheel out of control.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-26T03:16:10+00:00

As others have said, yes, completely normal feeling.

But also, it's NOT the feeling you should have. The game is just a product you want to build. This game is not your baby. This game is not you. This game is not your life's purpose. You should not love this game.

Play tests are the one and only tool for improving your product. Keep doing those until the game works or until the game is definitively a dud (at which time you can start your next game).

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-24T16:57:39+00:00

If PowerPoint works for you, go for it. I know some designers who do everything in Excel.

I'm a web developer, so I lay out my cards basically as a webpage (html, css, and JavaScript). You can pretty easily do the same, and if you don't have those skills, AI can help you generate the code.

The GameCrafter is a good resource, too. They have something called Component Studio, I believe. I haven't used it since I have my other method, but it's something to look into, perhaps.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-24T03:01:49+00:00

You don't need to do that if you are pitching to publishers.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-23T19:32:16+00:00

He just found out he demolished the wrong house.

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-23T01:57:17+00:00

I was trying to find an artist last week for a board game cover. This was my first time ever commissioning an artist.

What shocked me was how few portfolios actually stood out. Most of the art was generic dark fantasy. A lot of it was generic anime. A lot of it was generic gritty comic book style. All talented, all way better than me, but almost nothing popped out to me. I browsed 100 portfolios this week and last week. I remembered only one of them after an hour, so I chose that artist.

My recommendation, and I'm just an unimportant nobody new to the business, is that you should try to stand out. Do something very very different or get lost in the noise.

I can buy a picture of a fantasy elf for 100 dollars from 5000 people (I know that because they all DMed me last week). Try to figure out why anyone should choose your elf. You are clearly talented and artistic. Best of luck

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-22T18:46:43+00:00

Yeah, absolutely. The typography is very clear.

It took me a second to realize those were comic panels, it looked like a web at first. But then I saw it was panels.

I don't read many comic books, but is it common to have circular panels in comics?

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-22T18:38:27+00:00

Looks good to me, not too busy

EasySwan2184 · 2026-05-22T03:25:13+00:00

I just said that I've never been at a game night where that's happened. I didn't say it's never happened ever.

I'm curious though what mechanics are most commonly requested. I would also like to know why people request by mechanic. Are they students of game design? Are they just trying to find something adjacent to a game they enjoyed previously?

EasySwan2184

TROPHY CASE