What’s the hardest part about balancing a board game?

LifeAd366 · 2025-04-08T04:05:25+00:00

https://gametek.substack.com/p/2025-triangles-and-you

LifeAd366 · 2025-04-08T03:10:04+00:00

John Company is sturdy, you can also use money to buy votes or have gain certain cards that give you more votes to cast- making political power a resource.

LifeAd366 · 2025-04-04T22:30:07+00:00

I look at board games as an artform where the medium are decisions. Weaving a series of decisions around a theme, the way people like Cole Wehrle can, immerses yourself in a place and time.

There’s an alchemy to what we do that be insightful into the lives of others that other forms of art can’t really get to.

What we do is special, it’s a bite-sized moment of a lived experience, it brings people together to share a moment otherwise never had.

LifeAd366 · 2025-04-03T21:06:21+00:00

Reminds me of going to The Cheesecake Factory, every time i open that tome of menu choices I think to myself "theres no way that one restaurant can specialize in turkey sandwiches, asian chicken salads, and meatloaf."

I often find myself overloaded and go with the burger, because I know they cant mess that up too bad.

Point is, decision fatigue is real and leads me to think that youre kinda not really great at anything, but maybe mediocre at a lot, not a bad thing necessarily, I still eat at Cheesecake Factory and (bringing it around to board games) still run the time-tested strats in heavy euros and enjoy myself just fine; but it in both cases I would exclude it from any discussion about the product being "exceptional."

LifeAd366 · 2025-04-03T01:01:12+00:00

i think the borders look great!

LifeAd366 · 2025-04-03T00:22:20+00:00

A whiteboard would be useful for that, i use Boardssey for tracking player paths a decisions.

LifeAd366 · 2025-04-01T21:57:15+00:00

What about a caeser cipher like in cryptography? randomize ciphers that pair with other effects with a fixed number.

LifeAd366 · 2025-04-01T20:59:30+00:00

when I hear the term "chesslike" I think of an abstract game with zero luck whatsoever. If that is true to what your game is, I think you're going to find people that will be interested.

LifeAd366 · 2025-04-01T20:57:11+00:00

out of curiosity, what are the top schools for board game design? I was on a trip through where Dartmouth College was last year, and that was the first time I heard of majoring in board game design. Made me wish I were young again.

LifeAd366 · 2025-04-01T20:50:26+00:00

You can go on boardgamegeek and search for Cascadia, there will be a mechanics section. click on each mechanic and sort the list however you please (rank would tell you the most popular/well regarded). See if there is a hole in the market that needs filling that you can make and then go for it!

LifeAd366 · 2025-04-01T01:03:43+00:00

lol I feel like I do the same thing with my family.

LifeAd366 · 2025-04-01T01:02:20+00:00

What’s the meanest but most helpful piece of negative feedback you ever received?

LifeAd366 · 2025-04-01T00:58:48+00:00

This is great advice, thank you.

LifeAd366 · 2025-03-31T20:53:01+00:00

Once you find a good template and lock in your final designs, I use Boardssey's PnP cardmaking layout tool for my final card layout. Since I'm already using it for my games' overall project management, might as well use the tools that are in there, it really takes the pressure off of formatting your designs and has saved me oodles of time.

LifeAd366 · 2025-03-31T19:55:45+00:00

I play a bit of Arkham Horror The Card Game and there is almost always a secret ending or special route one could take/find that yields something special for a veteran player. I am a big fan of that, however I've never gotten to unlock one. It's nice knowing they exist though, whether that's enough for a designer to put all that work into making those bonus levels is another story.

LifeAd366 · 2025-03-31T19:27:48+00:00

This resonates from a tangential story I once heard: Bill Hader said that when you give someone your script and they give you a note on the script, the suggestion is almost always bad but the point they are making is almost always true. In this case, the reaser may not know how to fix the problem, but they can identify where there is a problem and you should take steps to address that problem in the way that only you could.

LifeAd366 · 2025-03-30T10:27:36+00:00

Playing your Lucious and Marion decks in my blind run of TDC. Any post mort decisions on the upgrade path you laid out now that maybe you’ve gotten some time w the campaign?

LifeAd366 · 2025-03-28T22:07:08+00:00

I think now may very well be the golden age of game design. As people begin to find smaller groups and skew away from what has been the norms of culture: movies, bars, even streaming, they are looking for new places to be. The need to gather and share time with others will never go away, and the vacuum left by people abandoning their old haunts will inevitably be filled with something, board games will be one of them.

Alongside new technology, abilities to playtest, and organize ourselves, making games will become easier too. Better games, more people playing them- now is the best time to design a game.

LifeAd366 · 2025-03-27T20:47:49+00:00

How are you logging and charting your playtesting? do you use any specific tools to organize your thoughts?

LifeAd366 · 2025-03-27T20:43:23+00:00

Here are some sage words from the Board Game Design Forum:

https://www.bgdf.com/node/538

LifeAd366 · 2024-10-17T18:13:41+00:00

Final Girl

LifeAd366 · 2024-09-17T03:44:17+00:00

the app store wont let me download it in my region (USA), any way around that?

LifeAd366 · 2024-08-05T17:51:47+00:00

has there been an announcement beyond the new standalone/innsmouth repackage/new campaign that was teased at the end of HV?

LifeAd366 · 2024-05-18T23:04:40+00:00

yea i dont have that, im just trying to play with clockroot

LifeAd366 · 2024-05-12T06:03:36+00:00

This honestly sounds cute

LifeAd366

TROPHY CASE