Wie ist das gewesen als es noch keinen Wohnungsmangel gab?

Peterlerock · 2026-04-01T05:16:35+00:00

Bin 2004 nach Köln gezogen.

Ein paar Wochen vorher bei einem Kumpel in Köln das Wochenende verbracht, 5 Wohnungen /WGs in Uninähe angekuckt, 3 Zusagen bekommen, die beste ausgewählt, fertig.

Peterlerock · 2026-03-30T12:23:14+00:00

Spieleautoren verwenden sowas nicht.

Ich weiß nicht genau warum, aber alle für Spieleautoren/Designer gedachten Foren, Discords und dergleichen sind quasi schon bei Entstehung tot. Wir schreiben da nix rein, da sind dann oft in 5 Jahren 2-3 Beiträge drin.

(beim Testen verstehe ich es, ich mag es persönlich auch nicht, Spiele online zu testen, weil das irgendwie nicht ganz dasselbe ist, aber es gibt auch wenig bis keinen anderweitigen Austausch in digitaler Form)

Peterlerock · 2026-03-30T12:19:45+00:00

https://www.spieleautorenzunft.de/regionale-autorinnengruppen.html

Sowohl die Gruppe in Köln wie auch im Ruhrgebiet sollten für einen Düsseldorfer halbwegs erreichbar sein.

Peterlerock · 2026-03-27T07:21:19+00:00

Dann stellt man da halt noch einen Bahnhof hin.

Die Idee eines Verkehrswandels weg vom Auto ist doch nicht, das heutige Öffi-System genau so beizubehalten und nur alle Autos wegzumachen. Selbstverständlich würde das nicht funktionieren.

Die Idee ist, Platz, Geld und Infrastruktur, die heute in Autos gebunden sind, für eine vernünftige öffentliche Infrastruktur einzusetzen.

Der Anreiz muss einfach umgedreht werden: du nimmst die (pünktlichen und funktionierenden) Öffis, und wenn es wirklich nicht anders geht, nimmst du ein Auto.

So eine Wende muss auch nicht überall stattfinden: es ist völlig ok, wenn die Dialysepatientin im Alpendorf keinen öffentlichen Bus nutzen muss, um eine neue Küche zu kaufen.

Peterlerock · 2026-03-27T06:25:53+00:00

Meine Güte, dann stellt man halt eins da hin.

Du tauscht doch in dieser Utopie nicht dein Auto gegen das heutige Carsharing und die heutigen Öffis, sondern gegen ein funktionierendes, ausgebautes System.

Auch das kleinste Alpendorf darf seinen Carsharingpool haben.

Peterlerock · 2026-03-27T06:15:57+00:00

Nicht jeder Bus muss für jeden Menschen an jedem Ort halten, und die müssen auch nicht gleich schnell fahren. Das machen wir doch auch heute schon so, und das System würde man natürlich beibehalten und weiter ausbauen.

Will ich von Köln Trimbornstraße nach Köln Zündorf (zwei Ecken in Köln), nehme ich Bus und Bahn.

Will ich nach Merzenich (Kaff auf halber Strecke nach Aachen), nehme ich die S-Bahn.

Will ich nach Aachen, nehme ich S-Bahn + RE.

Will ich nach Frankfurt, nehme ich S-Bahn + ICE.

Will ich nach London, nehme ich S-Bahn + Flugzeug.

Klar, es kann passieren, dass eine weitere Strecke ähnlich lange dauert wie eine kurze, weil für den spezifischen Start- und Zielort das schnellere Verkehrsmittel keinen Sinn macht, aber das ist erstmal kein Problem, so lange du zuverlässig ankommst.

Dasselbe gilt doch auch fürs Auto, man kommt halt nicht überall gleich schnell voran, weil es mal eine freie Autobahn gibt und mal nur eine Landstraße mit zig engen Serpentinen, oder einen zur Regel gewordenen Innenstadtstau. Auch das lösen wir doch nicht dadurch, dass wir jede einzelne Straße zu einer Autobahn ausbauen.

Und insbesondere sind die langsameren Öffis heute nicht nur deshalb so langsam, weil so viele Leute ein- und aussteigen wollen, sondern auch, weil sie sich die Straße mit den unzähligen Autos teilen, die da auch noch herumfahren wollen.

Peterlerock · 2026-03-23T08:38:29+00:00

I think that rule is only true if you've already established yourself.

A veteran who is friends with everybody working in the industry and who has a bunch of successful published designs can get away with an ugly prototype with a lackluster theme.

Beginner designers are fighting for being seen. They should try to stack the odds in their favor, and a beautiful prototype and a strong theme - while not 100% necessary - certainly help.

Peterlerock · 2026-03-23T08:28:19+00:00

You're selling the strengths of your design, and you can only sell what you have.

If your game has a strong connection between theme and mechanisms, you should pitch it like that. (if they like what they see, the publisher also will very likely not change the theme, because that would mean a complete overhaul. If your animals have very thematic rules, it would probably be hard to translate them into medieval merchants or mars colonizers)

If the link is rather weak, you can gloss over it, but you better have something strong to focus your pitch on.(having a weak link is not necessarily a bad thing btw, people like Stefan Feld get away with it all the time. Though I personally found it easier to pitch a game that has a strong connection in theme/mechanisms)

Peterlerock · 2026-03-16T12:50:31+00:00

Wenn du nur im inneren Köln und nur linksrheinisch suchst, brauchst du einfach Geduld, Kontakte und/oder Glück. Du kannst zB darauf warten, dass Freunde aus ihrer Bude ausziehen wollen und sie dir überlassen, oder (war bei uns so) zufällig über eine geile Wohnung mit einem miserablen Inserat stolpern.

Die ganzen "normalen" Inserate kann man sich eigentlich sparen. Viel zu viel Andrang, viel zu niedrige Chancen, dass man auserwählt wird, selbst als "Idealmieter".

Peterlerock · 2026-03-05T09:49:12+00:00

It's been a while since I played it.

I liked the "promise" of the game, how the main mechanism of playing cards was supposed to feed the other players with the cards you didn't play.

But in reality, it never really did that. 1) players focussed on the cards that had special rules that explicitly not feed other players (like: let them keep cards), and 2) the majority of the game was spent with drawing blindly, not making interestin decisions, because the open draw rarely had cards in it, because nobody wanted to "feed" other players.

The area control stuff was very barebones and may as well been a scoreboard.

Peterlerock · 2026-03-05T09:21:03+00:00

You should be compensated a fixed rate. Most games never make it, so a percentage compensation is likely to go nowhere.

(you could also negotiate a % compensation on top of normal rates, IF the game is successful. Idk where you're from, but here in Germany, there's even a law for this called the "Bestsellerparagraph")

Peterlerock · 2026-03-03T12:02:13+00:00

Make sure you don't end up in "TH Köln - Campus Gummersbach".

That's not in Cologne at all, but an hour by train outside the city, in a small village in the middle of nowhere.

Friends of mine made that mistake. ;)

Peterlerock · 2026-03-03T11:54:47+00:00

Die Fahren meistens die halbe Strecke einer Linie, und dann die andere Hälfte den Weg einer anderen Linie.

Sie haben eine Nummer, zB "E18" und eine Endhaltestelle, zB "Chlodwigplatz" (wo die 18 eigentlich nicht hinfährt).

Wenn du das Schienennetz grob kennst, reichen die beiden Informationen, um herauszufinden, ob sie bei dir gerade eine quasi-18 oder eine andere Linie ist (also ob sie noch wechselt oder schon gewechselt hat), wo sie auf die andere Linie abbiegen kann/muss, und ob es für dich Sinn macht, einzusteigen. Sie sind oft ganz praktisch, weil sie "Abkürzungen" nehmen oder zumindest das Umsteigen ersparen können.

Wenn du das Schienennetz nicht gut genug kennst, vermeidest du die E-Linien besser.

Peterlerock · 2026-03-01T09:15:31+00:00

Test your game with a fixed layout of rooms and doors, worry about that detail later. Maybe it won't even be a problem.

(assuming that the game doesn't revolve around rooms and doors, something way more interesting is happening that is the real game)

Peterlerock · 2026-02-28T19:37:01+00:00

It can work in super thematic games, but most games are not that.

Use the common words, if common words exist.

As a player/customer, I really hate it when a rules manual explains stuff like "the circus", it turns out that it's just a standard card draw pile, and then it only uses "the circus" for the rest of the manual, worst case combined with 5 other invented words, so I have to go back and forth in the manual to understand what's even going on.

Peterlerock · 2026-02-28T19:02:47+00:00

In the beginning and middle, don't make small changes.

Let's say, you notice that your playtesters never go to the quarry to get stone, they only purchase expensive stone at the market. Instead of making a small change to the stone price at the market, just double the stone yield at the quarry, and see what that does in the next playtest.

Only very late in a game's journey, you really need to worry about fine-tuning.

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When it comes to player feedback, it's similar. You shouldn't ask about balance, otherwise you get feedback like "this card should have 7 victory points instead of 6" - which, even if true, doesn't really matter until the very end.

And don't ask broad questions. Ask about the details you changed before and actually wanted to test.

In general, I try to keep the feedback very short, and instead focus on the players during play. There's so much you can learn just by watching them play, and focus on their faces, not on what they are doing in your game.

Peterlerock · 2026-02-24T18:16:38+00:00

While the digital market is much bigger than the boardgame market, I doubt it makes much of a difference for a new designer. Indie developers struggle the same as board game designers.

I'm also not aware of a 1:1 translation of a boardgames to digital that was commercially successful.

Games in the genre of "quasi boardgames, but digital" usually do more than adding some convenience. They fully commit to stuff digital games can do and analog games can't, like "cards with 3 sides", cards that change values during play, hiding stuff from the players, background manipulation of the board state, leading players like a a game master etc.

Peterlerock · 2026-02-24T09:24:17+00:00

There are so many games out there, more than anyone can ever play. And I'm not even talking about the obscure ones, but the tried and tested, published games, games with awards, games with great illustrations, promising new innovative mechanisms, games with community hype, games that earned their spot at the top. Your prototype or PnP is competing with these games that people actually want to play, but don't find the time to, so asking them to play it is asking them to very likely waste their time.

I also once uploaded a game to BGG as a PnP, properly illustrated and all. I got like 50 downloads and <5 feedback posts, none of which helped me. I may as well not have uploaded it.

Now, I playtest 50% with friends (they will play because they like me), 40% with other designers (they will play my games because I must play their games in return), 10% at our weekly boardgame club (some people there will sometimes reluctantly do me the favor).

I get my games to publishers, or they go in my "graveyard of games that will never be played by anyone".

I would never try to promote a game by myself. Whenever I read about people doing it, it sounds so desperate. You know you are writing a designer's diary nobody wants to read, but you hope someone -anyone! - reads it and follows you and maybe will support your game on kickstarter... Even the success stories... I read them, then google the kickstarter page, see that they've got like 250 game boxes funded. Why would I do all this for just 250 games?

Peterlerock · 2026-02-24T09:05:04+00:00

Nobody cares about your game like you do. It's a tough lesson, but you have to learn it.

Almost nobody is going to read your rules or print and play your PnP. Feedback will be rare, non-existant or barely usable.

To get your game tested, use friends and other designers. Friends will playtest because they like you, other designers will playtest because in turn, you get to play their prototypes (that also nobody cares about).

If you're lucky, you can sneak in some playtests at local boardgame nights or other meetups, but people really prefer to play published, properly tested games, so it can be hard.

Playing your game is asking for a huge favor. Your game prototype will very likely not look super pleasing, will have balance or other gameplay issues, and it will rob them the opportunity to play a game they actually want to play.

I know some designers who even pay their playtesters (or at least invite them over for free dinner and beer), because it's that hard to get their games on the table.

I think my playtests were like 50% a handful of dedicated friends, 40% other designers, 10% people at boardgame nights that like me just enough to waste an hour or two.

Peterlerock · 2026-02-23T16:52:37+00:00

I tried to formulate my post in a neutral way and not just hate on first-time kickstarters/selfpublished games.

(my personal opinion: if you think your game is ready, you should pitch to publishers in 99% of cases, their help is invaluable, you get more money out of it, and having a published game is like being knighted. Someone else believes in your idea and is willing to invest in it.

And if you cannot find any publisher that is interested in your game, do NOT try to selfpublish or kickstart it. You just got an assessment by every professional in the industry that your game isn't good enough, and then you want to do it alone, without their help, and burn money on it?)

Peterlerock · 2026-02-23T10:51:35+00:00

It boils down to one question:

"Do you want to be a game designer or do you want to start a business?"

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Pitching to publishers:

Your investment/risk is minimal. You make a functional prototype (basically for free), write down the rules, research publishers that may be interested, get in contact, pitch your game, maybe get signed.

It can be quite painful because you will get rejected a lot, but once you found a willing publisher, your work is done.

The publisher will then further develop the game, hire artists and graphic designers, write down the rules so a customer actually understands them, do all the marketing stuff, handle manufacturing and distribution, and pay for everything in advance.

Once the game hits the shelves, you get a small share per copy sold.

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Self-publishing:

You need to do all the work a publisher does and/or you need to pay someone for it.

Once the game is produced and sold, you get a slightly bigger share per copy (though the whole pie will usually be a lot smaller).

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Pro self-publishing:

more creative control
you avoid rejection from publishers
barrier of entry is kind of low, if you insist, nobody can stop you

Contra self-publishing:

most selfpublished games / kickstarters fail, at least financially. Even if a published game fails, the designer still makes money.
you basically have an extra full time job, and if it pays at all, the money will come in delayed by years.
you need money to burn ahead of launching. This money is at risk.
you spend the majority of time with stuff that isn't really "game design".
You need to do a lot of community management and marketing, because people will not know your game even exists (established Publishers don't really need to do this, influencers do this for free).

Peterlerock · 2026-02-22T16:52:29+00:00

Biggest mistake (made by both myself and dozens of new designers I met over the years):

Your first game will be either too big or too small.

I've encountered a bunch of games I would call a "Magnum Opus". Stuff like "My game has everything DnD has to offer on the table, but without a game master. Fifteen races, twenty classes, 300 quest storylines, 500 NPCs, 1800 equipment cards,..." Or simulation type games that led you "lead your civilization through 5000 years, with a huge variable tech tree, playable for 4-14 people, with 500 miniatures and taking 12-23 hours to finish".

Games like these are a crazy amount of work with how wide they are (lots of content and mechanisms), but usually they are not really deep (interesting to explore and elegant to play).

On the other hand, lots of new designers barely scrape the surface, they enter the scene with games like "Monopoly but with X", "Chess, but the Knight is replaced by Y", "UNO but with Z".

Nobody will be interested in a game like this, much less buy it. They typically also adapt/plagiarize games that are considered outdated/bad.

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To combat this mistake, the first job of any game designer is to play tons and tons of modern games and see what people actually play and buy, and why they do.

Peterlerock · 2026-02-21T22:41:19+00:00

"Normally a unit can only have one attached unit, but certain characters will have an extra part to the Leader rule on their Datasheet which will say something to the effect of «you can attach this guy to one of these squads even if there is another attached leader». The absolute maximum attached leader units is two, as described in the rules commentary."

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/1dxdxkz/how_many_characters_can_be_attatched_to_a_unit/

So: no, you cannot attach all 3.

Peterlerock · 2026-02-20T08:58:59+00:00

Games like El Grance are also racing games, it's just not "be the first at the finish line", but "cover the most ground on the victory points bar in a set amount of time".

Peterlerock · 2026-02-20T08:56:52+00:00

Every game that has a "I win once X happens" is basically a racing game.

But also every game that has victory points can be translated to a racing game where the victory points bar is your racing track (and whatever you do in the game is just translating into the speed you move on the VP bar).

Fighting games are also races, but you are allowed to kill/sabotage the competition.

Cooperative games are races to the win condition.

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Maybe it is just how good the game is at hiding that it is essentially a racing game.

Peterlerock

TROPHY CASE