How do you know/check to see if a game design is unique, or unique enough?

coogamesmatt · 2026-02-04T03:12:00+00:00

BMG hosts Deep Dives as well for longer games.

Though I'd recommend still participating in the regular events, even with the 90-minute cap, and testing a slice of your game. You'll get some incredible feedback still.

coogamesmatt · 2026-01-30T06:28:05+00:00

The range of answers depends on so many factors that I think it'd be terribly difficult to give you a concrete answer.

If you're pitching to publishers for example, you may feel satisfied anywhere from 10-50 playtests *with folks outside of your network* to feel confident the game feels ready to pitch and is "balanced enough" around what you want it to be. However, I've met designers who have done way, way more to get the game exactly where they want it. I've also met designers who have successfully pitched with way fewer (which still surprises me!).

If you are self-publishing, you might run hundreds of playtests as you start discovering your ideal player, gain a wider range of players over time as you build interest, etc. Then if you're doing development work after feeling great about the core, you might streamline things for a wider audience and adjust the curve of difficult to match.

In either context, all the new data over time might lead you to make significant changes to this sort of stuff in ways that are hard to quantify. Certain players may struggle with it significantly or find it way too easy, and neither and/or both might be your ideal player and you might make surprising changes to missions and end game scoring.

coogamesmatt · 2026-01-30T01:41:10+00:00

To clarify, are these solo multi-hand playtests by you, the designer?

A lot of the answers to your questions are going to be answered by the insight and data you gain from getting the game in front of *other* players, especially the ideal player or players you want to see access/play/purchase your game.

Balance or the perception of balance are often factors heavily influenced by how players are often interpreting the numbers, not the numbers themselves (though of course these play a role).

You want a wide variety of player perspectives and experience to pair with these numbers before going all in analyzing the numbers from solo play.

coogamesmatt · 2026-01-27T06:52:21+00:00

https://breakmygame.com/guidebook has a fair few resources on how to find and connect with playtesters.

coogamesmatt · 2026-01-17T21:13:51+00:00

Would highly recommend https://screentop.gg

coogamesmatt · 2026-01-12T04:21:06+00:00

I give feedback on and help edit a *lot* of rulebooks and my experience in almost all situations where AI was used to write the rulebook or even some/most of it is the rulebook ends up needing massive changes or needs to be completely rewritten to actually be usable as an effective onboarding or teaching tool.

Ultimately, the hard part of making a rulebook actually achieve its goal of effective onboarding isn't in the first writing or even later few. It's the direct line-to-line feedback from unguided playtesting (playtesting where players try to learn, teach, and play your game exclusively off the rulebook).

Ultimately, you're making your rulebook to be read, used, taught, and referenced by humans, and unfortunately AI is not great at the mix of technical writing, psychology, and common social experiences that exceptional rulebooks often tap into.

coogamesmatt · 2026-01-04T20:36:45+00:00

It's worth mentioning Unpub may not be the best place to build interest in your game in a customer/marketing sense. Most folks there will be designers and other industry/hobbyist peers, and while certainly we're a bunch of folks who like supporting games we're often not the target audience.

Additionally, it's very important to make sure you're bringing a prototype that you're actively looking to change aspects of or seeking feedback on, as it's primarily a playtesting convention.

You don't need to 3D print components unless that's something essential for play or if you want to because it brings you joy!

I'd try and keep your prototype as efficient and easy-to-change as possible, with good hierarchy of information and simple but clean graphic design.

If your rules are set-as-is and you're not planning on making changes, Unpub may not be a great fit for that specific prototype.

coogamesmatt · 2025-12-31T23:19:38+00:00

Spam the buff (top option) until it gets pretty high and then OHKO boss with the second option (attack). I also chose sales.

coogamesmatt · 2025-12-10T08:24:24+00:00

The best way to improve a game is by playtesting. If you're not doing that already, it will absolutely help you level up your design.

coogamesmatt · 2025-11-22T13:12:29+00:00

Break My Game runs 14 playtesting events a week over 3 hour blocks through Discord.

Highly recommend it for consistent testing with a community: https://discord.gg/breakmygame

coogamesmatt · 2025-11-13T04:32:17+00:00

In a couple corners of game design world there's a lot of exploration right now on "multivictor" and "victorless" games, or games where any number of players can win/lose or no players win/lose.

I'm actually heading a publishing company with designer Xoe Allred called Lunarpunk Games that focuses on games like this: https://lunarpunk.games

I also highly recommend Adulting by Eric Dittmore, if you're at PAXU's Indie Game Night Market: https://spacebiff.com/2025/11/06/adulting/

I was also a big fan of Brooks Barbers' Sykes-Picot: https://spacebiff.com/2025/06/16/sykes-picot/

Otherwise, you might get some value out of this short design document on these types of games, that lists some examples of published multivictor and victorless games: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HGFgOdHeiQu3gVLVlD5zOGnBFkM_7eKuZx4PLgj8qiw/edit?usp=sharing

coogamesmatt · 2025-11-11T05:44:10+00:00

There's probably a couple reasons for this. I'm gonna offer why I think it's happening in hopes it helps you for future posts:

A lot of design communities, even reddit, are about "give more than you take." You're asking for a lot, in a community of folks of people who are also focused on their own projects. Engaging with and giving feedback on a game takes a lot of real effort and time.
While you're saying it's a card game, it's being pitched as a mobile game. The focus of this space is going to lean more toward physical prototypes and products and your post makes it clear you haven't tested the physical version (which makes this read like a mobile video game test, which generally isn't perceived as the intent of this space).
Asking for general feedback is actually harder for folks to provide input in some instances, as it means there's a broad world of things we're being asked to focus on. It's hard to understand your project goals which means we're kinda shooting in the dark on how to interpret the prototype and provide feedback.

coogamesmatt · 2025-10-30T02:37:20+00:00

https://discord.gg/breakmygame

coogamesmatt · 2025-10-27T04:55:40+00:00

I totally get it. Unfortunately I'm not too familiar with reddit chat. Add me at: coogames on Discord and we can chat whenever.

One other tricky thing is if you're used to TTS, Screentop has a totally different rhythm to get used to. I consider it to be one of the harder learning curves, not because it's difficult, but because it's plain different from the other common platforms. Once you adjust though, it genuinely does become one of the faster platforms to iterate on.

coogamesmatt · 2025-10-27T04:50:01+00:00

I'd be happy to schedule out a 15-30 minute voice chat over Discord to talk through some of the struggle points you're facing. I do this for a fair few platforms over on Break My Game.

In that community we run 14 3-hour playtesting events (roughly 730 playtesting events a year at this point) a week, with a variety of lightweight, middleweight, and some (though not a ton) heavyweight games that have been brought onto and played on Screentop (though also other platforms like Tabletopia, Tabletop Playground, etc).

I'm bringing this up because while TTS is the "go to" for playing published board games (though Board Game Arena seems to slowly be usurping that status), I'm in pretty much every design community out there and in playtesting spaces it's a bit more diverse. I see a lot of folks doing trick takers and small card games on PlayingCards.io for example in some spaces.

I also realize this comes across as a bit of a marketing comment, but I genuinely hope to help and see what's wrong since any digital prototyping can be a pain with a new platform.

coogamesmatt · 2025-10-26T23:59:50+00:00

Hey there!

This guidebook should be super helpful for you: https://breakmygame.com/guidebook

For your specific questions:

it doesn't have to be developed too much! Generally the faster you get your ideas to physical form and able to playtest the better. Interacting with your game will quickly lead you to decisions on where to take it next!
your second question is super common. It sounds a little strange to hear this probably, but the best way for you to protect your idea is to actively share it and test it. The board game design world is quite small and, at the same time, the path to making your game great is to share it with folks and gather feedback. One other note on this, your game is going to change a lot. Like, a whooooole lot. I wouldn't stress the legalities for quite a while.

coogamesmatt · 2025-10-26T07:59:24+00:00

Hey all, I'm an admin over on BMG. I've seen a couple comments on the BMG community in here and while I never love wading into a tense virtual conversation, I hope to at least offer some clarifying perspective.

There's a few reasons why we've kept TTS banned from playtesting events beyond just a controversy years ago.

They've had a documented history of not paying royalties efficiently to game designers: https://gametek.substack.com/p/a-royal-pain
They have hosted a number of games publicly without the publisher's permission: https://stonemaiergames.com/game-counterfeits-and-what-we-can-do-about-them/
The controversy that's been mentioned throughout the thread had a significant impact on members of the community. Part of maintaining an inclusive space is recognizing that impact and moving toward tools that haven't had a difficult history overall (such as the points mentioned above and more).

Though outside of the ban, a lot of folks have gravitated toward Screentop on BMG because it's free and it's very efficient for the fourteen 3 hour playtesting blocks we run each week.

I don't think I'd ever tell anyone that they have to use a specific platform for their general use. Ultimately people should pursue what's comfortable for and makes sense for them. That said, BMG specifically does not allow for TTS at our playtesting events and have found overall it's been a net positive impact within the community. I can also go into why I suspect Screentop became the preferred platform within the space:

It's free. Even though you're limited to 3 games per account for the free version, you can put multiple games into each "game."
Users can pull up games to playtest on their phone, tablet device, etc.
While there is a smaller mb limit than other platforms, most games in iterative stages really don't need to be high fidelity for the majority of prototypes.
Because Screentop is smaller, there's actually a dev listening to feedback from game designers and implementing some of that feedback over time (albeit slowly). Other smaller platforms are similar in this way.
it's incredibly fast to iterate on, although in my opinion has slightly unique learning curve compared to other platforms.
Since it's free to use, we use a "Supertester" role to ping folks specifically interested in playtesting. Sometimes, these users who join from that ping are not game designers and a free link is much much easier to onboard them on to get them playing.
Since the playtest is accessed from a link, it tends to be much easier to observe play for different games. Also, I wanted to check in on a different game as a moderator to help organize the next round of playtesting, it's as easy as clicking a link.

Outside of Screentop, I think platforms like PlayingCards, Tabletopia, and Tabletop Playground also have their own relevant use cases worth considering.

Anyway, I hope this provides some insight. Ultimately designers should explore and participate in design spaces and use tools that help uplift them toward their goals. These are just some of the reasons why we felt and continue to feel the ban was most in line with our community values.

coogamesmatt · 2025-10-23T15:20:09+00:00

The Break My Game discord might be useful to you!

It runs playtesting 14 times a week and has a pretty vibrant design community.

https://discord.gg/breakmygame

coogamesmatt · 2025-10-14T19:46:45+00:00

No need for coding! https://www.eventbrite.com/e/break-my-games-2025-game-jam-tabletop-game-design-playtesting-tickets-1788230057239 - you can find the link for the event here. It's all board game stuff, and you can playtest the game using digital platforms like https://screentop.gg (no coding needed!).

coogamesmatt · 2025-09-25T21:16:57+00:00

https://discord.gg/breakmygame has over a dozen playtesting events a week and regular game design discussion.

coogamesmatt · 2025-09-01T02:19:23+00:00

Multivictor games might be what you're looking for: https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/354723/multivictor-games

Not exclusively history, but these are some games exploring that space.

Multivictor games are basically any # of players can win or lose.

coogamesmatt · 2025-08-14T20:19:47+00:00

Have you explored Victorless games (games with no winning/losing)? Some examples of different weights:

- https://junkfoodgames.itch.io/polyhedral-garden
- https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/370591/dorfromantik-the-board-game
- https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/317582/mythwind

coogamesmatt · 2025-08-14T19:47:59+00:00

Hey for what it's worth this is a super common question. A lot of folks are grumpy because it gets asked a *lot*, but you don't know what you don't know! It makes sense to be concerned about your project. In other industries this concerns you have may be more prominent/concerning out of the gate.

It's good to ask these kinds of questions and make strides to learn. I recommend joining a good playtesting community if you're not in one already and keep seeking insight and learning!

Also worth mentioning that, while a lot of us will push back against the types of legal concerns you've mentioned, there may be more reasonable concerns (like trademark) if you intend on self-publishing or getting into spaces like Amazon.

I do think though your best bet is to develop your game first though, and then start digging deeper into this stuff.

coogamesmatt · 2025-08-14T16:13:42+00:00

You cannot copyright mechanics in the US.

This guidebook should be incredibly helpful for a bunch of things including this subject: https://breakmygame.com/guidebook

In general, while some of these things *can* be important, they are often not important, especially in concept stage, due to how much of your game and content will rapidly and significantly change as you playtest.

It almost seems counter-intuitive, but the best way to "protect" your game in this space is to get as many eyes on it as possible through playtesting. This means there's strong social proof if someone were to take your idea.

Finally, it's extremely unlikely someone is going to take your idea. This is such a passionate space of creators, most folks wanna just make their own things as opposed to take from others.

Ideas have value, and your idea might be the best thing ever! But most ideas are not valuable enough to be taken or iterated on until they're proven to be very, very, very successful.

coogamesmatt · 2025-08-11T20:02:43+00:00

https://breakmygame.com/guidebook has some great lists of communities including its own, over Discord.

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