Are your games truly that great? Could you sit down play them forever? Games do get old, but make sure you don't hate your game after 4 plays. Make sure you are making games that your will love to play. It might not be a let's play this game 6 times in a row but don't make games you only want to play yearly. At Unpub 5 Richard Launius said that you could bring him any of his games and he would happy to play with you. It makes me question about how far I should take a game I don't think is really the best game I've ever made. Should I keep making a game I think someone might like, but I wouldn't play it much?
Should I stop working on the bad ones?
The answer is most likely no. I just won't make a Kickstarter out of it or try to get people to buy it. My reason being is that no matter how bad of a design it is, it's still working on a game. It will help build creativity and might result in a mechanic that turns out to be great, but it just needs a better game to go in. It's kind of like doodling. Your just going through the motions and working on ideas and seeing what develops.
Are there too many games in the market to keep making them?
It might seem like there are too many options, but at the same time it might only feel like that from inside the hobby. People outside the hobby might not be aware of an overload of all the new games coming out. There were 530 successful board game kickstarts in 2014 according to a BGG post.
Looking at the magic world, magic like magician not the card game, there is a similar thing happening. Every other day I get an email about the latest and greatest new trick. It's a slight change on an older trick that is nothing really new or innovative. It's something for magicians to waste their money on. Is it ruining the hobby? No, I would argue that it isn't. It might be taking people's money but I think at the same time it will allow people to learn a trick they might not otherwise have seen. The general public really doesn't see all these new tricks. They still only see the great tricks and performers anyway. This is like the board games where only the better and more popular ones get through. Now people will argue about the board games we see in Target and how they aren't the best ones. It's still getting people interested in the hobby which might lead them to finding even better games.
On a Boardgame Breakfast, Chaz Marler was talking about the 5 different versions of Abyss and the amount of version of the upcoming Pandemic Legacy. He compared this to the downfall of comics where they had several different versions of the same thing. Like any industry people will try to make money the easiest way possible. We buy bottled water; why wouldn't people buy the same game with just a different box? It's all about the companies trying to make money. I don't think it's the best thing for the industry but I don't think it signals the end just yet.
Tom Vasel only adds a new game to his library if it replaces another game. That means that new game has to fill a niche and be better than any previous versions. This should be the goal when developing a game. Is your game any better or that much different than one that already exists?
All the new releases also turns into having tons of games in a collection that aren't played. I have a few right now but most are random purchases from the thrift store so I'm not dying to play them.
Decide why you want to design games
Eric Lang was talking about the reason you do things in the first place on a something from nothing podcast(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqkDGMTvt9E). Are you an artist? You want to entertain your friends and make the world a better place. You want a game to make a great game for people. Are you a Rock Star? You want to make a game for fame. You want to recognized and be known for your games. Are you a Business man? Do you design your games for the money? You want to have a successful business in making games.
I'll keep the ideas for the bad games and see what comes from them.
I have a list of game ideas that has some terrible ones on there. I'm working on the player elimination challenge on the Game Crafter right now.(http://news.thegamecrafter.com/post/112055961722/killer-gamers-remorse-challenge
) seeing made me take another look at an idea that I was working on but wasn't fun. I think I can make it work into something better and have a decent game to submit for it.
Should I stop working on the bad ones?
The answer is most likely no. I just won't make a Kickstarter out of it or try to get people to buy it. My reason being is that no matter how bad of a design it is, it's still working on a game. It will help build creativity and might result in a mechanic that turns out to be great, but it just needs a better game to go in. It's kind of like doodling. Your just going through the motions and working on ideas and seeing what develops.
Are there too many games in the market to keep making them?
It might seem like there are too many options, but at the same time it might only feel like that from inside the hobby. People outside the hobby might not be aware of an overload of all the new games coming out. There were 530 successful board game kickstarts in 2014 according to a BGG post.
Looking at the magic world, magic like magician not the card game, there is a similar thing happening. Every other day I get an email about the latest and greatest new trick. It's a slight change on an older trick that is nothing really new or innovative. It's something for magicians to waste their money on. Is it ruining the hobby? No, I would argue that it isn't. It might be taking people's money but I think at the same time it will allow people to learn a trick they might not otherwise have seen. The general public really doesn't see all these new tricks. They still only see the great tricks and performers anyway. This is like the board games where only the better and more popular ones get through. Now people will argue about the board games we see in Target and how they aren't the best ones. It's still getting people interested in the hobby which might lead them to finding even better games.
On a Boardgame Breakfast, Chaz Marler was talking about the 5 different versions of Abyss and the amount of version of the upcoming Pandemic Legacy. He compared this to the downfall of comics where they had several different versions of the same thing. Like any industry people will try to make money the easiest way possible. We buy bottled water; why wouldn't people buy the same game with just a different box? It's all about the companies trying to make money. I don't think it's the best thing for the industry but I don't think it signals the end just yet.
Tom Vasel only adds a new game to his library if it replaces another game. That means that new game has to fill a niche and be better than any previous versions. This should be the goal when developing a game. Is your game any better or that much different than one that already exists?
All the new releases also turns into having tons of games in a collection that aren't played. I have a few right now but most are random purchases from the thrift store so I'm not dying to play them.
Decide why you want to design games
Eric Lang was talking about the reason you do things in the first place on a something from nothing podcast(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqkDGMTvt9E). Are you an artist? You want to entertain your friends and make the world a better place. You want a game to make a great game for people. Are you a Rock Star? You want to make a game for fame. You want to recognized and be known for your games. Are you a Business man? Do you design your games for the money? You want to have a successful business in making games.
I'll keep the ideas for the bad games and see what comes from them.
I have a list of game ideas that has some terrible ones on there. I'm working on the player elimination challenge on the Game Crafter right now.(http://news.thegamecrafter.com/post/112055961722/killer-gamers-remorse-challenge
) seeing made me take another look at an idea that I was working on but wasn't fun. I think I can make it work into something better and have a decent game to submit for it.