The 10 REAL skills you need as a Board Game Designer. 

Before game design, I was totally hooked on theatre. But board games won and I haven't acted for 10 years or so. It's been a long time since I've even been to the theatre!

I'm definitely NOT a singer! 🤣

Oh, It looks like you were singing with a band in one of those images :) Anyway, impressive range of things you do/did. Those mustachios fit you perfectly, by the way :)

You forgot cartoonist!

Kind of a modern-day Buckaroo Banzai.

Me too! :)

Thanks for watching. Glad you found the video helpful.

Congratulations! You clearly have what it takes :)

Thank you! For sure :) 2 signed games; 1 published and 2 more on the way.@@AdaminWales Love your videos mate! ~ Devon M

Thanks you ChronoCZ! 🙂 Much appreciated.

Yes, it is interesting isn’t it. We have a wide range of different professions coming through our playtest group, and I’m not sure there’s a correlation with their designs.

Thanks for watching! (And ordering the journal!) Hope it’s helpful :)

@@AdaminWales I'm sure it will. It would have been great if the algorithm suggested your channel to me 8 years ago!! We'd be best friends by now 😎

Yeah, it was a provocative opener :) I think lots of designers think that experience and imagination is all they need (I don’t think many revise Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design really). Hopefully the rest of the video gave a little more context!

Your anxiety is clouding your judgement Bez. You are very good at many of these things. Your communication is excellent. You are prolific in your use of social media, and are known all over the world. It is your own unique brand of communication, but my goodness it works. Listening? I have no idea. Do you think about your audience much? I think you create games that people want to play. Your self-motivation is off the charts. You produce so many games, and push them out into the world with absolute determination. Generally without a publisher to do it for you. It is a constant stream of new games. You are only remembering the days where you don’t feel like doing it. I can go weeks without feeling like doing any design. You couldn’t have achieved what you have without motivation. I don’t know how resilient you are. You post often about your struggles with confidence, but you ALWAYS get back up again and keep on doing it. Crafting - because most of your games are just cards, it’s hard to say. But your illustrations are excellent! IT skills - I have no idea. Patience. You seem to move fast - always from one game to the next. Perhaps you could afford to slow down? And collaboration, well it seems to me like you have an enormous network of people around you supporting you (and presumably you supporting them). It was through this collaboration that In a Bind got in front of Gigamic and became Yogi. Your collaboration with the Pauls has helped you attend Essen Spiel, and led to the release of “Last Bug Standing”. Yeah, I think you have what it takes to be a game designer.

@@AdaminWales

It varies, but recently they're very small - between 4 and 10 people on average.

Thanks! No, never musicals. I mainly did classical theatre. Those images were from Tartuffe, The Trojan Women, As You Like It, and a contemporary play called Old Hands. I certainly haven’t ever done any modelling! Haha.

I’d say 90% of it is directly applicable to videogame design. Just substitute the word tabletop for video and you’re good to go… :) The journal is much more about the designer and their process that it is about any specific game or type of game.

@@AdaminWales I really might just get this. I have been feeling sort of aimless and already considering journaling to try and help. Thanks!

I see designers with good prototype games fail to bring them to market year after year because they don’t have one or more of the traits on this list (patience, resilience, organisation, motivation, communication skills…) None of these are qualifications - they are facets of a person’s personality. And they can be worked on. With regards to the “making a game that you want to play” approach, you’re with the majority :) I read that advice on designer forums on a daily basis. I think it’s good advice, but I just don’t think it’s enough.

A PDF is available on Drive Thru RPG :)

@@AdaminWales neat! I'm purchasing one as we speak! Thank you for providing amazing content!

Interesting. What you’ve said there shows insight though - and you’ve clearly developed a strategy to help you communicate. So that’s fantastic!