THE GAMER’S BOOKSHELF: THE KOBOLD GUIDE TO BOARD GAME DESIGN

by Mike Selinker

(Kobold Quarterly/Open Design, 138 pages, $19.99 print/$9.99 pdf)

It seems like everyone who has ever played a game thinks to themselves, “Hey, I can make a game too!”. Well maybe you can and maybe you can’t. But it’s always good to draw some insight and inspiration from those who actually have had a hand in that crazy business. Mike Selinker, a frequent contributor to GAMES magazine as well as a successful game designer (whose credits as part of a design team include Betrayal at House on the Hill, Gloria Mundi, Lords of Vegas, Pirates of the Spanish Main and more), has gathered together just those kind of people and has gotten them to share some thoughts on the art and science of games, collecting them in this volume: The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design.

Selinker has divided the volume into four sections: Concepting, Design, Development and Presentation.

In Concepting, James Ernest (a frequent collaborator with Selinker), Richard Garfield (Magic, the Gathering and more), Jeff Tidball, Matt Forbeck and Selinker share philosophical insights and different approaches to capturing the “idea” behind a potential game design. From that group, I found Selinker’s essay to be the most engaging as he added specific instances of game concept implementation that gave a “behind the scenes” character to his piece.

In Design, Andrew Looney (Fluxx, Chrononauts and more), Rob Daviau (Heroscape, Risk: Black Ops), Lisa Steenson (Gut Bustin’ Games), Selinker (again) and two more by James Ernest, offer some obvious but often missed truths about the art of game design with more insightful anecdotes to make their points. It is often surprising to discover the sources of inspiration. (Steenson, for example, cites the work of behaviorist BF Skinner to support her views on game design.) Again, Selinker rises to the occasion with examples of good game mechanics in his piece “Beautiful Things”.

The volume next turns to Development, the process by which an idea and design reach fruition. Many aspects of this critical process are covered. Contributor Dale Yu (Dominion co-developer) gives a fascinating look at how Dominion developed to become the huge hit it is, Paul Petersen (Magic, the Gathering developer) discourses on the tricky pitfalls of collectible card games, Dave Howell (playtester for Magic, the Gathering and Cheapass Games) offers a solid set of developmental guidelines, particularly things to avoid, Selinker contributes his views on the pitfall of rules writing while Teeuwynn Woodruff (creative director of Lone Shark Games) delves into the whys and hows of playtesting,

Finally, there is Presentation, getting your game into the hands of publishers (first) and game players (second). Here contributors include Steve Jackson (Steve Jackson Games) who discusses some actual instances of games that failed the “presentation test”, Dale Yu (who counters Jackson’s essay of “Don’ts” with a useful list of “Do’s), Richard C. Levy (Adverteasing and many more) who, as an acknowledged expert on licensing, offers insights into that phase of the “game game”, and Michele Nephew (head of game production for Atlas Games) who provides an excellent summary of the entire process (“From Proposal to Print”) which is worth the price of admission right there.

The book has a decidedly Euro outlook (most of the contributors are involved in Euro type strategy games in one way or another) but it is not exclusively so (take Levy’s essay on Licensing, for example, that focuses on mass market fare). Still, the book travels on “two roads” as it were.

One road is philosophical discussion as to what makes a game good and how to approach the process of game design. This gives you a peek into the head of some game designers and dissecting the creative process is always fascinating. But the other (and my favorite “road”) reveals personal preferences of the writers and zeroes in on specific techniques and examples. Richard Garfield, for example, takes a swing at those designers who refuse to play anyone else’s game (a sly swipe at Reiner Knizia who reportedly does just that). In particular, those essays from Selinker, Dale Yu, Richard C. Levy and Michele Nephew bring specifics to the board game design game and specifics trump generalities every time. (A minor glitch here and there though. For example, Scott Abbot of Trivial Pursuit fame has only one “T” in his last name.)

Whether you are familiar with the work of Mike Selinker or of any of the other contributors here is really beside the point. All of them can write and all of them are knowledgeable, experienced and successful in various stages of the gaming process, from designing to publishing and the steps in between, which means they know what they’re talking about! The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design is a worthwhile read for those interested in the journey of games from idea to marketplace and a very worthwhile buy for those who have that itch to create and market the next great game. – – – Herb Levy

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Fall 2011 GA Report Articles

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