Looking to start a game design group

Davie Edwin Archer

Posted 7/6/15 7:54 PM

1. I am looking to start a game design group. In this group I would like to meet game designers for the purpose of designing new games together. I would envisage the meetup working out as follows: 1. In the first week we would talk about the kind of game we want to design and look at what kind of mechanics we would use. 2. We would flesh out the game design and decide who would work on what aspects of the design. 3. At following meetings we meet and discuss progress and analyse how the game is coming together. 4. We plan to complete the game in a specific period of time say 3 months and play test it to death at meetup for London on board. 5. What happens after this is up to us but my main desire is learning from other designers, fine tuning my understanding and exploring what can be done with various mechanics. To add to this it would be great to complete 2 to 3 games a year. anyone who is interested in a group like this or have any ideas of what could be added to this please let me know.

Paul A

Posted 7/7/15 9:22 AM

1. Not wishing to be a party-pooper, but PlaytestUK does pretty much this sort of thing.

Bez (née Behrooz ...

Posted 7/7/15 10:11 AM

1. Playtest UK will allow you to meet other designers, playtest their stuff & playtest your stuff. The next meeting is on Monday 13th at Jugged Hare Vauxhall Bridge Road and if you're not bringing your own prototype, you're welcome to come along unannounced if you wish. What exactly are you wanting to do? If you're wanting to fully collaborate and design by committee, then talk to people that you know better but perhaps don't expect to make anything good. Designs will benefit from having one lead for singularity and clarity of vision. Even Hasbro will usually either buy games from lone designers or - if stuff is made in-house - there will always be one lead designer in control. If you want to get involved in design, then come along to some of our meetups, play some prototypes, make suggestions, then - once you've gotten an idea of the process - start on your own design. All board game design IS already collaborative, given the need to playtest. That can be a serious bottleneck and whilst last December there were only 2 meetups a month in London, there were 7 in June and will be 6 in July. In A Bind, which will be released in August (sorry for late postage Paul - will be done by end of Wednesday fingers crossed) is - imo - a good game. But it started off as something completely different and a bit shit. Partially due to my decisions along the way but also partially due to inspiration and feedback from testers, it evolved into something far better. IMO, a designer is like a curator - not only of their own ideas but also of everyone else's. Being able to read body language - to see whether something is engaging or not - is crucial (and I'm still working on that) but of all the ideas that are verbally given, some will improve the game, some will improve it but turn it into something different, some will just change it and some will actively ruin it for some reason that may not be obvious to someone who hasn't spent tens or hundreds or thousands of hours thinking about the way the systems integrate. You'll get some great ideas from the outside and playtesters are essentially collaborators, but you need to retain a lead. If you want to set up additional meetings, or maybe work on 2 2p designs (one you lead, one another person leads, so you can meet regularly to test both), or have other ideas, these will probably be good to discuss at one of the Playtest UK meetups. On Mondays, come a bit early if you can. We start testing at 6:15-6:30, so there's usually a bit of chat beforehand and we can discuss such things more. If you weren't talking about design-by-committee, then I apologise for misunderstanding and rambling on. In any case, come an join us. :-)

Stuart

Posted 7/7/15 10:24 AM

1. Plus the whole using London On Board as a source for playtesters. http://www.meetup.com...­

Davie Edwin Archer

Posted 7/7/15 1:20 PM

1. please note it is not play testing that I am focusing on it is game design. I would like to get a group together solely focused on designing games and evolving design mechanics. I want to sit down with like minded people and talk about this when we come up with neat twists on theme or mechanic we talk about how best we can implement it. We then work together on the project till completion. By doing this we can learn a lot more about game design and hopefully because we teach each other make less mistakes. I would use play test certainly to play test. But I want a group to discuss game design. I have been to play test before and just played unfinished games. I thought this was what the group was for primarily to play test games hence the name Unless things have evolved at the group since the 5 or 6 times I attended. I am after something different and more focused on understanding the art of game design. I thought that came through in my original commentsNot wishing to be a party-pooper, but PlaytestUK does pretty much this sort of thing.
   

Davie Edwin Archer

Posted 7/7/15 1:27 PM

1. I was talking at design by committee and I believe it will work. I'm looking for like minded people who agree with me or are open to try. Thanks for your comments they were interesting.Playtest UK will allow you to meet other designers, playtest their stuff & playtest your stuff. The next meeting is on Monday 13th at Jugged Hare Vauxhall Bridge Road and if you're not bringing your own prototype, you're welcome to come along unannounced if you wish. What exactly are you wanting to do? If you're wanting to fully collaborate and design by committee, then talk to people that you know better but perhaps don't expect to make anything good. Designs will benefit from having one lead for singularity and clarity of vision. Even Hasbro will usually either buy games from lone designers or - if stuff is made in-house - there will always be one lead designer in control. If you want to get involved in design, then come along to some of our meetups, play some prototypes, make suggestions, then - once you've gotten an idea of the process - start on your own design. All board game design IS already collaborative, given the need to playtest. That can be a serious bottleneck and whilst last December there were only 2 meetups a month in London, there were 7 in June and will be 6 in July. In A Bind, which will be released in August (sorry for late postage Paul - will be done by end of Wednesday fingers crossed) is - imo - a good game. But it started off as something completely different and a bit shit. Partially due to my decisions along the way but also partially due to inspiration and feedback from testers, it evolved into something far better. IMO, a designer is like a curator - not only of their own ideas but also of everyone else's. Being able to read body language - to see whether something is engaging or not - is crucial (and I'm still working on that) but of all the ideas that are verbally given, some will improve the game, some will improve it but turn it into something different, some will just change it and some will actively ruin it for some reason that may not be obvious to someone who hasn't spent tens or hundreds or thousands of hours thinking about the way the systems integrate. You'll get some great ideas from the outside and playtesters are essentially collaborators, but you need to retain a lead. If you want to set up additional meetings, or maybe work on 2 2p designs (one you lead, one another person leads, so you can meet regularly to test both), or have other ideas, these will probably be good to discuss at one of the Playtest UK meetups. On Mondays, come a bit early if you can. We start testing at 6:15-6:30, so there's usually a bit of chat beforehand and we can discuss such things more. If you weren't talking about design-by-committee, then I apologise for misunderstanding and rambling on. In any case, come an join us. :-)