作者：Lewis Pulsipher

我原先是为了那些志向远大的桌游设计师而撰写了相关博文。我十分惊讶有如此多的设计师欣赏先前博文中提出的相关建议。因此，我重新修改了内容，并将电子游戏设计师列入考虑范畴。但它与桌游设计师存在本质差别，因为相较于实体游戏，他们极易独立发行数字版本的电子游戏。电子游戏设计师还应面临软件编写问题，也就是注重编程、美术、设计等方面。而桌游设计师则需安排实体产品的生产（游戏邦注：主要指印刷）。

如何吸引发行商与投资方？

虽然你在家人、好友甚至自己眼中是个重要人物，但对游戏发行商或投资方而言，你与上千个自认为拥有出色游戏或游戏理念的开发者并无两样，但实际上他们大多数人都错了。

很抱歉，这可能带有否定口吻。在我看来，拥有梦想是件好事，但如果你想取胜，你应当制定目标并付诸行动。

初始阶段，你的表现可能不尽如意。但熟能生巧。当人们开始创意设计时，他们可能并不擅长。现在，许多设计师要么隐藏自己的想法，要么只在大脑中构思，因此，不少年轻人由于鲜少目睹设计过程，他们认为该职业并无难度。事情并非如此，游戏领域不存在快捷键。因此，你应准备好推广方式，或尽早透露自己从事的项目。

你应重视重用性，在此，我将引用自己最近出版的游戏设计书籍中的一段文字：

“另外，我们不能期望新手初始阶段就设计出一款出色产品，好比作家、艺术家或作曲家无法在初始阶段展示出杰出的创意或结果。科幻小说家（前Byte杂志的计算机专家）Jerry Pournells说过，如果你想成为成功的小说家，你必须愿意抛弃自己早期编写的上百万个文字（10-11章的小说）。游戏设计又有何不同呢？”

National Public Radio的Ira Glass表示：

“没人告诫新手，我希望曾有人给我提出警告。我们之所以从事创意工作，因为我们具备出色品味。而这也是差距所在。在制作项目的头几年，你取得的效果可能并不理想。你试图向优秀品质靠拢，而且也有这种潜力，但就是无法实现。然而你的游戏审美观念可能是个致命因素。它也是导致游戏失败的主要因素原因。许多设计师无法度过这一阶段，选择了放弃。我认识的从事自己喜爱的创意工作的人们已历经多年磨难。我们知道作品中并未包含自己喜爱的元素。我们会度过这个艰难时期。如果你刚刚启动项目，或正处在这一阶段，你应当清楚这种现状十分正常，最重要的是，你应动手从事大量工作。为自己制定有效期限，迫使自己每周完成一个故事。只有这样，你才能渐渐缩短这种差距，而且最终作品能够符合你的标准。我在度过这一阶段耗费的时间比任何人都长。通常需要一段过渡时期，那样才能找出自己的方法。”

不要自认为可以创下大笔财富。极有可能的情况是，你在游戏设计中投入的大量精力回报甚微。桌面游戏属于“小土豆”，它不是巨资源头，大多数电子游戏开发商只能获取微薄收入，因为甚少有游戏可以创下丰厚收益。

如何在游戏行业赚取大笔资金？

以此为目标。

披萨与游戏设计师有何不同？

一张披萨可以养活一个四口之家。

如果你认为自己可以在游戏行业致富，那么发行商与投资方不会关注你。最近，我听说有个玩具创造者不满于自己5%的版税收入（可能只算批发方面，不包括零售）。如果你已经了解报酬标准，你就不会遇到这种情况。

你必须设计并完成游戏制作。发行商并不打算购买游戏创意，他们想要购买完整产品。电子游戏发行商与投资方也是如此，但投资者习惯于评估创意与演示样本，因为事实上，编写软件需要大量资金。

开发商想要游戏，不是创意。游戏创意十分廉价，甚至一文不值；记住，对他人而言，你口中的“优秀创意”实则并不出色、原创、甚至有趣。这就是现实状况。我们需要多久才能取得桌面游戏领域真正杰出的新型创意？是《D&D》、《万智牌：旅法师对决》、还是《魔法骑士》、《领土》？又有多少电子游戏具备出色创意？数目相当多，但通常，原始游戏创意并不如最新作品来得成功。比如《Little Computer People》与《模拟人生》。没错，你需要拥有一个出色创意，但基于此制作出完整作品比创意本身更加重要。

然而，鲜少有人们拥有原创点子，即别人从未提过的创意。可能，某个创意对你而言是原创的，但可能其他人也曾有过类似想法。保不定他们在多年前已利用它制作游戏。结果，发行商认为这些创意毫无价值。这也是为何行业投资者总是青睐那些拥有成功案例的设计师的原因。如果他们曾经成功开发一款游戏，那么同比那些从未有过成功经验的设计师，他们在未来取胜的可能性更胜一筹。

不用担心创意“被盗”！你的“杰出”创意可能并不出色，游戏设计师有自己的想法。而且，电子游戏与桌面游戏均属于小型行业，因此言论传播速度极快。如果你因为担心创意被盗而不打算告知其他人，那么他们（游戏邦注：尤其指发行商/投资者）如何评估你的创意？

当然，由于不少开发者会提出相同想法，因此行业中也存在并行开发现象。甚至还有剽窃事例，比如，你在向某个发行商提交一款摔跤卡牌游戏时遭到拒绝；之后，该发行商推出了一款类似游戏，然而此时，已经有另外一家大型（且更富裕）的发行商接受你的游戏，这时，法律会惩处第一家发行商。但这是个特例，你也不能在畏惧剽窃行为中成为一名游戏设计师。

同样，如果某款电子游戏已成型，或正打算推出，此时也会出现“克隆”问题。但这是在你找到投资方或发行商之后，好长一段时间才会发生的事情。

游戏设计不应以故事为主。故事在某些类游戏中十分重要，但人们是出于游戏玩法而体验游戏，并非故事情节。如果你打算从事故事编写工作，为何不寻找可以操控所有故事情节的媒介呢，比如小说、戏剧或电影？大多数情况下，游戏玩法比故事本身更加重要，因此，无论你编写哪类故事，其最终结果并不吻合你的初衷？

发行商与投资方知道故事的重要性，因为它是游戏的出售内容。但它必须是一款游戏，不单单只有故事情节，这样，玩家才会持续体验这款游戏。

不要为游戏申请专利。法律并不保护游戏创意。而申请一个专利需花费3000-1万美元，这笔费用并未包括支付律师在法庭上辩护/加强专利权所需的高昂费用，申请专利属于徒劳开支，而且该资金抵过一款桌游的收益，甚至高过大多数电子游戏的创收。这也是为何只有少数真正游戏（桌游或电子游戏）会申请专利。

如你期待般，法律会保护游戏版权，而且申请这项权利具有免费性与即时性，即使你打算控诉某人侵权（弥补重大损失的唯一渠道），你需为游戏注册，而这只需35美元。

不要在创造可玩原型上投下大量成本。尤其是创建桌面游戏原型。在开发电子游戏时，你应尽可能利用纸张创建游戏原型，借此节约开发成本。尤其不要为美术、高品质印刷、高昂包装盒、“代理”、“评估员”支付大笔费用。其实，许多游戏原型并未放在盒内，开发者会把它们放在袋中，或旅行袋内（尤其考虑到无法将大型板块裁剪成盒装大小，而且板块通常属于单独部分）。发行商拒绝接受十分精美的原型，他们担心设计师会因为自己已投入大量时间完善游戏原型，因此不愿进行某些修改。

你可以利用现代软件与打印机，以低成本创建出外观精美的桌面游戏原型。

你必须为创建电子游戏原型/样本投入资金，但在向投资方展示之前，你可以投入较少成本，这样，你可以在之后制作出更棒效果。为了说服投资方，你无需提供十分精良的原型/演示样本，而是要展示出游戏的运作方式。

4P原则。在与发行商及投资方打交道时，你应遵守专业性（professional）、礼貌性（polite）、准时性（punctual）与坚持（persistent）四个原则。你还应友好对待。但记住，发行商/投资方十分繁忙，因为有上百位设计师想向他们展示自己创作的原型。如果你因为愚蠢才脱颖而出，那么你将无法达到自己的目标。

在发行商/投资方查看你的游戏或游戏理念之前，你应为自己树立可信度。如果你什么也不懂，他们为何要与你讨论？

*主动控制展台的负面效应

*发表文章或博文

*制作多个版本/插件，并在网上推广

*建立一个适当的网站

*制作符合理念的游戏

*成为发行商游戏社区内的一员

不好意思，各位设计师，虽然你们在家人或自己看来相当重要，但对发行商或其它投资组织而言，你们“什么也不是”。你应改变自己的原先想法。

不要要求发行商签订保密协议。这也标志着你是个“无能的新手”。他们会嘲笑你，将你拒之门外。有些发行商会要求设计师在提交游戏后，制定相关协议书，其内容基本为：“如果我们发行这样一款游戏，你不能借此起诉。”这是为了预防发行商遭到无知游戏设计师的控诉！如果他们有所要求，你应满足，否则他们不会同你合作。

避免夸张语句。以下是某个设计师在LinkedIn上描述其制作的桌面游戏：

这是一款相当有趣的佳作，它有利于玩家发展创业思维，开发自己在商业、金钱、创意等领域的思维。

过去两年来，我带着这款游戏（点击链接检验游戏）环游全世界，我与来自10个国家的上千位玩家共同体验了这款游戏，只为了感受它的运行模式，而且人们非常热爱它……

PR、Facebook、Twitter以及全球各地的游戏研讨会均支持我的作品。

以下是我的回复：夸张言辞只会让发行商更快速地避而远之。比如，两年内共有730天，如果他与上千位玩家共同体验游戏，那么数目至少为2000个，也就是说两年内，每天他大约要与3个玩家一起体验游戏。或者，如果他每周体验一次，两年共有104周，也就是每回需与20位玩家体验游戏？那么他在过去两年内还做过其它事情吗？或者，有哪款游戏可以聚集大量玩家共同体验？不好意思，这不大“可信”，即使可能某些方面是真实的。

在首段中两次提到自己的作品十分“优秀”可能会体现出你的狂热之情，但它也会向发行商/投资方发出警告，他们已接触过大量自认为游戏十分出色的设计师，但事实往往相反。

我也懒得点击链接检验事实的真实性，因为这些夸张言辞已发出警告，我想，发行商/投资方的反应也是如此。

游戏制作永无止尽。在制作电子游戏时，你可能需面临发行商强行制定的截止日期，届时，你的作品可能还未成型。另外，优于你耗时修改那些无价值错误，你获取的边际效益可能会大幅减少。即使游戏已经推出，你在制定第二版时仍需做出某些改进。

真正的游戏设计师会同时研究多款游戏——直到签订合同。如果你只研究一款游戏，或是几款，那么你不大可能取得佳作。这时，你只能定义自己为业余爱好者。没错，当某个设计师签订合同/获得投资时，他将着眼于一款游戏。他应在其余时间内思考其它游戏。当然，游戏领域也存在某个设计师借由一款作品大获成功的案例（游戏邦注：比如桌面游戏《Blokus》）。如果你只致力于一款作品，它被发行的可能性不大：祝你好运。你最好同时着眼于多款游戏。

玩游戏？你要充分了解游戏，那样发行商或投资方才不会认为你是象牙塔内的书呆子。但我并不赞同“体验大量游戏”这种典型建议。首先，体验游戏并非是所有人了解游戏的最佳途径，就我所知，许多设计师在玩过一次游戏后并不了解它的运作模式。有些人通过与体验大量游戏的玩家交谈、阅读规则、浏览评论与社区评价等等，了解了更多与游戏相关的知识。其次，如果你投入大量时间体验游戏，那么你就没有时间设计游戏。毕竟，游戏设计并非指代游戏体验。

游戏设计是种工作。其实，玩游戏并不会带来收益；而游戏制作则富有成效。大体上，成为出色的玩家与成为杰出的游戏设计师毫无瓜葛，他们对态度与思考过程的要求完全不同。我偏爱游戏设计，但有时，当我打算真正思考自己想要的游戏原型，或对无数次规则修改感到厌倦后，我可以动手设计游戏。从卡套中抽出卡片，费力地绘制板块或组件十分无趣，但又极其必要。在电子游戏行业，创建游戏原型需投入更多精力，除非你钟爱编程，或者拥有自己的团队，否则这将是一份沉闷的工作。

在电子游戏行业发展更具难度，因为你几乎无法按照自己的意愿行事，你不得不制作别人的游戏，或基于他们的创意进行开发。另外，同比桌面游戏行业，电子游戏行中的许多设计师均靠这个饭碗存活。

具备耐心。我制作的桌游《Britannia》在1980年才形成完整版本。其首次发行于1986年。到了2008年，某个主流发行商告诉我：“这会是一款不朽佳作，因为我们需投入大量时间评估，而后推出其中一款。”1年多后，我签订了合同。但至今它还未发行，即使已“处在发行行列”。

我听说，有些桌面游戏从接受到推出需历经8年，或更长时间。我还听说，某款著名的游戏曾被发行商拒绝过10次。而拒绝只是一会儿的功夫。

但电子游戏行业较少存在长时间的投产准备阶段，因为电子游戏会在外表上“过时”。发行这类游戏仍需数年时间。

因此，如果你属于“即时满足”类型，那你最好先让用户体验并喜爱你创建的原型，而不是在已发行的游戏。

设计游戏应以其他玩家为主。尤其对发行商而言，你对游戏的喜爱毫无意义，重点是玩家喜欢它！幸运的是，有些开发者为自己设计的游戏吻合其他玩家的爱好（比如《毁灭战士》开发者）。但你不能依赖这种想法。此外，为自己设计游戏的想法十分任性，而且通常这类游戏设计十分糟糕。当你成为一流的设计师时，你可以设计自己喜爱的类型，直到某次失败。

另外，如果你只是为了满足自己，而不是以专业目的设计游戏，那么你可以放纵自己的内心想法。

测试游戏。首先，你应确保大量玩家参与游戏测试。不要依赖家人的看法。你应不断测试游戏，直到你感到厌倦，并想将它扔掉。此时，你可能会颇有一番感受。如某个发行商认为你并未充分测试游戏，那么他不会对你过多关注。你必须愿意不断修改游戏：听取测试员的建议，观察他们的反应，牢记游戏不够完美，即使发行后也是如此。而且，游戏设计并无法达到完美结果。

不要寄期望于Kickstarter提供的帮助。大多数KS项目并未获得投资。而来自那些从未有过成功经验的开发者的游戏更不可能荣获投资方的青睐。如果你拥有一个出色的项目，并发表了一场杰出演讲，那么你可能会获得投资，但这只是制作与发行游戏的开端。

独立发行对桌游设计师而言尤为受用，如果你不介意赔钱的话。此外，有时你会转变为一个发行商/营销者，而不是设计师。此时，你打算怎么做？独立发行电子游戏所需的要求与花费较少，但你仍需要多多扮演营销者的角色，而不是设计师。

或许，桌面游戏可以遵循GameCrafter的“按需发行”线路，即你无需投入巨大成本，便可推出一款表面上十分专业的游戏。除了Thegamecrafter.com，还有其它网站也提供类似服务，但我还未实践过。

当你的游戏/投资需求遭到拒绝后，并不会影响到游戏品质，如果我没在GenCon大会上听错的话，《Quarriors》这款相当著名的桌面游戏在推出前曾遭到发行商的10次拒绝。所以，开发者要坚持不懈。

阅读。浏览有关游戏设计的文章、博文、书籍。订阅Gamasutra，涉略自己感兴趣的文章。同比体验1-2款游戏，在同样的时间内，阅读游戏书籍能为你传授更多知识。一般而言，这类指南书籍可以告知读者作者心路历程，借此，读者不必亲身历经那些“艰苦磨难”。而且，现在也没人乐意经历磨难。

我们很容易耗费大量时间跟随网页上的链接随处浏览。如果你想成为游戏设计师，你应重点关注游戏设计方面的内容。

意图vs.行动

Traditional表示：“通往地狱之路总是布满美好愿景。”

Henry Ford指道：“你无法基于意图打造自己的声誉。”

不少志向远大的游戏设计师“从未有所成就”的原因之一是，他们并不了解意图与行动的关系。不同时代的人们对此各持己见。老一辈认为，比起自己制定的意图、说过的言语及打算，采取行动更加重要。该看法与Henry Ford不谋而合。年轻人则认为意图更加重要，他们可以借此减少行动。

在我看来，经典例子莫过于学生没做作业是因为它弄丢了优盘，或者电子版本，且未进行备份。他似乎认为这是不错的借口，但其老师并不赞同。另一个事例便是反对不要在电脑旁喝饮料，以免溅到电脑这种校规的学生。他们称道：“我不会把饮料撒到电脑上。”但老师解释道：“你们当然不会故意这样做，我们主要针对意外情况。”如果某种粘性饮料撒满键盘，那么我们很难定义这不是故意行为。

几十年来，年轻人会为不做作业、乱撒饮料寻找各种借口。我们应认识到这是谁的过错，谁应对这些行为负责。而最近却变为，一般而言，人们可以利用出色的意图开脱所有失败行为。如我有时告诉各个年龄层人们那般：“你可以克服自己的教养问题。”因此，我们应极力避免以正当意图抵消应为失败行为担负的所有责任。在某种程度上，等同意图与行动标志着放纵不称职行为。

在商业领域，你应牢记，如果你打算赚钱，游戏设计便是一项不错的营生，你应采取行动，而不是仅限在打算阶段。如果你在截止日期时刻表示“电脑死机，且我未留有备份”，那么这可以称为历史性错误，届时，发行商会取消与你的合同，甚至把你开除。难道你不该为这些过错负责吗？

我可以想象，某些年轻人会指出“这不公平”。这还有待争议，但生活本来就是不公平的，你应学会接受。而且我认为这种做法极其公平，如果你是因为未留有备份而导致失败情况，那就是你的过错。

在印第安纳波利斯的GenCon 2012大会上，我参与了小说发行商的专题研讨会。会上，他们多次表示，书写成功小说的最重要元素是在截止日期前完成。你可能会问：“这与创意项目有何关系？”关系并不大，但与业务方面关联紧密，因为商业应建立在日程安排与截止日期上。成功的作家如同成功的游戏设计师，都是从事商业行为。某个专业小组描述了他们编写RPG规则手册与设计游戏过程，没人安排他写小说，直到他真正完成这部作品，并向人们展示（还未发行版），此时，他应着手书写下一本。

“真正的”游戏设计师与幻想型设计师之间的主要不同是，真正的游戏设计师会完成游戏制作，而后者似乎无法做到。当然，他们也有此意图，但并未实现，而且之后的开发阶段十分枯燥，生活事项也会有所干预，他们还会分心到另一款作品。发行商并不需要未成型作品，即使他们常常会进行相应修改。当然，你也无法出售一款未成型的电子游戏，如果你这样做，人们会认为这是劣质产品，而你的信誉也会遭到影响。

此外，如果你投入大量时间体验游戏，以致没空设计游戏，那么你的设计意图不会发挥任何积极作用，而且行业人士也不会在乎你的想法。他们只关注你的实际行动。

总之，你应征询创意行业中的专业人士，比如小说家、美术人员或游戏设计师，他们的答案是，赢得成功的最重要途径之一是在截止日期前完成任务。如果你错过最后期限，那么你的想法便毫无价值。因此，你会获得不佳名声，这意味着，未来，人们将不大可能委托你制作项目。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

How Novice Game Designers can Be Taken Seriously by Publishers and Funders (cautionary advice)

by Lewis Pulsipher

The blog posts that I’ve combined and modified here were originally written for aspiring tabletop game designers.  I was taken aback at how many people appreciated the advice in the original blogs.  So I’ve revised the material to try to take video game designers into account as well. There is a fundamental difference, because it’s relatively easy to self-publish a game in a digital format, compared with a game with physical components.  The major problem for video game designers is getting the software made, which often means, how do you fund the work of the people doing the programming, art, design, etc.  The problem for tabletop game designers is arranging for production (mainly, printing) of the physical product.

“Seven years and a million dollars”

Here’s the kind of really sad story you can hear sometimes from novice designers.  At one of the game design/game publishing seminars at GenCon 2012 (the major tabletop game convention in the USA), right at the end, someone raised his hand and said he and a group of friends had been working on a game for seven years, and it was a great game, and they had spent over seven years and a million dollars developing it including paying Marvel comic artists to do the prototype art; and how could he get to talk to Fantasy Flight Games about it?   (FFG is the largest hobby (as opposed to mass-market) board game publisher.)  The three panelists were taken aback – if I wrote in contemporary style I would say they were “stunned” – and said nothing for a moment.  Because there’s really nothing to say.  These “designers” were in cloud-cuckoo land to spend so much time and money, and their game very likely wasn’t particularly good, either.

Finally James Ernest said “when you talk to Fantasy Flight I wouldn’t mention the million dollars”.  (Because it would mark them as clueless noobs.)  And it turned out that much of the million dollars was a calculation of how much the developers would have paid themselves if they had paid themselves at a pretty high hourly rate.  But those Marvel artists must’ve cost a lot of money.  Yet anyone who knows anything about the tabletop publishing business knows that the manufacturer provides the art and the designer should use clipart for the prototypes, even if it’s copyrighted, rather than spend money on art (fair use).  And that virtually no tabletop game is so good as to earn a million dollars for the developers, so you shouldn’t be spending a million dollars.  Yet they had done so little research that they had no idea how to approach Fantasy Flight, and while that is very far from easy to achieve, the basic steps are well-known.

The session then ended and no more was said publicly.  But this is the kind of sad story one hears occasionally from stars-in-their-eyes “game designers”.  They’ve done little or no research, they think their game’s great because it’s their game (and they probably designed it for themselves, not for other people), and they evidently think there’s a lot of money in tabletop (or independent video) game design.  One can only shake one’s head.  (And yes, I realize that it’s just barely possible that they do have a great game but the odds are astronomically against it.)

How to be taken seriously

So at that moment I started to write down “most important cautions for novice game designers”.  While you’re important to your self, your family, and your friends, to a game publisher or funder you’re no different than thousands of other people who think they have games or game concepts worth publishing, most of whom are wrong.

I’m sorry that this might appear to be negative.  Dreams are OK, but you need to have goals and ways to get there, not dreams, if you want a chance to succeed.  (“A goal is a dream with a deadline.” Napoleon Hill)

You won’t be very good to start with.  (Good) practice makes perfect.  When someone begins a creative endeavor they are very rarely good at it to begin with.  Nowadays so much that’s involved in so many professions is hidden away or occurs in someone’s mind that young people get the notion that it’s easy simply because they don’t see it happening.  No, there is no Easy Button.  So be prepared to throw way or give away much of your early work.

Believing in reusability, I’m going to quote from my recently-published game design book (which doesn’t actually address the topic of being taken seriously, because that’s not part of designing games):

“Furthermore, there’s no reason to expect beginners to come up with excellent game designs when they’re starting out, any more than writers or artists or composers start out with excellent ideas or results.  Science fiction novelist (and former Byte magazine computer pundit) Jerry Pournelle says you must be willing to throw away your first million words (10-11 novels) if you want to become a successful novelist.  Why would game design be any different?”

Ira Glass of National Public Radio is focused on art rather than entertainment:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

Don’t think you’re going to make a lot of money.  Very likely, you’ll spend a great deal of time for little return.  Tabletop gaming is “small potatoes”, not a big source of money, and most video game developers earn little because so few games make a lot of money.

How do you make a small fortune in the game industry?
Start with a big fortune.

What’s the difference between a pizza and a game designer?
The pizza can feed a family of four.

If you think you’re going to get rich then you will not be taken seriously.  I recently read about a toy inventor who became indignant at the idea of receiving “only” a 5% royalty (probably of wholesale, not retail).  If you’ve learned what the typical levels of compensation are, you won’t have this happen.

You need to design and complete games.  Publishers don’t want to buy ideas, they want to buy complete games.  That’s true even for video game publishers and funders, but the funders are accustomed to having to evaluate ideas and demos because it costs so much to actually make the software.

Publishers want games, not ideas.  Ideas are cheap, a dime a dozen; recognize that your “great idea” is not that great, not that original, not that interesting to others.  That’s reality.   How often do we get a really extraordinary new idea in tabletop games?  D&D, Magic: the Gathering, maybe Mage Knight, maybe Dominion?  How many video games are great ideas?  More, but often the original game based on the idea isn’t nearly as successful as later games.  Take for example Little Computer People and The Sims.  Yes you need a good idea but the execution of the idea in the form of a complete game is much more important than the idea itself.

It is extraordinarily rare for someone to have an original idea, that is, one that no one else has had.  An idea may be original to you but most likely a lot of other people have also thought of it.  And may well have used it in a game years ago.  As a result, ideas are seen as mostly worthless by publishers.  This is why there’s such an emphasis on the video game track record of people asking for funds.  If they’ve successfully made one in the past, they’re much more likely to successfully make one in the future, compared with those who have no previous successes.

Do not worry about someone “stealing” your game idea!  Your “great idea” likely isn’t great at all, and game designers have their own ideas.  Moreover, video or tabletop, it’s a small industry, the word gets around rapidly.  If you don’t want to tell anyone about your great idea for fear of theft, how can anyone (especially publishers/funders) begin to evaluate it?

There are certainly examples of parallel development, because many people get the same idea.  And there are even examples of theft.  E.g., a wrestling card game was offered to one publisher and rejected; later the publisher came out with a similar game, but by that time the game had been accepted by another, large (and wealthy), publisher, and legal proceedings put the first publisher in its place.  But this is quite exceptional, and you simply cannot live in fear of theft and be a game designer.

In video games there is a problem with “cloning” if games that have been or are about to be published.  But that’s long after the stage when you find funding, or a publisher.

Design a game, not a story.  Stories can be important in some kinds of games, but people play a game because of the gameplay, not because of the story.  If you want to write stories, why not pursue a medium where you can control all of the story, such as novels, plays, even film?  In a game, the gameplay is more important than the story in almost all cases, so whatever story the writer creates, it won’t end up much like he or she had in mind.

Publishers and funders know story is important insofar as it sells games.  But there has to be a game, not just a story, and it’s the game that will (or won’t) keep people playing.

Don’t patent your game (or if you do, don’t admit it to anyone!).  Game ideas cannot be protected, by law.   (No, I am Not a Lawyer.  But I Can Read.)  At $3,000-$10,000 or more  per patent, not even considering the immense fees you’d pay lawyers to defend/enforce the patent in court, patents are a fool’s errand costing more than a tabletop game is likely to make, and more than most video games will make.  That’s why so few real games (tabletop or video) are patented.  (I say real games: there are lots of ridiculous game patents approved, which appear to be the case of a lawyer convincing some poor sod to spend a lot of money unnecessarily to patent a betting method or something equally obvious.)

Copyright is as much protection as you can expect, and copyright is free and immediate, though if you want to sue someone about copyright – the only way to recover large damages – you’ll have had to register it, which does cost money ($35).

Don’t spend much money on making a playable tabletop prototype. This is especially true for tabletop prototypes.  And remember to use paper prototyping whenever possible to save money as you develop a video game concept.  In particular, don’t pay anybody for art, don’t pay a lot for high-quality printing or fancy boxes, don’t pay an “agent”, don’t pay an “evaluator”.  Many prototypes don’t even have a box, they are in some kind of pouch or wallet (especially considering that it’s pretty hard to reduce a large board to box size, the board is often separate).  Really slick prototypes tend to put tabletop publishers off because they’re afraid the designer has put so much time into the prettiness of the prototype that they’ve been reluctant to change it!

With modern computer software and printers you can produce a nice-looking tabletop prototype quite cheaply.  I discuss software and other points about making prototypes in my game design book if you need more information.

You have to spend money for a video game prototype/demo, but the less you can spend before you show it to money-men, the better off you’ll be.  Give funders credit for some imagination, the prototype/demo doesn’t need to be immensely pretty, it needs to show how the game will actually work.

The 4 P’s.  When you deal with publishers and funders be professional, polite, punctual, and persistent.  And be friendly.  But remember that publishers/funders are busy people who have hundreds of designers wanting to show them prototypes.  If you stand out because you’re a butthead you’re not going to get anywhere.

You have to DO something to give yourself some credibility, before publishers/funders are likely to look at your game or game concept.  If you’re a complete unknown, why would they deal with you?

Volunteer to man booths at cons

Write articles or blog posts

Make variants/mods and publish them on the Web

Have a decent Web site

GM at conventions

Be a part of the publisher’s  game communities

Sorry, folks, while you’re really important to yourself and your family, you’re “nobody” to any publisher or other funding organization.  You have to do something to change that.

Don’t even think about requiring the publisher to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).  This is another mark of a “clueless noob”.  They will laugh at you and tell you to go away.  Some publishers require designers who submit games to complete a release form that essentially says, “if we publish a game just like this, you can’t sue us.”  That’s to protect the publisher from lawsuits by clueless “game designers”!  If they require it, you’ll have to sign it, or they won’t deal with you.

Avoid hyperbole (excessive exaggeration, a little exaggeration might be forgiven as enthusiasm).  Here’s a real example, from a designer’s description of his board game on LinkedIn:

It’s a great game for fun and for the development of entrepreneurial thinking, it’s great for anyone who would like to develop their mind set around business, money, creative thinking and more.

I have taken it around the world in the last 2 years (you can check it out here : [URL] ) , and I have played it with thousands of people in 10 countries, just to get the feeling of how it goes, and people love it ! . . .

I support the game by PR, Facebook, twitter and game based workshops around the world.”

Here is my response:  Exaggerated claims will put off a publisher quicker than anything else.  For example, 730 days in two years.  If he played the game with thousands, that must be at least 2,000, or about three every day for two years.  Or say he played once a week, 104 weeks, that’s 20 people at each session?  Has he done anything else in the past two years?  Or is it a game that can somehow be played by very large numbers of people?  Sorry, it just isn’t *believable*, even if it’s somehow true.

Calling your game “great” twice in your first paragraph may be a good sign of enthusiasm, but it’s likely to raise alarm bells to publishers/funders who have encountered far too many designers who think they have a great game – but virtually never do.

I didn’t even bother to check the Web site in this case, because the hyperbole raised all those alarms.  And that’s how a publisher/funder is likely to react.

You will never be finished with a game.  For video games, you might hit a publication deadline imposed by the publisher, and might not even feel like you’re done.  Otherwise, you’ll reach the point of diminishing marginal returns where the time it takes to make an improvement is just not worth the value of the improvement.  Even if your game is published, there will be things you may want to do in a second edition should that ever occur.

Real designers work on many games at the same time – at least, until they have a contract.  If you’re only working on one game, or a few, you’re not likely to end up with a good one, AND you identify yourself as a dilettante, an amateur.  Yes, when someone gets a contract/funding to make a video game, he’s going to focus on that game.  The rest of the time, he should be thinking about many games.  Yes, there are cases where someone designed one game that proved to be so good that they are independently wealthy (for example the boardgame Blokus).  If you’re working on just one game however, it probably won’t be published: good luck.   Pros are working on many games.

Play Games?  You need to know games well enough that a publisher or funder won’t think you’ve been in an ivory tower somewhere.  But I disagree with the typical advice “play lots of games”.  First, playing a game isn’t, for everyone, the best way to understand it, and I’ve known lots of people who played a game once but didn’t really understand it.  Some people learn more from talking with people who’ve played a game a lot, from reading rules, reading reviews, reading community comments, and so forth.  Second but more important, if you spend too much time playing games, you won’t have time to design games, which is quite a different endeavor.  Game design is not about playing games.

Designing a game is a form of work, not play.  Game playing is essentially unproductive; game creation is productive.  Being a good game player is largely irrelevant to being a good game designer, different attitudes and thought processes are required.  My favorite game is the game of designing games, but there are still times when I really wish I could just think of the prototype I wanted and it would appear before me, or when I get tired of tweaking rules the umpteenth time.  Shoving cards in the card sleeves, painstakingly drawing boards or pieces, is rarely enjoyable but it is necessary.  In the video game industry, creating the prototype is far more work, so unless you love programming or have a teammate who does, it’s going to be tedious.

It’s even tougher in the video game industry because you almost never get to make the game you want to make, you have to make someone else’s game or work with someone else’s idea.  On the other hand there are many more people making a living as game designers in the video game industry than in the tabletop game industry.

Patience really *is* a virtue.  My tabletop game Britannia existed in fully playable form in 1980.  It was first published in 1986.  In 2008, one major publisher told me, “it’s a good thing you’re immortal, because it’s going to take a long time” to evaluate and publish one of my games.   I was offered a contract more than a year later.  It still has not been published, though it’s “in the queue.”

I know of several tabletop games that took eight or more years from acceptance to publication.  I know of a well-known published game that was rejected 10 times.  10 rejections takes quite a while.

These very long lead-times are less common in video games, because games can become “outdated” in appearance.  It can still take years.

So if you’re an “instant gratification” type,  your instant gratification has to be in seeing people play and enjoy your prototype, not in the published game.

Don’t design games for yourself, design for others.  They’re the ones who must enjoy it, your enjoyment in playing is unimportant, especially to a publisher!   Yes, some people design games for themselves and are fortunate enough that a lot of other people like the same thing.  (The Doom creators, for example.)  But you can’t depend on that.  Furthermore, designing for yourself is self-indulgent, and self-indulgent game design is often poor game design.  When you become a big-time designer, then you can design whatever you like – well, until you have a failure.

On the other hand, if you’re designing a game for personal satisfaction rather than for professional purposes you can be self-indulgent to your heart’s content.

Playtest, playtest, playtest.  Be sure to playtest your game with a wide variety of players.  Don’t rely on your family to tell you whether it’s a good game or not.  You have to playtest your game until you’re sick of looking at it, until you want to throw the damn thing away.  Then maybe you’ll have something.  If a publisher gets the impression that you haven’t playtested much, he’ll not take you seriously. You have to be willing to change the game again and again: listen to the playtesters, watch how they react, recognize your game isn’t perfect and won’t be even when (if) it’s published.  Game design is not a job for perfectionists.

Don’t assume Kickstarter will help (or save) you.  Most KS projects fail to be funded.  Projects from people who don’t have a track record of success are much less likely to be funded.   If you have a good project and make a good presentation, you may get funded, but that’s only the start of making and publishing the game.

Self-publishing is practical even for tabletoppers, if you don’t mind losing money.  Moreover, at some point you become a publisher/marketer, not a designer.  What do you want to do?  Video game self-publishing is less demanding and expensive, but may still make you a marketer rather than designer.

Or for the tabletop go the GameCrafter “Publish On-Demand” route, where you can have a published and professional-looking game without spending a lot of money.  Thegamecrafter.com.   There are others offering this service, but I have no experience of them.

When your game/funding request is rejected, there’s a good chance the rejection had nothing to do with the game’s quality.  If I heard correctly at GenCon, the fairly well-known tabletop game Quarriors was rejected 10 times before being published.  Be persistent.

Read.  Read articles, read blog posts, read books, about game design.  Get the RSS feed for Gamasutra and read articles of interest.  Read books about games, which (if they’re good) will tell you a lot more than playing one or two games for the same amount of time. One objective of a “how to” book is to convey the experience of the writer to the reader so that the reader doesn’t have to go through the “school of hard knocks”.  And nowadays no one wants to take hard knocks.

It’s easy to waste time following links all over the Internet to read this and that.  Focus on reading about game design, if you want to be a game designer.

Intentions versus Actions

“[The road to] hell is paved with good intentions.”  Traditional saying

“You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.”  Henry Ford

One reason why so many aspiring game designers “never get anywhere” is the confusion between intention and action.  Different generations view this quite differently.  Older people recognize that it’s what you do that is most important, not what you intend or what you say you’ll do or what you wanted to do.  They’re in tune with Henry Ford.  Young people tend to believe that intention is so important that it can excuse a lack of action.

The classic, to my mind, is the student who loses his schoolwork because he lost his USB drive or otherwise lost the electronic copy and had not backed it up.  He seems to think this excuses not having the work, though the teacher isn’t likely to agree.  Another is the student who objects to the typical college policy that you cannot have drinks near computers for fear that they’ll be spilled onto the computer.  The student says “I’m not going to spill it”.  The teacher says “of course you don’t intend to spill it but we’re talking about accidents”.  If there’s sticky pop spilled all over a keyboard it hardly matters that you didn’t intend to spill it.

Young people have been trying to excuse not having homework, and excuse spilling drinks, for decades if not centuries.  The need is to recognize who’s at fault, to take responsibility for your own actions.  The recent change is that, quite commonly, good intentions are now seen as absolving one from any and all responsiblity for failure of action.  As I say occasionally to people of all ages, “you *can* overcome your upbringing.”  In this context, overcome the idea that right intention removes all responsibility for failed action.  In a way, equating intentions and actions puts a stamp of approval on incompetence.

In the business world – remember that if you intend to make money, game design is a business – actions count, not intentions.  If your deadline arrives and you say “my computer died and I have no backup”, you’ve Epic Failed, and your contract could be revoked, you could even be fired.  Isn’t it your responsibility to have several backups?

I can picture some young people saying “that’s not fair”.  That’s debatable, but what isn’t debatable is that Life is Not Fair.  Live with it.  And I have to say I think it’s perfectly fair that if you failed to backup your stuff, you’re at fault.

I attended some panel discussions with published novelists at GenCon 2012 in Indianapolis.  Several times they all agreed that one of the most important things in successful fiction writing is meeting deadlines.  “What does that have to do with creativity?”, you might ask.  Not a lot, but it has a great deal to do with business, as businesses must work on schedules and deadlines.  Sucessful writers, just like successful game designers, are in a business.  One panelist (it may have been Matt Forbeck, who writes novels at a furious rate, often as an assigned tie-in with a game or other intellectual property) described how when he was writing RPG rulebooks and designing games, no one would give him a novel assignment until he’d actually completed a novel.  Once he could show that (unpublished) novel to people, he got an assignment to write one.

One of the major differences between “real” game designers and wannabes is that real game designers complete games while wannabes never seem to.  They intend to of course, but it just doesn’t happen, the later stages of development are too boring (and yes they are boring), life intervenes, they get distracted by another game.  Publishers don’t want incomplete games, even if they normally change the games that are submitted to them.  Nor can you sell an incomplete video game, or if you do people will probably find it’s a piece of junk and you’ll ruin your reputation.

And if you find yourself playing games so much that you have no time to design, your intention to design games doesn’t do you any good, nor will anybody in the industry care what you intend.  They care about what you actually do.

Ask any professional in creative industries such as fiction writing, art, or game design, and they’ll tell you that one of the most important things is to meet deadlines.  What your intentions may have been does not matter when you miss a deadline.  What your (in)action does is give you a bad reputation that means people will be much less likely to entrust you with projects in the future.(source:gamasutra)