The White Box Essays

by Jeremy Holcomb

They say everyone has a game inside them!

Almost everyone who’s ever played a board or card game has had an idea for how to make it better. To tweak it, improve it, or even build something new from its miniatures, cards, cubes, and concepts.

Jeremy Holcomb and Gameplaywright think making games is awesome. They believe it's one of the most challenging, fun, rewarding things you can do.

If you’ve ever thought about making a board or card game of your own, they want to help. The White Box Essays is for you.

The White Box Essays contains 25 essays on board and card game design, production, publishing, and marketing. It’s for aspiring professionals, creative young people, and literally anyone who’s ever wanted to build their own board or card game.

If you believe creating games is awesome, The White Box Essays is for you.

Table of Contents

Foreword (by Mike Elliott)
1 Welcome to The White Box
2 Protecting Your Ideas & Why You Don’t Need To
3 Danger! Danger!
4 Story or Mechanics?
5 The Roll of the Die
6 Writing Effective Rules
7 Bits Matter
8 What to Do When You are Worried About Your Game Being Balanced
9 Bang for the Buck
10 Playtesting
11 How To More Than Double Your Game’s Sales
12 Self-Publishing
13 The (Semi-)Magical New Age of Crowdfunding
14 Designing an Effective Game Box
15 The Lies Game Boxes Tell
16 Box Details
17 How to Promote Your Game at a Convention Without Losing Your Shirt
18 What a Sell Sheet Is
19 Six Things You Can Say to End Your Game Pitch
20 How to Network at Conventions
21 How to Get Your Game Into the Marketplace
22 On the Dotted Line
23 Six Board Game Accessibility Fails, and How to Hack Them (by Erin Hawley)
24 Pacing Three-act Structure Just Like God and Aristotle Intended (by Jeff Tidball)
25 The Economics of Game Design and Design of Game Economics (by Jay Little)
In Conclusion
Acknowledgments
About the Author

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Essays, Reference, Gaming

238 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 30, 2017

Reviews

[Aidan Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has a lot of practical advice and will surely be very helpful in every step of the design process. A bit dry but it sort of has to be at times

[Dan Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is sold as part of a larger package, containing the bits and bobs you, yes you, can use to design your very own board game. I passed it in the game store and I was intrigued enough to buy the book separately (I have boxes of random bits already: Pyramid Arcade and the Piecepack and Stonehenge).

This is not a manual to design your first board game. There are some general guidelines, but nothing so specific as walking you through a design step by step, or even the merits and interactions of various board game mechanics and systems, and the elusive je ne sais quoi of Fun.

It's most practical as a guide to the board game publishing economy. Numerous essays go over the boxes you should check to playtest your game, use your time well at conventions, approach publishers with the appropriate amount of information, run a Kickstarter, and so on. They also clarify the division of labor between the designer, the artist, the manufacturer, the distributor, and the publisher.

With this book and your board game prototype in hand, you could shepherd it to reality. Even though it's not what I was hoping for, which was how to create your first drafts, it's good enough on its own terms. It was very educational.

[Seth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was far better than I expected. At times it was pretty dry, but I think that was the point. Simpy put, the book is loaded with pointed, and substantive information about how a game goes from concept to finished (read: "purchasable") product. I only read the ebook, so I didn't have the parts the original printed version came with, but it was still extremely informative. I would have liked to seen a bit more about play-testing and editing, but the book was still very good.

Its really aimed at gamers who are interested enough in the hobby. To really want learn about negotiating contracts and print runs for games, you've got to want to read this stuff, but if this is you then buy this book. Whether you want to make a game, or just want the information about how games make their way onto store shelves, this is a great book.

[Earl Grey Tea · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I have become more serious about designing board games, I picked up The White Box since I needed some replacement cubes for one of my prototypes.

There was a lot of great information that I had not thought of yet found in the pages of this book. My biggest takeaways were Jeremy Holcomb's information on rule explanation, sell sheets, and box design. These sections especially made me think about how to express my ideas in an easy to read format as concisely as possible.

In addition to that, having a subtitle for your game can be a great way to give people an idea of what they will experience in the game. Other great items to have on the side of your box beyond age, play time, and number of players include level of complexity, strategy, and luck.

I would say about half of this book consisted of material applicable to my current stage of board game development. The author also dove deep into the world of actually selling and marketing your game at conventions, to publishing companies, or distributors. This gave me a nice overview of what to expect if my games do take off (not holding my breath), but I am designing board games for my vanity and will probably just stick to The Game Crafter.

[Christopher Valles · Rating 1 out of 5]

I saw "The White Box - A game design workshop in a box" at my local game store. I felt intrigued so went ahead and purchased it. I was excited to get my hands dirty and learn by doing, at the end of the day, that's what everyone expects from a "workshop", right? Wrong.

The box contains a bunch of game components that will be useful once you actually start designing a game but the book is just a collection of essays. So at the end of the day, this is not a workshop but a lecture with some bonus game components, long story short you are on your own.

The book itself dances around topics but never gets down and dirty with them. Some chapters become very repetitive when the author says the same thing four or five times using different words. Probably the book could be reduced by 50% if you remove all the fluff and repetition.

If you want to learn about making games by making games you'll be better off buying "Challenges for Game Designers" by Brenda Romero and Ian Schreiber.

[Jon Barrows · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I thought this was a really great, and very practical set of essays on game design, and in particular the business side of how to make games. I did wish there was a little more depth on play-testing in terms of how to do it well, things like what to look for, what questions to ask, how to go about finding 'blind' play-testers, etc. Additionally, I wish there was a little more detail on how to pitch games to publishers. I did appreciate the detailed guidance on self-publishing and using kickstarter. But, as I said, I thought this was a pretty thorough treatment of the topic, and compared to some others I have read, it was more practical and grounded (i.e. less theoretical or anecdotal) than many other books on the topic I've checked out.

[Krzysztof · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will prove very useful to beginning designers, and even people with a game or two under their belt can still find some useful advice and strategies here. I found some of the remarks a little too vague, and the contributor essays definitely feel like they skim over their respective topics - but as a general source of information, the book is solid.

[Johnson Orr · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as technical help and guide-style books go, this one really takes the cake. I've been into board games for most of my adult life, and I think each person in the hobby secretly imagines themselves creating something to be remembered by or just making something for their friends. This book has many topics to help with either path, and is a very real and honest experience. The book comes with meeples, cutouts, dice, and many other things to get started with too. If you're into the hobby, read it for sure.

[ButterPoached · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very useful book if you want to manufacture anything, especially boardgames. A little bit dry, but I came out of it knowing more about the design process than I went into it with, so I view it as worth a read. The guest essays at the back weren't worth much, though.

[Andrew (Drew) Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very practical for people who are hoping to design games, but with enough theory to interest something like me. I especially appreciated the last three essays by guest authors on disability, plot, and economic theory in game design.

[Joe Heaukulani · Rating 4 out of 5]

The White Box Essays offers a lot of practical advice in game design and I learned more than I expected about game publishing.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy on how to publish and light on the techniques and how-to of actual game design

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish this had more to say about actual game design rather than publishing, Kick-starting, and contracts. Not that that stuff's not important, but you need to get to that point first.

[Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read if you interested at all in game design and production. There might not be much appeal outside of that niche.

[Micah · Rating 4 out of 5]

SCREEN POTENTIAL

6/10

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THOUGHTS

This book is a useful guide for designers early in their game development. While I read most of it cover-to-cover, it may be best to use it as a reference manual to return to as needed. As such, a series of YouTube videos (or Vimeo? is that still a thing?) could be a great companion - so much of gaming is visual, after all.

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ADAPTED ALREADY?

No

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IDEAL ADAPTATION

Concise, topical video essays to match the chapters of the book.

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IT WOULD BE LIKE TRADING IN 16 SHEEP IF...

An actual prototype game were made as part of the video essays.