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Board Game Design Advice: From the Best in the World
Take your games to the next level with advice from more than 100 of the best board game designers in the world. Game design is hard. We all need sound advice to guide our work and help us become better at the craft. In this book, you'll find incredible wisdom and insight from the top designers in the industry today. You will learn: The advice Rob Daviau would give his younger self.How Matt Leacock gets into the zone and flow of design.Lessons Jamey Stegmaier learned from his biggest failure.Donald X. Vaccarino's advice on pitching a game to a publisher.The behavior that has helped Ryan Laukat's designs dramatically improve. What Bruno Cathala would tell you after a discouraging playtest.And much more!
528 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 4, 2019
87 people are currently reading
120 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 15, 2021
Full video review here: https://youtu.be/1Z9fztJYWY8
You may recognize Gabe Barrett's name from the Board Game Design Lab podcast, which he founded and has hosted hundreds of episodes, growing Board Game Design Lab into a larger community and resource hub for board game designers. The origins of Board Game Design Advice are rooted in Gabe brainstorming how it might be possible to collect the mentorship of a large number of successful game designers and present them in book format.
His approach was to assemble a list of 12 questions that he felt covered the kind of advice he would like to receive from experienced designers and push those questions out to as many designers as possible. The result is a collection of brief interviews with over 120 board game designers, where each chapter consists of a designer answering some subset of the same 12 questions.
The 12 questions he chose are really the driving force behind the content of the book, and you can learn a lot about what to expect from which questions were chosen. So here is the very abridged version of the core questions:
1. What games do you recommend to new game designers?
2. What purchase of $50 or less has helped you most as a designer?
3. How has failure set you up for future success?
4. How do you know when to step away from a design?
5. How do you get into the "zone" to design games?
6. What advice do you have on handling discouraging playtests?
7. What belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your game design skills?
8. What tips do you have for pitching a design to publishers?
9. What advice should brand new designers follow or ignore?
10. What do you do when you feel overwhelmed or unfocused?
11. What do you wish you knew before you started designing?
12. What is one of your core philosophies, and how does it affect your designs?
If hearing successful board game designers answer those questions sounds interesting to you, then you are definitely the target audience of the book. But how does it all come together?
Let's start with what there is to like. The biggest strength of the book is the strong cast of contributors. Gabe manages, specifically in the 2nd edition of the book, to push the total over 120 designers, with many of the biggest names in modern board game design represented. While the community and content creation around modern board gaming has grown over the past couple of decades, access to advice from popular board game designers is still fairly limited, and especially this range of designers in one place.
If you are someone who has immersed yourself in modern board gaming and know a lot of modern games and designers, then you will enjoy the book even more as it is fun to recognize the designers that you are hearing from. While I think there is a ton of information here that would be great for a designer that has no awareness of the landscape of modern board gaming, I think it will be enjoyed even more by those who recognize most of the games and designers that are mentioned.
As you might expect, asking those 12 questions to 120 experienced designers is going to result in a huge pile of useful advice, and that is definitely the case with all of the valuable game design nuggets contained within the book. But it also transitions into what is the book's biggest weakness.
Asking 120 experienced designers the same 12 questions also leads to a lot of duplicated advice. None of the designers had any awareness of the answers provided by other designers, and a lot of the questions naturally lend themselves towards providing common "industry-standard" advice. And as the book presents the designers' answers "as is" without any additional editing, it shouldn't be surprising that a lot of it ends up feeling repetitive.
Asking 120 experienced designers the same 12 questions also leads to a lot of duplicated advice. None of the designers had any awareness of the answers provided by other designers, and a lot of the questions naturally lend themselves towards providing common "industry-standard" advice. And as the book presents the designers' answers "as is" without any additional editing, it shouldn't be surprising that a lot of it ends up feeling repetitive.
Which brings us to the question: is it a book that you should check out? It really boils down to understanding the tradeoff that Gabe accepted when putting the book together: it is going to come with a lot of repetitive content, and a lack of depth from the individual interviews, but as a result, you get to hear from way more designers than you would otherwise. I am not aware of anywhere else you can get advice from so many different successful game designers in one place.
When I read books, I typically sit down and read for 30 minutes to an hour at a time. That is how I read Board Game Design Advice, and I'm not sure it is the approach I would recommend. Treating it like a book you are going to read straight through is just going to make the repetition more painfully obvious, and make it really difficult to internalize and learn from the advice that is presented.
I could see it being much more effective to read an entry or two a day, and try to jot down a couple of takeaways that you can return to. Even if you come out of the book with just a few key highlights that you can apply to your own design process, that is a valuable outcome of reading the book.
You may recognize Gabe Barrett's name from the Board Game Design Lab podcast, which he founded and has hosted hundreds of episodes, growing Board Game Design Lab into a larger community and resource hub for board game designers. The origins of Board Game Design Advice are rooted in Gabe brainstorming how it might be possible to collect the mentorship of a large number of successful game designers and present them in book format.
His approach was to assemble a list of 12 questions that he felt covered the kind of advice he would like to receive from experienced designers and push those questions out to as many designers as possible. The result is a collection of brief interviews with over 120 board game designers, where each chapter consists of a designer answering some subset of the same 12 questions.
The 12 questions he chose are really the driving force behind the content of the book, and you can learn a lot about what to expect from which questions were chosen. So here is the very abridged version of the core questions:
1. What games do you recommend to new game designers?
2. What purchase of $50 or less has helped you most as a designer?
3. How has failure set you up for future success?
4. How do you know when to step away from a design?
5. How do you get into the "zone" to design games?
6. What advice do you have on handling discouraging playtests?
7. What belief, behavior, or habit has most improved your game design skills?
8. What tips do you have for pitching a design to publishers?
9. What advice should brand new designers follow or ignore?
10. What do you do when you feel overwhelmed or unfocused?
11. What do you wish you knew before you started designing?
12. What is one of your core philosophies, and how does it affect your designs?
If hearing successful board game designers answer those questions sounds interesting to you, then you are definitely the target audience of the book. But how does it all come together?
Let's start with what there is to like. The biggest strength of the book is the strong cast of contributors. Gabe manages, specifically in the 2nd edition of the book, to push the total over 120 designers, with many of the biggest names in modern board game design represented. While the community and content creation around modern board gaming has grown over the past couple of decades, access to advice from popular board game designers is still fairly limited, and especially this range of designers in one place.
If you are someone who has immersed yourself in modern board gaming and know a lot of modern games and designers, then you will enjoy the book even more as it is fun to recognize the designers that you are hearing from. While I think there is a ton of information here that would be great for a designer that has no awareness of the landscape of modern board gaming, I think it will be enjoyed even more by those who recognize most of the games and designers that are mentioned.
As you might expect, asking those 12 questions to 120 experienced designers is going to result in a huge pile of useful advice, and that is definitely the case with all of the valuable game design nuggets contained within the book. But it also transitions into what is the book's biggest weakness.
Asking 120 experienced designers the same 12 questions also leads to a lot of duplicated advice. None of the designers had any awareness of the answers provided by other designers, and a lot of the questions naturally lend themselves towards providing common "industry-standard" advice. And as the book presents the designers' answers "as is" without any additional editing, it shouldn't be surprising that a lot of it ends up feeling repetitive.
Asking 120 experienced designers the same 12 questions also leads to a lot of duplicated advice. None of the designers had any awareness of the answers provided by other designers, and a lot of the questions naturally lend themselves towards providing common "industry-standard" advice. And as the book presents the designers' answers "as is" without any additional editing, it shouldn't be surprising that a lot of it ends up feeling repetitive.
Which brings us to the question: is it a book that you should check out? It really boils down to understanding the tradeoff that Gabe accepted when putting the book together: it is going to come with a lot of repetitive content, and a lack of depth from the individual interviews, but as a result, you get to hear from way more designers than you would otherwise. I am not aware of anywhere else you can get advice from so many different successful game designers in one place.
When I read books, I typically sit down and read for 30 minutes to an hour at a time. That is how I read Board Game Design Advice, and I'm not sure it is the approach I would recommend. Treating it like a book you are going to read straight through is just going to make the repetition more painfully obvious, and make it really difficult to internalize and learn from the advice that is presented.
I could see it being much more effective to read an entry or two a day, and try to jot down a couple of takeaways that you can return to. Even if you come out of the book with just a few key highlights that you can apply to your own design process, that is a valuable outcome of reading the book.
May 9, 2019
This book is the literary equivalent of a listicle. It's a list of various designers and their responses to some quick questions often with identical responses. The advice seems good, but it also becomes very repetitive. My audio version actually repeated a chapter and I didn't notice until it repeated it again, each chapter was so similar to each other. Still a decent read but I wouldn't pay for it.
August 25, 2024
Way too repetitive. Could have used a better editor. Maybe only one answer from each designer to avoid so much repetition.
November 15, 2018
Gabe Barrett has assembled a fine collection of game designers and puts them through the same series of questions that yield some interesting responses.
The 252 page book features a Table of Contents that lists the interview subjects. In addition to this there is an excellent section in the back of the book that lists the questions asked throughout the book and lists each of the respondents per question, as some designers didn’t answer all of the questions.
The premise of the book is based on 12 questions that aspiring designers will find of interest. An example of some of the questions include: “What game, or games, that you recommend most to fledging designers, and why?” Thirty-five designers answered this question and you are treated to the thought processes of these individuals and gain some inspirational insight as to what games you might want to try. The other questions cover a broad range of subjects, though they all provide insight into the thoughts of the designers.
Many of the top designers in the industry are represented, such as: Bruno Faidutti and Bruno Cathala. The list of participants also contains many of the “newer” designers and they provide an interesting bridge between the long time pros and the inspiring designers who will find this book fascinating.
Each designer chapter features the same format. At the top of the page is the designers name and a greyscale image of a subject matter related to the designer, example: Gil Hova has a TV image, that represents his design of “The Networks”. Also included is a short list of games that the designer is best know for. In some instances there is a mention of the person being a “Founder of…” with an associated corporate logo. Example: JT Smith is listed as the “Founder of The Game Crafter”.
Scattered throughout the book are some pages that are devoted to just quotes from many of the participants. This includes quotes from the likes of Eric Lang, who is not one of the designers interviewed in the book.
The vast majority of the book is devoted to the interviews themselves, but there are several sections in the back of the book that deserve attention.
The first is a list of games that were recommended throughout the book. This is a nice touch, as it presents all of the games conveniently listed in alphabetical order, instead of having to search throughout the book.
Another list is that of the top 10 episodes of “The Board Game Design Lab” podcast. The episodes listed cover a wide range of topics and feature many prominent personalities within the industry.
And of course there is the excellent resource that was previously mentioned, that of the questions themselves being listed and the which designers answered them. This provides a convenient way to zero in on one question and then flip around the book to read the responses. All of the answers have the designer, as well as the page number.
This is an excellent collection of thoughts by a large pool of designers and will provide much inspiration and insight for those interested in game design. The book should also appeal to fans who are interested in seeing what their favorite designers have to say. This is a welcome addition to the growing list of books available on game design, and is a book that I am happy to add to my collection of design related books.
The 252 page book features a Table of Contents that lists the interview subjects. In addition to this there is an excellent section in the back of the book that lists the questions asked throughout the book and lists each of the respondents per question, as some designers didn’t answer all of the questions.
The premise of the book is based on 12 questions that aspiring designers will find of interest. An example of some of the questions include: “What game, or games, that you recommend most to fledging designers, and why?” Thirty-five designers answered this question and you are treated to the thought processes of these individuals and gain some inspirational insight as to what games you might want to try. The other questions cover a broad range of subjects, though they all provide insight into the thoughts of the designers.
Many of the top designers in the industry are represented, such as: Bruno Faidutti and Bruno Cathala. The list of participants also contains many of the “newer” designers and they provide an interesting bridge between the long time pros and the inspiring designers who will find this book fascinating.
Each designer chapter features the same format. At the top of the page is the designers name and a greyscale image of a subject matter related to the designer, example: Gil Hova has a TV image, that represents his design of “The Networks”. Also included is a short list of games that the designer is best know for. In some instances there is a mention of the person being a “Founder of…” with an associated corporate logo. Example: JT Smith is listed as the “Founder of The Game Crafter”.
Scattered throughout the book are some pages that are devoted to just quotes from many of the participants. This includes quotes from the likes of Eric Lang, who is not one of the designers interviewed in the book.
The vast majority of the book is devoted to the interviews themselves, but there are several sections in the back of the book that deserve attention.
The first is a list of games that were recommended throughout the book. This is a nice touch, as it presents all of the games conveniently listed in alphabetical order, instead of having to search throughout the book.
Another list is that of the top 10 episodes of “The Board Game Design Lab” podcast. The episodes listed cover a wide range of topics and feature many prominent personalities within the industry.
And of course there is the excellent resource that was previously mentioned, that of the questions themselves being listed and the which designers answered them. This provides a convenient way to zero in on one question and then flip around the book to read the responses. All of the answers have the designer, as well as the page number.
This is an excellent collection of thoughts by a large pool of designers and will provide much inspiration and insight for those interested in game design. The book should also appeal to fans who are interested in seeing what their favorite designers have to say. This is a welcome addition to the growing list of books available on game design, and is a book that I am happy to add to my collection of design related books.
July 21, 2019
Barrett managed to create a true treasure throve of ideas for game designers from game designers (even big names like Garfield or Moon). Anyone, who is interested in getting into designing and especially designing (board) games, I would recommend to read the book. Barrett asked the authors a series of questions connected to game design (e.g., what to do after a bad playtest) and the designers answered these questions as they wished (even did not answer). It is interesting to see the different styles of answers that range from almost one word answers to multipage essays. Yes, many advice repeat themselves, but that is maybe simply the foundation of good design - hard work, lot of playtesting, accept feedback, and be humble.
I had some problems with the book, so it just misses the five stars. I found it disturbing that a series of very interesting advice (3 tips for Kickstarter, etc.) and quotes are sprinkled between the interviews. However, adding an index of questions and authors is an idea and turns the book into a handy reference. I also appreciated the list of recommended games by the designers with the author count. This is more of a technical book so for anyone interested more in the personal history of the designers, I would recommend For the Love of Board Games from Erin Dean.
I had some problems with the book, so it just misses the five stars. I found it disturbing that a series of very interesting advice (3 tips for Kickstarter, etc.) and quotes are sprinkled between the interviews. However, adding an index of questions and authors is an idea and turns the book into a handy reference. I also appreciated the list of recommended games by the designers with the author count. This is more of a technical book so for anyone interested more in the personal history of the designers, I would recommend For the Love of Board Games from Erin Dean.
August 25, 2021
A good idea, smothered in repetition.
Overall this book had quite a good concept: Ask the best Board Game Designers for their advice, tips and tricks to make your way into the industry. Sound good,....
But asking over sixty Designers the same 12 questions and it is likely you will hear a fair number of the same answers. Unfortunately this is exactly what happened. Though the answers themselves were interesting, hearing some of them over, and over again in different wording is not that enjoyable. Or useful for that matter. The second half of the book included a greater variety of presentation by interspersing some top five list of Does and Don't, but by this point most of the damage had been done.
This book is clearly a labor of love, but like the oft given advice in game design "lots and lots of play-testing", this novel could have benefited from more beta-readers.
Recommended only if you really love the subject and don't mind the format.
Overall this book had quite a good concept: Ask the best Board Game Designers for their advice, tips and tricks to make your way into the industry. Sound good,....
But asking over sixty Designers the same 12 questions and it is likely you will hear a fair number of the same answers. Unfortunately this is exactly what happened. Though the answers themselves were interesting, hearing some of them over, and over again in different wording is not that enjoyable. Or useful for that matter. The second half of the book included a greater variety of presentation by interspersing some top five list of Does and Don't, but by this point most of the damage had been done.
This book is clearly a labor of love, but like the oft given advice in game design "lots and lots of play-testing", this novel could have benefited from more beta-readers.
Recommended only if you really love the subject and don't mind the format.
March 7, 2023
A few of the answers to the questions are interesting and worth reading, but all the people the ‘author’ printed answers from deserve at least as much writing credit, if not more. This annoys me. It would be one thing if the credited author synthesized the responses and presented them in a cohesive way, perhaps organized by topic, but he did not. He just reprinted answers from others. He didn’t even so much as edit the responses for errors in game titles or punctuation. I’ve gotten a lot more out of other game design books I’ve read.
July 13, 2020
This book is very simple, 60+ Game designers answer the same set of questions. Some answers are long, some short, many answers are repeated in different ways by each designer. There is no analysis or summary of the content provided by the designers. It is ordered by designer, so answers to each question is spread throughout the book.
I experienced this as a meditation on board game design. And that turned out to be exactly what i needed.
I experienced this as a meditation on board game design. And that turned out to be exactly what i needed.
June 23, 2021
While the unique bits of advice from a designer to designer basis are bit more rare than you would like, there are enough examples of advice that stands out amongst the crowd to be worth giving it a read. It's also helpful in the sense that when you see advice repeated to so often that it's likely worth taking.
September 2, 2021
It's a great read for anyone in the industry or just starting out trying to design. You will find someone in this book with a similar style to your own and be able to learn something new.
September 2, 2021
It should have been a blog. If at all.
November 13, 2019
A very interesting book, where successful board game designers (their games are in the top 100 of BoardGameGeek) reply on 12 questions posed by the author. Granted, some of the answers tend to be repetitive (like the classic "if you're looking for money, this is the wrong sector") so if you're reading for pleasure this might bore you. But if you're an aspiring designer, this can be an eye-opener, especially since the people getting interviewed are considered successful.
August 12, 2019
Obviously a labor of love, but asking the same set of questions leads to so many similar answers that it just isn't that thrilling a read.
January 25, 2025
This was so helpful!
I feel like I have progressed so much as a tabletop game designer!
I feel like I have progressed so much as a tabletop game designer!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews