Design Games

This is it. Our fiftieth episode marks the end of our long conversation about designing tabletop RPGs (and everything else we spilled over into). This episode addresses audience questions, the past, and the future. What do you do when you're done and the thing you've been working on leaves the workshop? Let's talk about it.

You need funding. You might give your game away for free, but you didn't make it for free. Your time and work have value. How does that translate to cost and how does your product help fund itself and the next thing you want to make? Check out the full show notes for a link to Nathan's "Notes on Independent Publishing," too!

Let's talk about some of the software that we—Nathan and Will—use for production purposes like layout and graphic design. More importantly, let's talk about how that impacts our game designs and workflow across the board.

As you're proceeding into production of your game, ask yourself: What can I do myself? When should I ask for help? What would I say to externalize my vision to a hire? What you do yourself, what you expand your skills to accomplish, and when you hire experts — these are parts of the spheres of production. Support us on Patreon and help future episodes of the show come into being!

What form does your RPG take? Is it a book? A deck of cards? A poster or mousepad or business card? Are you sure? Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back Nathan and Will, too. Every dollar helps.

Let's talk about another means of delivering random results and packaging information for players in your tabletop roleplaying and story games: cards.

Look around. Get your bearings. Take a look back at what's working and what you've learned, then move forward with the knowledge. That's what we're doing, this time.

You've got a lot of notes, you've got rules and systems, maybe you've been writing for yourself. How do you start writing all of that out for other people in addition to yourself? Let's talk.

Say a thing. Say it again. A design isn't right the first time, so we revise and restate and iterate. Let's talk about that.

What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, via our Google+ Community.

Our podcast is funded via Nathan’s and Will’s Patreon pages at patreon.com/ndpaoletta and patreon.com/wordwill — and our patrons occasionally get bonus episodes, too!

Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Do you know about the Game Chef design competition? This time we talk about our experiences with Game Chef and what we know of its history and influence on games and designers.

What do you think? Weigh in on the show, your own work, and what you want us to talk about next, via our Google+ Community.

Our podcast is funded via Nathan’s and Will’s Patreon pages at patreon.com/ndpaoletta and patreon.com/wordwill — and our patrons occasionally get bonus episodes, too!

Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/