Publishing Advice #15: Green and Red Zones

There is quite a lot written about Green and Red zones. Some people will add a Yellow, Blue or Purple zones. There are available long psychological articles and books on the subject. I really, do not want to go there. However, I'd like to write about this from the perspective of a board game designer/publisher using quite a lot simplifications. This article will not be a scientific analysis but more my personal view.  Anyway, awareness on the subject is crucial. It will help to maintain our stamina, to work in a peaceful, joyful and efficient way. Otherwise, we can start hating our hobby, passion and finish with a breakdown.

Publishing Advice #14: How to Write an Excellent Rulebook

Imagine you got a new game. Before you bought it, you read and watched a few reviews. It looks like you going to have a lot of fun! The box is big and heavy! In excitement, you are quickly unwrapping the game and opening it to see high-quality components: thick game board, loads of cards, wooden tokens and miniatures! Wow, if the gameplay is at least half good as your first impression you gonna have a great time with your friends!

Next day your mates came around to play the game for the first time. So you are opening the rulebook, and that's how your great first impression is gone! You can't get through it, and everyone gets annoyed. You can't figure out how to play the game from the manual! So you are trying to interpret the missing bits with your team. You play, and the experience is horrible. Your game drives you mad! Rubbish, you think!

But does that mean the game was so terrible? Maybe it is one of the best games on the market? Because of the poorly written rulebook, you can't say. You can only say the rulebook is rubbish!

Publishing Advice #13: How to Reproduce the CE Marking

I decided to write this entry because I found some publishers doing it wrong. The letters in the Conformité Européenne (CE mark) have to have the right shape, and the distance between them should be kept right. The proportions must be respected. I hope this short blog post will help other fellow designers and publishers to avoid this simple mistake.

Publishing Advice #12: Deceptive Funding Goal Levels in Kickstarter Campaigns

When you are deciding to kickstart your game faster or later, you will have to make a decision about the level of your funding goal. Everyone know that the right funding goal level will attract backers while a wrong one will push them off. Too high funding goal will make people scared that the campaign won't reach that level while too low one will look like the creator won't be able to deliver rewards to backers (risk of fraud). Setting the funding goal should be honest, moral, based on your strategy and personal circumstances.

Publishing Advice #11: The Stages of Creativity in Board Game Design

That is an exciting subject for me! One of my favourite! I think creativity itself is one of the best gifts from God! A must for a board game designer! I would like to be more and more creative. I love when my head is full of ideas, and it is a great feeling when the brain gets hot!

But before I understood the process of creativity I felt a bit lost. Without basic knowledge, I couldn't perform at my best. I couldn't stimulate my brain to operate in its best performance and to use all capabilities of my personal computer!

The right understanding helped me to be more efficient. Read below to see how I understand the process of creativity.