Design Games – Details, episodes & analysis

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.

Thank you for joining us on this journey, for reals. It means a lot to us.

But we're not done! New miniseries under the Design Games banner are on the way. So weigh in on the show, share your own work, and let us know what you'd like to hear next by visiting our G+ Community. Our next miniseries is based on a question we get rather a lot: a request to do a deeper dive into a few particular games. Which games do you want us to look at?

Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Our supporters get access to special patron-only episodes (with one more coming this week!). Every dollar helps.

Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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?

Nathan is sharing a living document about all this, too: "Notes on Independent Publishing." Get in there and share your questions on this topic, if you like.

We're also seeking some final questions and topics to explore as we wind down the show's run. Got questions? Weigh in on the show, share your own work, and let us know what you want us to talk about next, by visiting our G+ Community, for example. And hurry! We're soon to wrap up this series. (Our next miniseries is based on a question we get rather a lot, so these questions really do make a difference in what we cover.)

Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps.

Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Episode forty?! Ye gads.

Here we explore more notions on the topic of your early playtests, and how to get information out of them, make sense of some of it, and prepare for revisions to your design.

Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps.

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

Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

We’ve reach that time. Let’s talk about playtesting your design—specifically, how to prep and participate in the early playtests of your RPG.

Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps.

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

Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

We set out to talk about designing games to be ready for hacking and remixing by the end user, but first a stopover at a discussion of universal systems, too. Let it go, Will.

Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps.

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

Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Let’s talk about how a game moves, functions, and adapts. Let’s talk about affordances.

Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps.

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

Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Some game designs are highly visual. When does that work happen? How early is too early to think about art and a visual arrangement of ideas? We talk it out.

This episode references Nathan’s design-process illustration, by the way.

Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps.

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

Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This time, we tackle a great listener-submitted topic about how to makes risk and challenges feel dramatic and satisfying in your RPG designs — and how to help players think about risk and challenge in play.

Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps.

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

Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Another great listener topic, another episode wrestling with said topic. This time: we talk about designs involving Player vs Player and PvE mechanics and, y'know, some of what that means.

Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps.

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

Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Here we attempt to tackle another great question from the G+ community. This one’s about designing with purpose and how purpose can align with (or away from) content, context, vision, and more.

Design Games is made possible by our supporters at Patreon, where you can back NDP and Will right now. Every dollar helps.

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

Music is “Dances and Dames” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/