The Board Game Design Lab

Patrick Mcneil, from McMeeple Games, discusses what it’s like to design games with his children.

Patrick has been creating games with his kids for years and has gotten many of the designs to the point…

Ben Rosset, designer of The Search for Planet X, talks about how to design games based on real-life systems and processes.
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Ben has designed games based on aging cheese, brewing beer, finding planets,…

Jess and Steph Nguyen, from Hot Potatoz, talk about how to design take that games.

We talk about finding a good balance of fun, game length, and hurt feelings. And we get into finding the right audie…

Jesse Stacy, from Triceratops Games, discusses how to design drafting games. Jesse has been working on a drafting style game for a while, and we dive into the different types, how to keep a game movi…

Gino Brancazio, from Tinkerbot Games, talks about the three stages of prototyping, and we discuss what you need to know depending on which stage you’re in.

The post [BGDL Community Spotlight] The 3 S…

Andrew Lowen and Sean Bradford, from Next Level Web, talk about how to get the most out of your crowdfunding campaign.

We spend most of the time talking about different aspects of marketing and break…

Rob Dougherty, founder of Wise Wizard Games, talks about how to run a successful publishing company.

We talk about how Rob got started, how to actually make money, how to use Kickstarter effectively,…

Ryan Laukat, designer of Sleeping Gods, talks about designing open world games.

Sleeping Gods is a phenomenal example of how a board game can pull off the open world experience, and we do a deep dive…

Matt Bivens discusses how to teach game design. Matt has been teaching design to high school kids for years, and we get into the usefulness of game design concepts, feedback, and more.

The post Teach…

Jess Metheringham, founder of Dissent Games, talks about designing games that are housed completely on greeting cards. We talk about the value of constraints, holiday themes, and more.

The post Desig…

Kathleen Mercury, designer of Greece Lightning, talks about designing race games.

We talk about meshing a racing theme with mechanisms that actually feel like a race, different ways to win, general d…

Stephen Schwartz and Floyd Lu, designers of Slash and Spells, talk about designing asymmetrical games.

We talk about creating interesting differences, balancing factions, the challenges of playtestin…

Ted Alspach, designer of Maglev Metro and several other route building games, talks about what makes these games special.

We talk about themes that mesh well with the mechanism, end conditions, keepi…

Arthur Franz, founder of Uplink Underground Games, discusses what it looks like to run a publishing company that’s based on print-on-demand manufacturing.

We talk about pros and cons, pricing challen…

Frank Sarro, designer of Pathways, talks about abstract dexterity games. We get into component quality, manufacturing challenges, complexity, and more.

The post [BGDL Community Spotlight] Designing a…

Phil Walker-Harding, designer of Sushi Go, Barenpark, Imhotep, Gizmos, and several other great games, takes us behind the scenes of his personal design process.

We talk about coming up with ideas, ho…

Carla Kopp, from Weird Giraffe Games, discusses how to multiply your time and get more done.

Carla runs multiple companies while also designing games and creating solo modes for other designers’ game…

Carol Mertz and Elan Lee, from Exploding Kittens, discuss how to build a community.

​​We talk about their record-setting Kickstarter campaign, building relationships with customers, guerrilla marketi…

Kevin Carroll and Steve Mark, designers of Tenzi and owners of Carma Games, discuss how they built a game publishing company that’s made several million dollars.

They tell their origin story, share gu…