tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21988030.post8819559606221940914..comments2024-02-19T06:21:58.706+00:00Comments on Board Games - Creation And Play: Games Designer's BlockJackson Popehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12685562784078130612noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21988030.post-29766169069978025012009-08-27T13:08:19.426+01:002009-08-27T13:08:19.426+01:00Hiya all,
In essence, Steve is right: there are o...Hiya all,<br /><br />In essence, Steve is right: there are only two options, but as Seth points out, there are different levels on the No:<br /><br />No: I'm not interested.<br />No: But I'll take another look if you act on this feedback<br />No: It's not ready, but I like the concept and I'm willing to work with you to improve it.<br /><br />As Mal noted, at the moment I get very few Yesses, just It's Alive! and Sumeria so far out of over 150 submissions. And I've got time to spare - I'm not working flat out, so I can afford a few co-design efforts to soak up some of my spare time and hopefully generate more yesses in the end.<br /><br />Cheers,<br /><br />JackJackson Popehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12685562784078130612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21988030.post-73375392696690195452009-08-26T20:03:18.611+01:002009-08-26T20:03:18.611+01:00I'm completely new to this, but as a developer...I'm completely new to this, but as a developer for a new company I found <i>exactly the same thing</i> - only from a slightly different perspective.<br /><br />Tasty Minstrel Games is a publisher, and to an extent it's up to me to decide if a submission is one we should publish. Since I'm the developer and not the actual publisher, the decision between "Publish" and "don't publish" is a little murkier, because the third option "Does this have potential to be awesome, and do I want to try and work on it with the designer to make it awesome?" is more in my job description than it is in Jack's.<br /><br />I need to be especially careful not to get too eager about a game that seems neat, because I wouldn't want to get TMG to commit to publishing something and then not be able to make it work. So far I think I have avoided that, but I nearly trapped myself at least once already.<br /><br />In the end I broke it down into 4 categories, the same three that Jack mentions above, and 1 more: "The game interests us, and here are a bunch of comments that we think might help develop it, but we're not going to publish as-is nor work on it with you. If you change the game significantly and improve it, then we'd be happy to look at it again."<br /><br />Of course there's also always the danger of overcommitting. If I see 4 designs that are "almost awesome" and we commit to publishing them all, and then I have to work on all 4 with the designers, I may find myself spread too thin!<br /><br />So to recap, I feel for you Jackson, and I'm finding the exact same thing! But it's really fun anyway. :)Seth Jaffeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12449603052617321357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21988030.post-57290621043867301872009-08-26T20:01:57.964+01:002009-08-26T20:01:57.964+01:00Depends how many games he can afford/wants to have...Depends how many games he can afford/wants to have in the pipeline at once...<br />It only takes *one* awesome submission to make an awesome game :-)<br /><br />As a habitual buyer of Border Reivers' games, I'm not sure I can afford for Jack to start putting out 6 games a year though ;-)Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14656936840341233593noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21988030.post-6780705431410308032009-08-26T19:32:59.664+01:002009-08-26T19:32:59.664+01:00I'm guessing Jack doesn't yet receive enou...I'm guessing Jack doesn't yet receive enough "It's awesome - publish it" submissions yet to allow him to turn down that many games.<br /><br />Is that fair?Malhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15745303146740798489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21988030.post-12281395573907474702009-08-26T18:22:29.865+01:002009-08-26T18:22:29.865+01:00Hmmm... sounds to me like there are only really tw...Hmmm... sounds to me like there are only really two choices (from a hard-nosed business perspective):<br />* It's awesome - publish it<br />* Don't publish it<br /><br />That second option is an extremely wide range - but the cost of a single failure (I believe) far exceeds the benefit of a single success.<br />Why put lots of time into a game that *might* be great when you can concentrate on publishing games you already know *will* be? Send a few notes and thoughts back to the designer and invite them to re-submit, but don't spend lots of time on it...<br />Think of it like interviewing: a wrong "yes" is MUCH worse than a wrong "no"<br /><br />On the other hand - :-) - if you have the time to spare and you're excited about it, and you can think of it as a fun side-line that doesn't distract from the day job, then go for it!<br /><br />On the OTHER other hand, Carpe Astra was done that way and that's fantastic, so what the hell do I know? :-)Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14656936840341233593noreply@blogger.com