League of Gamemakers

VIRTUALLY ATTEND AN INDUSTRY CON – TABLETOP NETWORK 2018

Peter Vaughan — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 11:02:56 +0000

For those of you who want to get more game design industry shop talk in, but can’t get away to panels here and there, this is your chance to attend a cool board game conference from your own home or office. That’s right – con virtually!

VIRTUAL PASSES STILL AVAILABLE!

As for the physical part of the show, the first annual Tabletop Network is a 2-day event in Snowbird, Utah, occurring this upcoming weekend, June 8-9, 2018. Coming off a successful Kickstarter campaign to gain funding, the show aims to be an annual tradition – bringing some of the best minds in game design and development to discuss emerging trends and best practices and hone in on the craft. Tabletop Network is a collaboration between Jeff Beck, Tim Fowers, and Geoff Engelstein, and the 2018 slate features a great collection of speakers, including James Ernest, Rob Daviau, Tom Lehmann, Raph Koster and dozens more. This conference reminds us of the great value that the Game Development Conference (GDC) offers, but for a fraction of the price, and a fresh take with a focus on Tabletop.

The League of Gamemakers is a partner for this conference, and I am happy to say that I’m attending and speaking as well, representing many of my colleagues at this site in my talk about Building Community Around Game Testing.

Once again, there’s still time to attend and grab one of the final virtual passes –
watch it live!

I love the way this hobby is growing and evolving and conferences like these are super exciting. I’ll be sure to report on what I find there, but in the meantime, I hope you’ll join us.

Cheers,
Peter

The post VIRTUALLY ATTEND AN INDUSTRY CON – TABLETOP NETWORK 2018 appeared first on League of Gamemakers.

HAPPY NEW YEAR – LEAGUE OF GAMEMAKERS 2018!

Peter Vaughan — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 11:01:47 +0000

Hi all,

Thank you so much for reading/watching! We started the League of Gamemakers in 2014, and we’ve now celebrated 4 years of topics in design, development, publishing, gaming, mechanics, playtesting, prototyping, Kickstarter, reviews, interviews and much more!

A LOOK AT 2017

As you know, 2017 was a different year for the League. After hundreds of posts, we departed from our regiment of 3 posts a week, and adopted a looser strategy, to balance life changes among us. Eduardo Baraf largely carried the torch for us with video content, while others of the League contributed when possible. Some of us found that our lessons learned turned into full time game work, and others of us changed industries or felt we had said what we needed to say in blogging. I myself meant to write a lot more (and still hope to!), but I found that developing a slate of games, fostering a protospiel/unpub group in Los Angeles, helping grow Breaking Games and bringing another Kickstarter to life was all I could handle.

I think a large part of why Ed was able to find the time is due to the medium he is using. Not to diminish the work involved, but in some ways, turning on a camera is different and there’s a reason it’s dominating content creation these days. It’s less editable (at least in the streaming format), and as such, it is more organic and real. We found that we couldn’t ask for all the hooks and connections to past posts on one hand, but on the other, we got a year full of valuable content from Ed. I want to thank Eduardo sincerely for all the great posts, and also to all the leaguers who took the time to post in 2017. (Teale, Christian, Scott, Brad and several guests).

SO, NOT A BLOG?

The biggest takeaway I think I have this year is that this is no longer a blog, per se. The League of Gamemakers is something else entirely. A community. The spirit involved, the cooperation of several indie gamemakers seeking to work together and bring together shared experiences in the industry – that’s still here. At the same time the blog was made, we also made a private Facebook group. That backstage group was amazing. We also posted publicly – every blog post in designer and publisher forums (thanks to Luke for continuing to do this all 2017). Both of these places, off the blog walls were more of the “league” spirit. In private chat, we got the team dynamic, and in both private and public forums, we got deeper dives into topics, lively discussions and found that forcing people to come over to this website wasn’t working for us, the readers and viewers. Ed, who posts many of his videos on youtube, has mentioned to me that as of 2018, he plans to keep going on great league topics, but will keep his content all over in that spot and not hosted at the league site per se. I understand this decision, and while I want the “blog” to be here for all the legacy content, we have to look at what shape the league concept will take on next.

LEAGUE 2.0

So the league is more than just the composition of written posts, or video links. What we made is something special, but what is it, and how do we carry it on in a new way? Well, a few ideas about that:

1) THE LEAGUE OF GAMEMAKERS IS ALL OF US.

All gamemakers are welcome to be part of the discussion. Yes, you! Please join us! We’ll still have our need for ‘admin’ agents, which will have moderator level access to blog, forums, etc, but dropping our restriction to “post x times per month” or even blog at all, we hope we can invite other gamemakers – experts in their own fields – to be part of the League of Gamemakers at large. We’ll keep a not-so-secret handshake and cool badges at cons (wink!)

2) LEAGUE OF GAMEMAKERS AGENTS WILL CONTRIBUTE IN THEIR OWN WAYS.

Every contributor has a unique perspective and skill set. It may be that someone is a pro at social media and wants to take this role on for us, or Ed or others want to host videos – reviews, industry interviews or other content. It may be that someone wants to make killer protospiel or unpub kits, or run design contests, or be an active, daily part of our facebook forums. Whatever the passions of our individuals, these are the ways in which we will engage the design community and we will be open to new ways of allowing our agents to be who they want to be.

3) THE LEAGUE WILL CONTINUE

The best games are yet to be made, and the best version of the League of Gamemakers is still to be had. Will you join us in 2018?

The post HAPPY NEW YEAR – LEAGUE OF GAMEMAKERS 2018! appeared first on League of Gamemakers.

Q&A: VINCENT DUTRAIT – ONE CANVAS AT A TIME

Eduardo Baraf — Wed, 27 Dec 2017 08:13:39 +0000

Vincent Dutrait is one of the industries premier board game artists. He joins me to talk about how he got into Board Games, the industry, and advice for illustrators making the leap to also do graphic design in games.

Q&A: VINCENT DUTRAIT

The post Q&A: VINCENT DUTRAIT – ONE CANVAS AT A TIME appeared first on League of Gamemakers.

BOARD GAMING 2017: GAME & INDUSTRY TRENDS

Eduardo Baraf — Fri, 22 Dec 2017 08:11:02 +0000

End of the year video with my perspective on gaming and industry trends.

BOARD GAMING 2017

The post BOARD GAMING 2017: GAME & INDUSTRY TRENDS appeared first on League of Gamemakers.

Q&A: JORDAN HAWKER: BOARD GAMING AND TWITCH

Eduardo Baraf — Wed, 20 Dec 2017 08:08:31 +0000

Jordan Hawker is a Sr. Engineer at Twitch and one of the hosts of The Tilted Table streaming channel on the platform. We talk about Twitch, Board Gaming content, how to create content on Twitch, and even ways to promote it once it is up.

https://www.twitch.tv/boardgames

Q&A: JORDAN HAWKER

The post Q&A: JORDAN HAWKER: BOARD GAMING AND TWITCH appeared first on League of Gamemakers.

Q&A: MARTYN POOLE – BOARD GAME EXPOSURE

Eduardo Baraf — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 08:05:35 +0000

Martyn Poole started Board Game Exposure to convince US publishers to send games overseas for review. In short order he has grown into a substantial service with expanding offerings. He’s even designed a upcoming game for 2018. We talk BGE, Games, and his new effort Board Game PR.

Q&A: MARTYN POOLE

The post Q&A: MARTYN POOLE – BOARD GAME EXPOSURE appeared first on League of Gamemakers.

Q&A: HELAINA CAPPEL – SEE A NEED, FILL A NEED

Eduardo Baraf — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 08:02:53 +0000

Helaina Cappel started Kids Table Board Gaming because she saw a clear need for kid AND family friendly games in the market. She started with her husband, Joshua Cappel, and created Food Fighters. 3 successful games later, she is now branching out the brand create Burnt Island Games. BIG’s first game is Endeavor, a relaunch / rework of an older zman title. Needless to say, she has learned a lot along the way and shares her thoughts on brands and games.

Q&A: HELAINA CAPPEL

The post Q&A: HELAINA CAPPEL – SEE A NEED, FILL A NEED appeared first on League of Gamemakers.

Q&A: JOSHUA CAPPEL – EVEN ART VETS CAN BE INDIE

Eduardo Baraf — Mon, 04 Dec 2017 07:59:02 +0000

Joshua Cappel has been creating art for board games for over a decade. We talk about how he got into the industry, tips and tricks for working with game designers, and the process he is going through to reboot Endeavor with Burnt Island Games.

Q&A: JOSHUA CAPPEL

The post Q&A: JOSHUA CAPPEL – EVEN ART VETS CAN BE INDIE appeared first on League of Gamemakers.

Q&A: BRYAN MERLONGHI – LIFE AS A MARKETING MANAGER

Eduardo Baraf — Wed, 29 Nov 2017 07:56:18 +0000

Bryan Merlonghi designed Cutthroat Kingdoms and then used is social network and marketing experience to catapult into roles as a Marketing Manager for IDW and AEG. We talk about his journey, finding influencers, and tools of the trade.

Q&A: BRYAN MERLONGHI

The post Q&A: BRYAN MERLONGHI – LIFE AS A MARKETING MANAGER appeared first on League of Gamemakers.

Q&A: JOHN WROT – CHASING THE ELDER DICE GODS

Eduardo Baraf — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 07:52:45 +0000

John Wrot is founder/owner of Gate Keeper Games. He started, as many do, by launching a Kickstarter to make a board game, but soon found himeself deeper and deeper in the dark world of Dice Crafting. Before he knew it, he was chasing the Elder Dice Gods. We talk Kickstarter, Campaigns, and a rough experience at Essen.

Q&A: JOHN WROT

The post Q&A: JOHN WROT – CHASING THE ELDER DICE GODS appeared first on League of Gamemakers.