Are you an indie board game designer looking to make your prototyping process smoother, faster, and more effective? You’re in the right place! We’ve gathered the best tips from experienced designers in the indie board game community to help you elevate your prototyping game.
Let’s organise these tips into three broader themes:
- Material Hacks,
- Software & Digital Solutions, and
- Tool Efficiency & Workflows.
Material Hacks
Enhancing your prototypes with the right materials can make a significant difference in appearance and durability. Here are the best hacks from fellow designers:
1. Stickers for Quick Fixes
@max.kosek.games recommends using stickers for quick changes. If you have high-quality, stiff cards with rounded corners, you can use sticker paper to cover the parts you want to change. This method is efficient and cost-effective in many cases.
2. Elevate Player Boards with Craft Foam
@sneaky_rascal_games found that craft foam and spray adhesive can significantly improve the look and feel of your player boards or main boards. @gnatsoriginals added that using grey board alongside spray adhesive can produce a very realistic finish.
3. Laminators for Durable Prototypes
@aw.designs.process suggests using a laminator to create higher-quality prototypes with a laminated inner core. For those interested, they even offer to share a helpful YouTube video tutorial.
4. Adhesive-Backed Paper
@tangledyarnsgames uses Evergreen Goods Matte White Self-Adhesive Paper for sticking components onto cardboard, which is much better than traditional gluing methods.
5. Recycling Tips
@samphiregames provides a minor but meaningful tip: when cutting out cards, try to cut the edges off in one piece so they can be more easily recycled. Every little bit helps!
Software & Digital Solutions
Utilising software can significantly streamline your design and testing process. Here are the digital tools and techniques the community swears by:
1. Mastering nanDECK
@playmonkeygames highlights the importance of learning to use nanDECK, a free software for producing game components like cards, tiles, and tokens. It’s a powerful tool that can streamline your prototyping process significantly.
2. Efficient Prototyping with Dextrous and Google Sheets
@windfall.games made a significant shift from using Photoshop to Dextrous in combination with Google Sheets. This free program makes it easy to update and export card designs quickly, whether for print or Tabletop Simulator playtests.
3. Tabletop Simulator for Digital Playtesting
@fritz.paull moved most of their playtesting to Tabletop Simulator, which saves a ton of time by allowing swift asset swaps. However, they remind us that in-real-life playtesting remains important. @beaverlicious_games also champions the use of Tabletop Simulator for quick and efficient digital playtesting.
4. DATAMERGE Technique
@carlcrusoe emphasises the importance of mastering the DATAMERGE technique, which can be an invaluable tool for any designer dealing with numerous cards and components.
Tool Efficiency & Workflows
Streamlining your workflow with the right tools can save time and improve your prototype’s quality:
1. Round Those Corners
@theboardgamewizard uses a corner punch with four different radius curves to make cards look more professional. Rounded corners also help square tokens last longer by removing sharp edges.
2. Quality Prints for Public Playtesting
@huffnomore emphasises the importance of quality prints during conventions. Good prints from a local shop and understanding colour management between digital and print (CMYK) can make a prototype look polished without going all out on a preview copy.
3. Paper Trimmers and Cutters
@markusbrandefelt and @csquared_games both recommend a good paper trimmer, like a Fiskars SureCut, for efficiently cutting cards. @aw.designs.process also suggests getting a quality guillotine with a classic slicing blade.
4. Standard Packs and Stickers
@castle_beef tried using standard packs of cards with stickers on the face side to get card numbers right before printing a final version. This basic but effective method can save both time and resources.
5. Organise Your Stolen Game Pieces
@spacesluggames offers a quirky yet essential tip: if you’re using pieces from other games, put a sticky note on those games to remind yourself. This way, you won’t discover missing bits when you take the game to a friend’s house. (Not speaking from experience, of course!)
6. Learning the Hard Way
@diceratopsgames recommends first trying the difficult and laborious methods for designing cards. This helps you understand the process better and gives you a fallback when shortcuts fail.
All the tips and tricks above were crowdsourced from my wonderful instagram community. You can find and join the original post here. Also, make sure to subscribe to the blog below!
