Working on Multiple Games at Once

Most designers start with one game, then eventually start working on two games at once. Some designers even move on to having 5+ in progress at the same time!

There’s several great reasons why you should work on more than one game at one time.

• You can playtest based on what the players like to play, instead of what you have ready. You can get better feedback if you playtest games that playtesters would typically play, instead of forcing players to play outside their wheelhouse. (While your game should appeal to multiple player types, making people that play mostly gateway games play a heavy game means you’re going to get some weird feedback.)
• If you ever get stuck on a design, you can work on a different one, which can give your brain time to figure out how to fix your other design.
• Sometimes it’s hard to anticipate when you’ll be able to update your prototypes and if you run into a design slump, if you have multiple games ready to playtest, you can attend several meetups before you run out of games to playtest.
• If there’s an opportunity that comes up, like a contest or a publisher looking for a specific game, the more games you have in progress at a time, the more likely you’ll be to have something that’s either a fit or something that can be worked into fitting in the requirements.
• The more games you work on, the less you get attached to each one and the easier it is to be objective about a game. This makes it so much easier to make progress as you’re less likely to get your feelings hurt and more likely to hear the feedback that people are giving to you.

Tips for Working on Multiple Games

• Have an overall document that says the brief status of each of your games. That way, you won’t forget where you are with each one.
• After playtesting, write up thorough notes and update your prototype within 48 hours. This will mean that you won’t lose any valuable playtesting data just in case more time than you anticipate passes between you working on that specific game again.
• Version Control! Sometimes you iterate on a game and a previous version ends up being better. This happens and when you have multiple games it’s sometimes really hard to know what you’ve tried and haven’t tried and being able to easily go back and forth between versions is so helpful. I use Dropbox for this, as it saves each version of every file, but you can also use actual source control with Git or another program. Even just naming your files with the version number of date can help if you don’t want to use any apps.
• Write down everything! All your thoughts and ideas. Especially new game ideas. If I don’t write down game ideas, they keep distracting me and making it so I can’t give it my all on the game I want to finish.
• Always try to improve your prototyping skills! The faster you go from idea to prototype, the faster you can get a game to the table and figure out how good your idea really is. If you can make a decision on the overall quality of an initial prototype before you get really attached to it, you’ll be able to objectively figure out which game ideas aren’t worth working on right now and you can work on the one you should be working on.

Choosing a Focus

When you have lots of ideas, it’s sometimes really hard to choose which idea to focus on and actually finish. It’s way easier to constantly make new prototypes than it is to iterate on the same idea over and over until it becomes great. Here’s some questions you can ask yourself to try to choose which of your ideas is the best one or two to work to finish:

• Which of your games is the closest to done? This could be the smallest game, as there’s less to iterate there or the one with the simplest interactions. If a game only needs a few more playtests, you can get that done so you don’t have so many games in progress.
• Are any of your games a really good fit for a publisher? If you think that you’ll have a good chance to have a game be picked up by a publisher, that one would be a great one to get into a good place so you can find out if the publisher is interested in it. Unless you’re self-publishing, it’s always great to have a game find a home, instead of having a bunch of games as ‘done’ as they can be without getting picked up.
• Is the game based on something that’s popular right now? This one is harder, as you don’t know what games will be popular in the future. For example, if you have an idea for a roll and write, it’s better to get that one out before your other ideas just in case roll and writes become less popular. (I do think roll and writes will be around for a long time, but there will probably be a new hotness at some point.)
• What game are you really inspired to work on? At the end of the day, if a game doesn’t inspire you, you won’t work on it and progress won’t be made. So, work on the game that will push you into getting past the not as fun parts as you’re going to have that with any game at some point.

Transitioning to Different Game Types

As a designer, you probably lean towards making certain types of games. I naturally lean towards making large involved games, but I’ve been really trying to make small games, as well. Here’s some things that I’ve learned:

• Keep trying! The first time I tried to make an 18 card game, it ended up being 200+ cards. But I still made a game and that’s the important part! After a few more tries, with each try slowly getting to closer to the goal, I did make an 18 card game but it definitely didn’t happen the first time I tried.
• Play lots of different games in the genre you’re trying to design. I picked up a number of 18 card games just so I could get a better background and see what other people did.
• Get a codesigner that has designed the type game you’re trying to make. Make sure to be upfront with them and also be good at letting them drive more of the design so you can learn from them.
• Playtest similar games. If you talk with the designer, you can sometimes get in on multiple playtests so you can see how that designer changes the game and improves it. If you can, chat with the designer and see why they made the decisions they’re making and get the background information so you can fix similar problems in your game, if they arise. You can also make note of what you would do, if you disagree with their changes and you should eventually get a good list of things that you would do with that kind of design.
• Look for a contest of the type of game you want to make. Usually contests will have restrictions and trying to create a game within those restrictions can sometimes be just what you need to be inspired into creating something that fits!

---

This post was inspired after participating on the Multiple Games Session of Game Design Live Chats! You are welcome to participate or simply listen in whenever the time fits in your schedule. Click here for our calendar of events.

Did you enjoy this entry? Please let me know I’d love to hear what you think and what kind of things you’d like to see from this blog. Feel free to send me an email or comment with your thoughts!

Don’t forget to sign up for my mailing list, so you don’t miss a post: https://tinyletter.com/carlakopp