You might have noticed that some people only design games and other design games and also make content. There’s a lot of reasons for this, but it can definitely improve your design skills and be a worthwhile use of your time.
Why make content and design board games?
- It’s made me a better designer; writing things down and putting them into a format that will hopefully teach others means that everytime I do this, the topics really stick. It’s the same with mentoring or teaching, if you take the time to teach someone else, you’ll learn the lesson so much more.
- It also helps out from a designer perspective, as I’ve gotten more well known in the industry, which has helped me find more contract work and get more games signed.
- If the content you make is on different games, at the very least, you introduce yourself to a bunch of new mechanics and themes and how they interact, which can certainly give you inspiration when you go back to designing.
- Giving back to the community is a great thing to do! I’ve gotten so much help over the years, so I might as well help out where I can.
How did you decide to create the particular content that you’re making?
- For me, I’ve always wanted to write, so that’s why I have a written version of my content. I also do the game design live chats, which are videos. I did this mostly due to COVID; people were getting used to being stuck inside, so I gave them an avenue to interact with more people in a healthy and safe way. I was taking notes on the interviews for my own benefit, but realized I could make the notes into more of an article format, so you can benefit from the chats in the way you want to; either with the video, audio, or written. This hopefully helps me reach a wider audience and makes the content very accessible.
- You should try to do something that comes to you easy or is something that you want to learn. If you’re passionate about the topic of your content, that will also make it easier to continue.
Should you have a goal when making content? What are some possible goals?
Definitely! This can be a personal or overall goal, as having a goal means you’re more likely to stay motivated and keep up with the blog. You can have a goal that’s about what you’re trying to do with the content, how often you want to post, or how much you want to improve or learn.
One things I really wanted to do with this blog at the beginning is teach people about how to make their games accessible. This is why my first few entries focus on things like making games color blind friendly and also visually accessible.
Here’s some of the other goals I have:
- Write a blog every week for a year.
- Get more comfortable with streaming online.
- Help highlight great creators in the industry, especially minorities.
- Have a backlog of at least a month of posts, just in case anything happens.
- Eventually, I’d love to write enough to be able to put all the content together to be a book.
Tips on balancing creating content and working on design
- It’s usually better to try to learn and get better at either content creation or design so you’re not learning everything all at once. When you get to a point where you’re not learning everything (as you’re always going to be learning something when you are designing), you can try to start on the other.
- Choose a type of content creation that uses a different part of your brain than design, so that if you’re not in the mood for design, you can work on content creation.
- Timebox yourself when you work; you have to write on the blog for the next 45 minutes, then you can take a break. Giving yourself 45-60 minutes is a time when you can get a good amount done, but it’s not so long that you’ll get distracted.
- You can have days where you focus on either design or content creation.
- Try to do something that comes easy to you, whatever it is. I like to do content that reinforces my designs and can inspire me. If you get inspired by writing about certain aspects of games, that’s a perfect fit for you.
- Have days where you focus on each one; like, every Monday is writing time. If you block time off for something and you cant’ do anything else, it makes it so much easier to do the thing you want to.
- It also helps that you can do one when you’re not in the mood for the other. My brain is sometimes super creative, so I do design then, but if I’m not in the right headspace for design, I might be in a great mood to write.
- Get a partner or join a group. I joined Punchboard Media and it’s more motivating to do content, as I want to add to the great content that they have. Plus, just having a community or help makes things so much easier. Getting a codesigner has certainly helped my design pace be a lot more consistent as well.
- Do what is easy. If you love doing videos, do them. You don’t need to be great to start, so don’t force yourself to be perfect.
- Think about what kind of content can help you make great games.
Create a Community
Building a community can be great for a variety of reasons. You can really get to know the people that read or watch your content and you can get a lot of motivation by providing the content that they want. You can also make a bunch of great friends along the way.
If you don’t know what content to do next, the community will most certainly have a ton of ideas.
It just feels better when you’re doing something for others and when you know that the things you do matter to others.
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!
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