Raven is a game designer and is on the Unpub Leadership team.
You can watch the interview below:
When Raven started with game design, she armed herself with notecards, notebooks, and an idea of what she wanted to do. Her first game design was Macaroon Mania and she initially started playtesting with her family.
After she playtested a bit, she wanted to put her game online, as the pandemic had started and she wanted to continue playtesting. She tried Tabletopia first, but switched to Tabletop Simulator after learning that most of the design world used it.
Tabletopia VS Tabletop Simulator
From an accessibility standpoint, it’s easier for playtesters to have the game in Tabletopia. It’s not only cheaper — Tabletopia is free for players — but it’s also a lot easier to simply send someone a web address. For Tabletop Simulator (also known as TTS), the player must buy the program, know how to use Steam, know the room and password, and have a computer that’s good enough to run it. Tabletopia can also be run out of Steam, sure, but it isn’t a requirement.
For the designer, though, Tabletopia requires a few more steps to set up your game. For those already familiar with TTS, you’ll discover that there’s also quite a difference in setting up your game. Raven recommends learning how to use one or the other and sticking to it; there are loads of tips and tricks for each and being great at one will save you time vs having issues using both.
Keeping the Momentum Going
Friends and family can be great motivators and being part of a community can also help a lot. Raven drew additional motivation from earning the diversity sponsorship and getting a mentor with the tabletop mentorship program. The mentorship program was especially helpful, as it sets you up with a mentor to meet with on a regular basis, which works wonders with motivation and focus. It can also be motivating to tell someone else that your game exists, even on social media. Once someone else knows that you’re creating something, you feel like you want to keep going on the project so that you have more to present. Setting up regular meetings with people can also help get you into a pattern of working on your game on a regular basis. Seeing progress over time is also terrific for looking back at when things get more difficult.
On the other hand, if you let yourself take a break, it can be easy to get completely off track. Breaks are important, no doubt, but you don’t want to lose the momentum you’ve built up by taking too long of a break or by taking them too often. You can take a break from designing while also keeping design at the forefront of your mind by talking and interacting with people about game design, either on social media or in person. You can also do small game design exercises to keep up your skills.
Staying Productive
Raven tends to stay productive by making a list every morning with the things that need to get done and she makes sure to carry things over from the previous day(s) if they haven’t been done and they’re still a priority.
She also highly recommends using calendars. Even more, being able to see your work calendar and game design calendar at the same time to ensure nothing overlaps and everything gets done is vital. The simple act of putting things into your calendar can make sure that they happen, even if they’re just activities for you to do at certain times of the day. Not everything has to be meetings and serious business. And don’t forget to schedule yourself time to relax, you don’t want to burn out!
Raven also recommends keeping a notebook for your game design, one you can easily grab when you need to, either to jot down ideas or peruse your previous ideas, especially if you have a day job where you can’t always think about game design.
Raven is also a big fan of using post-its with gentle reminders to herself. Not all of post-its are about game design, either. For instance, one of them says, “How are you using the time you have?” and it helps keep her focused on using her time in the best manner.
Recommendations for New Designers
Don’t feel like you need to put all of your energy into your first design. You can move faster if you only work on one design at a time, but you never know where your other designs will take you. Do what makes sense for you as a designer and make sure to try out different themes and mechanisms. It’s easy to hold onto one game and work on it for months, but you want to be open to where your creative processes take you, whether that’s working on one game or multiple of them or moving between games as motivation strikes you.
Have good expectations for your first game, as well. Your first game doesn’t have to get signed or be self-published. Your first design might not be perfect and that’s okay! Raven is a big perfectionist and wanted to make her first design perfect, but that idea got into her head too much and slowed down progress. Getting the game in front of people a lot earlier would have allowed her to learn quicker instead of waiting for the initial design to reach a certain stage of perfection before getting it to playtesting.
Finding Your Game Design Style
Raven has found that the games that are easiest for her to be passionate about and create are games that have common themes to things she’s passionate about outside the board game world. She’s a big foodie, so any games that involve food are always a lot easier for her to work on. She’s fond of set collection and worker placement, though she also takes the time to explore other mechanisms. She’s also a big fan of light- and medium-weight games and she’s likely to stick to a lot of those sorts of games, but she wants to eventually go beyond those themes, mechanisms, and weights to avoid being pigeon-holed into one sort of game.
Deciding Between Publishing and Design
Raven recommends going to different conventions and talking to a variety of people to help you make the choice between being a publisher or focusing on being a designer. When you’re a designer, you’ll have to pitch your games which takes practice and skill. Once you do your first pitching event, the next one should be easier, until one day you get used to it.
Remember that you don’t have to make the same decision on each game; you can decide to pitch one of your games to publishers and self-publish another. It’s highly dependent on the game, whether it’s a large or small game; or whether it’s one with a big fan base or not.
Learning
Raven tends to go to a lot of panels. Even if she’s been to one on a certain subject, she always learns something new. Everyone has their own perspectives to share! And there are also new people to meet, people who are all interested in the same topic she is.
Raven recommends Twitter: it’s a great place to hang out, get to know people, and become part of the community, even if we’re so far apart.
When you’re getting started on Twitter, give yourself a goal, whether it’s one post a week or once a day. Some days you’ll have a lot to say and some days you won’t, so try to find your balance and stick with it. You’ll want to share the authentic parts of yourself on social media and try not to worry too much about it, as you can waste a lot of time agonizing over what to post.
Becoming a Better Designer
Sometimes Raven gets stuck going down the design rabbit hole, but she’s been learning to stop herself and focus on getting a prototype ready and playtested. I’ve learned to design, get a prototype made, and playtest it myself to know what needs to get done, and I get faster each time I do it.
Raven can also sometimes see herself getting into a pattern of reaching for the same tools all the time. One way she’s found to get out of that habit is to give herself a design challenge or read game design books. The game design books help inspire new ideas and learning game design terminology means you can convey your ideas to other designers faster and better.
Lessons Learned
Prototypes should look like the stage that the game is in, as people definitely have higher expectations for the game if it looks better. If your game hasn’t been playtested yet, but has an epic table presence, you’re likely to get a lot more negative feedback than if it looked like a brand-new design.
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. When Raven first got into game design, she had this preconceived notion about when she would be finished with her game. Trying to stay on that timeline as a new designer when you’re constantly learning is a huge challenge! You want to be conscious of how much time is passing and what is happening, sure, but you also want to give yourself some grace, especially during a pandemic when things are all wonky in the first place. Be nice to yourself! Getting angry at yourself will just distract and demoralize yourself and prevent you from making as much progress as you otherwise would. This is supposed to be fun, remember?
Being flexible and fluid with your schedule makes you more comfortable while also helping to make progress. Just because two people start a design the same day and one has their game on Kickstarter doesn’t mean the other is failing. You shouldn’t feel pressure to have a game signed in a certain amount of time or to stake your worth as a game designer on getting your game signed in the first place. Take your games and game design at whatever pace you can.
You can follow Raven on the following:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/_RavenMckenzie
- Girls Wine and Games Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/girlswineandgames
You are welcome to participate or simply listen in to the Game Design Live Chats 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
