Awesome Boardgame Development

A curated list of board game development resources

Contents

• Communities
• Rules Writing
• Creator Tools
• Design Tips
• Physical Resources
• Visual Resources
• Getting Published
• More Lists

Communities

Places to go to talk about board game design with other designers.

• /r/tabletopgamedesign - a subreddit filled with game designers with irc, slack, and discord available
• Protospiel Facebook Group - a facebook group for goers of Protospiel events
• Board Game Geek - communities for every board game with forums for designers as well
• Board Game Designers Forum - a community a game designers
• Indie Game Alliance - helps designers tweak, playtest, get funds, and produce games

Rules Writing

Information and rules on how to write rules for your board games.

• 11 rules for board game writing - dos and don'ts from a board game rules editor
• 10 rules for writing rules - a PAX dev talk on writing rules
• Tips for Rules Writing - some guidelines on writing rules
• Rulebook Cookbook: Recipe for Success - an annotated list of what you should cover in your rulebook

Creator Tools

Tools that can be used in board game development.

• nanDECK - a downloadable software for card creation with a custom programming language
• deck.zone - a web-based software for card creation with a custom programming language
• NHMK Card Maker - a downloadable software for card creation
• AnyDice - a dice probability calculator

Design Tips

Tips to make your design experience easier.

• press.exe - a large listing of design tips
• board game mechanics - a giant list of board game mechanics

Physical resources

Websites to custom-order parts for your game.

• The Game Crafter - Many pieces, on-demand print of games
• Print & Play Productions - Many pieces, on-demand print of games
• ArtsCow - Card printing
• DriveThroughCards - Card printing
• Shapeways - 3d printing
• Spielmaterial - Various pieces
• OneMonk - SciFi/Fantasy paper miniatures
• Toposolitario - SciFi vehicles/mechs/terrain papercrafts

Visual Resources

Images, icons, and anything you can use in the creation/prototyping of your game.

• The Noun Project - tons of high-quality, scalable images and icons
• Game Icons - tons of game-oriented icons
• Game Icons Font - Game Icons, but as a font (created for use with deck.zone)

Getting Published

The Dos and Don'ts of getting your game published.

• Your First Contract - A guide to publisher contracts, what to look for, what to avoid

More Lists

More lists like this one. Some are in the form of blogs, while others have specific topic listings.

• Cardboard Edison - A blog-like site that covers a sprawlingly large amount of topics.
• Board Game Design Lab - Another list-of-lists site. Has a lot of topics ranging from getting started to getting published.

Contribute

Contributions welcome! Read the contribution guidelines first.

License

To the extent possible under law, Kyle Kemp has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.