The Board Game Design Course

I received a great question recently from a follower, Kingsley, and thought I would share this question, along with my thoughts on how to market your games. I’m going to paraphrase the question here:

There are many game design-related Facebook groups that I am sure everyone uses, but what are their main purposes (some have rules about not being able to post certain things, etc)?

There are over a dozen different Facebook game design groups out there, so rather than discuss all of them, I’ll focus on a few of the best and how to use them most effectively.

Ok, here we go…

The Board Game Design Lab Community – This is a great, welcoming place for new and experienced game designers alike. Founded by Gabe Barrett, who also produces the excellent Board Game Design Lab podcast, this is a community where you can ask questions about anything related to game design and get answers from many individuals. This is a good group in which to post questions, help others, and participate in game design challenges. This is my favorite group of the bunch. (The Card & Board Game Designers Guild also provides a similar forum)

There are a number of groups focused on Kickstarter. Some of the bigger and better ones are Kickstarter Collaborator’s Club, Kickstarter Best Practices, and Tabletop Backer Party. The first two aren’t exclusively for board games, although they are definitely a large part of this. These are good groups to ask questions and improve your campaign’s chances before you launch.

Just don’t go throwing links up and strictly promoting your game! A much more effective approach is to post questions, help others, and look for advice from those more experienced than you. There is an opportunity to have others critique your Kickstarter page or other aspects of your campaign. Just be ready to take feedback!

The latter group is all about board games, but it is more focused on bringing attention to interesting campaigns (both collaborators and fans take part).

Board Game Exposure is another great place to go for advice from Kickstarter veterans.

If you’re looking for a chance to meet with publishers, the Designer/Publisher Speed Dating group might be just what you’re looking for. You can post sell sheets to get feedback and find out about upcoming speed dating events.

I hope this helps to clear up what good Facebook groups are out there and how to best make use of them.

What groups are you most interested in? Did you know that they existed?

Leave a comment and let me know!