r/tabletopgamedesign

Hi everyone!
My husband and I are indie board game creators, and we’ve been working on our first game, Kotam: Conquest.
One thing we’ve noticed is that explaining the game in person at conventions has been much easier than presenting it online. When people stop by our booth, ask questions, and play a few turns, they usually understand the game quickly. But we’re not sure if our website does the same job.
We’re not looking for reviews of the game or trying to promote it. We’d really appreciate honest feedback on how well our website communicates the game.
Website:
https://signup.kotamconquest.com/reserve#gameplay

If you have a few minutes, we’d love to know:
● Did you understand what the game is about?
● Is the gameplay easy to understand?
● Was there anything confusing or missing?
● At what point, if any, did you lose interest?
● What would make you want to learn more or back the project?
● If you only spent one minute on the website, what would your impression be?

Please don’t worry about being too critical—we’re specifically looking for honest feedback so we can improve before our crowdfunding campaign.
Thank you so much for taking the time to help a small indie team. Every suggestion helps us make the website better.

I'm designing a civilization-building game where players place Building Tiles into slots on a personal 'City Board' over the course of the game. Alongside regular Buildings, there are Wonder tiles, based on the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and the Seven Wonders of the Medieval World, meant to feel rarer and more significant than a standard building once someone manages to construct one.

Right now they're physically the same format as every other tile. I'm using background and borders to make them feel special. I'm trying to figure out how to make them feel like a genuine "big moment" component, without needing a huge budget behind it.

A couple of directions I'm weighing:

1. Cheap tricks with material, finish, shape, or printing that make a flat tile read as special
2. Whether a 3D element (raised tiles, mini-monuments, etc.) is worth exploring, and if anyone's found affordable ways to pull that off in production.

Curious how others have approached this "make the rare thing feel rare" problem in their own designs. Would love to hear what's worked (or what looked good on paper but flopped in practice).

Thank you for reading so far. Love to learn from the community.

I've reached the point where my prototype has grown to a few hundred cards, and I'm realizing that keeping everything organized is becoming almost as much work as designing the game itself.

Right now I'm constantly making small balance changes, updating wording, tweaking icons, and moving cards between decks. It works, but it's starting to feel messy.

I'm curious how other designers handle this stage.

Do you stick with paper and spreadsheets for as long as possible? Do you move to dedicated software? How do you keep card layouts, components, and versions organized without creating extra work for yourself?

I'd love to hear what your workflow looks like once a project starts getting bigger.

I’m working on the website for my board game and I’m currently struggling with one specific question:

If you land on the page knowing absolutely nothing about the game, do you quickly understand what it is and what makes it different?

I’m probably way too close to the project at this point, so I don’t trust my own judgement anymore 😅

I don’t want to explain the game here before you see it, because that would defeat the whole purpose of the test.

https://www.vestigesoftheancients.com/

I’d mainly love feedback on these three things:

1. What do you think the game is after the first 10–15 seconds?
2. What caught your attention first?
3. Was there anything visually confusing or that made you lose interest?

It looks much better on desktop than on mobile at the moment.

Thanks!

Is it bad juju to create a game based off of another game that inspired me? I saw the game “Necromolds” and it gave me a great idea for a game. It uses a similar concept where you make the game pieces from a playdough mold but that is mostly where the similarities end.

My game focuses on golems and army building. Enemy destruction is handled completely different as well as there are skill cards that change the way the game is played constantly.

Think this is acceptable before moving on? I’ve already designed the “hero” cards and working on the molds now (which will simply be 3d printed).

Hello po! Looking for advice.

I recently received an invitation to showcase and playtest my prototype at a local board game expo. I'm really excited because it's my first invitation to something like this. Usually it's me who approaches people and the event.

The challenge is that the event found me in a difficult spot. Travel and food costs are my current hurdles. But I was told that they'll give me a table for the sessions, and the game is very playable but still not perfectly balanced.

For those of you who've been in a similar situation, how did you handle it? Did you self-fund, find sponsors, carpool with other creators, or do some form of crowdfunding? I'd love to hear your experiences and any advice.

I really love my game, and opportunities like these rarely drop by. I would really appreciate any opinions. Thank you!

I’m working on a second design and trying to see whether the core hook survives a short pitch. I’d especially value first impressions: what game do you picture from this, and where do you lose interest or get confused?

Tip-Off is a 3–5 player, 45–60 minute interactive euro-hybrid where rival supervillains compete to become the city’s most infamous mastermind by pulling off daring Heists and tipping off obnoxious superheroes like Captain Overkill or Lady Karma about their rivals.

Compete in simultaneous, poker-like Heists, playing Schemes openly for tactical effects or face-down to bluff and add raw power. Winning brings Infamy, but every Heist also raises a shared Heat track toward the next superhero Raid.

Each villain builds personal Exposure across the city. When Heat triggers a Raid, the superhero strikes the district with the highest combined Exposure. Secretly predict where the next Raid will strike, then manipulate Exposure, positioning, and Heat to make your Tip-Off come true.

The perfect crime isn’t just pulling off your own Heist. It’s making sure the superheroes crash someone else’s.

My main question: does the Heat + Exposure + secret Tip-Off loop feel like a distinctive hook, or does the pitch make the game sound more complicated than intriguing?

Hello world!

Last week, I came up with an idea to express something.. and I felt like a boardgame would be the perfect medium to express the ideas.. I thought of the basic mechanics and the challenges of the game, the competitive elements and discussed the idea with some boardgame lovers who love the idea.. I'd really like to see this through and publish this boardgame.. I have come up with some game mechanics, played a few rounds by myself with a very ugly prototype of handwritten cards, and invited 5 nerdy friends at the end of the month for my first playtest so I have a deadline..

But the problem is, I'm an absolute beginner.. I have played very few boardgames.. catan, wingspan, Dominion, Shasn, canvas, DnD, Scotland Yard, a little Magic, flame craft.. I'm looking for directions.. how do I learn about game level design? How do I get the mechanics right? What kind of feedback should I be looking for during playtesting sessions? How many iterations of playtesting will I need? How do I go about all this?

I don't know what I'm doing and I need a little guidance..

I'd be very grateful if someone could walk me through the process broadly and help me figure this out..