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With so many people out there coming up with exciting ideas for crowdfunding projects, whatever they are, they all have one thing in common: they long for success. 

Note: our advice may not be 100% compatible with your project, just know that we’re going to talk about how we successfully launched a board game

If you want to develop your own game and publish it yourself, this is a great article for you. If you have a design and want to sign a deal with a publisher, keep reading too because you might find you’re up for a challenge and decide to do it yourself.  =D

Part 1 – “I have a great idea!” 

So, you have a new idea for a product and want to do everything you can to make it real. Perfect! Just be ready to deconstruct that idea and mold it into something totally different and hopefully better. 

The first thing you need to do is put it on paper and make a playable protype that you can try and find out if it’s worth pursuing. (Subscribe for notification on our upcoming How to Prototype Blog/Video Series) 

At the time this article is being written, we’ve only created one game, Gravity Warfare, which was fully funded in Kickstarter and is currently in production.  

However, I would be lying if Gravity Warfare did not go through the ringer, with endless changes, modifications and touch ups here and there. All in the name of perfection. 

You must be flexible when it comes to modifying to improve your idea, or “baby” – because it probably is your baby – and molding it into something that people will like and enjoy playing, not just you. But no matter how perfect something can become you have to remember: it could always be improved, and there will always be people who won’t like it. Don’t get hung up on that. 

We get the information to improve our games by playtesting and showing it to people to test for acceptance and playability, getting feedback, using the suggestions that make the most sense, implement the changes, rinse and repeat.  

Local Playtesting Events 

Most people are happy and willing to playtest a work in progress, but some could use an incentive, and if you want to have more people participating to get more feedback in a single event, we recommend you incentivize it. You can offer anything you want, but what we found most effective was gift cards for the game shop or store that is hosting your event – a good way to pay it forward, by the way. 

When planning for these kinds of events, you must ask yourself: “What do I want to accomplish?” Feedback! We want to know if the game is fun, if it works properly, and what people’s opinions are (not family or friends). The best way to get feedback on your game is to develop a questionnaire, no more than 10 questions and they can be as general or as specific as you want, depending on what stage in the process you are and what you want to accomplish.  

If you are just starting out, you want your questions to be more general: Did you like the game? Was it fun for you? What did you like? Was there something you didn’t like? etc. However, if your design is more advanced, you can ask more specific questions about the game: Did you like this mechanic? Do you like the theme? What do you think of this card? etc.  

So, you have a cool game that is fun to play, and it has a lot of potential. What now?