Developing a Community: Game Designers

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Hey Gamers,


    Gavin again, and I wanted to bring an epiphany that came to me today after a well rested week of vacation.

    To get more critical feedback, I am in search of a devoted group of people that are following my next game idea. That being said, I need to utilize varying social media platforms to develop a community. It has been rather hard to get legitimate feedback from friends and family that I have shared this blog with considering that they are not in the realm of board game design.

WHICH IS FINE. But I have received some good remarks from actual game designers (so far 2) and both mentioned very similar things.

    A part that has brought up this epiphany is a podcast I have been listening to called Board Game Design Lab, which if you haven't gotten the opportunity to have a listen, I would highly recommend you doing so. The topics that Gabe covers with the varying members in this wonderful community provide so much resource and inspiration, it's remarkable. Here is an episode I found really resonated with me.


    Anyways, the podcast has some amazing talent and they are often game designers as a hobby while also contributing to other game designer’s projects as either a part/full-time job. They help other game designers provide a service of sorts. The epiphany I had, was a call to establish a community in my local area as well as provide some recordings of our meet-ups to better help those that, like me, are in the works of game design.

    So with that in mind, I am expanding my social media presence, and actively looking into the communities that are currently around me. I will be researching more over the next few days, and if there is not a community that is shaped the way I am imagining it to be, then I would go forward with creating one to serve my local area. I want to bring these designers together to then have them discuss their current problems, review rule books, challenge the designer, and play test their latest edition.

    My goal is hopefully to help others that are in need of critical feedback. This is mainly because I too am in search of said feedback about my ideas. And I hope that my 2 cents will help someone else have a breakthrough.

What am I currently doing to get this set up?

I am in the works of establishing several communities:

- Discord Server 

- Twitter Handle (@Bored_G_Ames) 
Just wanted to throw in some art my lovely girlfriend and I have made together for your viewing pleasure.

- Facebook Group (For the local group of game testers)

    This will be set up all hopefully by tomorrow. The twitter account is active, so if you're interested, please go and give me a follow. I will be posting more information once available there and will hopefully be posting future blog posts to that so you can easily follow. Once the Discord & Facebook groups are established, then I will post there as well.

A few wins that I have encountered so far:

1. Reached out to a Local Board Game/Hobby Store and they had not heard of any group that was for board game design, which would also be thrilled to have a community like that at their store.

2. Spoke to another fellow designer and they too were more than interested in a community to begin in our area.

3. Checked on Meet-up.com and there was no group of this sort in the local area there too.

Just wanted to throw in some art my lovely girlfriend and I have made together for your viewing pleasure.
    In closing, the best way to get input on the projects in your life, you need to surround yourself with those that can give critical feedback. Family and friends can only provide so much, and with other designer’s they process your problems differently and may have experienced similar mechanics in other games. I have begun the process of establishing a local community and already have a few people's interests. I hope that this is the start of an amazing community in the local area.


Stay thirsty my friends,
Gavin




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