Can Video Game Developers Make a Board Game?
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- čas přidán 4. 07. 2024
- JONAS channel: / jonastyroller
Jonas & Blackthornprod EXPERIMENTS playlist: • Can Video Game Develop...
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In this video Jonas Tyroller and I create a board game in 1 day! We're both video game developers, so changing to physical games was a very enjoyable challenge.
We ended up making a small strategy experience called "Town Shift" - you're two wizard architects building a magical city.
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0:00 - Intro
1:07 - Idea & Playtesting
4:55 - Lunch Break
5:18 - Balancing
6:11 - Modeling Figurines
7:01 - Card Polish
7:42 - Creating the Board
8:22 - Final Playtest
11:57 - Conclusion - Hry
I keep playing the game with my limited circle of friends and so far they all really dig it. The random win conditions add a surprising amount of replayability.
We wanna play it "DIGITALY"
YEAAAH MAN. Am considering re-making it so I can also play with friends.
@@Blackthornprod YES SIRRRR!
@@Blackthornprod mean… you should make two sets so both people get a game.
I'm one of the fortunate to have played that game and yes, it's very fun indeed :D
Even though there are some WAAAY overpowered cards haha xD
But that has the effect that tides can turn quickly and you may unexpectedly win (which is pretty cool).
Great job you two!
Oh, that is incredibly interesting :D. It's so good to see you having fun while doing that. I am sure this will also make you even better game developers. Great experience, I loved to play with designing board games in the past, maybe it's time to refresh the hobby a little bit haha.
Thanks! definitely a new hobby for me :)
@@Blackthornprod in that case cannot wait to play your games :D! Seeing you computer games I am sure the board ones will be awesome too!
As someone who works in both the video game world and the tabletop world, I regularly see video game devs who have very little actual modern board game design experience. Way too often video game designers rely too much on existing video game tropes and the game engine and real time gameplay to hide their poor system designs. It is really sad and we're missing a large focus on modern tabletop design in the industry. I'm pitching a round table talk on the topic at GDC so we'll see how that goes.
I currently work in the hybrid space (board games with digital components) and had a panel on it accepted fkr GDC 2020, but we know how that turned out.
Anyway, I've been advocating for more people to play and study modern board games for over a decade. I even taught the topic at university.
I agree, more devs should get into board/card game design. Can’t rely on special effects to hide bad gameplay. Will be doing a lot more of this from
now on.
I totally agree, I am just now myself really appreciating the power of being able to paper prototype a game first in board game form before continuing to make the prototype on the computer. Such a brilliant way to get an overview of everything and test systems out. Plus it's very fun
@@xplodegg : You can prototype with digital tools designed to mimic paper prototypes even faster. I pitched a talk about it for PAX Unplugged but it didn't get accepted. Either way, I've used it in my classes on game design at university and been using it with my own work. You can really rapidly create tons of games and test out super fast. Gives you a good idea of what works and what doesn't.
@@StefanLopuszanski will def be trying that, just wanted to get going with paper in bed first when the computers off! But yeah I do want to start doing the digital version to speed it up soon
@@StefanLopuszanski hope to see your talk at GDC soon by the way, sounds like it'd be a very handy one to many Devs in need
Well done! Love seeing the collabs you and Jonas do together!
My tips for board game design/development:
1. Have materials at the ready like Jonas does (I have a bunch of different dice and 250gsm paper/cardboard... I'll need to get those cards Jonas has too!). It makes ideation a lot easier.
2. Throw things at a wall, see what sticks, iterate. (Same as any game dev).
In terms of what makes a good board game, I think the following are good rules of thumb to follow:
1. HAVE MEANINGFUL DECISIONS WITH UNCLEAR ANSWERS. This is the most important one and is what makes a game interesting to start with. A player should feel their choices are impacting the game result (if they feel the result was all up to randomness then that's bad) and it shouldn't be immediately obvious which option is correct (if they always know that THIS option is clearly better than THAT option then that's bad, they should have doubt in their mind).
2. Everyone's actions should affect everyone else in some way. If your game allows each person to plan their turn without considering what others are doing, change it. If you don't care about what others are doing on their turn and are just waiting for your own turn, change it.
3. Have minimal downtime between when a player has to do something in the game. This doesn't necessarily mean between their turns, but can mean they have to do things on other players turns too. E.g. have short turns so it gets back around to individual players fairly quickly, or if turns are longer have it so a player has to do something on each other players turn (e.g. in Catan you get resources on other players' turns and you can trade with someone on their turn)
4. Choose an interesting theme (European Farming, Merchants in the Mediterranean, generic tolkien-esque fantasy and generic sci-fi are all boring themes at this point, be more creative). Also, make the gameplay work with the theme, and the theme fit the gameplay. If you are making a game about city/town planning probably don't have a bunch of randomisation like chucking lots of dice, and if you do want those mechanics then change the theme accordingly (maybe it's Goblin City Planning or Demons City Planning For Hell)
5. This could be more important than point 1 actually: play lots of board games. Playing other board games will give you knowledge about what works and what doesn't, what your game should utilise and what it should change. Also, someone has probably designed a game very similar to what you're thinking about, try to analyse why they chose certain design choices and whether they're applicable for your game.
Thanks for the great tips!
To the top!!!
So brave of you two to spend time away from your computer, can't wait to see the full series!
That looks amazing! Can't believe I haven't looked into board game design sooner. Will have to put it on my bucket list
You guys really did a great job! You guys are inspiring a lot of Developers!
Thanks a lot:)!
@@Blackthornprod Don't stop posting an amazing videos like this!
There actually is a complex software involved, it's called fantasy, and once you get the hang of it, it tends to work wonders!!! XD
Will check it out. “Fantasy” for board games I guess? Some sort of digital board game engine?
@@Blackthornprod XD Mine was just a "funny" joke about using imagination as an "engine" (or "fuel" if you prefer) for games, but if I recall it right, there should really be something like that, "fantasy adventure game engine" or something like that...
It's so nice seeing an irl video with you two together. Followed you both for a while and seeing you having fun making this game was really fun!
Thanks! More to come :)
Yeah this is a combo that I really love to see followed them both for yrs
The game really seemed to pick up pace really awesomely, a digital version with your art style would be really amazing to play, awesome and inspiring video.
What a fabulous team you make!
Loving how creative you guys got and the journey you took together to make this! 👏👏👏👏
Pretty cool! Looking forward to more board game development.
One suggestion tho: better audio quality would be great
Thanks man! True… need to improve some parts of vid audio.
This is honestly monumental for the youtube gamedev community
Name one gamedev who didn’t start out making board games as a kid
This hit me hard lol
Funny enough, I am still working on a board game, and I hope to make games someday
Me, I was making D&D campaigns XD
@@saellanya we will always need more DMs, and it is so much fun
@@TheStarMachine2000 keep working at it man 👍
Wow! Stepping out of your comfort zone and making something you’ve(probably) never made before AND on such a limited time is just incredible. As always I’m (ex)Gamerworks leaving my little appreciation for this video?
Really fun video you two! Definitely think more board game devlogs would be a great idea (just in general!)
I think they clay sculpting looked extremely relaxing 😌
this video actually made my day thank you blackthronprod and jonas! :D
Great idea! Looks fun and creative
I love your videos man. I hope you do a video about "Steps for a gorgeous art" or sth like how to make your game look better. I know you've done some vids about it but a new one would be better!
You two are like a match made in heaven. Great collaboration.
"You win if you knock out your opponent."
And just like that you've reinvented Chess Boxing.
This is so awesome, I want to try something like this too!
I love your videos, every video is unique.
Thanks :)
I really like this board game concept lol!
I might make my own version. My family plays a lot of board/card games, and this would fit right into our collection!
This is such an awesome idea. Loved it!😁
Thanks man :)! Good luck making the vids
@@Blackthornprod hahaha thanks! Looking forward to it😁
love your videos man as always, you are the person that got me inspired of making games, drawing artstyle like yours, its amazing :D
Glad to hear that :)!!
With the town building and the grid layout it kinda reminded me of a boardgame called tiny towns! Love that your making some boardgame content ❤
Will check out Tiny Towns!
A great place for if you ever decide you want to distribute the game is The Game Crafter, they do alot of cool stuff, even custom molds for the houses and towers *should* be possible!
I really like it!
I really like the balance of simplicity and different possibilities this game seems to have. I tend to be suspicious of board games because so many of them are unnecessarily complicated imo. With this the rules for the board are simple and the cards bring in replayability.
This is exactly how my best friend and I make our prototypes (except without the clay and paint ... we tend to use chess pieces or popsicle sticks). It was a treat to see someone else enjoying the process.
I like that you two started with a theme, then Jonas keyed on a game mechanic (the houses from the town model). That's what we do ... we start with a game mechanic, then make a rule to break the mechanic, then make another to fix or counter the breaking. Two or three of those make it interesting. Tack on a win scenario and an endgame and you've got yourself a game.
Lord, we've got like 40 of these written out, ready to go, but I'm old with old-man brain, so it's hard for me to turn them into actual shippable video games and definitely harder to create a physical board game for sale/distribution!
My brothers and i own almost all of the Dominion expansions its such a fun game
Happy to see you guys liking it as well
Making all the pieces looked fun and this is a really cool idea for a game. When you first started I thought it would play out like noughts and crosses but I was very wrong.
I thought I was mixing titles from multiple subscriptions when I saw blackthornprod and board game together. Had to do a double/triple take.
Love it !
Gooood stuff guys !
Thank you! :)
Thanks! It was a cool experiment!
Absolutely amazing. I especially like the variety of the game, through the different action cards and winning conditions.
Is there a way, that you could post a collection of cards as image, so we could make the game for ourselves or the game in a whole as digital copy to download. I also see a lot of community potential in this game i. e. via modifications (digital) or extension pack descriptions (board game). :)
Amazing concept big fan
Thanks a lot!
Tf 4:57 this is your lunch? That looks amazing
I really like your game because it's makes it so players can't have one playing style that they rely on every game, for example, if someone liked to make alot of towers, they wouldn't win very many games, which I like because those people are obnoxious.
Also, I'm making a game called froggyland, where the board is made up of rivers, trees, rocks, and stars. Last frog ribbiting wins.
Awesome game !
This game looks really fun!
I would really love to play it if there is a way , a digital version maybe?
Make a 4 player version with a slightly bigger grid! That'd be awesome! I'd buy that real quick!
Truly inspiring. 👍
I appreciate that!
@@Blackthornprod NP
it would be cool to have this as a board game you can buy
Wow game actually looks pretty intresting
Very cool
This is really cool!
Are there any plans to publish the cards and general rules for folks to try out?
Man you invented a new board game. Now convert it into a video game
it'd be so cool to try and play this, it'd be prty difficult to mass produce it but it'd be cool if there was a digital version so anyone could play it
You should make an indent in the bottom of the houses. you could stack the houses to create the towers.
I'd like to play this right now :D
I liked this sooo much - it could even be scaled up to support 3v3 with a slightly bigger board 5x5.
I was sad to see that no card summoned a huge Godzilla like minion that would walk from one side of the board to the other even diagonally, depending on its facing, crushing anything in it's path, step by step one turn at a time, so that you could shift stuff into its path! :)
I thought for the longest time Jonas was just holding a taser during some of the talking parts.
Insane at the game in the membrane👍
Cards definitely need to be rebalanced but overall great concept. Maybe you guys could experiment with a larger grid with more unique buildings that take up more square space
Video idea: go to a public park or popular area and challenge random strangers to play your game
I remember trying to make board games when I was younger. Maybe I'll give it another go :)
I started with board games. It wasn’t until I found out the possibility of making video games that I switched.
this made me think what if it was like a jigsaw puzzle
It's cool that you actually met up in real life.
This is a really interesting game concept. It very much gives chess / strategy-game vibes. I imagine a version of the game where both players share their buildings, but they get different goal cards. Some kind of political gerrymandering-focused board game, maybe?
This game loosely resembles go which i find very interesting
I think it can be interesting if the opposants had not the same way to win points
my art skills are horrible so I can madly respect this
omg so nice 😳🥺❤️
Stupid question: Have you guys decided on any licensing or anything? If you guys don't intend to take this to production, it'd be cool if you released it as an open source board game.
Maybe have a GitHub repo that contains copies of the rules, card definitions, etc., and then the community could make some 3D model files.
This would let anyone who wanted to play print out the cards on a normal printer and the pieces on a 3D printer and give it a go!
Great question. I'll have to discuss that with Noa.
idea: sort cards into tiers based on costs, and draw from the lowest to the highest.
please publish this, i would buy it
I want this game so bad
This game feels like super Tik Tak Toe in a way.
Would you consider publishing the cards you've come up with? The pieces could be made in 3D and printed pretty easily. How did you end up deciding on a 4x4 board and not something bigger like a chessboard?
please make this a game on pc is soo cool
i like the game but definitely need simple readable titles on the cards outlining the descriptions and type(s) of card (the card that shifts the board may be offensive and environmental like u can take out one enemy building but they have to shift a row or column of the grid) and i think best way to do that is to have some sort of tree structure that starts from a card being PVP or not.. also include rare cards or 1 very good card.. maybe even utilize software that tests probabilities using flowchart-like logic to test average time and the effects of the card types on winning.. but tbh given that there r different point generation rules each game, doing this analysis can be tedious
-When’s this coming to my local Walmart-
Lol jk, but first chance I get, I’m totally gonna make my own somehow to play at home.
Your accents work well with each other.
You should make a game where we the players have to battle it out with diffrent cards from a stack btw this is a board game idea
I really want to code this now... Is there a way we can get a copy of all the cards and exact rules?
I'm happy that you're not a person who is like " I love boardgames! " and all they do is play monopoly and life.
oh by the way, is there a way you can share an overview of the cards, so people (i) can recreate them? :)
this could easily be created as a video game
True!
Is there any way we could play this???
Let's GOOOOOOO
I wish you had a 3D printer for that!
Keren 😀👍
Commenting for the algorithm
Imagine what these amazing devs can do with a 3D printer xD
Thanks! We'll need to try that at some point!
Vscode error : Received response for/ v2/ getcodeactions but could not find request
What should i do to fix it please help me
Are you filming this in france or germany?
One tip is, dont try to do everything. They game wants players to have an esperiance. And it should be good in deliver that experiance. aonther game delivers another experience.
Now turn it into a mobile game and become a millionaire.
8:00 no ctrl z =))))
0:17 what's the blackthornprod game?
Dwarves and Cathedrals
@@Blackthornprod thx
uhm in management terms you guys build it in 2 days. (2fte*1day).
Hi BlackthornProd! I Am starting a pocast and was wondering if i could interveiw you?
Can you turn this into a video game?
Hi
This proves that anyone can make a board game
Yes, anyone can. The tricky part is making a great one - still lots of work to do there ;D
Hi im Seth and im making a cartoon universe called Xenomon but i need help making my battle quest board game
Theme is inspired by yugioh capsule monsters
The goal is too destroy the opponent crystal
You start with 5 monsters and 5 spells
Second, I love your videos👍
ty! :)