The Game Box

Passed this by Calandale and decided to go ahead and get this up.

The thread is for everyone who designs, wants to start, is looking for materials or resources or has links to share, has a game coming out, looking for play testers, how to publish,etc.

Pass the word. This is for designers of all stripes.

EDIT: I've asked Calandale to pin this so that I can pull links up to this post and keep them organized. Then you can just read through for general information or go straight to the links from here.

Remember, this covers all resources. Places to buy supplies from, play test group links, self publishing guides...anything to help the designer, from hobbyist to pro, to find stuff and to discuss with others topics that pertain to the creation of a game from concept to finished item.

I guess this is a decent spot to ask, what printer(s) do you recommend for print and play?

I'm looking to get a color laser printer but don't know where to start except Best Buy and the couple times I've been there they had no idea what the hell they were talking about.

Color laser is expensive. Unless you're going to do a lot of printing,
you may be better off with an inkjet.

I've never been particularly thrilled with colour laser printer output. For game components, I think inkjet is the way to go.

If you print so little that your inkjet cartridges dry up, consider laser (or go to your local print shop if you print that rarely).

If you print so much that you could buy a new car (or fifty pairs of running shoes if you're Calandale) with the money you would spend on inkjet cartridges, consider a color laser. Note that some color lasers don't do a real good job binding the toner to the page, so the printouts might crack when folded or cut, which is a pain for prototyping.

I'm partial to Brother brand lasers. Inexpensive and decent output. We have a B&W at home for the kids schoolwork. Their color printers were worth checking out when I was doing research.

I went with an inkjet that could print 11x17, which has turned out to be incredibly useful for making maps.

Actually, that might be the best advice: submit print jobs to your local print shop. I've submitted a number of such jobs online to my local Staples, specifying cardstock, gloss/matte, etc. Last thing I printed that way were some Sentinels of the Multiverse promo cards - they came out great and it wasn't too expensive.

How quickly does this happen? I'm pretty sparse on printing.

I think it depends on brand and environmental conditions, but it took about 4-5 months of no printing on my last inkjet. My new printer has an automated mode that stirs the print heads every few weeks.

Crap. That may explain why my demo heads went so fast.

I use b&w laser printers for rules and have an Epson photo quality that prints 8.5 x 14 and added a Canon Pixma 11 x 17 for maps (it will print up to 13 x 19 which Amazon stocks...but is expensive).

The cart drying out problem is usually the biggest problem faced and I too have heard that color laser printers have lots of issues. That's why I chose the Pixma.

Picking the right printer is key. The carts are the cost and I always shop for printers by how much carts cost. I can buy refills for the Epson (6 carts) for as little as $6-$8 and the Canon for about the same (5 carts - has two black carts).

I have printed a lot of games and the cost has been a few dollars each. That's paper, ink, full sheet labels and rules.

I'll be adding a third inkjet for production work but I highly rec having at least one of each for the savings when printing b&w rules.

And thank you for reminding me that I need to hook up the inkjets and stir the tanks tomorrow :)

(Stupid DOT)

Bibliography formatting

I found that the NLA site (National Library of Australia): http://trove.nla.gov.au is one location that has a feature where if you type in the title of a book or author, etc, -you can call up the relevant entry and there is a 'cite this' button (with several standard styles of bibliography formats).... copy/paste and this beats typing when constructing a bibliography.

This being the sort of thing one might use in designer notes (and which I plan on using myself). I do have something that qualifies based on the original topic (but it is so far out that there is nothing much I can share on it).

If I think of any more things over time, that might prove useful I will add it here.

Good deal.

There are so many different things we often don't think about and then you go 'where do I find X?' Hopefully we can build a list of such places. Thinking of editing the first post to have keywords so you can search pages fast for links or just add the links to the first post with a bit of sorting.

I'm recharging today (movies tend to do the trick) so I'll start organizing when the batteries are full :)

I am designing wargames

Im afraid the last thing I care about is how Ill get it printed when Im done

this may be an oversight on my part but I am far more concerned with the level of specificity in my game and how well it actually plays

I am thinking about publishing someday, but right now I have a lot more work to do on the rules themselves; figuring out what should be included, what needs to be edited to preserve fluid game mechanics, and what can be added without stretching out the overwhelming nature of modern warfare

in the **** it all section I posted a thread about logistics, which has quickly devolved into a discussion of the most tedious aspect of game design, namely, that rules which are specific usually become quite detrimental to the 'fun' aspect of a game

striking a middleground in this dichotomy is not easy, and requires much soul searching and talking to fellow wargamers

This is pretty much my motto when it comes to technology full stop.

I run a small (small and tiny!) publishing company out of my basement.  Looking for simulations to publish.  More solid info soon.  As this is a forum created by Calandale I think I can find the right designers here.  I won't be mentioning this much elsewhere but we are very interested in finding like-minded people.


http://summoning-of-evil.myshopify.com/

You publish Cave Evil? Rock on. Love that game. Most thematic game I've played in years.

That was an astounding experience.