Reconnecting with the Board Game Design Community
The first week of biking from Rhode Island to Seattle has led me to actual, real life, in-person meetups with design communities in the northeastern United States. In both Connecticut and New York, I was reminded of the reasons I had longed to return to in-person gaming events. Here are some of those reasons:
Jennifer Bartlett runs an amazing game program at the Manchester Public Library in Connecticut
Creative Fire
There are people involved in board games, from designers to librarians, who have a drive to implement their creative visions. Encountering those people, even momentarily, is exhilarating. There is nothing quite like the excitement of a conversation centered around an exceptionally good idea. There is an energy and a fire as we try and wrestle these nuggets out from our heads and translate them into concrete experiences. Even more wonderful is months, or years later, when these ideas are actually brought to life. Being surrounded by people who share that passion is something I’m grateful for.
Friendship
Too cheesy? I’ve made so many important connections through board game design. The process of playtesting a game and giving feedback can reveal so much about a person’s personality, and through this process it’s natural that we develop bonds. Some of my best friends in this community are those who initially gave me harsh, honest feedback, with a hint of kindness and goodwill. These aren’t just characters we play for the playtest - this is who we are. And a lot of us are pretty cool people.
Immunity Day game night with the Boston Game Makers Guild: Dennis Chan, Tim Blank, Chris Anderson, and Jeff Johnston
Learning
I come from an educational background where we stress “lifelong learning.” This is the concept that you are never done learning new things, you are never done improving, you are never done growing.
The board game design community is filled with people who share this attitude. At its core, a playtest is a learning experience, and the value we place on this improvement is exceptionally high. This community is filled with podcasts, youtube channels, and blogs dedicated to getting better at game design and learning something new today that we didn’t know yesterday. One of our best community projects, The Tabletop Mentorship Program, is literally dedicated to this philosophy that everyone has something to teach, and everyone has something to learn.
A Giving Sense of Openness
We are a community that prides itself on one fundamental concept: collaboration. More so than perhaps any other field, competing designers, publishers, developers, editors, graphic designers, and artists are actively helping each other hone their craft and find opportunities. Members of this community regularly give their time, energy, and expertise to playtest other people’s games and give them feedback. This is the very crux of many of our interactions with each other, and we do it gladly, we do it out of love, and we do it because it’s fun. This openness is our greatest strength.
New Haven, CT
At Elm City Games, there’s an entire section for locally made games - and it’s not small!
Camaraderie
Ultimately this community gives me a sense of belonging and camaraderie. On a personal note, I’m thankful to have had this community to help me get through “these trying times.” There are definitely some weeks where my main motivation to accomplish anything was that there was going to be a playtest that night on one of the many discord servers. Obviously, this pandemic has been difficult on all of us, but I remain impressed by the way the community responded and was able to find ways to come together.
