Prototyping

Boardgame design is an endless loop of rapid prototyping, risk assessment (analysis), and risk mitigation (revision)— repeat. It is gruelling but very rewarding. Nothing gets my creative juices going like boardgame design— in all the ways that matter this subtle process is every bit as legitimate an emotional endeavour as creative writing and painting. It engages all senses and draws me into states of meditative absorption. Prototypes very quickly help me determine what works and what doesn't. The faster you produce prototypes and test them, the faster you can move on to the next loop. There is a very good elucidation of this process in Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lens.

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