How to Make a Board Game in 2025

Here's how to go from idea to published board game!

0:00 Intro
0:42 Your Game Idea
6:30 Creating a Prototype
12:43 Playtesting
18:41 Iterating
23:30 Self-Publishing
30:21 Finding a Publisher
37:33 My Best Advice

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[samehsaed]

I am a banker and I heat my job every moment of it, , yesterday I told my wife that I would go on and work on my game I have had the Idea in my brain for over 10 years, and she motivated me positively and I told her that I don't know how to start, she told me is it a thing to search for it?, I live in EGYPT (no Board Games), and I found u, , I cannot describe how happy I am right know

[Denvercoder]

I'm a software developer, and we have a thing called "Bike Shedding". The premise is that if you are talking about hard engineering problems in a meeting with the people in your company no one will want to throw out ideas. As soon as you start talking about the name or the logo, EVERYONE has input. The saying comes from building a nuclear power plant. When the engineers were going over technical issues the room was silent, but the plant was so huge, that people got around on bikes. When they started talking about the bike sheds everyone had input on how they should look and what color they should be.

Kind of sounds like what you were talking about at 11:50. 😀

[WBPayne]

I've had a prototype made for over 10 years and has been play tested dozens of times by several people and they loved it. Maybe now it's time to get this thing going.

[AnthromancerOfficial]

I published a game called anthromancer, and I have a new version of it in the pipeline called Mercenarium. If either of these games grace your table at any point in the future, this message is to let you know that you’ve helped me make sense of my next moves. Thanks for putting your creative energy into the world; it matters.

[creampuffs]

1k subscribers? The quality of the videos deserves far more than that

[Syanmil]

I miss hearing your voice after it has been absent from the podcast for so long, it makes me long for and eagerly await it. The nostalgia and joy your content brings are truly remarkable, and it triggers me to start creating board games again and begin playtesting them.

[pacethreelukac]

Im currently in the first semester of game Design (Digital game) but in the fiest semester we need to design our own board game and this video did a perfect job much appreciated

[pangm.]

Crazy lol
One night I told myself I want to make a board game that would be fun for my son to play with me. Similar to munchkin and dungeon... 6 hours later lol 2 am in the morning I finished lol every card written and hand drawn 40 cards for 4 decks lol 😆 I'm just glad that my son fell in love my my game. After 3 drafts and TONS of editing I finally sorta have an idea of how it will now play 😆
But I'm proud because my son, all he can talk about is my board game to everyone lol 😂

[Maxx]

Based on the quality of the video, I was expecting thousands of comments. I hope you continue to grow, awesome video!

[oddgoblin]

Ive been developing a board game over the past 7 years. Once i get enough money i want to fund producing it. I believe in it very much. Everyone ive told about it so far seems intrigued by the theme and features. Hard to just sit with it on my own. I want to produce it so bad. There's so much i want to say about it but i cant. Ive been obsessively working on it for years now.

[TrecherousMonki]

"How do you win" is different to "How does the game end"
In a lot of games the most points wins, but when do you count? Figuring out how and when to end my game was one of the hardest parts and still something I need to balance. Right now it's when all the cards run out, but occasionally one or more players runs out of things to do before that point.

[Will_Forge]

16:00 "They don't want to do that... again" I know the feeling! 🤣

[cheesecakenl]

Love this video! Can clearly tell you have walked the (board) game design path and overcome obstacles along the way. Going to dive into more resources BGDL has to offer

[TheCommonGround]

"Create a prototype." Im currently using a mixture of index cards, and pieces from Villainous and Dice Throne to test my game out 😅

[JanstonCordell]

A 4% - 8% cut from a publisher should be criminal. It's absolutely wild that designers have put up with such a disrespectful rate.

[gileswolfe]

Great video. So enlightening how multi-staged (and complicated) game development, publishing and distribution is. For someone on their first game, you really spelt out what a long and difficult journey it is.

[mračničovek]

Actually, my first game got positive comments in the first playtest. Although experienced board players told me that I only need to balance it a little, I still decided to change it almost completely. I realized that the mechanics have little to do with the theme of the game itself and now I'm back at the beginning, and enjoying the process again :)

[dougsmith]

I had a job a few years ago where I was on the road a lot, which gave me the opportunity to listen to your podcast regularly. Now I have a job where I am in front of a computer most of the day, so I listen to / watch YouTube videos all day while I work. So glad I am able to reconnect with your content on here. Looking forward to starting at the beginning and bingeing them all! :)

[kailomonkey]

I had a board game idea, and a friend who said make a prototypr, make a prototype. So like you said, I made a scrappy prototype enough just to test and trial movement first... And he was like, make the whole prototype! He didn't get what I needed to test, and you have reinforced that I was right in my approach. His idea of a prototype was a finished product that just wasn't being mass produced yet it seems.

[StasChernikov]

Extremely valuable content, mate. I’ve just come up with a concept in my head, dumped everything onto paper and got lost with the next steps. Thanks to you - I’m unblocked and have more confidence to carry on. Keep up the good work!