For years now I've become aware of a very specific mental wall blocking me from making things. This wall tells me that the things I buy are made in a black box that I don't have access to and don't understand, therefore I'm not allowed to make them. It has been a constant mental battle to force myself through this wall and it still builds back up from time to time. When the idea to make a board game initially popped in my head, I left it alone because I assumed I didn't have permission to do it. All I did was take some notes, write a first draft of the rules and then tuck it away for years. Years.
Two things happened that finally got me to dive into exploring this board game idea. First, I had this idea of animals playing baseball that I couldn't let go of. Second, a personal event created a moment where the mental wall crumbled down and I realized that there was nothing stopping me from at least trying to make a board game.
Now would probably be a good time to give a quick introduction to the game. It's a baseball game now called Animaleague Baseball: Batter Up! and it's a pretty simple concept. There are two players. One on each team. After picking teams and determining home and away, both players roll their team die at the same time. Each combined roll of the dice is considered a pitch. If the pitching team rolls a number higher than the hitting team, it's a strike. If the hitting team rolls a number higher than the pitching team, then it's a ball. If both teams roll the same number, then what happens is determined by the number rolled. Roll one through four and it's a hit. Roll fives or sixes and the hitter is out. There's a bit more to it than that, but that's the overall concept.
This is the point where I hit the biggest self-inflicted wall. I just stopped here. I had a concept. I had the beginnings of game dynamics and yet I was not willing to test things out. I just assumed that I didn't have the resources, the know-how, the capabilities to do it. Until... all of a sudden, I did. I was hit with a realization that I only needed basic stuff to put together a pretty solid prototype. I found it all on Amazon. I had a blank game board, blank playing cards, some game pieces, some colorful dice all in just a couple of days. Sigh... why in the world did I take so long to do this?
Prototype 1: With my newly received board game components and a jolt of newfound excitement for the project, I went to work. I really wanted the baseball field to be an accurate representation of an actual field so I found a vector version and printed it out across four pieces of paper and taped them to the blank game board. Looking back at this step, I can see how weird I can get with specifics sometimes. Despite it looking like an overcomplicated mess, it worked.
For the player cards, I busted out pen and crayon and was done in 20 minutes. They worked great.
One thing I've learned... keep your prototypes as simple as possible for as long as possible. You don't need anything custom made or looking great until your game plays great.
Around this time, there was a very interesting coincidence on LinkedIn. I logged in and the very first post was from a local company that I follow. The post was celebrating the company's owner who recently licensed a board game to a major toy company. I was stoked. I immediately reached out to congratulate him and ask if I could pick his brain about the licensing experience. I had lots of questions and he had answers.
He was very kind and was willing to meet up. I prepared my list of questions and I brought my unpretty prototype just in case it came up during our conversation. Ultimately, I'm glad I brought it, because he was curious as to what I was working on so it just made sense to show it. We even played it. And while we were playing, he recommended that I go to an upcoming pitch conference in Chicago. I signed up that night.
Prototype 2: I knew that I couldn't present my current prototype to a room full of toy and game industry professionals. I needed to clean some things up. I also didn't have a ton of time before the conference so i had to be a little bit creative. Oh and if you're curious, the conference is the Global Inventor Pitch & Innovation Conference which is part of the Chicago Toy and Game Fair.
The conference provides a ton of helpful information online and after doing some homework I started on the new prototype. Based on the information provided by the conference, a toy or game prototype's artwork isn't as important as the concept so I kept everything pretty generic.
I found a great board game manufacturer (Board Games Maker) that allows you to print any quantity you want. Another one of my head scratching decisions was in regard to the player cards. For some reason I felt like I needed to get the cards printed through a different provider. I can't remember why I thought I needed to go this route, but I did. The cards worked just fine but had a weird waxy texture and weren't the right size. Plus, going through multiple printers just overcomplicated things. Sigh.
Overall, the prototype was much better than the previous version. It also served its purpose at the conference. However, I learned that if you're going to pitch a game or toy idea at one of these conferences, get it to look as close to your final version as possible, especially if it helps tell the story as to why your game is different than what's currently in the market. That was biggest piece of feedback I received. "There's nothing that make your game any different than the baseball games that are already out there." Keeping things generic for the sake of speed really didn't help me sell the idea that this is animal baseball.
Also, in case you were wondering, I didn't get a licensing contract, but I did get to meet a lot of great people from the toy and game industry, I established some great contacts at some major toy and media companies, I got to check out Chicago for the first time and I learned a ton. I'm very glad I went.
Prototype 3: As mentioned, I got a lot of great feedback about my game at the conference in Chicago. I put this to use and in some ways started over. Here's a list of everything I updated in the latest version of the game:
After the Updates, I went back to Board Games Maker and asked them to make another prototype. It turned out really well and I'm very happy with the current version of the game.
So what's next? I've been asking myself that for the last couple months. Do I head back to Chicago with a much better prototype and vision? Should I launch a Kickstarter? Should I keep play testing the game to make sure it's as fun as I think it is?
So much to decide. Oh, and I just started making a prototype for a brand new game! Have to take advantage while that stupid wall is down!
