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It’s April again! The spring months always feel like new beginnings to me. In the spirit of fresh starts and embarking on new chapters, I’m excited to announce that I’ll be bringing a game I’ve developed to a convention! It’ll be the first time I’ve done anything like this. The game is only in the prototype stage, but I’m excited nonetheless. As I prepare for the event, I find myself reflecting on how I got here. So, this month’s post is all about my journey with game development thus far.

Growing up, I had always wanted to make my own game. This isn’t anything groundbreaking; I’d like to think that anyone who plays games, no matter what form, has this moment. When we play, we immerse ourselves into these worlds, get intimate with their mechanics, and push on their boundaries. How could we not get curious about game design after all that? I tried to do some independent research on it in my late teens, but I didn’t delve too deep. No prototyping, skill building, or anything like that. Just a lot of ambitious ideas written in a Google Doc and a playlist of YouTube videos filled with GameMaker tutorials. Overwhelmed, I went cold turkey with game design. I wouldn’t start back up again until my final year of college.

As a senior in my undergrad, I took a technical writing class for an English credit. The class was incredibly unique; it positioned itself as an exploration of rhetoric and technical writing through the lens of board game development. Looking back, it’s kinda crazy how much was covered that wasn’t explicitly “technical writing”. It was almost as if we were tricked into learning about it. At the beginning of the year, we were sorted into teams with one objective: create a board game prototype. Throughout the course, we had learned how to conduct playtests, how to manage a team, how to pitch, how to budget, and so much more. The only thing that comes to mind as “true technical writing” was learning to write instructions, which was required for the prototype. Regardless, the lessons I learned about games and myself through the class have been invaluable – I’m so glad I could participate in something like that.

One of the most rewarding parts of the class was being able to attend PAX East 2022. Our professor worked with the English department to get as many students as possible to go for free (which needs not to be said, but is a very cool thing to do and I’m super grateful). At the time, I’d never been to a convention before, so I was in awe. It was still a class though. Our professor instructed us to interview developers, attend panels, and just absorb as much information about the board game industry as we could. This would be content for a report each student was to write in the weeks following. During one of the interviews, an independent publisher/developer said (this quote is definitely butchered; it’s been like three years lol), “Most members of the board game industry do not do this full time. For those who do, you’d be lucky to work somewhere that offers benefits like health care or a retirement fund. Despite how bleak that is, we love what we do. We work our 9 to 5s to work 24/7”. That quote really stuck with me. On days where I’m working on my game where I’m not feeling inspired, I come back to this. To me, the point the publisher was trying to make was that any creative passion is a labor of love. Everything we do outside of working on our projects informs what we bring into it. It’s those experiences that make it stronger.

The event overall was a blast. I had so much fun then, and I’ve been attending PAX East each year since. All that aside, the highlight of the event had to be how our group member set up a demo opportunity with a game publisher.

To keep a short story even shorter, one of our group members had attended a “Pitch Your Board Game” panel (or something to that effect). Guests would approach a panel of hosts and pitch their board game ideas. The hosts, who were either accomplished designers or held another game development adjacent roles, would then provide live feedback. Our group member had pitched our game so well that it attracted the interest of a publisher in the audience. After the panel, that publisher approached the group member and asked for a demo of the prototype. The following day, our group got together to demo the game for them. Even three years removed from this moment, that part still feels like a fever dream.

We were so nervous when it came time to demo our game. I should mention that at this point, none of us had played our prototype. At all. So unsurprisingly, the publisher did not choose to move forward with our project. Not all was lost though! The publisher was really kind and took the time to give us a lot of great feedback, as well as answer all of our questions about the board game industry.

I never really had a clear career goal even after completing my bachelor’s degree. That said, I can confidently say that game development has always felt “right”. The urge to create some sort of board game kept buzzing in the back of my mind like a mosquito. I started working on my current project in 2024 and I have not looked back since.

We are a few short days away from PAX East 2025, where I’ll be leading the first public playtest for my game. I’m incredibly nervous (the same publisher from three years ago will be there), but I know that this will be a great learning opportunity. For more on the game I’m making, be on the lookout for a future post about it.

Until next turn,

Alfred