The Board Game Development Kit Joseph Collard jcollard@unm.edu Executive Summary Currently, there are many applications that board game developers use when they develop board, card or table top games; however, none of these applications provide an environment for play testing. This creates a difficult environment for them to develop an idea. The Board Game Development Kit is a set of tools used to develop and play test board, card, and table top game concepts. It is made of two components: the Designer and the Play Test Environment. The Designer provides tools for defining each of the components of a game while the Play Test Environment provides a shared play area for multiple players to test the game. In the Play Test Environment, players manipulate the game components as though they were sitting around a table. Although these tools will be provided for free, they can be highly profitable. This can be accomplished by partnering with artists and print companies that can manufacture physical copies of a developers game.
I. Introduction What is the Board Game Development Kit? The Board Game Development Kit is a set of tools used to define and play test board, card, and table top games. It consists of two components, the Designer and the Play Test Environment. The Designer is a set of tools used by a developer to define each component in their game. Multiple players share a Play Test Environment containing a game developed in the Designer. In the Play Test Environment players have full control to interpret the rules and play the game. Who uses the Board Game Development Kit? Creative board game developers use the Board Game Development Kit because it provides an easy way to develop and play test their ideas without the cost of manufacturing their game. What is the value of the proposed system? Although the Board Game Development Kit will be offered free of charge, it can be made highly profitable by providing additional services beyond developing and play testing board games. Printing After development and testing, a developer wants to produce his or her game. Partnering with companies that produce printed boards, cards, tokens, and three-dimensional figures to manufacture physical copies of developer games would create a mutually beneficial source of revenue. Design Consulting Developers want to produce a beautiful game that provides a unique experience to their players.
By partnering with companies and individuals who can create designs for boards, cards, and tokens, developers would have easy access to a resource to help them produce a visually appealing product. II. Motivation The board game industry is currently dominated by large companies such as Hasbro and Fantasy Flight Games. In the beginning stages, amateur developers discover the cost to develop and play test a game can quickly become a liability. This creates a difficult environment to produce successful games. With the assistance of the Board Game Development Kit, creative developers reduce their cost and save time developing. Mission Statement To provide creative board game developers with a tool to help them succeed in developing and play testing their ideas. III. Background Many board, card, and table top game developers use tools such as Photoshop and Gimp to design their board games. Although these tools provide powerful tools for developing the physical look and feel of their game, they do not provide an easy way for the developers to play test their game. However, there are a few tools that are designed specifically for playing digital copies of board games. One open source product that is currently in active development is VASSAL Engine. The VASSAL Engine allows users to create online turn based games. A game created with VASSAL
Engine contains programmed functionality such that the rules of the game are enforced. Most of the existing modules created with VASSAL Engine are merely clones of existing games. This provide a way for people to play these games over the Internet. Although the VASSAL Engine provides the ability to create and play games over the Internet, it is not in the spirit of play testing. By having enforced rules players do not have the freedom to display how they interpreted the games instructions. The Board Game Development Kit provides this flexibility in the Play Test Environment. Players are free to manipulate and interpret the rules as they understand them. This useful feedback to the developer allows them to revise their rules for clarity. Another free application is CyberBoard. This application provides a service for creating graphical components for games. Unfortunately, CyberBoard is specifically designed for Play By Email games. This makes developing and play testing new board games non-intuitive and difficult. Both Vassal and CyberBoard provide useful services. However, neither of these products has the end goal of producing an actual physical game. The Board Game Development Kit is designed with this thought in mind. IV. Previous Work JNet Board - This application is a multi-user white board for developing two-dimensional vector graphics. This work can be directly applied to the multi-player aspect of the Play Test Environment. Web Development - Having worked as a web developer at the University of New Mexico for three years and as a free lance web developer for five years, I have the experience to create a
functional website for the users of the Board Game Development Kit. Member of the Indie Game Developer Network - I am an active member in the IGDN. This group exists to connect game developers from across the country to help provide feedback in a safe environment. As a member of this group, I have experience both in the hardships and success of developing indie games. V. System Description The Board Game Development Kit contains two components, the Designer and the Play Test Environment. Using the Designer The Designer is a set of tools used by a developer to define each component in their board game. These tools are used to define views, game components (boards, cards, decks, tokens, figures, etc...), layout, and rules. Defining Views A game contains one or more views. Each view defines a set of components a player or set of players will be able to see and interact with. The developer may wish to create a Public View that is visible to all players and a Private View for each player that is hidden from all other players. Defining Game Components and Their Rules A game contains many components. Among these components are boards, dice, cards, decks,
tokens, and figures. The developer may create and customize components using the Designer. Each component has four properties. 1. Name - How will players refer to this component? 2. Type - One of six types a. Tile - A tile is a component of the game that is generally used to make up the play area. A board is usually one or more tiles. b. Die - A die is a special component that can be rolled in the Play Test Environment. When a die is rolled, one of its States is selected at random. These are generally used to represent a die or a spinner. c. Card - A card generally has two states a front and a back. d. Token - A token generally represents some form of counter that players collect or marker that is placed on the board to mark something. These are flat components with a specified width and height. e. Figure - A figure generally represents a player s current location in the game. These are three dimensional components with a specified width, height, and depth. f. Pile - A special component of the game that is used to group together multiple components. In the Play Test Environment piles have three special actions: shuffle, draw, and peek. These are often used to represent decks of many cards and conveniently group together piles of similar tokens. i. Shuffle - Randomizes the components in this pile ii. Draw - Takes the first component on this Pile and moves it to a specific view iii. Peek - Allows a single player to see the order of this pile and allows them
to rearrange and remove components.
3. State - How will players see this component? Each component can have multiple states. For example a card will have two states, a front side and a back side. 4. Size - How much space does this component take up? In addition to these properties, the developer may provide additional rules for each component. Component Sets One feature of the Board Game Development Kit is Component Sets. Once a developer has defined the components for their game, they can save them as a Component Set. These sets can then be loaded into future games for ease of use. Defining the Layout The developer creates the starting layout for their game using the Designer. This is accomplished using a drag and drop system for positioning each component of the game. Defining the Rules A game is defined by its rules. The Designer provides a way for the developer to organize these rules in a digital rule book which is made available in the Play Test Environment. The Play Test Environment When a developer is ready to play test their game, multiple players will connect to their Play Test Environment over a network. The players share a virtual environment where they manipulate the components of the game and interpret the rules. This environment is divided into four panels: the game panel, the information panel, the communications panel, and the feedback panel.
Game Panel Each player will be able to see the different views created by the developer using the game panel. In the game panel players can select and manipulate the components of the game. Information Panel Properties of the selected component will be displayed in the information panel. This includes the rules for the component and how players may interact with it. Communications Panel Communication between the players is important while playing a game. The communications panel provides a chat box that allows players to communicate during their time in the Play Test Environment. In addition to a chat area, the communications panel also displays all nonverbal actions players make. Feedback Panel Currently, when a developer play tests their game, they provide players with a physical copy. Often, these play tests take place without the developer present. During these times, the developer will generally ask the play testers to keep notes about the game. These notes include details about the clarity of the rules, what they found fun, what they found confusing, etc. The feedback panel provides a location for players to leave feedback for the developer. Play Session Logging The Play Testing Environment provides a logging feature which records a play session for later
review. Along with the feedback panel, this allows the developer to identify where revisions may be needed. What the Board Game Development Kit Doesn t Do Although the Board Game Development Kit is a powerful tool for developing and play testing game ideas, it does not do everything. Creating Graphics The Board Game Development Kit does not provide an interface for creating graphics. However, it does provide the developer the ability to import graphics they have created using other tools. This is important as developers have grown accustomed to their own design tools. Enforcing Game Rules The Play Test Environment does not enforce any of the rules specified in the Designer. Developers have a clear understanding of the rules in their mind; however, it is the goal of the developer to communicate these rules through their rules. By not enforcing these rules, the developer receives feedback on how well the rules were explained. This allows them to quickly locate confusing areas of their game that should be revised. VI. Challenges Board game developers currently play test their games in the physical world with real people. There is no substitute for this style of play testing. It is the best way to play test a game. Unfortunately, this requires the game developer to have a physical copy of their game to use during the play test. Additionally, it requires that all of the players be physically present in the
same location. A major challenge for the Board Game Development Kit is the Play Testing Environment. An experience must be produced that is as close as possible to physically playing a board game with other players in the same location. To achieve this in the short time line presented in section VII, the Play Testing Environment will be created using Java s Graphics2D library as a framework. With this library the team can begin working on the two and a half dimensional environment for the Play Testing Environment on day one without the need to develop tools that can manipulate two dimensional space. Another challenge for this project will be creating a functional network application for the Play Test Environment. The ability to allow multiple users to connect and share the same digital environment will not be easy and will need additional thought. The ability to take data from the Designer and allow partners to use that information to create physical copies of a game is another large challenge of this project. We will need to negotiate a format that is beneficial for everyone involved. This processes can not be taken lightly VII. Timeline The Board Game Development Kit team will take an Extreme Programming approach to developing the product over twelve weeks. Each week will consist of an iteration in which the team will do the following: Present a product to the client. This is either a working copy of the product that will be released or a concept prototype. Reviewing the system requirements. This includes showing evidence of working
requirements, revising existing requirements, and creating new requirements.
Reviewing user stories. This includes showing evidence of completed stories, revising existing stories, and creating new stories. Selecting User Stories. The team will select the user stories that will be completed by the end of the iteration. The selection of stories will be based on priorities assigned to the stories through discussion with the client. This includes testing and implementation of all components required to produce the user story. Iteration 1: Initial SRS is completed First concept prototype is presented to the client Iteration 2: SRS is revised based on comments about concept prototype Initial model is created based on SRS and concept prototype Second concept prototype is presented to the client Iteration 3: Version 0 of the Designer is completed and presented to the client A website is created to share information about the Board Game Development Kit Iteration 4: Version 0 of the Play Testing Environment is completed and presented to the client Advertising the BGDK website via facebook and developer sites begins Iteration 5: Version 0.1 of the Designer and Play Test Environment is completed and presented to the client Two demo board games are created using the Designer and presented to the client Iteration 6:
Version 0 of the Board Game Development Kit is completed and presented to the client User documentation for version 0 is completed and presented to the client Version 0 is released for download and user testing on the website Iteration 7-9: Version 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 of the BGDK and user documentation is completed. An additional board game is developed (per iteration) using the Designer and presented to the client. Version 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 is released for download and user test on the website. Advertisement of released products are made on facebook and developer sites. Iteration 10: Version 1 of the BGDK is completed and presented to the client User documentation for Version 1 is completed. Version 1 is released for download on the website. Advertisement of released products are placed on developer sites. Iteration 11: Version 1.1 of the BGDK is completed, presented to the client and released for download Tutorials for creating board games are created Iteration 12: Final version of the BGDK is completed, presented to the client and released for download VIII. Budget For the duration of the timeline presented, the team will work without salaries. After the preliminary twelve week production timeline is complete, each member of the team may
renegotiate their salary. The team will require a working server to host their repository which shall contain all working code, documentation, testing, and web site related materials. This service has been graciously donated by GamePsychos.com for the preliminary twelve week production timeline. IX. Conclusion Currently, there are only a few applications that can be used to develop a complete board, card, or table top game and those that are available do not provide an environment conducive to play testing. The Board Game Development Kit is made up of two components, the Designer and the Play Test Environment. A set of tools is provided by the Designer specifically designed to allow developers to define the components of their game. Multiple players connect to a developers game using the Play Test Environment. This environment is designed to provide an experience that is as close as possible to physically playing the game. Although the Board Game Development Kit will be provided to the public for free, it can be made highly profitable by partnering with print and design companies to produce physical copies of games.