[Musings of a Game Store Owner] GGP- The Initial Stages

It all starts with an idea - a new, unusual, brilliant, innovative or just plain unlikely idea. That idea takes shape; whether it's slowly, like a strike of lightning, in your dreams or in the doodles of your work meetings. You tinker, play and fuss with it until it becomes something a little more solid than the cottony ether from your imagination, and then you take the next step- you show it to your friends.

Maybe they love it. Maybe they think it has potential but they want to test it out. Maybe they need convincing. For those of us interested  in taking the game beyond our nightstand, something more than a casual once through becomes something we think about.

Thus, plans are made.

The plans might start out simply enough. "Hey, we'll playtest this and see where it goes". After trying your idea out, you decide it's pretty rad and want to get it out there beyond just your local gaming group. Or your plans are more complex to begin with and you KNOW you want to do something with your idea beyond just playing it in your basement. So you start planning for something bigger.

Playtesting is an essential part of any product that is going to be produced to more folks than just the guys at your FLGS. It helps determine weaknesses, strengths, possibilities and limitations. It also helps determine how fun a game is to others outside your group. If you get regular spectators while you are working the kinks out, maybe you have something good.

Playtesting is its own animal. It's more than just you and your buddies trying out your idea. When done right, it's a vigorous process intended to break your precious game so that you know what others can (and will) do to it given the chance. Playtesting also involves having someone other than yourself demo the game. Your personal involvement and ability to explain it won't do a damn bit of good if the guy in Milwaukee doesn't understand it when he buys it. It needs to be easily understood by anyone that decides to try it out.

So you get through the playtesting and your idea still stands up. You think you have something truly awesome and special, and you decide you want to publish your idea.

What next? How you get your idea off the ground and out to the masses? What factors go into the various choices people make when pursuing avenues for publication? And how does it get from idea to product on the shelf?

We'll talk about all of that and more, with interviews and discussion of finished projects, projects in process and projects just starting out in the weeks to come. I hope you'll enjoy what I've got in store for you, and that you ask questions and comment as the series progresses.