Hello All!

I am an aspiring designer here on WarGear and have been working on making a new board over the past few months.  Now, I don't mind asking people for help/feedback, but I can understand how a more formalized system to give feedback could be well received by esteeming designers and therefore I give M57's idea for a developers corner where people can get a continuous feed back and community support a big +1!

I'll admit my own experience has been to work in spurts on my board as life does tend to  intervene from time to time, but, with the assistance and encouragement most notably from M57 and Yertle I have managed to get pretty far into the process now.  At first I had an idea, and looking at one of my favourite boards, Civil War, I could tell that these boards were layerd.  I started to play with some ideas in photoshop and then at one point I even wrote message to Viper asking him for some pointers.  He never wrote back, but at some point Yertle and I began writing on completely other matters, and when the topic of my attempt at a board came up he pointed me in the direction of how I could download the Civil War images for myself to figure out how to accomplish the nuances I was trying to create in photoshop.  Yertle also gave me a few graphical pointers, and cautioned me that my territory sizes might be too small, but, unfortunately given the pixel limitations that are suggested to make a board browser friendly and with the complexities of a board I was seeking to make, compromises had to be made and I hope that it does not hinder game play when I get there!

I was quite busy the last couple months and had largely shelved my board.  Then about a week ago M57 invited me to a development game.  It was fun.  I got to learn a new board he had designed, give some suggestions, even suggest some new scenarios that could be implemented in the future.  So, this makes me think that the idea M57 is suggesting is not even just established developers to aid new developers.  It would actually be more like a dedicated Designers Forum where all ideas can be collected regarding each board and the designer can then pick and choose what ideas they like and learn the best practices for implementation.  I think when I ask M57 questions for my own board, for instance, he answers them in full but likely regrets that they are not in a greater public forum whereby the next time he is (or I am) talking to an aspiring designer, instead of writing everything all over again he could say, "You know, Erick and I discussed this when he was designing ?????, read through that board's discussion forum here and then if you still have questions we can continue to hash out your idea."  So, such a public designer's sandbox could act like a textbook, of sorts, whereby others can learn from other's work/mistakes/successes.

Also, this is not to say that it would only be the established designers helping the new.  Sometimes, by having each board having a public forum for discussion, it's quite likely that even people who just like playing the game might say, "hey, how about if your board was designed to do x, y or z"  and these might be some really great ideas that the designer hadn't even thought of!  Often I see on some of the designers wall posts from players, "hey can you make a ??? version of this board".  But, maybe by the point that a board is already released the designer has little interest to revisit their board's design, but if asked earlier in the design process, it might be much easier to make such modifications?

As to the discussion on board quality, I think that a high standard should be the target not only in the quality of graphics, but in the standard of gameplay and hopefully a few unique aspects here and there as well.  I read one forum thread once that suggested collaborations.  A Designer's area, like what M57 is suggesting, could also be a place where minds can come together and collaborations can be made!  I believe that one of the favourite boards on this site was made in such a way? It says right on it's face, "Colossal Crusade = Yertle, Original design by Booyarr".  Sounds like a collaboration of some sorts to me!  If it means having great boards visually and gameplay wise, then by all means collaborate!  The two could probably just share the password for a designers account I imagine?

So, definitely a +1 to refining a process of assistance so that new designers are not just thrown into the deep end, and even a place where established designers might get a few curve balls thrown at them that might lend to them creating some really fantastic boards!

berickf wrote:

Also, this is not to say that it would only be the established designers helping the new.  Sometimes, by having each board having a public forum for discussion, it's quite likely that even people who just like playing the game might say, "hey, how about if your board was designed to do x, y or z"  and these might be some really great ideas that the designer hadn't even thought of!  Often I see on some of the designers wall posts from players, "hey can you make a ??? version of this board". 

I didn't think of this until I read the above, but having a link on the game page back to the Workshop page would be a great way for players to get a "behind the scenes" look at the board.  Not only that but the Workshop page could also be a place where requests could be made and strategy discussed after the board has been released and certified.  Also, it could the home of a more detailed owners manual where optional instructional images could be posted by the designer or design team.

As the workings of these boards get more sophisticated and less Risk-like (as the result of the power of factories for instance), there is more of a need for something more thorough than the current board description. I have found it increasingly frustrating to compose an interesting yet functional description without any graphics, etc.  So I'm thinking this proposed "Workshop" page should actually be more of a board "HomePage."  With this in mind, I'm thinking the master Home Page list could include things like..

• Unread Message Indicator
• Stage of construction: New - A/P - Completed
• Last Board Edit (TimeStamp)
• Last poster (TimeStamp)
• Help Requested Indicator (by designer only)

..with every existing board having its own pre-registered page, and giving designers the option to register their pages at at any time in the process.

I'm wondering if it might make more sense if the existing "View" page might more easily be converted into a board's "Home" (and workshop) page over time.

M57 wrote:

I'm wondering if it might make more sense if the existing "View" page might more easily be converted into a board's "Home" (and workshop) page over time.

I like this idea quite a bit.

btilly wrote:

M57 wrote:

I'm wondering if it might make more sense if the existing "View" page might more easily be converted into a board's "Home" (and workshop) page over time.

I like this idea quite a bit.

If this were the case, the first thing I would like to see would be a message board tacked on to the bottom of the page, with the idea that we can watch to see how much they are actually used.  A link from a master list in the forums would be nice, but not necessary, and a link from the game page would also be helpful for visibility, but again, not necessary at first.