The Best Tool for Rapidly Prototyping Your Board Game
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Dave Jola introduces 'Dextrus,' a website designed to streamline board game prototyping and playtesting. By integrating Dextrus with tools like Tabletop Simulator and Google Sheets, game designers can quickly make and test changes, enhancing efficiency. Dave walks through setting up a Dextrus account, creating projects, and using spreadsheets for rapid updates. He emphasizes the benefits of digital playtesting and invites viewers to join his new Discord community for game designers and playtesters. The video provides a step-by-step guide and encourages collaboration within the community.
Takeaways
- 🎲 Playtesting is a crucial step in the board game design process, allowing for iterative improvements.
- ✂️ Traditional methods of prototyping, such as hand-writing and cutting out components, can be time-consuming.
- 💻 Digital tools like Dextrous, Tabletop Simulator, and Google Sheets can significantly speed up the prototyping and playtesting process.
- 📈 Dextrous allows for rapid changes to game components through a centralized project management system.
- 📊 Google Sheets can be used to manage game data, enabling quick, large-scale changes and easy collaboration.
- 🚀 By linking Dextrous with Google Sheets and Tabletop Simulator, designers can rapidly update and test game components.
- 🕹️ Tabletop Simulator provides a versatile platform for digital playtesting, supporting custom assets and scripting.
- 🔗 The integration of these tools allows for near-instant updates to game components, streamlining the playtesting process.
- 👥 A community for beginner game designers and playtesters is being built on Discord, offering resources and support.
- 🔧 For technical issues and detailed guidance, Dextrous provides in-depth video walkthroughs and has an active Discord community.
Q & A
What is the importance of playtesting in the board game development process?
-Playtesting is a crucial step in board game development as it helps refine the game, making it more enjoyable and functional, and it can save time and effort by identifying issues early on.
What are the different levels of board game prototyping mentioned in the script?
-The script mentions four levels of board game prototyping: Level one is hand-writing everything, Level two involves using spreadsheets and Photoshop, Level three is playing the game digitally on platforms like Tabletop Simulator, and Level four introduces the use of Dextrus for managing game projects.
What is Dextrus and how does it help in board game development?
-Dextrus is a website that helps manage game projects by allowing users to set up card layouts and make changes easily without having to alter each individual file. It enables rapid prototyping and playtesting by exporting projects that can be used with platforms like Tabletop Simulator.
How does the script describe the process of making changes to a game using Dextrus and Tabletop Simulator?
-The script describes a process where changes made in a spreadsheet are imported into Dextrus, which then refreshes the data to reflect those changes. These updated components can be exported and loaded into Tabletop Simulator, allowing for quick updates and playtesting of the game.
What is the benefit of using Google Sheets in conjunction with Dextrus and Tabletop Simulator?
-Google Sheets allows for making sweeping changes to the game's data, such as card names, costs, and point values, which can be seen and edited at a glance. It also facilitates collaborative editing, ensuring that changes made in the spreadsheet can be instantly reflected in Dextrus and subsequently in Tabletop Simulator.
What is the suggested first step for someone looking to rapidly prototype and playtest their board game using Dextrus?
-The first step is to create a Dextrus account, which can be done for free, and then start a new project by adding components and layouts as needed.
How does Tabletop Simulator facilitate digital playtesting of board games?
-Tabletop Simulator is a virtual tabletop platform where users can playtest their games digitally. It allows for easy online collaboration, the use of custom assets, automation of game mechanics, and the ability to import Dextrus project files for instant access to all game components.
What is the advantage of using spreadsheets for making changes to a board game's design?
-Spreadsheets provide an overview of all game elements, allowing for easy comparison and modification of values and text. They also support collaborative work, preventing overwrites and streamlining the design process.
What is the final step suggested in the script for someone who has set up their game in Dextrus and Tabletop Simulator?
-The final step is to playtest the game, either with friends or by seeking out new playtesters through communities like the one suggested in the script, which is a Discord server for beginner game designers and playtesters.
What is the purpose of the starter kit provided in the description of the video?
-The starter kit is designed to give users a head start by providing a template Dextrus project and a link to a Google spreadsheet that is pre-linked to the Dextrus project, allowing them to quickly begin prototyping and playtesting their game.
Outlines
🎲 Efficient Playtesting for Game Designers
This section emphasizes the importance of playtesting in game design. The speaker discusses the challenges of manually updating game components after each change and introduces various levels of efficiency, from hand-written prototypes to digital tools. Dextrus is highlighted as a tool for managing game projects, allowing for quick updates and integration with Tabletop Simulator. The speaker demonstrates how changes can be made swiftly, showcasing the benefits of using these tools for rapid prototyping and playtesting.
💻 Introduction to Tabletop Simulator
Tabletop Simulator is recommended as a powerful platform for digital playtesting. The speaker explains its versatility in playing and testing games, mentioning features like custom assets, scripting, and automated resources. The platform's ability to import Dextrus project files for immediate use is highlighted. The section emphasizes the ease of online playtesting, making it convenient for friends and strangers to try out new games.
📊 Utilizing Google Sheets for Game Development
Google Sheets is presented as an essential tool for making comprehensive changes to game components. The speaker outlines the advantages of using spreadsheets, such as viewing all values at a glance, ensuring consistency, and collaborating with others in real-time. By publishing the spreadsheet as a CSV file, changes can be easily imported into Dextrus, streamlining the update process for all game components.
🔗 Bringing It All Together: Dextrus, Tabletop Simulator, and Google Sheets
The speaker describes how combining Dextrus, Tabletop Simulator, and Google Sheets can enhance the game development process. They provide a link to a starter kit, including a template Dextrus project and a Google spreadsheet, enabling users to quickly begin prototyping and playtesting. The speaker encourages viewers to subscribe for more tips and to join the Tabletop Craft Discord community for additional support and resources.
🧪 The Importance of Playtesting and Community Support
This final section focuses on the necessity of playtesting and the benefits of community involvement. The speaker invites viewers to join the Tabletop Craft Discord for game design discussions and playtesting opportunities. They mention that the Dextrus website and Discord are valuable resources for technical questions. Tips on optimizing Tabletop Simulator settings are provided, along with a teaser about a potential new level of efficiency in game design.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Play testing
💡Prototype
💡Dextrus
💡Tabletop Simulator
💡Google Sheets
💡Rapid prototyping
💡Game design
💡Level four
💡Community
💡Discord
💡Starter kit
Highlights
Playtesting is a crucial step in the board game design process, but it can be time-consuming without the right methods.
Dexterous is a website that helps manage game projects, allowing you to set up card layouts and make rapid changes efficiently.
Using Dexterous, you can update all game components instantly and export them to platforms like Tabletop Simulator for quick playtesting.
Transitioning from manual changes to automated updates with Dexterous can save a significant amount of time.
Level five in game prototyping allows for instant updates to every card and token in the game after changes are made in a spreadsheet.
Creating a Dexterous account and starting a new project is simple and the free tier provides all necessary functionalities.
Tabletop Simulator is recommended for digital playtesting as it offers a versatile and community-driven platform.
Google Sheets is a powerful tool for making sweeping changes to your game and synchronizing those changes with Dexterous.
Combining Dexterous, Tabletop Simulator, and Google Sheets allows for an efficient and collaborative game development process.
The video provides a starter kit with templates and links to help you get started with using Dexterous and Google Sheets for your game.
Join the Tabletop Craft Discord community for beginner game designers and playtesters to get feedback and share ideas.
The Dexterous website and Discord offer in-depth tutorials and support for technical questions.
A tip for using Tabletop Simulator: turn off the mod caching option to save a step each time you play.
When making changes to your game, keep the same number of components to avoid issues with card art and text.
Future improvements may unlock even higher levels of rapid prototyping and playtesting efficiency.
Transcripts
so you have a new board game in mind or
maybe you're already working on one
whether it's your first project your
eighth or your 200th play testing is a
crucial step in the process and one of
the most satisfying but without the
right method it can eat up a lot of your
time to just get your game playable each
time you make a change time and effort
that could be spent working on your game
instead of working on getting your game
to the table you might be thinking it'd
be nice to improve how rapidly you can
prototype and play test after making any
changes if so you're going to love this
when I started making games over 10
years ago I started at what I like to
call level one I handw wrote everything
on pieces of paper that I would cut out
maybe you're smarter than I was and
you're at level two and you use
spreadsheets in Photoshop and print
before cutting out you could be at level
three where you play your game digitally
on something like tabletop simulator let
me introduce you to level four dextrus
is a website that you can use to manage
your game project it allows you to set
up card layout so you don't need to
design and make changes to each
individual file one feature that makes
this so special is the ability export
that project dexterous paired with
something like tabletop simulator allows
you to make changes and play your game
incredibly quickly but we're not
stopping there in this video I'll walk
you through what you need to reach level
five where you and as many others as
you'd like can make as many sweeping
changes as quickly as you'd like that
will update every single card and token
in your game near instantly I want to
show you what this looks like
immediately so check this
out so as you can see here this is one
of the main spreadsheets for our game
and I want to use it as an example for
how I can make a a lot of changes really
quickly so let's say after last night's
play test the best way to move forward
is actually to rename every card
overflowing strength and that also the
cost of cards was actually pretty
confusing and we like the idea of
everything costing a single slice of
pizza and then lastly the point values
were pretty low and we really think that
the best way to move forward is to make
everything worth 99 points and as
quickly as that we are able to go play
test all of these changes come over into
dextrous and we tell it to refresh the
data and update to all the changes that
we just made you can see that everything
is now called overflowing strength cost
one slice of pizza and is worth 99
points next thing we need to do is
export this and tell tabletop simulator
to update its information to the new
changes you give it just a couple of
moments it runs through a loading bar
and as quickly as that we are able to
jump into tabletop simulator so this is
a snapshot of one of our games recently
played and you can see that all the
cards are still individually named have
different costs and are worth one to
four points now we want to play test our
changes so we go back to the main menu
and that part's actually important I'll
explain that later let's create
ourselves a new
game and as quickly as this we can now
see that everything is called
overflowing strength cost one slice of
pizza and is worth 99 points there was a
time when I would make all of those
changes one page each card at a time one
image one text field this is the
difference between level three and level
five recently my buddy and I went back
to the drawing board for our game but by
using the tools and method in this video
we were able to rapidly prototype and
play test our game into a very good spot
in just about a month and a half all
right so what do you need to do this
let's walk you through the Steps step
one create a dextrous account you want
to make a game something you can rapidly
prototype and play test at lightning
speed use dextrous simply go go to their
site and create an account the free tier
is more than enough to do everything
you'll need once you've created your
account you need to make a new project
so go to the project page and hit the
plus sign to create a new one in the top
left you can give it a name start by
adding a component but each component
needs a layout so select the new layout
option a layout is a template for a
component imagine a set of cards or
tokens in your game that all have the
same format you can make more the
interface is fairly self-explanatory on
the left side of the screen you can
import images and control the size of
text across the top you can create
layers and you see them in a list on the
right here's a few examples from our
game you can play around in here as long
as you'd like or you can make a simple
card and come back to make it look
pretty later at any time you can export
your cards to be printed or better yet
and more importantly you can export as a
tabletop simulator file this allows you
to load all of your components at once
into TTS so you can play virtually with
your friends on Steam step two tabletop
simulator so you're making a game but
you need to play test it I think that
play testing your game digitally is the
way to go when it comes to rapid
prototyping and play testing it is
infinitely easier to get your friends
together to play your game online than
it is in person I should know I've run D
andd 5 it's also infinitely easier for
strangers to try it out digitally as
well tabletop simulator is my platform
of choice to play test my games it is a
virtual tabletop where you can play and
do pretty much anything you can think of
it's a Community Driven game that cost
$20 on team where people have uploaded
every board game I've ever thought to
look up it's a great platform to play
games which makes it a great platform to
play Test games depending on how
involved you wish to get you can program
just about anything you can think of you
can import custom assets automate games
with scripting automatically count
resources you can even place a virtual
tablet on the table that you can browse
the web or open PDFs with this guy is
the limit and most importantly when
importing a dextrous project file you
have every component you've ever
designed instantly ready to be sh and
use at a moment's notice but we can take
it even a step further step three Google
Sheets when making a game the best way
to make sweeping changes is through the
use of spreadsheets you can see
everything at a glance because every
value is right there listed next to the
others you can compare the wording of
effects side by side change the VP
values of every card all at once make
sure every card's name follows the same
theme change how many of each card are
in your game and sort by every variable
you have spreadsheets allow you to take
it a step further you can set up
reference pages for shorthand or you can
make pie charts showing the percentage
of card types and categories in your
game but I think the biggest benefit of
working on your game in Google Sheets is
that you can edit with as many others at
the same time as you'd like most other
platforms or methods you're stuck
working on each file individually and if
anyone else is helping you you tend to
overwrite each other's work you can
spend as much time as you want
customizing your spreadsheet by
publishing this to the web as a CSV
dextrus can make all the changes you
make here to all of your cards with a
click of a button when you have all
three things dexterous tabletop
simulator and Google sheets working
together it's like assembling each piece
of Exodia you win the game if you want
to try it out there is a link in the
description where I have provided
everything you need to do this yourself
it's a starter kit it'll walk you
through step by step to download a
template dextrous project with a link to
a Google spreadsheet that you can copy
for yourself that is linked to that
dextr project this way you can hit the
ground running with most of the work
already done for you feel free to
reverse engineer it for your own
purposes if you are interested in more
helpful tips for game design be sure to
hit that subscribe button so you don't
miss when the next tabletop craft video
is released and there is one final step
to follow step four play test so you
have your game in mind and a good idea
on how to rapidly prototype it now you
need to play test go get some friends
together and try it out but maybe you
could use some new friends or a fresh
set of eyeballs to take a look at your
game if that's the case then you can
come join me in the tblop craft Discord
I'm starting a new community on Discord
for beginner game designers and play
testers and I'm filling filling it out
with all of the best resources I can
find all the Lesser known tips and
tricks and best practices like the
method in this video if that sounds cool
you can find a link to it in the
description of this video I think that
this could be a cool place to gather
like-minded people who you can bounce
ideas off of and ask their opinion on
specific questions help me build this
community of game designers and play
testers by clicking the link in the
description come say hi once again there
is also a link in the description that
you can follow to get a head start on
how to do this for your game just know
that I'm not your guy when it comes to
spefic specific technical questions the
dextrous website has in-depth
step-by-step video walkthroughs for you
if you learn best that way and if you
have specific technical questions the
dextrous Discord is the perfect place to
ask them talk to the guys who made it
they're great at responding to questions
I hardly know enough to make this work
in the first place so go talk to them
about the how and why it works a quick
tip and a lesson learned I would suggest
turning off the mod caching option in
tabletop simulator this will save you a
step each time you go to play also when
making changes to your game keep the
same number of components if you don't
you'll notice that the card art and text
are split between each card awkwardly
hopefully if you run into that issue
you'll remember this bit in the video
also my buddy Rob might have recently
discovered the secret to unlocking level
six fingers crossed join the tabletop
craft Discord if you want to learn more
about that once again my name is Dave
Jola happy play testing thanks for
watching
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