Are you obsessed with learning about game mechanics? Have you tinkered with making your own game? Well, this Kickstarter project should excite you because it was designed to serve that exact purpose. The White Box is essentially a game design workshop in a box. It was created by Jeremy Holcomb and Jeff Tidball to provide information and tools for the aspiring game designer. Both Holcomb and Tidball have backgrounds in designing games as well as writing and teaching about it. They decided to work together in partnership with Atlas Games and Gameplawright to create a cohesive product for a reasonable price.
Holcomb and Tidball, talked about The White Box in an episode of the Modifier podcast with Meghan Dornbrock. She asked them about the product but also about how their backgrounds lent to the creation of The White Box. Holcomb, has been making board games and card games through publishers like AEG and has also self-published games. He now teaches game design at Digipen Institute of Technology. Tidball has been playing D&D since he was 11 and got his first job at Atlas Games. He’s worked in all areas of game production: design, marketing, and publishing games. He also writes about game design on Gameplaywright. Their depth of experience made them perfect candidates for the creation and development of a product like The White Box.
The White Box contains several different kinds of game pieces to experiment with like dice, meeples, discs, cubes and more. It also includes punch-board sheets to help track your game stats. Its strongest asset, is the 128-page book of essays on several aspects of game design. The essays cover a wide range of topics from the inception of a game to publishing. They cover how to develop a game, how to get the most from play-testers, and when to consider self-publishing. They also encourage designers to make their games more inclusive and diverse and to look for ways to move tabletop games into the future. Holcomb and Tidball expressed their excitement about what games will be created from The White Box. They really just want to be able to play more games, your games.
Another thing the creators talked about with Dornbrock are other game creation sources. A notable website like Game Crafter is used often by people who are developing their own game. You can virtually get any game creation supplies from websites like that. What The White Box aims to do is take the basics and make it all available in one box. Yes, one can get different sets of die and meeples from Game Crafter but it ends up costing more because each piece is bought separately. It’s better to start with The White Box and then expand upon it when you know what other supplies are necessary.
The White Box should be a great resource for game hobbyists and even teens wanting to try their hand at game design. The good news is that their Kickstarter got fully backed in May and should be available for the public in August.
Have you ever tried to make your own game? What was the process like? Do you think you could benefit from something like this?
Featured Image Credit: Devrught
Image Credit: Atlas Games & Gameplaywright
