Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design

Geoffrey Engelstein is a game designer and educator. His designs include Circle of Conflict, the Space Cadets series, The Expanse, and Super Skill Pinball. He has published several books on game design, including GameTek: The Math and Science of Gaming, Achievement Relocked and Game Production. He is on the faculty of the NYU Game Center as an adjunct professor for Board Game Design and has been invited to speak about game design at PAX, GenCon, Metatopia, and the Game Developers Conference, and is a co-founder of the Tabletop Game Designers Association. Isaac Shalev is the designer of board games including Tír na nÓg, Seikatsu, Ravenous River, Show & Tile, and more. He is also the host of We Got Played, a tabletop game design podcast, and a part owner of the boardgames studio Play To Z Games. Isaac runs Sage70, Inc., a data strategy and games-based learning consultancy that serves nonprofit organizations. Isaac lives in Cary, NC with his wife, three children, and a dog.

• 1. Game Structure, 2. Turn Order and Structure, 3. Actions, 4. Resolution, 5. Game End and Victory, 6. Uncertainty, 7. Economics, 8. Auctions, 9. Worker Placement, 10. Movement, 11. Area Control, 12. Set Collection, 13. Card Mechanisms

"Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design is a much-needed atlas for the explorer—giving a framework of what to look for in a game, and a focus for game play that will be useful for understanding the whole.” — Richard Garfield, creator of Magic: The Gathering "People talk about the art of game design or the craft of game design. Engelstein and Shalev hone in on the science of game design with a razor-sharp scalpel." — Rob Daviau, creator of Risk: Legacy and Chief Restoration Officer of Restoration Games"The most comprehensive and well-researched encyclopedia of game mechanisms that I’ve seen to date." — Matt Leacock, creator of Pandemic"The value of this work lies not only in the thoughtful descriptions and discussions of the building blocks themselves, but in the cataloging of example games for each section. So many design problems have been solved before, and this book gives designers a handy overview of those solutions." – Elizabeth Hargrave, designer of Wingspan