---
name: board-game-designer
description: "Take a board game idea from 'wouldn't it be cool if' to a playtestable prototype — core loop, tension source, components you can make tonight, balance starting-points, and a real playtest protocol with kill criteria. Use when someone says 'I have a board game idea', 'design a game about X', 'my game drags in the midgame', or 'how do I playtest this'. Produces a design one-pager, a print-and-play prototype spec, and a 3-session playtest plan."
---

# Board Game Designer Skill

Everyone has a board game idea; almost nobody has a *prototype*, because the gap
between theme ("it's about deep-sea heists!") and game (what do I DO on my
turn?) is where ideas stall. This skill forces the designer's questions in the
order working designers ask them — loop before theme-decoration, tension before
content, cardboard before art — and ships the user toward a playtest this week
with ugly components and honest kill criteria.

## What This Skill Produces

- A **design one-pager**: hook, core loop, tension source, end condition,
  player count/length targets
- A **prototype spec** buildable tonight: index cards, dice, cubes — counts and
  what's written on each; zero art
- **Balance starting-points**: first-pass numbers with the reasoning, labelled
  as guesses to tune, never as solved math
- A **3-session playtest protocol** with what to watch, what to ask, and kill
  criteria — the honest thresholds for pivot-or-persevere

## Required Inputs

Ask for (if not already provided):
- The idea as they'd pitch it to a friend, plus what inspired it
- The feeling the best turn should produce (clever? tense? gleeful betrayal?)
- Target: players, minutes, audience (family? hobbyists? their own group?)
- If mid-design: what's working, and where it drags

## Process

1. **Find the loop.** One sentence: "On your turn you [verb] to get [resource]
   to [convert] toward [goal]." No loop sentence, no game yet — iterate here
   before anything else.
2. **Name the tension.** Every game that works has a recurring painful choice
   (this OR that, now OR better-later, me OR blocking-you). Identify the one
   this design offers; if every option is good, there's no game in the loop yet.
3. **Steal structure honestly.** Name 2–3 existing games whose *mechanisms*
   neighbour this design and what each does with them — designers study prior
   art; note where this design genuinely differs (its one new twist) and where
   it shouldn't bother differing.
4. **Spec the ugliest playable version.** Index cards and cubes, tonight. Every
   component count written down. The rule: nothing gets art until it survives
   five plays.
5. **First-pass the numbers.** Costs, income, end-trigger pacing — pick values
   with stated reasoning ("end triggers around turn 8 so the engine peaks once"),
   marked TUNE. Balance comes from plays, not spreadsheets; the spreadsheet just
   picks where to start.
6. **Protocol the playtests.** Session 1 (solo, all seats): does the loop
   function? Session 2 (friendly table): where does attention die? Watch for the
   tells — checking phones, analysis stalls, kingmaking, runaway leader. Session
   3 (someone who owes you nothing): would they play again *unprompted*? Kill
   criteria stated up front: if the same drag survives two fixes, the mechanism
   goes, however loved.

## Output Format

```
## Design one-pager
[Hook · loop sentence · the tension · end condition · count/length targets]

## Neighbouring designs
[2-3 games, the mechanism borrowed/varied, the one honest twist here]

## Prototype spec (build tonight)
[Component list with counts and card text · setup · turn structure v0.1]

## Numbers v0.1 (all marked TUNE)
[Table of starting values + one line of reasoning each]

## Playtest protocol
[3 sessions: goal, what to watch, questions to ask AFTER not during]
Kill criteria: [the honest thresholds]
```

## Quality Checks

- [ ] The loop fits in one sentence and contains a decision, not just an action
- [ ] The tension is a *recurring* choice, named concretely
- [ ] Prototype is buildable from household stationery in an evening — if it
      needs printing services, it's overdesigned for v0.1
- [ ] Every number carries reasoning and a TUNE flag — no false precision
- [ ] Kill criteria exist and are specific enough to actually trigger

## Anti-Patterns

- [ ] Do not start with theme, art, or a Kickstarter plan — loop, tension,
      cardboard, in that order
- [ ] Do not claim the idea is original without the prior-art pass, and do not
      copy a game wholesale with the theme swapped — name the twist
- [ ] Do not present first-pass numbers as balanced — playtesting owns balance
- [ ] Do not let the designer explain rules during playtests — confusion IS the
      data
- [ ] Do not promise market outcomes ("this would sell!") — the promise is a
      playtest by Friday

## Example Trigger Phrases

- "I have a board game idea."
- "Design a game about X."
- "My game drags in the midgame."
- "How do I playtest this?"