Introducing The Helpful Designer Blog!
The Helpful Designer Blog is a space to support new tabletop designers by sharing information about the business side of starting a board game company as an independent designer.
I have spent a lot of my time not just designing games or making artwork but working diligently on the business side, improving my operations and working with mentors who helped me see things differently.
This background learning has helped me to create a successful card game that has sold to thousands of people and graced the shelves of high street stores in the UK.
The purpose of starting this new blog segment is to give new designers a head start by offering tips, tricks and journal entries to think about as you design and market your games.
When I started I could only access this kind of information by getting in contact with bigger designers who have already done what I wanted to do. It wasn't easy. It took something like 5 attempts to get their attention because they were so busy and other new designers would never hear back from them at all.
Thankfully if you're a new designer, you don't have to worry about making the mistakes I did because I will highlight the things that that "new designers do" vs "what seasoned designers do" instead. It will make a world of difference, I promise!
Although I wouldn't forgo making mistakes entirely, they are brilliant teachers - we're not trying to be perfect and we don't need to be perfect to create successful games.
This is an experiment!
There is no formal plan for what I will be writing about here but the contents will include
Questions I get asked by new tabletop designers.
Topics on board game business.
Decisions that can be effected by our emotions.
Posts about product development.
I would like to eventually open the space to other creators who have expertise in other areas of board game design who can share their wisdom with you too.
If you would like to be notified when my blogs get posted, sign up below.
You are always welcome to reply to an Emmerse Studios newsletter, if you have any feedback or topics you would like to see covered in the blog, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts! Or you can write to us at hello@emmersestudios.com with the title of the blog you are referring to.
From the Creative Director,
Emma May
You can follow me on Twitter @Emmay89 or @EmmerseStudios I'll also be posting the blog links there.