Chris Backe

About

Chris Backe (rhymes with 'hockey') is a board game designer, a board game developer, and the co-creator of Virtual Playtesting (an online Discord server). He runs https://tabletoppublishers.com (a searchable, filterable database of board game publishers) and https://prereleasegames.com (a site to share your games still in development). He blogs about game design at https://entrogames.com, and is most frequently found on the various Facebook groups talking about board games.

Chris is based in Birmingham, England, and is usually up for a drink or a good pizza.

Services

Editing / proofreading

Whether this is the first version of the rules or the tenth, clear and concise directions help everyone understand your game better.

Beyond the usual spelling and grammar checks:

• Subject-verb agreement
• Unclear or wordy directions
• Awkward phrasing
• Americanisms
• Cultural references
• Slang
• Gendered references

Game design consulting

Maybe you’ve been working on your game for a while, but you’re not sure if it’s any good… or worse, you’re not sure what will work best for you and your game.

I can help you take your idea and turn it into something amazing. I’ll work with you to make your game the best it can be.

You could read blog posts and watch videos, but it’s hard to know how much of it is relevant to your specific idea or situation.

Instead, we work together, one-on-one, to take your ideas and develop what you have into a game that you can pitch, test, iterate on, and get it done.

I help board game designers with any and all of the following:

• 1 on 1 Playtesting at any stage of development
• Brainstorming ideas to make your game better
• Developing your game to the finish line
• Discovering the feelings and emotions during your game
• Finding the hook for your game
• Finding the right publishers to pitch
• Finding the right questions to ask
• Game design – theory and application
• Math, probability, balance, and building a spreadsheet for your game
• Pitching and practicing
• Sanity-checking the game – putting your game through the ringer to see if it survives
• Tabletop Simulator – uploading, understanding, optimizing, and other best practices
• Teaching a game so playtesters will understand
• UI / UX – make everything easy to understand
• Understanding the publisher-designer relationship
• Writing the rules to your game

The goal is to have each session end with a clearer understanding of what you want from your game, along with a few next steps to take.

Board game development

If there’s one thing I’ve seen from helping clients develop their games, it’s that each one of them needs something different.

• You might want some help refining your game.
• You might have a core idea that needs exploring.
• You want access to years of experience and game design.

The last 10% is often the hardest. I am able to help in any of the following ways, based on what’s needed and what you’d like me to be responsible for:

• Importing your game into Tabletop Simulator
• Running playtests
• Editing, proofreading, and/or writing the rulebook
• Developing a game to ensure it hits the targets we’ve set (game length, number of players, complexity, etc.)
• Getting that last 10% worth of work done to find the very best version of the game