As I mentioned in the previous blog post, I’ve found myself in a longer training process. I held a workshop on game design for museum professionals—more precisely, on those types of games where the focus is on education and raising awareness. The workshop sessions are now over, and the mentoring phase is underway. Some small groups have already sent in materials online, others prefer to rely only on the in-person consultations, but even at this stage I’ve seen three or four project starters that could eventually develop into really solid products.
The participants arrived in groups of 8 to 14 people, across five different days. The structure of the program was the same everywhere. We played a few very simple games (e.g., Happy Salmon, Pig, Nim) to get a feel for the fact that a game doesn’t need to be complicated to qualify as a board game. We explored different game mechanics, and the example games we used were Carcassonne, High Society, Scout, Welcome To…, and Doppelt so Clever.
After that, we looked at and analyzed Hungarian educational and awareness-raising games (such as KIO and Voxpop), followed by a talk on game development and publishing. Then, in small groups, participants began working on their own projects. Some arrived with fully formed ideas, some found their inspiration on the spot, and some were still just drifting for the moment.
And now the mentoring is in full swing. We’ve ended up with 8 to 10 small groups—people working in the same place or in the same field—and they bring their ideas and prototypes, while I advise, tweak, and talk things through with them. Of course, the process doesn’t end here; I hope many of them will carry on, reach out again later, and that next year I’ll be able to visit game showcases featuring their work.
And while I’m teaching, I’m also doing the work myself. I have two games heading into production—final tests, graphic design, all that. One of them will be a children’s game that also plays music, which means there’ll be a technical testing phase too. I’ve never done anything like that before, so it’s very exciting.
And while I’m already digging deep into the mechanics of the new games, the previous one is about to be released—something that now feels unbelievably distant, and yet I’m still incredibly happy about it. The reception has been great so far, and I’ll write more about the project soon. But in the meantime, this is how happy I am:
