James Ernest: Practice, Practice, Practice (Game Design Lecture)

James Ernest (Cheapass Games / Crab Fragment Labs) explains the process of iterative game design through playtesting, in this talk from Gen Con 2025. James Ernest is an accomplished tabletop game designer with more than 200 published games including Kill Doctor Lucky, Button Men, Lords of Vegas, Pirates of the Spanish Main, and Tak: A Beautiful Game. He is the founder and lead designer of Cheapass Games. In this lecture he focuses on the process and stages of tabletop game design, from workshopping the basic idea to delivering a final prototype, and the importance of learning to throw away everything that isn't working. Sections: 00:01 Introduction 03:02 Iterative Design (Marble Runs) 07:24 The Game Designer’s Job 09:22 Design Goals 10:57 Iteration 17:56 Step 0: Test the Idea 24:17 Step 1: Blank Cards 28:11 Step 2: First Playable 31:02 Step 3: Revisions 35:13 Step 4: Final Version 37:14 Choosing Playtesters 38:42 Questions Crab Fragment on Patreon:   / crabfragment   Crab Fragment Labs: https://www.crabfragmentlabs.com/ Lecture Hall: https://crabfragmentlabs.com/lecture-... This video was recorded at the Gen Con Game Design Academy, 2025.