What I learned prototyping my first (real) game so far (Part 2 of 3)

Prototype digital sooner

Before I started this current board game, I had created a card/dice game (uncompleted, hoping to revisit soon) with one version of a paper alpha, and thought I had a completed game, so I went straight to the Game Crafter to get a gloss-coated, full-boxed prototype printed. I now have several expensive and nearly unplayable games sitting around my office now. For my current game, I didn’t want to make that  mistake again, so I spent a lot of time in early alpha playtesting, doing black and white laser-printed components. Having a few hundred cards that needed to be cut out individually from 11×17 sheets, sleeved, and repeated every time there was a change wasn’t going to work. My prep time for a playtest was taking longer than the playtest itself. I stumbled across Tabletopia a few years ago and discovered it gave me the ability to upload my own game components and have never looked back. Component prep time is nearly removed, aside from exporting out JPG’s, which you need to do in any case. Find a card or rule that is broken during a playtest? Make your adjustments, export the effect items and replace them easily. Saved me hours.