Two Rex Makes #3 - 3 tips for prototyping in Tabletop Simulator
So how do two people develop a board game when they’re separated by hundreds of miles? The wonders of technology mean that there are several off the shelf software packages, and the one we were already familiar with was Tabletop Simulator by Berserk Games. For us, this was the perfect solution - the interface is built with the non-technical in mind, and it didn’t look like too much effort to polish a rough and ready prototype into something you would be happy to share with a wider community. Easy right? Not quite. There is a time investment to get up and running beyond the absolute basics.
At this stage it’s probably useful to give some background about what I knew coming in. I had some experience with coding stretching back to my time at college and university, but it hasn’t been actively used for … well, let’s just say a number of years. I was also familiar with Tabletop Simulator as a player, having logged many enjoyable hours during the pandemic. All I knew was what was needed to play games, I’d imported a few dice and knew the keyboard shortcuts for common commands.
With this background, I found basic development easy - you’ll intuitively find your way to a blank table and the prebuilt gaming components, and from there it’s not much of a stretch to import custom tiles, tokens and cards. But going beyond this stage takes some research and effort.
So what do I know now which I wish I’d known then?
Tip 1 - Install Atom to help with scripting
The inbuilt text editor has been designed to support very basic scripting, so you’ll need an alternative as soon as you want to do anything more sophisticated. I’m using Atom, a third party text editor which has a great plugin that allows it to seamlessly integrate into TTS.
Tip 2 - Digital and physical are different
I want to write a future blog on this topic, but my takeaway is that you shouldn’t seek to perfectly replicate the physical in digital form. Instead, work with the medium and make design choices that always prioritise fun and ease of use. For example, it’s an inherent limitation that drawing and writing with a mouse is not enjoyable, and if you’re designing a roll and write that’s a problem. But there are digital alternatives that turn a frustrating experience into one that’s quite satisfying, including:
Add text boxes and buttons to replace some of the more basic drawing requirements such as checking off boxes.
For more complicated illustrations, consider using tokens to replace what you’d otherwise draw. Cartographers is a good example of where this approach works well.
Tip 3 - Learn from the wider community
Chances are that any problem you’re struggling with in TTS has been tackled by other designers. Check out the steam workshop for other TTS projects that use similar mechanics and see what solutions they came up with. Give credit where it’s due, but it’s the nature of the creative process to be inspired and iterate on the work of others.