Game Design Assistant - Part 2

Read Game Design Assistant - Part 1 for background.

Game Design Assistant started as GDW Playtest signup. This was a simple web application I built with a limited set of features:

• Individual playtester logins
• Playtest session tracking
• Game and version tracking
• Limits on signup slots for each playtest
• Automatic assignment of extra players to substitute slots
• Message board for each playtest session

In addition to using the message board to communicate with playtesters, I also used it to track information about the game version's changes and information about the playtest itself (scores, playing time, etc.). I've been using it for a few months now and have added one more feature: anytime somone signs up for a session or posts on the message board, an e-mail is sent to let me know what happened.

As I've been using it, I've slowly realized some inefficiencies that were inevitable given the extremely basic design. Even as I was thinking about ways to improve the application, I realized that a full-featured application for aiding board game designers would not only help me in my efforts, but would be useful for other game designers as well.

More to come . . .