Welcome To The:
Table Top Game Design MasterClass
We Take Our Combined over 30 year experience in this Industry and Condense What YOU Absolutely Have To Know into This Table Top Game Design MasterClass Where we will teach you to be a Professional Board Game Inventor in Just 8 Short weeks.
This Will Be Your Only Opportunity to Work with April & Ed This Year!
Design & Develop A Game In 3 Easy Steps!
IDEATION
A creative process or technique used to generate new ideas and/or new game concepts.
Get Ready to learn how to do it whenever you want, and/or need to.
CREATION
The action or process of bringing something into existence. Taking an idea and rendering it in a physical Form, the act of creating a playable prototype.
PITCH
Pitching a product is similar to a sales pitch but with a focus on the product, like what you've seen on Shark Tank or the Dragons' Den, and you're going to become great at it!
The 2023 MasterClass
Includes Everything From Last Year and MORE!
March 2nd - May 5th • Mon & Thurs • 8:30 pm (EST) • 5:30pm (PST)
We will also be giving you all of these BONUS items!
An Editable Spec Sheet and Presentation Deck
Playtest questionnaires and A Game Inventors guide
A list of our Favorite Research Sites
and The Top 20 Pitchable Game Companies
From IDEA to PLAYABLE
in 8 weeks!
March 2nd • Week 1 – What are Games?
Research, Inspiration, and ideation
March 6th • Week 1 – Recap / Q&A
March 9th • Week 2 – Understanding Game Design
Theme and Experience
March 13th • Week 2 – Recap / Q&A
March 16th • Week 3 – Understanding Game Design Continued
Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics
March 21st • Week 3 – Recap / Q&A
March 23rd • Week 4 – Designing and Developing a Game Experience
March 27th • Week 4 – Recap / Q&A
March 30th • Week 5 – Playtesting, Iterating – Taking it to the Next Level
April 3rd • Week 5 – Recap / Q&A
April 6th • Week 6 – Rules, Graphics, and Finalizing your Game
April 10th • Week 6 – Recap / Q&A
April 13th • Week 7 – Shooting Videos of your playtests
April 17th • Week 7 – Recap / Q&A
April 20th • Week 8 – Pitch Decks, Sell Sheets, and Sizzle Videos
May 1st – 5th • Pitch Week • Optional – Set up a pitch meeting with April & Ed
Thoughts From Some Of Our Past Attendees
With the knowledge I learned I felt more confident pitching my game to companies. I am so happy because I have received several congratulations for how well my pitch, my sell sheet and my video were done.
During Mojo Pitch more than 10 companies were interested in my game thanks to April, Ed, I feel so grateful.
Learning and receiving feedback from table top game professionals gave me the confidence I was missing."
My favorite part of the course was Ed and April's candid interactions, they offer so much joy to the toy industry and a course they created themselves!
Even if you ‘know everything’ about game design it was amazing to connect with other like minded people and keep on a schedule.
Thank you Ed and April for dedicating your time and enthusiastic energy to teaching!"
My favorite part of the class, besides the game type specifics, was the synergy between Ed and April. They are fantastic together and really feed off each other’s energy. It’s a fun time and a great way to learn.
I would certainly recommend other inventors take the class and work with Ed and April! It’s so much great information and a fun, upbeat format."
Making a sizzle video really makes your game come alive. And only through this course was I able to make that happen. The confidence, that Ed and April instilled in me made this possible.
Playtesting was just one of my favorite parts of this course because it taught us how to change the rules of your game, if needed, and what works best by listening to play testers.
And if you believe the first game/concept you create will be your very best, you’ll be surprised that it’s only the beginning.
A Selection of Products Ed & April Have Created
Ed Gartin
A 22+ year veteran of the Toy and Game industry and the founder and Creative Catalyst behind Paper Bag Creative.
During that time Ed has been designing, developing, and manufacturing innovative new toys and games at places such as Hasbro, Toys R Us, Kosmos, Decipher TCG, and SwimWays, just to name a few. He’s led multiple design teams in the creation of highly successful brands and innovative new products. His career highlights include: Monopoly Gamer – the largest prime time launch based on sales in the 87-year history of Monopoly. Monopoly Millenials which Generated over 1.5 billion media impressions at launch. The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game, which won the Origin Awards for Best Trading Card Game of 2001, and Best Graphic Presentation of a game in 2001. Today Ed continues inventing and developing toys and games that bring families together through play, and inspire children to become the amazing people that they were destined to be. Having worked in every genre of gaming from Trading Card Games at Decipher, Family Board Games at Hasbro, and German Board Games at Kosmos; working everywhere from the boardroom to the factory floor to make it happen; Ed has seen it, heard it, and done it. Now, he would love to share that wealth of experience with you so You Can Master Board Game Inventing!
April Mitchell
April is an inventor/designer and product licensing expert who uses her background as an educator, military spouse, and the “Mom of 4 Factor” for developing and designing products in several industries with some help from her TEAM(family of 6).
As a teacher at heart, she has a thirst to share her experiences and expertise, which has driven her to work as a product licensing coach at inventRight and teach The Tabletop Board Game Master Class with Ed Gartin to aspiring game inventors. She also speaks on podcasts, webinars, and classes about all things inventing, mindset, and emotional health. April also writes a monthly column in Inventor’s Digest Magazine called Meant to Invent. Some guest speaking engagements include Inventors Groups of America, Military Spouse, USO Camp Pendleton, Inventorcon, and various regional inventors’ groups.
April is a 2x Patented inventor who has designed, developed, and licensed concepts in several industries. Her areas of expertise include organizational and storage products, kitchen tools & gadgets, party supplies, preschool toys & games, family games, party games, adult games, strategy games, sports toys and games, and outdoor/yard games. These products inspired by life as a military family, teacher, and mom bring both function and fun to families’ homes helping make life more enjoyable and convenient for everyone. Products that April invented or co-designed that are currently available for retail are Right Height adjustable over the door hook, Hooked on Hoops, and Clueless the Party Game. Stay tuned as more products are releasing this year!
Featured Courses
The Table Top Game Design MasterClass
will teach you to be a Professional Board Game Inventor in just 8-weeks.
Table Top Game Design MasterClass
Game Design Resources
This is a list of Resources that we use to Design and Develop Games and thought would be helpful for you to know about.
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