Where board game designers hang out

Board game design has an unusually generous community. Because mechanics cannot be copyrighted and every designer needs playtesters, the culture runs on sharing: designers openly discuss works in progress, trade feedback, and celebrate each other's signings. Finding that community is one of the highest-leverage things a new designer can do.

Online, the major hubs are the BoardGameGeek board game design forums, the r/tabletopgamedesign subreddit, several large Facebook groups (the Board Game Design Lab group is the biggest), and Discord servers like Break My Game that run scheduled online playtesting. Each has a different personality. BGG skews toward long, thoughtful threads, Reddit toward quick questions and feedback on images, Discord toward real-time conversation and live playtests.

In person, the anchors are Protospiel events (weekend conventions devoted entirely to playtesting unpublished games), designer meetups and design nights at local game stores, and the playtest halls at large conventions like Gen Con, Origins, and UK Games Expo. Many cities also have standing designer groups that meet monthly. If yours does not, two or three designers meeting at a game store is all it takes to start one.

You do not need to be everywhere. Pick one online community and one in-person outlet, show up consistently, and give as much feedback as you ask for. Reputation in this hobby is built by playtesting other people's games, and it pays back in testers, advice, and eventually industry connections.