Q: Do you have any general advice for would-be game designers?

A: Don’t expect to get rich. Don’t even expect to break even. Also, playtest with people who are strangers, who will give you the hard cold truth about whether your game sucks or not. If necessary, give out anonymous response cards and don’t hang around while people play. We’ve seen some really awful games out there, thousands of boxes of which are probably still clogging up their designers’ garage space.