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After watching the news filtering out of Mantic games regarding Kings of War with interest I began to wonder about the process of creation for a sci-fi/fantasy wargame.

For example:
How do you decide on the scale of miniatures to use?
Where do pitch the complexity of rules - do you go for detail or ease-of-play?
How important is establishing a setting for the game - does this inform the rules-writing process or does the game come first?
Do you follow established games for basic concepts or is developing a unique set of mechanics necessary to avoid the game 'getting lost' amongst all the other games out there?

I'm not sure how I'd go about writing a game if I wanted to and wondered how other dakkaites would approach this.

Well I think it would all start with an idea and tthen work its way into writing and play testing. But I think haveing an idea of what you want to do would be key.

I think what you need to do is first think of an idea for a seting for the game and work from that. Then create some rules and try them out with bits of paper to represent playing pieces. After playing a game try to improve the rules and play another game untill you are happy with it.

You make it sound so simple!

Writing the Vietnam supplement for Ambush Alley took nearly 12 months or rule changes and amendments and playtesting.

The Sci-Fi rules have been underway for two years I think and are just reaching the final playtest stage before release.

You start with the idea of what you want your game to be and do.

That's the easy part.

Then you break it down into increasingly detailed steps of how do I achieve my idea, and some things should come naturally.

For example, if you decide that you want to do a game of grand space battles, where fleets composed of thousands of ships with beam and kinetic weaponry engage in intricate duels of maneuvering and focused application of force, deciding your game should represent ships on a one to one basis, and every shot fired requires its own roll would be a very poor idea.

Rick Priestly talked a bit about game design for Black Powder and the original WFB rules in an interview:

http://www.battlegames.co.uk/documents/BG_HH-RP-JS-interview_unabridged.pdf

when i was younger say about in my early 20's i use to create various types of games...anything from rpgs and card games to miniature games.

the first thing you need is what setting you want your game to be...this is really easy but can be difficult as chances are something close to it has already been done. if you take a look at any game co. or even the various sub-forums here on dakka it will give you a general idea.

now that you have your setting you will need a general idea for what you would like your game to be. (note...some people say this is the first thing you need to do, but i find it more along the second thing.) now would you like your game to be something like battle mechs...gundam comes to mind. or would you like it to be a mix of robots and infantry, or just infantry itself. now that you have this done it just gets easier from here on.

ok so you have a general idea of the type of figures your gonna do which you got from your idea, so just have some fun with it and start finding pics or draw them yourself. now what i did when i made a wargame was to commision local art students to sketch out what your wanting, and for doing so it counted for their grades in class. this helps if you do this for a high school level. and once you feel you have enough pics for what you want to do, you are pretty good to go.

now this is where you decide how you want your game to be in terms of size...would you like it to be total armies like 40k or would you like a skirmish size armies like warmachine. now depending on which will help determine the rules for your creation. feel free to take a look at other game systems for ideas on your rules. also keep paper and a pencil handy at all times, you never know when you'll come up with a sweet rule. also you will find that for a skirmish sized game, that you will have more rules as you will have more options for movement, combat and so forth.

alrighty and this is the part that i usually hate...THE RULES. now from your ideas of rules and your note pad, you will have most of your rules already. you just have to go into more detail on the ideas you have came up with. this is a long and tedious process. but feel free to get outside input for expanding a rule section or two. now this is a trial and error process, but as your developing your rules you will need to play games so you can perfect your rules. as you do this it is advisable to work on one section at a time. for example...with your first playtestings your gonna work on your movement section or anyu have rules you have developed that take place before that. and continue on with each phase of a turn until you are comfy with what you have.

next...with your rules finished, they really are not finished yet. print out a copy or 2 and ask some friends what they think of it and if they are interested or request assistance get a few games with them to see how smoothly the game play is and get some feedback during and after each game. as this is done you might expand the rules or decrease the amount of rules.

and now comes the fun part. if you enjoy doing conversions for any miniature game you play you wont have a problem with this. finally you will come to the creation of the actual models. and this is where the drawings come to use. and i feel that this process is too much for one person to do by themselves so again recruit some art students or some friends and have at it.

and that is a general idea on how to make your own game...also it isnt something that you can do quickly it will usually take a few months but the making of the models will probably take the longest.

hope i helped any and good luck with your game

These days I find it's best to start with a game of Calvinball with someone that shares your design priorities, and to develop a game on the table before trying to write it down.

I too have wanted to develop a game, and thank you lliadon for the advice!

Usually you start with a setting/background, or a style. I.E. - I want to do a WW2 game or I want to do space combat game, etc.

Then you usually think of how you would like the game to actually play: I want a fast paced game that focuses on bloody melee battles. Or, I want a game that rewards thoughtful play and is all about tactical maneuver and long-ranged firefights.

Following this, is what I call the research phase. Generally it involves studying up about the period/setting you're designing the game around (even if you're doing sci-fi, research is still involved, as most scifi is usually extrapolated from some period in history, as well as getting inspiration, and figuring out a visual style, etc.), as well as seeing what else is out there (in terms of existing games) so you can see whats been done already, what people have to say about it, whats works, what doesn't, etc.

The next step is unnecessary unless you're trying to go for a commercial success. At this point, you usually have a good idea of what works, etc. how you'd like your game to work, how in depth/abstract it will be, etc. and you have a nice repetoire of game mechanics from existing offerings that you would like to pilfer... err... borrow from, but that basically just gets you a "new edition" of an existing game. At this point you're going to want to come up with some unique game mechanics or some interesting features of your game to set yours apart from the rest. There are A LOT of games out there that are very similar to one-another, especially in the historical segment. You've probably never heard of most of them (unless you've already done your research) because for the most pat they are virtually identical, and usually have low production values and are not "glossy" like 40k/fantasy/warmachine/hordes/flames of war/malifaux/uncharted seas/firestorm armada.

And now at this point, you finally start writing down the rules. You'll want to keep a notepad within 3 ft of you at all times at this point. There have been times when I've woken up with a brilliant idea in the middle of the night, and when I woke up the next morning could barely remember what it was. With the notepad, that hasn't happened in a very long time. Its also important to remember that as you go about writing rules, they WILL go through many revisions. Looking at my original rules for the project I've been working on, I've been forced to ask myself: "What was I thinking?" more than once. Through revisions, the rules will become more streamlined, understandable, and you will remove a lot of redundancy, etc. that you probably didn't even realize you had.

And once thats done, you playtest...

...and from there, well its up to what you wanted to do with the rules in the first place. Try to publish or just play with friends, etc.

Its important to remember though that game design is a non-linear process. You will loop back and forth, skipping steps and duplicating steps, etc. many many times while you develop and design your game.

This might help:
http://www.beastsofwar.com/kings-of-war/mantic-approach-creation-ruleset/

Start an internet forum about it right away so people can bitch about it.

snurl - you earn 12 internets

I feel encouraged to give this a go to be honest. I've got a sci-fi setting that I developed for an RPG many moons ago that I still have a soft spot for so I'll review that and use it as a starting point.

From what people have said background seems to come before rules so I'll get that straight and see if anything evolves in terms of playable factions. One thing that always seems common in popular wargames is iconic differences between faction choices... *goes away and ponders...*

Look here
http://weaselfierce.webs.com/

first off...thanx Klawz, im glad you were able to take something from my explanation...hope it helps you down the road.

@op: as you have noticed already there will always be different ways of creating a miniature game. just figure out what works for you and go for it. also as you make your creation come to reality keep track of how you do it so later down the road if you decide on making another one you will have a great starting point.