Development
Your game’s designed. Now, it’s time to develop it.
There’s a real difference between a game that works and a game that’s ready – for a publisher pitch, for a Kickstarter, or for production. Development is the process of closing that gap: playtesting with purpose, cutting what isn’t earning its place, and finding the best possible version of what you’ve made.
This is for you if...
You’re a designer pitching to publishers. Your prototype is good enough to pitch, but you suspect it’s not good enough to get signed. A development engagement finds the problems before the publisher does – and fixes them.
You’re self-publishing. You’re putting your name on this, so let’s catch the last 10% of problems before it reaches backers. Development makes sure the game shipping is better than the game you designed.
You’re a publisher. You’ve signed a designer’s game. It needs a developer who can run blind playtests, iterate against agreed targets – play time, player count, complexity, component count – and deliver a production-ready game on your timeline.
What development actually involves
Every game is different, and every development project looks different. In broad terms, here’s what I take responsibility for:
Importing your game into Tabletop Simulator for systematic virtual testing
Running playtests – not just gathering impressions, but testing specific hypotheses
Iterating on mechanics, systems, and player experience based on what the data actually shows
Balancing the game to hit agreed targets: play time, player count, complexity, component count
Working around actual production constraints: box size, MOQ, MSRP vs. wholesale margins, component cost
Finding the best version of the game – which sometimes means cutting mechanisms you’ve spent months on
What I don’t offer: Graphic design, marketing support, final production artwork, or crowdfunding management.
Packages
Most clients fit one of the following packages. We confirm the scope and the right fit on the free discovery call:
Development Only
Your game is designed. You need it finished.
Package 1 – $500 · Up to 15 hours: Light development: targeted iteration on a specific system, balance work, or addressing a known problem that hasn’t responded to your own testing. Max 3 clients at a time.
Package 2 – $1,000 · Up to 30 hours: Standard development: systematic work across the full game – core loop, edge cases, player count variance, expansion hooks. Max 2 clients at a time.
Package 3 – $2,000 · Up to 60 hours: Deep development: for medium-weight or heavy games with multiple interlocking systems, or a game that needs to be substantially rebuilt rather than polished. Max 1 client at a time.
Additional time billed at $40/hour.
Design & Development
You have an idea. You need a complete game.
Package 1 – $1,000 · Up to 30 hours For simple, party, or family-weight games. We go from brief to playable prototype to refined design. Max 3 clients at a time.
Package 2 – $2,000 · Up to 60 hours Standard package for mid-weight games. Full design and development, from core loop through to expansion possibilities. Max 2 clients at a time.
Package 3 – $3,000 · Up to 100 hours For educational games, professional-use games, or ambitious hobby titles with significant scope. Max 1 client at a time.
Additional time billed at $40/hour.
Payment: 25–50% deposit to begin. Milestones negotiable. Balance due on delivery.
Case study: The Listening Path
Christine Miles had a proven methodology for teaching listening – built over years of professional workshops and documented in her book. She needed someone to turn that methodology into a board game that could be used in classroom settings: educational enough to be credible, fun enough that people actually wanted to play it.
We worked through the design in virtual sessions: establishing what the core experience needed to feel like, sequencing the activities in a way that tracked the methodology, designing the friction and the flow, and making sure nothing was so abstract it confused a first-time player. As her team produced component drafts, we iterated on presentation and clarity at each stage. The game is now Patent Pending.
“Chris’s expertise was critical to being able to convert my vision into a game that was fun and incorporated all that is necessary to make it easy to play. I couldn’t have done it without him.”
– Christine Miles, The Listening Path
→ Learn more at thelisteningpath.com
From clients
“Chris Backe helped us develop our game Mⱥhr during the past year. It is fair to say that without his expertise we would not have brought the game to the state it is in: fully developed, playtested, and ready for production. Hell yeah we’d recommend him – and we’ll hire him again for our next project.”
– Benjamin Effer & Jason Terry, Mⱥhr
Start with a discovery call – it’s free.
Let’s take 60 minutes to talk through your project: what the game is, where it is in development, what your goals and timeline look like, and whether a development package is actually the right fit. No sales pressure. If a package isn’t right for your situation, I’ll tell you.
Some of my published games:
