Last week at Toronto Comicon I interviewed a steampunk cosplayer who also designs props. He talked about how people approach him and want start cosplaying and making props, but they’re too afraid their work will look like crap. But that’s part of the process. And most importantly, that’s how life works. We all fail, learn from our mistakes (hopefully), and then make gradual improvements. Don’t let the fear of failure cripple you and expect to fail often. But if you’re going to mess up, you can at least do it the proper way. And board game designer Jay Cormier is here to help you do just that.

The world of board game design offers ambitious designers limitless opportunities. But with their freedom of choice comes increased frustration. Developing a game, a world, and a set of rules and mechanics is no easy feat. And if you’re jumping into the game design arena for the first time, things can get overwhelming really quick. Cormier’s Fail Faster Playtesting Journal’s goal is to improve your skills as a playtester as well as a game designer. Cormier has included an exhaustive list of items to guide you through your playtests to help make the process as efficient as possible.

The Fail Faster Playtesting Journal is listed on Kickstarter with three days left to go, and it has already reached its $7,000 goal. But there are still a number of stretch goals available to people who back the project. For more information, head over to Cormier’s Kickstarter page.

The Fail Faster: The Playtesting Journal

Designing a board game requires a lot of creativity, but also some discipline when it comes to the most vital part of the process: playtesting your game. The Fail Faster Playtesting Journal will guide you throughout your playtesting process to ensure that you’re capturing the right information as well as guide you towards improving your design.

At its core, the Fail Faster Playtesting Journal contains pages to keep track of 36 playtests. The journal is most useful if you dedicate one journal to each game that you are designing, but you could easily use one journal to keep track of all the different games you’re designing. Each section has been tested and planned for optimal use of space.