This is the last segment of my links and resources series. Here I will cover Facebook pages related to gaming. These pages can be a great way to join in conversations with other designers or post updates when your games get to the testing or publication phase. The blurbs listed here are taken from their "about" pages.

• Protospiel group
  
• A group to keep track of friends and contacts made at the Protospiel Game Design Convention


• The Alliance of Independent Game Designers
  
• ...a place for any and all game designers to come and collaborate, seek & offer help to fellow designers, and promote their products! We assist in development and play-testing as well as offer game reviews and a place to promote your games.


• Midwest Board Game Designers
• This is an open group for modern board game designers based in the Milwaukee, WI area. You bring a game you're designing and we all play it, but in return you must play other people's games and give honest and constructive feedback.


• Pizza, Games, and Zombies podcast
• We eat pizza, play table top games, talk about zombies every week! Mission: To Eat, Play and Keep our brains!


• All Us Geeks podcast
• We talk all things related to geek culture and what it means to be a geek. Movies, Books, Comic Books, Television, Board Games, Video Games, etc... We give voice to your inner geek.


• Nightstalker Games
  
• ...an independent card and board game developer founded by Eriberto Rodriguez. 


• Minion Games
• We are small group of game designers and artists that simply wish to get our products to market for all to enjoy. The easiest way to do that was to publish them ourselves.


• Garrison Games
• A Tampa, Florida based board game and card game company.


• Print & Play Games
• New games and old reprints, Game Parts, Prototypes
  


• We Don't Know Games
• Two old friends who make games when we can!


• Nathan Bryan's Games
• ...an Indy Game Design label that designs board games and currently the games are released through thegamecrafter.com.
  

This is another segment of my series of links and resources. This list covers some notable podcasts plus information on running a Kickstarter campaign.

If you missed the rest of the series, go back to part three: indie blogs. If you have sites to suggest, please add a comment.

Miscellaneous

• The Gamers' Table
• Check out their Indy game reviews.


• Board Game Podcasts
• A good consolidation of podcasts related to board gaming.


• Father Geek
• Parent and child reviews. They often look at indie games.


• RPG Podcasts
• A directory of podcasts related to RPGs. Many cross over into the world of board and card games as well.


• Building the Game
• "Join Rob Couch and Jason Slingerland as they take the journey to become first time game designers.  On each episode we  talk about games we play, game mechanics that we love and pitch our own game ideas to one another."


• Kickstarter Conversations
• A site that interviews people involved with Kickstarters.


• Kickstarters HQ
• "Our aim is to use all of these skills to help you learn how to find your passion, build a following and get funded on Kickstarter.com. Whether you've done this before or you're just thinking about it, we'd like to help you get funded easier, faster and for more with free audio, video, articles and events."

• Funding the Dream on Kickstarter
  
• A great resource for game designers hoping to Kickstart their products.

Go on to the last section.

There are tons of indie game designers out there. Many of the maintain blogs with interesting information on their design process. It may also be possible to arrange co-marketing deals with these other small scale game creators.

As always, please leave a comment if you have other sites to add. If you missed the earlier parts of the series, you can go back to part two: blogs here.

Indie Sites

• Grey Gnome Games
• News from the maker of Plague and Zogar's Gaze.


• Games of Muu
• Design blog by Fish of Muu.


• TCN Games
• Game design blog by SBoy of TCN Games.


• Sugar Pill Studios
  
• Sugar Pill Studios is the independent one-man game development company of Gary Dahl. Blog and a few articles.


• Designed for Play
• Designed for Play's design blog.


• Stone Manah
• Design blog of the maker of Of Power & Glory, Of Feast & Famine, and other games.


• Chevee Dodd
• Blog and game information by Chevee Dodd.
  


• Hyperbole Games
• Blog, news, and Hyperbole Games information including play-testing round robin.
• Also of interest, he aims to "Showcase great designs from other designers. I want publishers and players to know that a visit to HyperboleGames.com will result in something special. We have a great community of designers and players and I want to do my part."

• Grow Giant Games
• Grow Giant Games's blog.


• Battle of the Aces
• A blog specific to the board game Battle of the Aces.

• Stone Maier Games
• Makers of Viticulture, a game recently Kickstarted.

Go on to the last segment, part four: miscellaneous.

This continues my series on game design links. Here we have an assortment of blogs. I have focused on general gaming news blogs, while specific design blogs by indie developers will be covered in the next installment. Several of these take submissions where you can pimp your games.

Again, if you have additional links, please leave a comment. Also check out part one: forums if you missed it.

Gaming Blogs

• Cardboard Edison
• A great news feed with articles, quotations, and other links related to board game design.


• Penny Arcade Tabletop Gaming
• "Our focus will be on longer form journalism with in-depth research, interviews and data, highlighting aspects of the gaming lifestyle that many would miss at first glance."


• Meepletown
• They "bring you editorials, game reviews, session recaps, interviews, and more. While there will probably be a slant toward Eurogames, our goal is to cover virtually everything that can be played on a tabletop..."


• Tabletop Gaming News
• News blog. They take submissions here for just about any gaming news, including new releases and Kickstarters here: http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/submitnews/


• The Game Crafter News
• Items specific to the site plus industry news and links to reviews.

Go on to part three: indie blogs.

Gaming Links and Resources Series
1. Forums
2. Blogs
3. Indie sites
4. Miscellaneous

I'm beginning a series of posts on resources relevant to the indie game designer. I've accumulated quite a few links of forums, blogs, podcasts, and designer sites, so I thought I'd share. If you have any sites to add, please leave a comment.

These forums are great places to get advice, learn about design, or promote your games.

Game Design Forums

• Reddit Board Games
  
• A cross between a news site and forum, this feed focuses on "modern board games".


• Reddit Boardgame Design
• Discuss, brainstorm, post links to your prototypes and finished products.
  


• Board Game Design on Board Game Geek
• Industry sources, intellectual property information, and general discussion including posting new games.

• Board Game Designers Forum
  
• Includes forums, design journals, blogs, and other information.
  

• The Game Crafter
  
• Design forum. The site includes a chat function where you can often get questions answered immediately.


• Crafters Circle
• Message board for a play-test circle.

Go on to part two: blogs.

A small annoyance in writing about gaming is the usage of the word for preliminary game play–play of an unfinished game in order to test it. Yes, I'm talking about playtesting. Or am I talking about play testing?

It seems like playtest should be written together as a compound word, but when I do so, autocorrect adds a space. If I insist, I'm rewarded with an ugly red squiggly.

Writing "play test" makes the activity seem less specific. Aesthetically, it's just not as appealing to me. Maybe I'll start using "play-test". It has the feel of a compound without being auto-incorrected.

So this is the reason while you'll see a variety of spellings for "play-test". Regardless of how you write it, the important thing is to do it and do it and do it again.

What do you think is the best way to write "play-test"?