Podcast #33 Podcast #33 An interview with the great Rodger B MacGowan Part 1
Rodger Mac Gowan has worked on over 500 wargames and designed various game magazines in his career. He is the holder of numerous games industry and hobby awards.
Rodger started playing wargames in high school in Oceanside California. His first amateur magazine was titled Arquebus in 1974 and in 1976 Rodger founded Fire and Movement magazine, an independent and professional magazine devoted to reviewing games. Fire and Movement Magazine has won 6 Charles S Roberts Awards for best professional magazine and was included in the Origins/GAMA Hall of Fame in 1999.
In 1976 The Avalon Hill Game Company approached Rodger to designed their wargame packaging. Rodger’s first package design for Avalon Hill was “The Russian Campaign in 1976, followed by Squad Leader in 1977, Cross of Iron in 1978, and Flat Top in 1979. Rodger would design the packaging for most of Avalon Hill’s Wargames over the next ten years resulting in over 24 designs along with cover art and interior art for the General Magazine.
Along with Avalon Hill, Rodger also created packaging designs for Game Designers’ Workshop, Simulations Canada, Operational Studies Group, Peoples Wargames, Yaquinto Games, Quarterdeck Games, Hobby Japan, 3W Game Company, Australian Design Group and others.
In 1990, as Art Director and Senior Vice President, Rodger helped to launch GMT Games. Over the last 30 years Rodger has been in charge of the visual I.D. of GMT Games by designing the game packaging, company and game logos, physical systems for the games, and the marketing image of the company. In 1992 he designed and co-founded C3i Magazine with a focus on GMT Games products and the History of the Board Wargame Hobby.
I met with Rodger in Los Angeles and we spent several hours discussing his life, career and the state of the wargaming hobby. This will be the first part of our discussion with the intent of giving you a unique view of the history of the hobby; through Rodger MacGowan’s eyes.
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