Stay ConnectedWelcome to Ludology, an analytical discussion of the how’s and why’s of the world of board games. Rather than news and reviews, Ludology explores a variety of topics about games from a wider lens, and discusses game history, game design and game players.
Ludology is part of The Dice Tower Network, the premier board game media network.
Copyright: © Geoff Engelstein, Sen-Foong Lim, and Erica Bouyouris
Erica and Gil chat with returning guest Banana Chan and our own Sen-Foong Lim about designing their game Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall. What's it like making a game about a specific demographic, and who is this game for?
SHOW NOTES
0m54s: Banana was last on the show in Ludology 228 - The Roles We Play. 4m56s: More information about the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. 18m31s: James Mendez Hodes discussed cultural consultation with us in Ludology 247 - Orc-kay Computer. 31m25s: Jason Morningstar joined us on Ludology 161 - What's the Story, Morning Glory? 40m33s: "PBTA" refers to a game with the Apocalypse World game system, aka "Powered by the Apocalypse." 46m08s: Calvin Wong Tze Loon 黃子倫 joined us in Ludology 252 - Crazy Rich Storytelling. 53m15s: The Paranoia RPG.
Scott takes us through the history of the classic word game Scrabble.
Gil and Sen chat with game designer, developer, and polyhedral dice addict Sydney Engelstein of Indie Game Studios about how to pitch your game to a publisher, the process of designing and developing Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, coming up with new narrative for Aeon's End, and what kinds of theater would best be adapted into a board game.
SHOW NOTES
8m28s: Obsession 19m07s: Race for the Galaxy 56m16s: Noises Off! 57m44s: Sen is making a reference to the game Thanos Rising: Avengers Infinity War. Then Sydney refers to the early Uwe Rosenberg game Mamma Mia. 58m46s: Gil is thinking that the game Sydney mentioned is Hamlet!
Geoff chats with Mikael Le Bourhis of Asmodee Research and Game In Lab about the work they are doing studying the impact of tabletop gaming on society and life.
You can find out more information from Game In Lab here.
Erica and Sen chat with localization expert, "gaming handyman," and occasional street busker Matthew Legault of Scorpion Masqué to discuss what it takes to move a game from one language to another.
SHOW NOTES
25m03s - Here's the bonus episode we did about the production and translation of Agricola. Scott Rogers also did a Biography of a Board Game about it.
30m36s - Guy LaFleur was a legendary ice hockey player who won 5 Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens.
49m57s - Strike, Team Team, Stop Thief, and Sen's game with longtime friend and collaborator Jay Cormier, Mind MGMT, based on the comic book.
In this classic Biography of a Board Game, Scott takes us through the sweet history of the kids' game Candyland.
Gil and Erica sit with game developer and new music fan Brenna Noonan to talk about her experiences developing games with her development company Quillsilver Studios, her experiences working on the smash hit Everdell, and the intersection of music and games.
SHOW NOTES
2m59s: Everdell, Roll Player: Adventures, Dog Park 6m14s: Erica and Scott chatted with the Laukats about making games as a family in Ludology 251 - All In the Family. 10m17s: Gil and Geoff discussed ludonarrative dissonance in games in Ludology 190 - Diabolus in Ludica. 11m22s: The sequence in question from the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. 12m33s: Sorry, spoiler alert! Hitchcock's Psycho had a legendary twist. 18m32s: Brenna mentions the productivity apps Toggl and ClickUp. 35m35s: A good sample Colvini brainburner is Carolus Magnus. Also Samurai, Sharang's episode Ludology 230 - Design Re-Verb, High Society 36m47s: The New Complexity school of music, Brian Ferneyhough, Conlon Nancarrow and his wild player piano music. (We should also mention the more recent phenomenon of Black MIDI music, like this MIDI version of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody with 2.06 million notes.) 41m06s: Coherence, recommended by Banana Chan in Ludology 228 - The Roles We Play. 44m04s: Brenna's 3 composers she'd have over for dinner: Kaija Saariaho, Giacinto Scelsi, and Frederic Rzewski 45m13s: Gil was close! It was Charles Ives, at a performance of his music. The exact quote: "You goddamn sissy... when you hear strong masculine music like this, get up and use your ears like a man!"
Geoff runs us through the Hypergeometric and Binomial functions in a spreadsheet application like Microsoft Excel. Don't be intimidated by their names; they're actually pretty easy to use, and invaluable for game designers.
You can find Geoff's GameTek newsletter on this subject here.
Erica, Gil, and Sen have a roundtable discussion about their experiences with contracts. What are things designers should look for when negotiating their contracts?
Note that none of us are lawyers, and at no point in this episode do we give out actual legal advice. If you need legal advice, please consult an actual lawyer!
SHOW NOTES
25m46s: Here's the Meeple Syrup episode on localization, with Mike Raftopolous.
38m18s: "Spin" is SpinMaster, the game publishing company that Erica works for.
43m01s: If you're not familiar with the story of the rock band Van Halen and brown M&Ms, here it is.
In this classic Biography of a Board Game, Scott takes us through the history of the classic deduction game Scotland Yard.
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