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
Sen and Erica welcome Dr. Mary Flanagan and Max Seidman from Resonym Games to talk about their latest game, Phantom Ink, that has generated a lot of buzz around the industry as it made the SdJ short list for 2024. They discuss design, international licensing, and even the afterlife!
Sen and Erica welcome special guest host Steph Campbell who brings you their latest segment, TTRPGKids. This week, Steph talks about how to incorporate math into games in the classroom and at the dinner table.
In this episode of Thinking Beyond Mechanisms, Sen and Erica welcome guest host Sarah Shipp as she takes on the contentious issue of Take That mechanicsms but frames it in terms of player investment to shed light on when the mechanism in question might rub people the wrong way and when it might be exactly what's needed to spice up a game.
Sen and Erica talk to Jonathan Chaffer, designer and illustrator of the Holiday Hijinks series of 18-card puzzle games. We chat about Jonathan's take on puzzle design, his use of technology to drive the component-light system, and his opinion on things like clues vs. hints and the concept of red herrings.
Erica and Sen welcome guest host, Steph Campbell, as they talk about how parents and educators can use TTRPGs to foster a love of learning in young students in this 16th installment of TTRPGKids.
Sen and Erica welcome Daniel Cunningham (AKA Iron Kitten Games) to discuss his role as a mechanical engineer and how he parlays those skills into helping publishers design storage trays, dice towers, and cardboard constructibles for modern tabletop games.
Erica and Sen welcome special guest (and new mom!), Sarah Shipp, back to her role on the Ludology Network as the host of Thinking Beyond Mechanisms. In this episode, Sarah talks about the concept of perception and how game designers need to hone their skills in this area, particularly when it comes to playtesting.
Erica and Sen talk to Michael Orion of www.rollingwizards.com about his recent move to Vietnam and his thoughts on the country's developing game design scene and, more broadly, the tabletop scene across South East Asia.
In this episode of Pros and Cons, Sen talks to Steph, Gordon, and Liam at Origins 2023 as they were getting ready for their biggest Kickstarter to date: Mistwind designed by Daryl Andrews and Adrian Adamescu which is currently making a splash!
In this interview, Sen talks to Jessica Geyer, President of the Indie Game Developers Network (https://www.igdnonline.com/) at Origins 2023 to find out what the IGDN can do for indie game devs and how that differs from the Tabletop Game Designers Association (TTGDN) would like to offer members.
In this episode, Sen interviews Smoox Chen at the Gathering of Friends in 2023, talking about his work with Taiwan Boardgames Design and how he's trying to get more eyes on games by Taiwanese designers.
This week, special guest host Steph Campbell tells us about the TTRPG Inspirisles and breaks down the specifics of what makes it "educational" beyond it simply being a TTRPG.
Sen and Erica welcome Lin Codega and Chase Carter from Rascal News to talk about the importance of independent journalism in the tabletop gaming space. Rascal News has a few weeks left in their funding drive, so if you value the independent press, support efforts like theirs at www.rascal.news
Sen and Erica interview Rebecca Strang, a librarian and game designers who promotes gaming in libraries and is active on the Gaming Round Table of the American Library Association. Rebecca was also recently featured in "Games for a Rainy Day," a book with 54 micro-games, puzzles, and more. Why do boardgames and libraries go hand in hand? Let's find out!
In this installment of TTRPGKids, Special Guest Host Steph Campbell talks about how TTRPGs can be used in the classroom to help students gain social and emotional learning (SEL) skills.
Sen talks to Patrick Leder from Leder Games at Origins 2023 in this installment of Pros and Cons. We're almost caught up with 2023's shows and we're recording 2024's Pros and Cons episodes right now! So much more to come!
Sen interviews Matt Faulisi, marketing manager at Skybound Tabletop, at Origins 2023. The Pros and Cons series continues in 2024 and we'll be slowly releasing those over the 2024/2025 season, first to Patreon subscribers and later in the schedule. Thanks for listening!
Sen and Erica welcome Whitney Red Loraine to the podcast to talk about how her experiences as a boardgame cafe owner / operator has informed her as she transitioned to become a boardgame designer.
To start off their second year with Ludology, Steph Campbell of TTRPGKids sets the stage for the next 12 episodes that will deal with using TTRPGs for educational purposes. They start the discussion off by talking about the various ways that TTRPGs can help students connect more with learning materials versus more traditional routes.
Sen and Erica welcome Nat Delaney-John and Cam Jasson, creators and publishers of That Sound Game - a noisy game for weird people to Ludology to talk about how they connected with their audience in order to take a different road to publication than what it typically done these days.
Erica and Sen welcome Mandi Hutchinson from Salt & Sass to talk about trends in videogames using tabletop gaming mechanisms as well as ports from the console to the tabletop.
Special Guest Host Steph Campbell gives several suggestions on how to keep a good pace for younger players through using story and shifting focus from player to player while playing TTRPGs at home or in the classroom.
Sen and Erica interview Rita Orlov, the mind behind the enchanting and challenging Postcurious line of puzzle games, or puzzletales as she calls them. Find out more about how Rita conceptualizes, designs, and tests her games and what's so intriguing about them.
Sen talks with the always awesome Omari Akil at Origins 2023. They talk about making games, making music, and making authenticity the goal for the next year.
In her 10th installment, special guest host Sarah Shipp lends her insights into how thematic win condition not only drive play, but allow for better immersion.
TTRPG Kids' host Steph Campbell joins us once again to drop knowledge about how to set up great encounters for your children or students. Whether those encounters are in a familiar system or a new one, whether they focus on combat or puzzles or social relationships, Steph gives great advice to set your kids up for success!
In this episode, Sen and Erica speak with Laia Gonzales, one half of Wonderbow Games about their amazingly successful Kickstarter project, Kelp, and the unfortunate issues that arose because of said success. Laia talks about the illicit copies of Kelp that were being sold even before their campaign ended and the continuous struggle she experiences as she wages war against the counterfeiters.
In the last episode, Sarah Shipp discussed the concept of gates that actively and intentionally restrict player agency as a useful tool for game design. In this episode, she takes a more in depth look at gates that specifically force players to confront loss. Spoiler Alert: if you intend to play the videogames Portal or Death Stranding, you may wish to avoid this episode. The Death Stranding video that Sarah refers to can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCCfeAvlNeQ
This episode, Erica and Sen welcome David Mullich to the show. David is a game designer and educator who was involved with outlining the requirements for the Game Design Merit Badge for the Boy Scouts of America. We talk about all of the things a Scout must accomplish to earn this badge as well as David's long and storied career in making games.
Guest host Steph Campbell talks about how to include educational elements to TTRPG sessions for children in the classroom and at the dining room table in this installment of their TTRPG Kids series.
Erica and Sen welcome Asger Granerud to the podcast to talk about the design decisions behind the hit deckbuilder, Heat: Pedal to the Metal, Asger also discusses his new publishing partnership, Sidekick Games, and their mission to create generational games like their forthcoming title, Aqua.
In this episode, special guest host, Sarah Shipp, talks about how gates restrict player agency and still manage to create interesting player decisions despite these constraints.
Erica and Sen welcome the Podfather of Gaming, Stephen Buonocore. to the show for his annual update on what is currently impacting the tabletop gaming industry. Stephen talks about everything from post-lockdown fallout to AI use. Listen to see what he thinks about many of the pressing issues hobby gaming is facing. What are your thoughts?
In this installment of Steph Campbell's TTRPGKids, they discuss how to tailor-make a system for YOUR particular child, creating something custom that both you and your little gamer will enjoy!
Dave Chalker (co-designer of Restoration Game's Thunder Road) joins Erica and Sen to talk about toys, games, and toyetic games.
In this installment of Thinking Beyond Mechanisms, Sarah Shipp discusses the concept of Decision Space and the five elements that comprise it: Logic, Strategy, Agency, Motivation, and Emotion.
Erica and Sen make some resolutions about game design and predictions about the tabletop industry to ring in the new year!
In this episode of Pros and Cons Sen meets with Kristen Mott, who talks about how she recently broke into the industry, how she designs with her children as playtesters, and how she's explored non-traditional markets for publication. Recorded at Origins Game Fair in Columbus, OH in June 2023.
Sen chats with Jordan Goddard about the growth of his family endeavor - Indy Toy Lab, a toy and game design studio with hobby roots that's aiming it's sights at the mass market. This podcast was recorded at Origins Game Fair in June of 2023 in Columbus, OH.
In this second installment of talking to industry pros at gaming conventions, Sen chats with Tuesday Badell and Ben Begeal at Origins in Columbus, June 2023. We talk about design-centric conventions in general and the specific philosophy behind UnPub.
In the Pros and Cons series, Sen interviews industry professionals live at game conventions around the world. In this first installment, Sen interviews Andy Kim - designer of The Spill from Smirk & Laughter Games - at Toronto's BreakoutCon in March 2023. Andy talks about The Spill, spas, and upcoming designs.
Steph brings their monthly dose of TTRPG advice to the table, this time extolling the benefits of playing roleplaying games with young children in the home or classroom.
This week, Erica and Sen welcome writer, designer, and relucatant movie star Calvin Wong Tze Loon 黃子倫 to talk about his piece in "What Board Games Me To Me: Tales from the Tabletop," an anthology of short essays written by people from across the board game industry that was recently published by Aconyte Books. Join us as we find out more about the book and what Calvin finds so humanizing about games in their many forms.
Erica and Sen speak with Ami Baio of Pink Tiger Games about her line of social communication games, how she makes them, and how she's able to find success outside of traditional markets for board games.
In the 7th installment of this series, Steph covers their strategies for helping children cope with spells, tracking information and more, offering practical solutions so you, too, can game with your kiddos!
Sen and Erica ask each other questions collected from our Patreon supporters about the differences between designing a board game and an RPG, what working for a mass market game company is like, how we balance games, what we did to break into the industry, and more!
In her segment, Thinking Beyond Mechanisms, Sarah Shipp talks about psychologist Steven Reiss' 16 Motivators or Human Needs in terms of game design and how considering these can help make a more engaging game.
Will Meadows from the Tantrum House channel joins Erica and Sen to talk about his recent experience at the board gaming convention to end all board gaming conventions - Spiel in Essen, Germany. Having been four times, Will is a veteran Spiel-goer and he talks about all of the sights he saw and games he played while there this year. Since Will had to go eat dinner, Erica and Sen finish he Ludological Lightning Round by asking each other the questions they intended to ask Will!
In this episode of our special series, guest host Steph Campbell discusses how to maintain the attention of younger players. They give several excellent tips and tricks to help your kiddos maintain focus at the game table.
Sen and Erica welcome Heather O'Neill (CEO of 9th Level Games, Managing Director of UnPub, and game designer) to Ludology to chat about juggling all of her roles and the state of the tabletop industry, where many people have to combine several roles into the equivalent of a full time job.
In this episode of Thinking Beyond Mechanisms, guest host Sarah Shipp discusses some of the terms that designers often talk about (balance, elegance, and efficiency) but turns many of them on their ear to look at them slightly askew. Sarah posits that thinking about these elements in the opposite may help struggling designers recognize their role in creating a game that meets these lofty (and often vague) goals.
Sen and Erica welcome Brian Lenz from Delano Games (www.delanogames.com) to discuss the intricacies of manufacturing board games in North America this week on Ludology.
Special guest host, Steph Campbell, discusses how they introduced their son to TTRPGs at the ripe old age of 2.
Erica and Sen welcome Travis Severance, owner of Millennium Games - the largest game store in the United States - to the podcast. Travis brings years of retail experience to the table and lends insight into what sells games. From puzzles to pickleball and everything in between, Travis sheds light on how games and hobbies are merchandised to customers and we discuss if there's anything about game or product design that can help retailers do what they do best. Note: You'll hear a dog barking intermittently for about 10 minutes from around the 5 minute mark. Our apologies; we couldn't filter that out.
Guest host, Sarah Shipp, talks about the concept of resonance when designing games, SUCCESS (from "Made to Stick" by Chip & Dan Heath), and Sarah's own equation for resonance: Familiary + Unexpectedness - Chaff Also, see Sarah's GDC talk on Creating Resonance with Thematic Design available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61YNkTv3xgM
Erica and Sen welcome Pam Walls, a designer who specializes in party games, to the Ludology Podcast. Pam provides excellent insight into what it takes to make large and diverse groups of people want to play a game together. Pam's latest creation, Blob Party, was a Gen Con 2023 release for Wiz Kid Games.
In the fourth installment of TTRPG Kids, Steph talks about how to pick a setting that is engaging for the children that you're gaming with.
Sen and Erica welcome designer and Dice Tower member Roy Cannaday to the show to tell us about his experience at Gen Con 2023 that was made extra special because it was also the official launch of his first game, Last Light.
Guest host, Sarah Shipp, discusses Artistotle's Classical Unities and explores how unity of action, time, and place can be used to design a more cohesive game.
Erica and Sen discuss their comings and goings over the past few months. Sen attended Origins in June and Erica went to SDCC in July. So before they both head to Gen Con in August, they figured they should touch base and see what each other were up to!
In this episode, Steph talks about their use of safety tools and how they modified some for use with their son.
Erica and Sen welcome designer, author and game studies professor, Gordon Calleja to the show to discuss his book "Unboxed: Board Game Experience and Design" from the MIT Press (ISBN 978-0-262-54395-8). Gordon gives a chapter-by-chapter rundown of the book that will be the focus of our first Ludology Book Club event - stay tuned for further information!
Segment host Sarah Shipp returns to talk about the concept of immersion in tabletop games. Amongst others, Sarah references Gordon Calleja theories on immersion in her discussion - Gordon will be next week's guest on the main Ludology podcast.
Erica and Sen welcome Danielle Reynolds and Nick Bentley to the show to talk about how HerStory from Underdog Games was designed.
Join Steph Campbell of TTRP Kids as they delve into the difficult topic of kids wanting to do "bad" things when playing TTRPGs. How can parents and educators deal with this in a constructive way. Is the child actually being "bad" or are they just inquisitive? How can we determine this and what learning can occur from "bad" behavior? (Sound Effects from Pixabay)
Erica and Sen talk to Nicholas Yu, the designer responsible in part for games like Adventure Tactics and the recent release D&D Onslaught. Nick brings a wealth of knowledge about playing and designing tactical war games in the tabletop space. We discuss LOS, competitive wargaming, and more in this episode.
This segment features guest host Sarah Shipp of Shippboard Games. For the next year, Sarah will be taking a look at aspects of game design that go beyond the basics of rolling dice or drawing cards. In this introductory monthly mini-sode, Sarah posits that the question of theme first or mechanics first is a false dichotomy.
Sen and Erica welcome Morten Monrad Pedersen, founder of the Automa Factory, to the podcast to discuss designing solo modes for tabletop games. Morten has been involved with the solo modes for games such as Scythe, Viticulture, and Gaia Project.
Steph Campbell of TTRPG Kids gives parents and teachers some simple, practical tips on how to adapt tabletop role playing games for use with children in the home and classroom. In this episode, Steph talks about how to work with some of the more common aspects of TTRPGs (e.g. randomization, stats, bonuses, etc.) with children as they develop skills in literacy and numeracy.
It's a celebration! To mark the 300th episode of Ludology, Erica and Sen invite some of the past hosts (including co-founders Geoff Engelstein and Ryan Sturm, Scott Rogers, and Emma Larkins) to share some of their most impactful memories about the games they loved to play, create, and share with those around them. Please keep an eye out for the giveaways mentioned in this episode by following us on www.patreon.com/Ludology. Thanks for sticking with us for 300 episodes and here's to 300 more!
Sen and Erica sit down with Matt Paquette, graphic designer behind many of the games on your shelves, to discuss how he lays out all of the information needed to play a game in a logically flowing and concise visual hierarchy, specifically talking about how good card frame design can improve end user experience.
Erica and Sen talk with Carlos Flores and Eric Zimmerman about the recently released Green Games Guide, a document chock full of sustainable goodness for those in the tabletop industry hoping to lessen their products' impact on the environment. Find out more about how you can be a part of the movement to improve gaming's sustainability as a consumer, a designer, or a publisher.
Erica and Sen talk with Carlos Flores and Eric Zimmerman about the recently released Green Games Guide, a document chock full of sustainable goodness for those in the tabletop industry hoping to lessen their products' impact on the environment. Find out more about how you can be a part of the movement to improve gaming's sustainability as a consumer, a designer, or a publisher.
Erica and Sen talk to Pauline-Fate Kong and Marie Wong (Hot Banana Games) about their Ion Award-winning game, Steam Up. They dive into the mechanisms behind this game about Dim Sum and the Chinese customs that informed them. Apologies in advance for audio quality; our guests were recording on the same device so it negatively impacted on their relative volume at times.
This episode, Erica and Sen take a walk down memory lane with the Podfather of Gaming, Stephen Buonocore, as they reminisce about his time as the founder of Stronghold Games, his current role as a retiree / podcaster, and his future aspirations as a tabletop game designer! Stephen discusses many of the changes he witnessed first hand and talks about his excitement for what the future holds.
Erica and Sen bring Daryl Andrews onto the show to discuss his role as Head of Talent at Maestro Media, pitching games to publishers in general, and the importance of relationships in the industry.
Erica and Sen welcome Eric Lang, a self-identified Born-Again Mass Market Guy, to Ludology in order to review what the tabletop industry went through in 2022 and where he thinks it's headed in 2023. Eric brings a wealth of information to the discussion, having a quarter century of experience in the business of making games.
Erica and Sen welcome Tim Devine of Dice Up Games, designer of Color My Quest: A Colour & Cut Roleplaying Game, to Ludology to discuss designing RPGs for families as well as safety and calibration tools for children who roleplay.
Erica and Sen welcome artist Kwanchai Moriya to the show to discuss his process, his advice for new artists trying to break into the tabletop industry, his take AI Image Generators, and his New Year's Resolution for 2023.
Erica and Sen talk to Michelle Rundbacken and Yacine Merzouk, the fine purveyors of the Society of Curiosities, about their bespoke puzzle experiences that bridge the gap between the physical and the digital as well as their up-coming B&B escape experience!
Where are some of the places that game design skills come in handy? Erica and Sen talk to Nick Metzler, who has designed games for traditional publishers like Spin Master, murder mysteries in a castle for over a hundred wedding guests, and challenges on reality TV shows like Survivor!
Erica and Sen discuss how "Boop!", a new cat-themed 2-player game, became rethemed from an abstract game with the game's designer, Scott Brady. Scott tells us how the theme was integral in shaping the final product.
Sen and Erica talk with Pat Marino, designer behind Cup Head: Fast Rolling Dice Game and other titles from The Op, about translating videogames over to the hobby gaming and mass market gaming spaces.
Erica and Sen meet up with Jason Perez (Shelf Stories, cultural consultant on Puerto Rico 1897) to talk about cultural consultation, define some of the most prominent terms, and talk about how we can design better games while considering cultural impact.
Timestamp
Note
Link
00:00:50
Shelf Stories
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnaZ7055IWOdm8XCJfFRDcw
00:01:20
Puerto Rico 1897
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/367272/puerto-rico-1897
00:09:30
Uncle Ben dies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dre4TsXm_68
00:09:35
Batman’s parents get shot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAyxY5hF3ZE
00:12:58
Andreas Seyfarth
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/117/andreas-seyfarth
00:13:01
Reiner Knizia
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/2/reiner-knizia
0015:05
Jason’s critique of Lost Ruins of Arnak
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU7Mqg3XS4U
00:15:15
Feast for Odin
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/177736/feast-odin
00:15:20
Raiders of the North Sea
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/170042/raiders-north-sea
0016:40
Puerto Rico’s Power Outage Issues
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/12/power-outages-puerto-rico-hurricane-fiona
00:24:15
Cafe con leche
https://www.food.com/recipe/cafe-con-leche-puerto-rican-cafe-latte-114354
00:24:34
In The Heights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0CL-ZSuCrQ
00:29:21
“I Wish” songs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22I_Want%22_song
00:29:49
Boriken
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/361178/boriken-taino-resistance
00:30:01
The Taino people
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/what-became-of-the-taino-73824867/
00:32:06
Risk
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/181/risk
00:33:01
Liz Davidson
(Beyond Solitaire)
https://www.youtube.com/c/BeyondSolitaire
00:33:06
Jason Matthews (Twilight Struggle)
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/3877/jason-matthews
00:36:43
Chip Theory Games
00:37:53
Unconscious Mind
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/329500/unconscious-mind
00:40:06
Jason’s Discussions re: the Designer Diary for Gorinto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNMzATMGYc8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1wAgg99O0w
00:46:00
Dicetower’s Skymines vs. Mombassa Comparison
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n-vJbGqctE
00:48:27
Ludology Episode with James Mendez Hodes “Orc-kay Computer”
https://ludology.libsyn.com/ludology-247-orc-kay-computer
00:49:56
Root
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/237182/root
00:50:16
Tauren and Native American Imagery
https://www.academia.edu/13052741/World_of_Warcraft_the_Tauren_and_Native_American_Imagery
00:52:01
Owl Pizza Chef
00:52:16
The X-Men as :GBT Champions: From Outcasts to Elites
https://rabbitholemag.com/the-x-men-as-lgbt-champions-from-outcasts-to-elites/
00:55:02
Bruno Faidutti’s article on Postcolonial Catan
https://faidutti.com/blog/blog/2017/06/02/postcolonial-catan/
0055:28
Cascadia
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295947/cascadia
0056:43
Culture Club’s “Karma Chameleon”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmcA9LIIXWw
00:56:45
Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nXGPZaTKik
00:57:18
The Wedding Singer’s rendition of “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB3PdPMjeIY
00:57:30
Howard Zinn’s “The People’s History of the United States”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2767.A_People_s_History_of_the_United_States
00:58:28
The Buggles “Video Killed the Radio Star”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs
01:01:24
Tostones
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/16768/puerto-rican-tostones-fried-plantains/
01:01:33
Maduros
https://www.dulcetscintilla.com/platanos-maduros-aka-fried-sweet-plantains/
01:02:39
Greg Loring-Albright
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/89308/greg-loring-albright
01:03:01
One Stop Co-op Shop
Sen and Erica chat with Roberta Taylor about her games, diving deeper into Creature Comforts and the upcoming Maple Valley, specifically. They discuss cozy games and Roberta's philosophy towards design.
Roberta's BGG Page: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/12374/roberta-taylor
Geoff discusses what he calls the "Sweet Spot" in games, and how it can help your design.
Sen and Erica chat with Brian Neff, the freelance developer who currently handles the Unmatched System for Restoration Games, about the process he uses for playtesting and balancing a game with an ever-expanding roster that boasts just under 40 playable characters to date. They chat about how both quantitative and qualitative data drive the development process and how the game's loyal community has been an invaluable part of the process.
Timestamp
Note
Link
00:01:05
Restoration Games
00:01:49
Unmatched Game System
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295564/unmatched-game-system
00:02:18
Bruce Lee
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/279645/unmatched-bruce-lee
00:02:19
T-Rex
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/284778/unmatched-jurassic-park-dr-sattler-vs-t-rex
00:04:45
Alice
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/274637/unmatched-battle-legends-volume-one
00:04:48
Moon Knight
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/326933/unmatched-redemption-row
00:07:00
Cerebus System
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/23550/game-cerberus-engine-heroes
00:08:03
Star Wars Epic Duels
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3284/star-wars-epic-duels
00:08:43
Tannhauser
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25261/tannhauser
00:0901
Magic: The Gathering
00:09:02
Yu-Gi-Oh
https://www.yugioh-card.com/en/
00:09:03
Hearthstone
https://hearthstone.blizzard.com/en-us
00:09:13
Mondo
00:16:36
Noah
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/75911/noah-cohen
00:16:41
Rob Daviau
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/442/rob-daviau
00:16:46
Justin Jacobson
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/4083/justin-d-jacobson
00:17:20
The Invisible Man
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/294484/unmatched-cobble-fog
00:18:21
Dr. Ellie Sattler
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/284778/unmatched-jurassic-park-dr-sattler-vs-t-rex
00:19:10
Beowulf
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/325635/unmatched-little-red-riding-hood-vs-beowulf
00:19:51
Yennenga
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/335764/unmatched-battle-legends-volume-two
00:21:11
Little Red Riding Hood
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/325635/unmatched-little-red-riding-hood-vs-beowulf
00:23:57
Daredevil
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/326934/unmatched-hells-kitchen
00:29:01
Restoration Games Discord Server
00:30:55
Medusa
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/274637/unmatched-battle-legends-volume-one
00:30:56
Bigfoot
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/274638/unmatched-robin-hood-vs-bigfoot
00:31:10
Sherlock
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/294484/unmatched-cobble-fog
00:32:57
Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Cloak & Dagger
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/326936/unmatched-teen-spirit
00:34:55
Elektra
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/326934/unmatched-hells-kitchen
00:40:14
Bovine University
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlGC8YnfhN8
00:41:59
Colossus
https://x-men.fandom.com/wiki/Colossus
00:43:49
Wakka
https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Wakka
00:44:34
Unmatched Maker
00:46:27
When I Was A Young Warthog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EILeWQEDtMw
00:46:42
Slice & Dice
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.com.tann.dice&hl=en_CA&gl=US
00:48:03
Jawn
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Jawn
00:49:25
Willow Nightingale
https://twitter.com/willowwrestles
00:5024
Juice Robinson
In this classic Biography of a Board Game, Scott takes a look at how the horror game Betrayal at House on the Hill came to be.
Erica and Sen talk with Spenser Starke about his game, Alice is Missing, and it's jump to the big screen. They discuss how to design cinematic narrative structure into tabletop games, calibration tools, and more!
Timestamp
Note
Link
00:01:05
Alice Is Missing
https://www.huntersentertainment.com/alice-is-missing
00:01:17
Kids on Broom
https://renegadegamestudios.com/kids-on-brooms/
00:01:20
Icarus
https://renegadegamestudios.com/icarus-a-storytelling-game-about-how-great-civilizations-fall/
00:02:51
Dread
https://dreadthegame.wordpress.com/about-dread-the-game/
00:02:53
The Quiet Year
https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/the-quiet-year
00:06:47
Life Is Strange
https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/319630/
00:06:49
Oxenfree
https://store.steampowered.com/app/388880/Oxenfree/
00:06:50
Firewatch
https://store.steampowered.com/app/383870/Firewatch/
00:08:25
Vox article
https://www.vox.com/culture/21656220/alice-is-missing-rpg-text-message
00:10:19
Hollywood Reporter article
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/alice-is-missing-movie-1235173092/
00:11:10
Papergirls Cancelled
https://deadline.com/2022/09/paper-girls-canceled-prime-video-one-season-shopped-season-2legendary-television-1235113183/
00:20:14
RPG Safety Toolkit
https://t.co/gA6hV6VKqm
00:28:39
Chapman Film School
https://www.chapman.edu/dodge/index.aspx
00:30:14
Three Act Structure
https://www.arcstudiopro.com/blog/three-act-structure-in-screenwriting
00:35:51
Joseph Campell’s Hero's Journey
https://www.arcstudiopro.com/blog/the-heros-journey
00:35:59
Dan Harmon’s Story Circle
https://www.arcstudiopro.com/blog/dan-harmons-story-circle-screenplay
00:36:15
Save The Cat
https://savethecat.com/
00:36:44
Hamlet’s Hit Points
https://gameplaywright.net/books/hamlets-hit-points/
00:40:25
L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/did-a-silent-film-about-a-train-really-cause-audiences-to-stampede
00:50:59
Ten Candles
https://cavalrygames.com/ten-candles
00:53:09
Battleship
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/battleship
00:53:10
Clue
rottentomatoes.com/m/clue
00:54:16
Image Comics
https://imagecomics.com/
00:56:01
Blades in the Dark TV Show Announced
https://www.polygon.com/22652023/blades-in-the-dark-tv-show-announced
00:59:24
Game Night
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/game_night_2018
00:59:43
Dune Imperium
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/316554/dune-imperium
01:02:30
Cash Cab
https://www.bravotv.com/cash-cab
01:03:30
Powered By The Apocalypse is the best way to get started with tabletop roleplaying games
https://www.polygon.com/tabletop-games/22787981/powered-by-the-apocalypse-tabletop-rpg-explainer
01:04:26
Wingspan
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/266192/wingspan
01:04:30
Succulent
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/299372/succulent
01:04:33
Stardew Valley
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/332290/stardew-valley-board-game
01:04:59
Scythe
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/169786/scythe
01:05:18
Tales From The Loop
https://www.loop-rpg.com/
01:06:34
Cameron Cuffe
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1949036/
01:06:50
Rupert Grint
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0342488/
Geoff takes us through the history of the color blue, namely how difficult it is to make as a dye, and considers if we should value it above all other player colors.
Erica, Gil, and Sen discuss some of the tools and processes they use at the various phases of designing a game from their varying perspectives of an in-house designer, a publisher, and freelance designer/developer. SHOW NOTES:
00:08:31 DDS is an acronym for Detailed Design Specification
00:11:38 LucidChart browser-based flowcharting and more www.lucidchart.com
00:18:43 Canva free online graphic design tool www.canva.com
00:19:13 Tabletop Simulator is a virtual tabletop (VTT) run on Steam www.tabletopsimulator.com
00:19:14 Tabletopia is a browser-based VTT www.tabletopia.com
00:21:26 Also known as an MVP - a “Minimum Viable Prototype”
00:21:45 Filemaker Pro is a relational database www.claris.com
00:21:57 Nandeck is cardmaking software www.nandeck.com
00:22:05 Component Studio is a full game design suite that is hooked up to the Game Crafter https://component.studio/
00:26:06 Adobe Creative Suite is the industry standard for the industry in terms of graphic design www.adobe.com
00:27:54 Photopea is an online Photoshop equivalent for raster images www.photopea.com
00:28:29 GIMP is an open source Photoshop equivalent www.gimp.org
00:29:15 Inkscape is a free equivalent of Illustrator for vector images www.inkscape.org
00:29:57 The Affinity Suite is a one-time payment suite of graphic design and illustrative tools https://affinity.serif.com
00:36:46 Fiskars Rotary Cutter is Sen’s weapon of choice www.fiskars.com/en-us/crafting-and-sewing/products/rotary-cutters-mats-and-rulers
00:37:13 Arc punches, square punches and corner punches, oh my! This is an example of a 1” arch punch: www.amazon.ca/General-Tools-Instruments-1271M-1-Inch/dp/B00004T7WH
00:41:36 Midjourney and Dall-e are prompt-based AI Art generators www.midjourney.com / https://openai.com/blog/dall-e/
00:44:58 Some great sources for icons etc. www.flaticon.com https://thenounproject.com https://game-icons.net
00:45:32 Face generating software ThisPersonDoesNotExist https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/
00:48:46 Functional Fixedness is the psychological phenomena when a person cannot see any other use for an item because their initial understanding of how it’s used is the only way they think it can be used
00:49:10 Sunk Cost Fallacy occurs when a person will not make a change, even one that is likely to be highly beneficial, due to the perceived amount of time, money, effort, etc.they have already invested in the current strategy
00:55:58 You can record your screen right from Windows https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/record-the-screen-d70508e8-25a3-4b97-b78a-a467b5372e21 and MacOS https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT208721
In this classic Biography of a Board Game, Scott takes us through the history of the game Cluedo, better known to Americans as Clue.
Erica and Sen chat with game designer Mondo Davis about how to market yourself in the game industry.
Continuing the previous GameTek Classic, Geoff returns to the subject of AI in first-person shooters. Last time, we learned that researchers had engineered an FPS AI that could beat the best humans. This time, Geoff dives into the different strategies the AI tried, how it shifted over time to prefer distinct strategies, and what we can learn from this.
Gil and Sen meet up with James Hudson of Druid City Games to discuss the pleasure of games that are big, sprawling productions.
Scott takes us through the history of Kill Dr. Lucky, a game where, instead of trying to deduce the murder of a wealthy old man, you're trying to actually do the deed.
Erica and Sen talk with Dr. Tanya Pobuda about her groundbreaking research of representation in board games, the purpose of journalism, and her work in academia.
SHOW NOTES
2m01s: Emma and Gil chatted with Dr. Mary Flanagan on Ludology 226 - Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo. 7m37s: Two seminal works in the theory behind fun and play are Johan Huizinga's Homo Ludens and Roger Caillois' Man, Play, and Games. 27m05s: Analog Game Studies provides an academic, analytic look at non-digital games. 39m12s: Leonard Anetta's research paper The "I's" Have It: A Framework for Serious Educational Game Design. 43m34s: Elizabeth Sampat's book Empathy Engines: Design Games that are Personal, Political, and Profound.
In GameTek Classic 275.5 - MENACE, Geoff discussed a simple machine that anyone can build that can learn how to play tic-tac-toe competitively. Here, Geoff continues the conversation, this time with modern researchers using a neural network to teach a machine to play a first-person shooter video game, and the tweak they needed to make to see their AI become competitive with human players.
Erica and Gil discuss Erica's time so far working at Spinmaster, making mass-market games for kids and families. How is it different from making games for the hobby market?
SHOW NOTES
0m43s: We recently chatted with Sydney Engelstein of Indie Boards & Cards in Ludology 274 - Indie 500, and with Carol Mertz of Exploding Kittens in Ludology 277 - Combustible Felines.
7m28s: The Rubiks brand of puzzles, toys, and games, centered around the world-famous Rubik's Cube. And the legendary brand of Gund plush toys.
19m04s: Kinetic Sand
33m39s: The marvelous game designer Maureen Hiron.
42m00s: Splendor, 7 Wonders, Sushi Go
56m10s: Busen Memo
In this classic GameTek, Scott tells us about the history of Agricola, which sparked new life in worker-placement games.
Sen and Gil have a talk with game reviewer and critic Daniel Thurot of the marvelous game review site Space-Biff! about his distinctive style of writing, the difference between review and criticism, and theming in games.
SHOW NOTES
4m48s: The Settlers of Zarahemla 5m26s: Roger Ebert was a movie critic; Gil remains a big fan of his writing. Also: Tom Chick (whom Dan interviewed on his own podcast), Tom Francis 14m55s: Fort 29m35s: The recent film Men 31m56s: Sen and Jay's game MIND MGMT 34m37s: Sen may be referring to The Long View Podcast 35m40s: Mike Barnes, There Will Be Games 44m06s: Frontierland is indeed a part of Disneyland (California), as well as the Magic Kingdom in Disneyworld (Florida) 49m12s: Dan's review of Heading Forward. We had publisher Amabel Holland on Ludology 262 - This Guilty Podcast. 50m27s: Pope Alexander VI, Antipopes 52m37s: Charlie Theel, Matt Thrower, Thinker Themer 53m04s: That's about 1.2x1.2x0.9 meters.
Geoff tells us about big changes in store for Tabletop Network 2022, and why he's so excited for it! This is an amazing show for game designers, and you can easily stay for BGG.CON immediately afterwards. Please consider attending!
Sen and Gil chat with game designer Carol Mertz, senior game designer at Exploding Kittens. Carol has worked on many Exploding Kittens games, like Hand To Hand Wombat, Exploding Kittens: Recipe for Disaster, and Exploding Kittens: 2-Player Version. She's also known for her own designs, especially the wildly creative HELLCOUCH, the only couch co-op that uses an actual couch.
SHOW NOTES
2m28s: We chatted with Sydney Engelstein of Indie Game Studios recently, on Ludology 274 - Indie 500.
17m28s: But Wait There's More, Bad Medicine
25m40s: We spoke with Mike Elliot in Ludology 256 - You're Big in Japan, and with Justin Gary in Ludology 207 - Card Advantage.
39m26s: Inhuman Conditions
45m08s: Pass the Buck: A Game of Corporate Responsibility Management
48m25s: The Pixel Pop festival.
57m02s: Hellcouch, and the customizable hardware board Arduino.
Scott rassles up the tangled history of the Western-themed social deduction game Bang!
Gil and Sen sit down with game designer and chronicler Aaron A. Reed to talk about his project 50 Years of Text Games, in which he covered one important game for each year between 1971 and 2020. The project will be made into a book.
SHOW NOTES
2m21s: The Oregon Trail
3m13s: Gil mentions a bunch of games that Aaron wrote about: Adventure, Hunt the Wumpus, games made with Inform and Twine, 80 Days, Fallen London.
9m22s: Sen's childhood PET computer, Gil's childhood Panasonic computer
10m24s: The game Adventure, the company Infocom, and the rise of Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs).
14m16s: You can probably add board games like Gloomhaven to this list too!
17m28s: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game, with the infamous Babel Fish puzzle. Here is the text of the Infocom hint guide for that puzzle. Click "Next Answer" for the next step. Each step has spoilers, obviously!
Also, Gil was wrong, it was "only" 30 steps.
18m33s: Myst
20m07s: Infocom's "feelies." Several fan sites have information on them; this is one.
20m38s: Infocom's game Suspended had a ridiculously cool cover; a plastic injection-molded face with cut-outs for the eyes. The eyes you see on the cover are printed on cardboard beneath the face. Because the images for the eyes are recessed, they will seem to follow you if you walk past the game on the shelf.
22m54s: Robert Lafore's "Interactive Fiction"
26m46s: St. Bride's School
30m45s: The Oz Project
33m09s: The digital game Façade.
36m00s: Adventuron, Choice of Games' ChoiceScript, Inkle
37m00s: So Far, Photopia, Galatea, Trinity
42m01s: The harrowing dramatic film The Sweet Hereafter, which was an inspiration for Photopia.
44m46s: The seminal ARG The Beast, created to promote the film AI
49m47s: Here's the article Gil was talking about. Also, Porpentine's game With Those We Love Alive
52m35s: PixelBerry's interactive romances Choices, of which The Freshman is a story in the game.
56m10s: Ludology 151, where Geoff and Gil discuss what a game actually is.
57m57s: Aaron's book Subcutanean, which is different for everyone who buys it.
58m51s: Sen is likely thinking of Cain's Jawbone, a puzzle released in 1934 by Edward Mathers, under the pseudonym Torquemada.
1h01m27s: Archives of the Sky
1h03m03s: The short IF game 9:05. It's really quick; play it if you can!
1h04m10s: Star Saga One: Beyond the Boundary.
1h05m05s: Above & Below, Near & Far, Tales of the Arabian Nights
1h06m02s: Aaron's 50 Years of Text Games book
Geoff tells us about MENACE; not Phantom or Dennis, but the Matchbox Educable Noughts and Crosses Engine, which Donald Michie designed in 1961 as a relatively simple AI that would allow anyone to see how a machine could be trained to get better at a task.
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.
Gil sits down for a one-on-one with game designer, teacher, and lecturer Marc LeBlanc to discuss some of his game design ideas, especially his 8 Kinds of Fun and the Mechanics/Dynamics/Aesthetics (MDA) framework.
NOTE: Towards the end of the episode, Gil's mic cable started to get unhappy. Apologies for the static!
SHOW NOTES
0m50s: Looking Glass Studios, Ultima Underworld II, Thief, System Shock, Defense of the Oasis, Heroes Welcome
4m30s: Marc's 8 types of fun: Sensation, Fantasy, Narrative, Challenge, Fellowship, Discovery, Expression, and Submission.
9m31s: Wildermyth
11m28s: Nicole Lazzaro's 4 Keys to Fun, Self-Determination Theory, Quantric Foundry's Gamer Motivation Model, Jason VendenBerghe's Engines of Play
12m46s: Tim Fowers was on Ludology 165 - Fowerian Slip. Gil also mentions philosipher Roger Caillois and his book Man, Play, and Games.
23m52s: Reiner Knizia's classic auction game Ra.
31m34s: Spy Party
33m39s: Geoff discussed the Incan Gold experiment in GameTek 213.5.
36m46s: Gil's talk at Tabletop Network has been lost to tech gremlins. Fortunately, he gave the same talk online during the pandemic.
38m01s: Any mention of Caylus would make Ludology co-founder Ryan Sturm happy.
39m34s: Sharang Biswas was on Ludology 230 - Design Re-Verb. Geoff discussed his most recent game, Super Skill Pinball, on Ludology 268 - Pinball Wizard.
47m21s: 7 Wonders
51m08s: Slay the Spire
54m38s: Alan Moon's Oasis vs. Reiner Knizia's Through the Desert
56m05s: Return to Dark Tower, the Through the Ages digital adaptation, Pokemon Unite, Titan, Zach Gage's really bad chess.
1h00m02s: The Lynx web browser.
In this GameTek Classic, Geoff tells us about the strategies behind "Jeopardy" James Holzhauer's amazing run on the TV game show Jeopardy, in which he won 32 consecutive games between April and June 2019, earning $2,464,216. What does James do differently than everyone else?
Sen and Erica sit down with Matthew Dunstan and Dave Neale to discuss how they work as a team, working on a wide variety of games, working on a narrow group of games, and what it's like making a game based entirely in sound!
In this episode, Matthew mentions Postmark Games, his PNP project with Rory Muldoon.
At 37m31s, Sen mentions Piaget's Characteristics of Play.
At 44m15s, Matt mentions Ludology 265 - Hold Onto Your Hats!
In this classic Biography of a Board Game from 2017, Scott tells us the origins of the massively popular card game Uno.
Gil and Sen are delighted to welcome Geoff Engelstein back to the show to discuss the making of his hit roll-and-write game Super-Skill Pinball. What calls did he make when designing the game, and how much did it change from his original vision?
SHOW NOTES
3m29s: Take It Easy 5m38s: Limes 6m12s: Matt Wolfe joined us for Ludology 157 - Come Scale Away. Welcome To... 9m09s: Versailles 1919 25m58s: Yes, Games Magazine is thankfully still with us. Merchant of Venus 28m00s: Ares Project, the 1980 arcade game Crazy Climber 35m00s: MIND MGMT
Geoff tells us about the curious effect of endowment, and describes how both the game show Deal or No Deal and the video game Portal use it to enormous effect.
It's an annual Ludology tradition to invite The Podfather of Gaming, Stephen Buonocore, to the show at the start of each year to discuss trends in the industry. As always, Stephen flashes his business acumen and deep insight into what he thinks the industry is in store for in 2022.
In this re-air of a Biography of a Board Game from September 2017, Scott slices open the history of the game Operation.
Note: Even though Scott has stepped away from the show, we will still be publishing classic Biography of a Board Game episodes for the time being.
During our winter break, our co-host Scott Rogers pounced on a new job opportunity that he couldn't pass up. Sadly, this means he has to step down as Ludology co-host. In this episode, we'll chat with Scott about his time at Ludology, and ask him what awaits in the future.
Because Scott's job commitments have already begun, we couldn't find a time when we could all meet. So Erica, Gil, and Sen all recorded their questions in one recording session, and Scott recorded his answers in another recording session.
Erica, Gil, Scott, and Sen wrap up 2021 with a roundtable discussion on the hats we wear as game industry professionals. What are all the skills we bring to bear to make games, and how do we feel about them?
This is the final Ludology episode of 2021. We're taking our annual winter break. We will be back on January 23, 2022 with the next episode of Ludology. In the meantime, there will be no Ludology, GameTek, or Biography of a Board Game episodes.
From all of us at Ludology, have the happiest of holidays, and here's to a productive 2022!
SHOW NOTES
5m12s - Alien: Fate of the Nostromo
12m27s - “Spin” is Spin Master, where Erica works as an on-staff game designer.
25m54s - Route 66
28m14s - Gil should have said “at the start of the pandemic,” as we’re still in the pandemic! If you'd like to join his remote playtesting group (which he will hopefully be attending again soon), click here.
33m51s - Unity, a platform mainly used to develop video games.
38m57s - The Affinity suite.
51m38s - Here's more info about Amber Seger, Weird Stories' awesome graphic designer.
54m40s - Scott’s flat cap, Gil’s HUGE hat
In this re-air of a Biography of a Board Game from July 2017, Scott takes us through the history of former Ludology co-host Mike Fitzgerald's Mystery Rummy series of games.
Gil and Sen welcome game designer, manufacturer, publisher, game cafe owner, and convention runner Kenechukwu Ogbuagu ("KC") of NIBCARD Games to the show. From his home city of Abuja, KC has built up the board gaming scene in Nigeria almost singlehandedly, recently winning the prestigious Diana Jones award for his efforts.
SHOW NOTES
12m46s: Hobby World, Spyfall, Viceroy, Cosmodrome
14m58s: KC mentions the classic board game Ludo, which was based on the Indian game Pachisi. The American games Parcheesi, Sorry, Aggravation, Headache, and Trouble were based on Ludo or Pachisi; British people may know it as Uckers, while Canadians may know it as Tock.
22m07s: NGOs are Non-Governmental Organizations. In the US, most of them tend to be non-profits.
25m58s: See the Smart People Play Chess TV trope
34m08s: Bastard Café in Denmark, one of NIBCARD Cafe’s supporters
44m20s: Designer Eric Lang will be at AB Con, the convention that KC organizes in Nigeria.
45m36s: InstantSync
46m08s: Legendary designer Reiner Knizia
46m52s: Village War
Geoff discusses one of the most feared characteristics of early RPGs: the loss of a level. Why is this mechanism so hated and feared among players?
Erica and Sen chat with Shing Yin Khor, game designer, installation artist, illustrator, award-winning cartoonist, and Bunyan-ologist.
Shing Yin is the designer of the game A Mending, in which players literally sew their actions into cloth, and co-designer (with Jeeyon Shim) of the game Field Guide to Memory.
Shing Yin calls both games "keepsake games," as they both leave artifacts of play that tell the story of the game experience.
SHOW NOTES
4m15s: Gasha/gacha machine
7m05s: We chatted with Jeeyon on Ludology 244 - Games Brought to Life.
10m04s: The Oraclebird
12m17s: Gnomes, a Dutch book written by Wil Huygen and illustrated by Rien Poortvliet.
16m21s: In games, diegesis refers to anything that fits within the narrative world. If a video game wants characters to move right on the screen, they can do it diegetically by showing objects being blown to the right, or non-diegetically by flashing an arrow on the screen pointing to the right. Examples of board games that use diegesis well are Inhuman Conditions and Ca$h 'n Guns.
17m05s: Space Gnome Space
19m05s: Paul Bunyan
25m17s: We discussed audience agency with Haley E.R. Cooper and Cameron Cooper of Strange Bird Immersive in Ludology 214 - Escape from Reality. Shing Yin mentions Sleep No More as an example of immersive theater.
26m49s: Geoff and Gil wrestled with the definition of "game" in Ludology 151 - High Definition.
30m34s: The RPGs For the Queen and The Quiet Year
34m55s: We chatted with the tireless Banana Chan in Ludology 228 - The Roles We Play. The game they made with Sen is Exquisite Crime.
Scott Rogers takes us to the inception of the legacy game, and the one that started it all: Rob Daviau's Risk Legacy.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A BOARD GAME:
Erica and Gil are delighted to welcome designer Amabel Holland of Hollandspiele, known for making games with challenging themes using an unconventional publishing model.
SHOW NOTES
0m58s: Supply Lines of the American Revolution, Table Battles, Irish Gauge, This Guilty Land, Nicea, The Vote.
7m08s: Amabel is talking about her forthcoming game Eyelet.
15m02s: This is Geoff's game Versailles 1919, co-designed with Mark Herman.
17m28s: Benedict Arnold
18m34s: The Shackleton Expedition
21m16s: The Vote
28m22s: Nicea
31m38s: Irish Gauge, Northern Pacific, Iberian Gauge
32m29s: Winsome, Rio Grande
34m23s: Chicago Express
34m55s: Meltwater, An Infamous Traffic
36m11s: RIBBIT: The Jump, Move, and Block Game, Table Battles
38m51s: New Mill
43m45s: Westphalia
48m18s: Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
49m52s: Cheapass Games
53m46s: Tobacco misinformation campaign
54m37s: Gil was thinking of Brandolini's Law, aka the BS Asymmetry Principle.
57m55s: Horse & Musket
59m03s: Deinocheirus, Pterodactyl, Therizinosaurus
Geoff explains a mathematical algorithm that can help potential roommates figure out how to split the rent, if an even split would be unfair and the roommates do not value the rooms the same way. This mechanism is just dying to be used in a game!
Gil and Scott are delighted to welcome Martin Wallace back to the show. Martin was first on the show on Ludology 46 - Getting Down to Brass Tacks back in 2012 with Geoff Engelstein and a very enthusiastic Ryan Sturm. In this episode, we catch up with Martin to see what he's been up to in the last 9 years.
Martin is the designer of many well-loved strategy games, like Brass, Age of Steam (and all its related games, like Railways of the World), London, A Study in Emerald, AuZtralia, and A Study in Emerald.
Technical note: Martin's recording has some dropouts in it; unfortunately, those seemed to come straight from his microphone, so there wasn't much we could do about them. We hope you enjoy the episode anyway!
SHOW NOTES
1m25s: Lords of Creation
4m31s: Gloomhaven, the North Sea Trilogy from Garphill Games, Jamey Stegmaier.
8m06s: The Exit games, and the Unlock! games
11m53s: Games Workshop, Ian Livingstone, the British Steve Jackson, the American Steve Jackson, and the Fighting Fantasy books.
16m18s: Anno 1800
20m08s: Catan, Dune Imperium
23m55s: Age of Industry
25m18s: "Canal holidays"
27m28s: The World Transplant Games
32m46s: A Study in Emerald
34m18s: Gil regrets not pushing back on this point a bit harder; he doesn’t think turning indigenous people into monsters is as effective a technique as Martin does. For a good perspective, check out Dan Thurot’s post about this on his excellent blog Space-Biff.
35m53s: Terry Pratchett and Discworld
38m41s: Martin is referring to the events of May 68 in France.
43m53s: Imperium Legends, De Vulgari Eloquentia
45m28s: Ankh: Gods of Egypt, Medina, and “zugzwang”
48m40s: Our favorite Star Wars clones: Starcrash, Battle Beyond the Stars, and a special shout-out to Fugitive Alien.
49m10s: Carcassonne
53m03s: Discworld: Ankh-Morpork, Doctor Who: The Card Game
55m13s: Disclaimer: Many of us on Ludology are pretty down on the HP series these days, due to the bigoted views of its author.
56m59s: The video game Stellaris, the fantasy series His Dark Materials, and the fantasy collection The Silmarillion.
1h00m05s: Rocketmen
1h00m57s: The humble pasty
1h03m32s: Hobo code
For this week, we're replaying the very first Biography of a Board Game that aired on Ludology. In it, Scott talks about the classic game that got so many fans and designers into the hobby: Risk.
Scott and Gil welcome Nikki Valens, designer of Mansions of Madness: Second Edition, Eldritch Horror, Legacy of Dragonholt, Quirky Circuits, and the upcoming Artisans of Splendent Vale. We talk about making programming games like Quirky Circuits, app-driven games like Mansions of Madness, and campaign games like Legacy of Dragonholt.
SHOW NOTES
1m27s: Brown College
3m22s: Robo Rally
3m50s: Colt Express
5m53s: Magic Maze
8m18s: The Mind
35m49s: Betrayal Legacy
42m00s: "FFG" refers to Fantasy Flight Games, where Nikki worked for several years.
43m07s: XCOM: The Board Game
52m24s: Here's a compilation video of cats riding Roombas...
Geoff continues his dive into the probability of Pop-O-Matic dice, this time discussing how experiment results can be misrepresented through P-Hacking.
Gil and Sen are delighted to welcome Sara Thompson to discuss depictions of disability in tabletop games. Sara is the creator of the Combat Wheelchair for D&D, and of the Medicine on the Path supplement for The Witcher Pen & Paper RPG.
SHOW NOTES
0m49s: Critical Role, with GM Matt Mercer.
3m35s: The D&D campaign Storm King's Thunder.
15m075s: The Greek god Hephaestus.
17m23s: Jennifer Kretchmer's Twitter.
21m35s: The thread in question, in which Sara describes Geralt as disabled and how that significantly affects his story.
25m08s: The Witcher: Baptism of Fire.
32m44s: Lauren Hissrich, showrunner of The Witcher TV show.
33m45s: A sample clip of the very silly Steve Martin film Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.
46m46s: Amanda Leduk's book Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space.
52m19s: The Witcher: A Tome of Chaos supplement for The Witcher RPG.
53m22s: The Combat Wheelchair was featured on Critical Role episode C2E113 A Heart Grown Cold (at least, we're pretty sure it was!). It was used by NPC Dagen Underthorn. Also, Critter Hug is a show with Critical Role participants Matthew Mercer and Mica Burton interviewing people in the tabletop community. Here's the episode with Sara; you might recognize a couple other friendly faces in the same episode!
Scott takes us through the history of Quirkle, the smash hit game from Susan McKinley Ross.
Scott sits down with Erica, Gil, and Sen to discuss the design and making of his newest game, Alien: Fate of the Nostromo. We also discuss designing to an IP, and how to make a horror game.
SHOW NOTES
0m58s: The original Alien film
1m31s: The other board game based on the film Alien. Scott is not counting board games influenced by the film without the official license, like Nemesis or The Awful Green Things From Outer Space. He’s also only counting games based specifically on the original film, so board games based on any of the sequels, like Aliens, or Alien vs. Predator, do not count.
1m38s: The “Optimus Prime Conundrum” is a term coined by the legendary and wonderful podcast Flip the Table. It describes a situation where a game breaks the IP it’s based on by allowing multiple copies of one character. This was coined in their very first episode, in which they reviewed the Transformers Adventure Game, where each player gets to play a separate version of Optimus Prime.
2m00s: The publisher Ravensburger. Note that Scott pronounces it “Ray-vensburger”, while the other hosts pronounce it “Rah-vensburger”.
3m34s: The films Elf, Home Alone, and Gremlins, and the animated series Gargoyles.
8h25m: The Topps Alien trading card set.
11m15s: The Betrayal games.
14m11s: Back to the Future: Dice through Time.
16m06s: The film Ten Little Indians, also known as And Then There Were None. There have been several versions of this film, all based on an Agatha Christie novel.
28m59s: Scott is correct in that Alien is the first film to provide a genuine “cat scare” - that is, a jump scare that turns out to just be a harmless cat. The so-called “cat scare,” in which the source of a jump scare turns out to be something ordinary, appeared 35 years before Alien. TV Tropes credits it to producer Val Lewton, in his 1942 film Cat People. However, despite the film’s name, the source of the scare was a bus, not a cat. Note that one month after Alien’s wide release in the US, The Amityville Horror came out; it also featured a cat-powered “cat scare.” Perhaps between these two films, the cliche was solidified.
34m15s: The Horrified games: Horrified and Horrified: American Monsters. A short checklists of cryptids: Bigfoot, Mothman, Windigo, and the Jersey Devil.
36m39s: Camp Grizzly
37m17s: Clue/Cluedo, 1313 Dead End Drive
39m19s: Dread
39m51s: Kingdom: Death Monster
41m03s: Peter Jackson's "splatstick" film Braindead (released in North America as Dead Alive)
42m49s: Dixit, Weird Stories, Unspeakable Words
44m03s: Final Girl
45m05s: Mansions of Madness
47m47s: Geoff's book Achievement Relocked, Ico, Death Stranding, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Aerith from Final Fantasy VII
49m15s: Nyctophobia, Ten Candles, Vampire Hunter, Waldschattenspiel/Shadows in the Forest
51m39s: Apocrypha, the World of Darkness series of games (including Vampire: The Masquerade)
53m33s: Erica’s news: Disney Sidekicks, Rat Queens: To the Slaughter
54m29s: Sen’s news: Avatar Legends RPG
55m16s: Gil's news: GameTek on the global shipping snarl, Weird Stories
Geoff harnesses all his mathematical techniques to answer a burning question: are Pop-O-Matic dice truly random?
Geoff (making a one-off Ludology return) and Gil chat with Al Leonardi, designer of the legendary picture-book game Ace of Aces, and a legion of spinoffs using the same brilliant first-person system.
SHOW NOTES
4m19s: Richthofen’s War
8m18s: If you're interested about Ace of Ace's mathematical underpinnings, and its true nature as a hex-grid game, here's Geoff's article.
9m52s: There were two Star Wars games Al worked on: Star Wars: Starfighter Battle Book, and Star Wars Lightsaber Dueling (which was based on Lost Worlds, which we discuss later in the episode). Also: Dragonriders of Pern: The Book Game, Bounty Hunter: Shootout at the Saloon, and Ace of Aces: Wingleader.
11m11s: The Immelman turn, in World War I, was a difficult maneuver that allowed a skilled pilot to turn their aircraft around quickly. In modern aerobatics, it now refers to a type of half-loop.
16m58s: "Ditto sheets," known in the UK as a "Banda machine," refers to a method of print duplication used for much of the 20th century, and very popular in American schools at the time. People of a certain age will recall paper quizzes with a distinctive blue ink on the paper.
22m16s: Two more aerial maneuvers: the wingover, and the snap roll.
25m32s: Lost Worlds
27m48s: The Society for Creative Anachronism.
39m15s: TransAmerica, Ticket To Ride
Scott takes us through the history of Afrikan tähti ("Star of Africa"), a legendary Finnish game first released in 1949.
Related Ludology episodes:
Erica and Scott welcome game design legend Mike Elliott, creator of innumerable Magic: the Gathering and Pokémon cards, designer of Thunderstone, and co-designer of Quarriors and the Dice Masters series. And of course, of DuelMaster and Charm Angel, which were both huge hits in Japan. Mike also runs the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame, commemorating the work of legendary tabletop game designers.
SHOW NOTES
1m22s: NeoPets, Hecatomb, The Harry Potter Trading Card Game.
1m41s: Game designer and friend of the show Eric Lang. Gil and Geoff chatted with Eric in Ludology 175 - Auld Lang Design. , Also, Wiz Kids is a publisher that should not be confused with Hasbro-owned D&D and Magic: the Gathering publisher Wizards of the Coast (aka WOTC, often referred to as "WHAT-see"). Wiz Kids and WOTC are two unrelated companies, although Wiz Kids publishes some D&D-related products under license from WOTC.
3m24s: Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson are the credited designers behind the first version of D&D. Richard Garfield designed Magic: The Gathering, King of Tokyo, and Robo Rally. Jordan Weisman founded legendary RPG publisher FASA before starting WizKids. Reiner Knizia has designed hundreds of games, including Tigris & Euphrates, Medici, Ra, and Lost Cities. Vlaada Chvatl designed Through the Ages and Galaxy Trucker.
3m58s: Uwe Rosenberg designed Agricola, Le Havre, A Feast for Odin, and Bohnanza. Bruno Cathala designed 5 Tribes, Kingdomino, and 7 Wonders Duel. Maureen Hiron has been in the industry for decades, with games like 7 Ate 9, Cosmic Cows, and Qwitch.
4m31s: The Strong Museum of Play, in Rochester, New York, is a museum dedicated to play, toys, and games. If you're ever in Rochester, make an appointment with their archivist to look at Sid Sackson's meticulously-kept diaries; they are amazing. GAMA is the Game Manufacturer's Association, a trade organization of tabletop game publishers and retailers. GAMA runs the industry convention GAMA Expo (formerly the GAMA Trade Show), and the public convention Origins.
5m26s: Little Wars, by novelist H.G. Wells (author of War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, and The Island of Doctor Moreau), was a rulebook for playing with toy soldiers. That sort of formalized ruleset for a wargame was rather novel in 1913. Note the cringeworthy full title: Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that more intelligent sort of girl who likes boys' games and books.
7m39s: Here's the website Mike mentions. Note that Mike is in the middle of the photograph on the front page, in the black short-sleeved shirt.
8m31s: Here's the Biography of a Board Game for Pass-out.
9m43s: And here's the Biography of a Board Game for Quarriors.
10m22s: Del Mar, California.
15m44s: Hearthstone
21m34s: If you want to know more about the intersection of gaming and improv, check out our episode of Improv for Gamers author Karen Twelves, Ludology 237 - Improv-ing Games.
28m22s: Halo ActionClix, Star Wars PocketModel TCG, DC HeroClix: Batman (Alpha)
34m00s: The Dice Masters family of games.
35m04s: Duel Masters Trading Card Game, from WOTC and Takara Tomy (both of which are part of Hasbro), part of the Duel Masters franchise.
38m44s: Battle Spirits: Trading Card Game
45m27s: More information about Target halting sales of trading cards, including Pokémon.
46m01s: Thunderstone, published by Alderac Entertainment Group. Alderac is usually abbreviated as AEG, but is unrelated to the massive sports/music promoter Anschutz Entertainment Group, which is also abbreviated as AEG. Alderac is run by John Zinzer.
47m25s: Kingdom of Loathing
50m45s: Card Jitsu was originally part of Disney's MMO Club Penguin, which has since been replaced by Club Penguin Island.
54m08s: Quarriors
58m25s: Yahtzee: Doctor Who edition, and its TARDIS dice cup.
1h00m26s: The Quacks of Quedlinburg, The Mind
1h05m17s: AR games, or Augmented Reality games, utilize technology like phones or tablets to augment real-world locations with computer-generated enhancements. The most successful AR game at the moment is Pokémon Go.
1h07m53s: Mark Rosewater is the head designer for Magic: The Gathering.
1h15m15s: The film American Pie.
In this special GameTek, Geoff and Gil sit down with Justin Bergeron of ARC Global Logistics to discuss the global shipping snarl that's delaying so many board games (among other goods). How is it affecting the industry, what's behind it, and how long could it possibly last?
You can reach Justin via email.
Here's the web site for ARC Global's parent company, Logimark Group.
Gil and Sen are delighted to have RPG/story game designer Avery Alder on the show to talk about her games that show how communities deal with upheaval and change. We also discuss the change that RPGs saw in the past 20 years, going from the expectation of custom, bespoke systems for each game to the consensual adoption of systems like Powered by the Apocalypse and Forged in the Dark.
SHOW NOTES
02m39s: The Forge is no longer active, but you can read its archives here. Also, My Life With Master.
04m24s: The RPG Top Secret.
07m52s: Jiangshi.
10m36s: Here's Avery's talk at NYU's practice convention. Also, Dream Askew, and Apocalypse World.
14m09s: Dungeon World (note that its designer Adam Koebel has behaved problematically in the past, showing issues with consent in games - content warning for mention of sexual assault in link), Monster of the Week (and the Adventure Zone podcast), Avery's game Monsterhearts (now implemented as Monsterhearts 2), and the Powered by the Apocalypse system.
15m17s: Blades in the Dark, the Forged in the Dark system, and Scum & Villainy
16m36s: Dream Apart, Sleepaway, and the Belonging Outside Belonging system.
29m34s: Volley Boys, based on the anime Haikyu!!
39m19s: The Quiet Year
44m34s: Bohnanza
50m09s: Dramatic structures, including the 3-Act Structure, and the Hero's Journey
57m13s: The minis game Hordes, and its Legion of Everblight expansion.
1h07m13s: Geoff and Gil discussed hard vs. soft incentives in Ludology 185 - Soft Boiled. Also, Snow Tails.
Scott shambles through the history of the beer-and-pretzels game Zombies!!! He runs us through its various iterations, tells us what made it stand out from other games at the time, and discloses the personal impact the game and its designers had on him.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A BOARD GAME
Todd passed away in 2013 from cancer.
Erica, Gil, Scott, and Sen have a roundtable discussion about player counts. We go through each of the common player counts, as well as a few uncommon counts, and discuss what's special about designing for them.
SHOW NOTES
0m39s: Our thoughts about and general strategies for designing games at different player counts.
5m42s: 2-player games
9m20s: We chatted with Matt Wolfe about decision scales on Ludology 157 - Come Scale Away.
13m08s: Inhuman Conditions
13m59s: Belfort
16m24s: Alien: Fate of the Nostromo
19m41s: Pandemic
24m20s: Scott Pilgrim Miniatures the World
24m38s: 3p games
26m44s: The three-body problem.
27m38s: Here's Cole Wehrle's talk on kingmaking in games, and how it can be a good thing.
28m16s: Churchill
28m37s: Basari, which was adapted into Edel, Stein, and Reich in 2003 and modified to try to better handle a higher player count. Also, a note on ties with 3-players: it's impossible to tie on a vote with 3 voters (or any number of odd voters), as long as you are limited to two choices to vote for. Once you have at least 3 choices to vote for, the possibility space gets far more complicated (see the three-body problem above).
30m52s: Rayguns & Rocketships
32m25s: 9-5-2 is known by various names. Here are the rules to Sergeant Major, which is a very similar game; rule changes for 9-5-2 are further down the page.
Also: Carolus Magnus, Bargain Hunter, End of the Triumvirate (Gil was wrong, it can play 2 players), Three Kingdoms Redux
32m58s: 4p games
38m24s: Stuffed Fables, Between Two Cities
39m14s: Tichu
40m03s: 5p games.
Also, a note: Eagle-eared listeners will notice that you don't hear much from Scott from now until the end of the episode. He had to leave our recording session early, so we quickly recorded his bits for the end of the episode. And that's how the sausage gets made!
41m10s: 7 Wonders
44m16s: Alhambra, Alhambra: The Vizier's Favor, Catan: 5-6 Player Extension
47m36s: 6p games
50m44s: Godfather: A New Don. The "other Godfather game" Sen is hinting at is The Godfather: Corleone's Empire by friend of the show Eric Lang.
54m43s: Floor Plan, Welcome To..., Take It Easy, Time's Up, Karuba
56m11s: Werewolf, Two Rooms and a Boom
57m11s: The Unlock! series of games, Cranium
1h00m59s: Terra Mystica
1h01m23s: Arkham Horror
1h02m02s: 1p games. If you want to know more about designing solo versions of games, check out Ludology 154 - Leave Me Alone! (with Morten Monrad Pedersen), Ludology 234 - Playing With Time (with Dávid Turczi), and Ludology 248 - Solo-liloquy (with Carla Kopp).
1h05m12s: Onirim
1h06m38s: Chainsaw Warrior. Sen also mentions Ian Livingstone, who created the Fighting Fantasy series of interactive books with Steve Jackson (that is, the British Steve Jackson who co-founded Games Workshop, not the American Steve Jackson who designed Ogre, GURPS, Illuminati, and Munchkin. To muddy the picture further, the latter Steve Jackson authored three Fighting Fantasy books himself!).
1h07m33s: Kingdom Rush: Rift in Time
1h10m03s: 0p games, starting with So, You've Been Eaten. (Note that the BGG header only shows it as a 1-2 player game; technical limitations prevent it from properly showing as a 0-2 player game.)
1h11m34s: Strat-o-matic Baseball
1h13m30s: In Ludology 142 - Slots of Fun, Geoff and Mike chatted with slot machine designer Jeremy Hornik.
1h15m19s: Another link to Alien: Fate of the Nostromo.
1h15m43s: Sen's project: Avatar: Last Airbender RPG, Tiny Frontiers: Mecha and Monsters (referred to as "Mechs vs. Kaiju"), Coded Chronicles (Jay and Sen have already designed games with the Scooby Doo and The Shining licenses for this series), Dungeon & Dragons: Rock Paper Wizard
1h16m34s: Erica's projects: Rat Queens: To the Slaughter, Disney Sidekicks
1h17m37s: Gil's projects: Networks Broken Token insert, shipping issues, con season coming up
Geoff discusses the knitting community, how some knitters make the leap from hobby into entrepreneurship, and how research has shown the one thing that many of these self-employed knitters have in common. What can board gamers learn from this?
Erica and Scott welcome graphic designer, production superhero, and prototype craft wizard Lindsay Daviau to the show. We talk about her experience at Hasbro making (among many other things) fake games for fake stores. We also bring up her favorite games that she worked on, and her job at Restoration Games (with her husband Rob, who you may have heard of), where she works on games like Unmatched, Fireball Island, Stop Thief, and the soon-to-come Return to Dark Tower.
SHOW NOTES
04m10s: This is Don Norman's legendary book, Design of Everyday Things. It frequently comes up in this show, although despite what Scott says, we have never done a dedicated episode on it. We did discuss it a lot with game designer and graphic designer Daniel Solis on Ludology 204 - The Eyes Have It.
05m09s: The prestigious Rhode Island School of Design (RISD, pronounced "RIHS-dee").
12m57s: For those of you outside the US, the functional metric equivalent to 11"x17" paper is A3.
16m12s: The most recent Pandemic Legacy game is Pandemic Legacy: Season 0.
16m56s: Laser cutters emit toxic fumes; please only ever use them with proper ventilation!
17m48s: The Brother ScanNCut.
18m34s: Gil's tip for making quick tokens: get a bunch of circle labels, and a bunch of poker chips! 1" diameter labels work well for standard poker chips, 0.5" diameter labels work well for mini poker chips. Once you set up to print to the circle template, you can make a bunch of tokens very quickly. And to replace them, simply print new labels and stick them above the old labels. It's great for early prototypes where the shape of the token is not hugely important!
21m08s: Heroscape
42m09s: The web suggestion form Lindsay mentions is right on Restoration's front page!
45m24s: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
46m41s: Pillars of the Earth is both a well-known book by Ken Follett and a solid worker-placement board game with a polarizing turn order mechanism.
49m00s: This cake discussion actually came relatively early in the interview. It was a bit too much of a tangent to include in the main episode, but we've put it here as a bonus. Enjoy!
53m24s: For more on edible board games, check out Ludology 210 - The Way to a Gamer's Heart, in which we chat with Jenn Sandercock about her cookbook/rulebook where she gives recipes and instructions for several edible games.
Scott rampages through the history of Richard Garfield's hit game King of Tokyo. How was this game made, and what did its standalone sequel King of New York add to it?
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A BOARD GAME
Gil and Sen welcome Calvin Wong Tze Loon 黃子倫 to the show to discuss narrative in games. How can we improve a game's narrative through its mechanisms, its components, and even its box size?
SHOW NOTES
0m46s: Calvin played P.T. Goh in the film Crazy Rich Asians. Also, info on Twilight Imperium's expansion Prophecy of Kings that Calvin did some writing for, and forthcoming RPG Embers of the Imperium.
3m16s: "Mayfair" in UK-based editions of Monopoly is equivalent to "Boardwalk" in US-based editions of the game.
7m39s: Android: Netrunner
10m18s: The fan organization NISEI, currently supporting organized Netrunner play, releasing new cards, and keeping the game alive.
11m28s: Here's what Gil wrote about flavor text on Twitter.
14m44s: Pasaraya Supermarket Manager. Gil also regrets not bringing up diegesis in games (making the components, graphic design, and form of a game match its narrative) like in Inhuman Conditions.
19m22s: The Tiny Epic series of games.
23m31s: Gil accidentally gave out the name of the game series with this puzzle, so we bleeped it out!
26m04s: Crisis
28m13s: Ryan and Geoff discussed the magic circle in Ludology 79.
28m22s: The story game Fiasco, and the strategy game Barrage.
32m47s: Memoir '44
35m26s: Millennium Blades, Falsche FuFFziger, Descent: Legends of the Dark
41m17s: Here's the essay Crimes Against Mimesis. Also, here's Gil's talk on merging theme and mechanism.
49m45s: The Rick Riordan Presents line of books. The book Gil mentioned is Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, by Carlos Hernandez.
53m40s: More info about the Prison Architect: Cardboard County Penitentiary board game.
55m32s: An Infamous Traffic
1h00m51s: Hollandspiele, This Guilty Land
1h02m07s: Hub Games
1h04m12s: The Typing of the Dead, Unspeakable Words
1h07m51s: Half-Life Alyx
1h09m51s: The wonderful Crystal Dax!
1h11m31s: Calvin's Twitter.
Geoff muses on the combination of two of his favorite topics: loss aversion and the lottery. Why do more people buy lottery tickets when the odds of winning are lower? How does that affect the payout? And what is the effect of a lottery win on a person's life?
Erica and Scott welcome Ryan and Malorie Laukat, the couple behind Red Raven Games. Ryan is known as the designer and illustrator for games like Eight Minute Empire, Above and Below, Near and Far, Islebound, Empires of the Void, Artifacts Inc., Megaland, and the forthcoming Now or Never. They are also the subject of an upcoming documentary, Crafting Arzium.
Ryan is often seen as the sole force behind Red Raven Games, but Malorie and the whole Laukat family do a lot of work behind the scenes. We talk about the challenges and opportunities of making games as a family, how to maintain a work/life balance, and how to get your kids to playtest your latest game.
SHOW NOTES
27m32s: Tales of the Arabian Nights 38m59s: We discussed the different markets you can sell your game in on Ludology 246 - Cornering the Market. 51m14s: You can hear the Laukats' original music in their Sleeping Gods Kickstarter trailer. 1h07m24s: Here's the Red Raven website, their Twitter, their Facebook, and their Instagram.
Scott takes us through the history of El Grande, from its beginnings as a game about the Trojan War to its influence on the current board game scene.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A BOARD GAME
On a special milestone episode of Ludology, Gil Hova and Scott Rogers say goodbye to our beloved Emma Larkins, as she departs as a co-host after 50 amazing episodes. Geoff Engelstein drops by to check in on us. And we're also joined by new co-hosts Erica Bouyouris and Sen-Foong Lim!
SHOW NOTES
05m02s: Emma has earned quite a few awards for her game Abandon All Artichokes: the Golden Geek Light Game of the Year, the American Tabletop Award for Early Gamers, and yes, the Parent's Choice Silver Award.
07m25s: Here are Emma's favorite episodes:
15m06s: The two books Geoff mentions are Achievement Relocked: Loss Aversion and Game Design, and Game Production: Prototyping and Producing Your Board Game.
16m30s: More information about the Zenobia Award.
19m56s: Here's the most recent episode we did with Sen, Ludology 236 - Role With It.
20m38s: More information about the Meeple Syrup Show.
21m59s: "Jay" is Sen's longtime co-designer Jay Cormier. Jay joined Mike and Geoff in Ludology 134 - There's No "I" In Team. "Jessey" is game designer, developer, and Meeple Syrup co-host Jessey Wright. "Helaina" is Helaina Cappel, who runs publishing companies Burnt Island Games and Kids' Table Board Gaming.
26m13s: "Daryl" is prolific game designer and former Meeple Syrup host Daryl Andrews. (The shout you hear in the background is one of Sen's sons playing Magic.)
31m41s: Here's Emma's streaming co-host Javion Smith.
32m10s: Here's Emma's list of games:
41m06s: Renys is very much a Maine thing.
43m20s: Sue Grafton wrote the "alphabet mystery series" of detective novels featuring investigator Kinsey Millhone, starting with A is for Alibi and ending with Y is for Yesterday. She sadly never got to the last letter, passing away in 2017. Her daughter said since Grafton never finished what was to be the final book in the series, Z is for Zero, and they did not wish to hire a ghostwriter, "as far as we in the family are concerned, the alphabet now ends at Y."
44m59s: Emma’s pen of choice, the Pilot Precise V5 Rollerball Extra Fine.
46m18s: Sen recommends jetpens.com for all your writing needs.
47m13s: Here's what we're all working on!
Geoff parachutes into the world of battle royale games like Fortnite, and how they eclipsed MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) games like Heroes of the Storm. Is there something special about battle royales that we can study as general lessons in game designs?
Emma and Gil welcome returning guest Eric Zimmerman, who last appeared on the show on Episode 79 to discuss the magic circle in gaming.
This time, Eric discusses his idea of the 21st century being a "ludic century," and what makes games especially important today. We also discuss how games' powers can be used for evil, if tabletop games can become more environmentally sustainable, and see if there can be an equivalent to farmers' markets or slow food in tabletop game.
SHOW NOTES
1m26s: Eric's previous tabletop games: Quantum, The Metagame (with Colleen Macklin and John Sharp). He also mentions Gamelab, Diner Dash, Sissyfight, Dear Reader, NYU Game Center (where Gil and Geoff are also adjuncts), and Rules of Play.
Eric also mentions his large-scale art installation games that he's done with his partner Nathalie Pozzi. Here are a few of them: Interference, Starry Heavens, and Waiting Rooms.
5m34s: Here is Eric's original Ludic Century essay/manifesto, published in 2013.
16m27s: More info about Bernie De Koven and his influential book The Well-Played Game.
18m13s: More info about the slimy practice of gerrymandering. Eric also mentions the board game El Grande.
21m45s: More info about systemic racism.
24m17s: More info about Ultimate, also known as Ultimate Frisbee.
25m53s: One thing to note here is that impartial referees in sports are a relatively recent development. In the mid-19th century, both baseball and association football (soccer) originally had each team bring their own umpire, who would attempt to agree on calls. Back then, umpires did not make calls proactively; players had to appeal to the umpire in order to get a decision.
This changed as teams got more competitive and team-based umpires failed to be impartial. Both sports brought in a neutral referee who could resolve disputes between the umpires; baseball in 1857, soccer in 1881. Eventually, the team-based umpires were dropped entirely, with soccer keeping the single referee (though they eventually added two linesmen to help make calls) and baseball renaming the referee back to "umpire" and adding three additional umpires to handle calls at each base.
(Sources: Strike Four: The Evolution of Baseball, Richard Hershberger, and The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer, David Goldblatt.)
30m52s: Jane McGonigal's book Reality is Broken.
36m34s: The influential behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner.
48m32s: Cheapass Games has made many of their older "envelope" games available as print-and-play downloads.
49m00s: The gone-and-gladly-forgotten CD longbox.
50m15s: The Zoomable game RATS: High Tea at Sea by Eric and Josh DeBonis.
55m42s: More information about the environmental concerns around cryptocurrency.
1h03m10s: Slow Food is an organization related to the slow movement that pushes back against the fast pace of modern life.
1h09m35s: The game Gil mentions is Avatar Stalker, from the folks at Project Avatar. He also mentions The Nest, which was first mentioned on the show by Hayley Cooper of Strange Bird Immersive on Ludology 214 - Escape from Reality.
1h12m27s: Eric mentions the artists Alex Katz and Kara Walker.
1h15m55s: Eric’s website, the NYU Game Center, and Eric's partner Nathalie Pozzi.
Scott takes us through the history of the bizarre drinking game Pass-Out, which is arguably a direct predecessor to the modern risqué adult party game.
(Note: We at Ludology do not condone binge drinking, especially when prompted by a game. If a game tells you that you have to drink, but you feel that you need to stop drinking, you should stop playing the game.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A BOARD GAME
https://punchdrink.com/articles/house-rules-pass-out-board-game-1960s-drinking-game/ https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1345&dat=19910806&id=G1pYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DvoDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7002,621780&hl=en https://boardgames.com/designer/frank-bresee#google_vignette
Emma and Gil sit down with Carla Kopp of Weird Giraffe Games and Galactic Raptor Games to discuss designing solo modes for games, the merits of "bots" in solo games, and how these bots tend to be named "Steve."
SHOW NOTES
2m00s: Carla's first published game Super Hack Override.
4m53s: We spoke with Morten Monrad Pedersen on Ludology 154 - Leave Me Alone! about using Automa to make solo versions of games.
7m02s: Sarah Reed is a game designer, disability advocate, and all-around excellent person.
11m00s: The Cat Lady implementation for iOS and Android.
18m20s: Just a quick reminder that we’re talking about the digital implementation of the game Cat Lady, as opposed to Carla’s tabletop AIs. AI difficulty levels are more common in apps than they are in tabletop games.
19m45s: The Splendor digital implementation is sadly no longer available.
20m34s: Gil mentions the solo mode that comes in the tabletop version of It’s a Wonderful World. Emma mentions the solo mode from the Galaxy Trucker app.
21m13s: Calico
21m47s: Gil forgets to mention that Friedemann Friese included an “achievement sheet” in Copycat.
23m49s: Race for the Galaxy. We chatted with Theresa Duringer, CEO of Temple Gates, who developed the app, in Ludology 177 - AI AI, Captain!
24m26s: We're talking about the COIN (Counterinsurgencies) series of games, which have asymmetry built into them. Usually, each faction has a bot that allows many or all factions to be present in the game, even at a low player count. We talked to Volko Ruhnke, who began the series, in Ludology 178 - COIN Operated.
24m56s: The virtual gaming platform Tabletop Simulator.
26m54s: The three-body problem.
27m19s: Power Grid: The Robots
28m33s: Dune: Imperium, Smartphone Inc.
29m21s: Gil's second published game Battle Merchants.
31m24s: The Networks
33m10s: The underrated but absolutely amazing Fantasy Realms.
34m49s: Seven Wonders and Alhambra. We discussed desicion scales in games with Matt Wolfe in Ludology 157 - Come Scale Away.
35m36s: Abandon All Artichokes
36m51s: Skull, Space Dealer
37m33s: Weird Giraffe's upcoming games: Sara Perry's Gift of Tulips, and Fertessa Alysse's Wicked & Wise.
40m12s: Tokaido
48m02s: Carla's company with Dan Letzring, Galactic Raptor. Dan also runs Letiman Games.
51m45s: Bunny Kingdom, Root. We interviewed Root's designer, Cole Wehrle, most recently on Ludology 222 - Johnny Fairplay.
53m07s: Charterstone, Feudum
55m48s: The free cardmaking program nanDECK.
56m59s: The often-linked conditions of Narcolepsy and Cataplexy.
1h05m58s: "Tony" here is designer, podcast host, and excellent person Tony Miller.
Geoff talks about how games benefit when designers use familiar terms to describe familiar concepts. He also dives into the term "mana," tracing it back to its indigenous origins, and explains how it became a popular gaming term to track how much magic a character can expend.
Emma and Gil sit down with James Mendez Hodes to discuss his work as a cultural consultant, and the series of "orcticles" he wrote describing how the depiction of orcs in fantasy games can bring up problematic real-world stereotypes.
CONTENT WARNING: This episode includes many references to racism and a section discussing sexual assault.
SHOW NOTES
01m55s: Orcus, a god of the underworld.
04m29s: J.R.R. Tolkien's Urak-hai, the strongest kind of Orc in Middle Earth.
27m49s: The Marathi people from India. We also get into the thorny, complicated, and vitally-important subject of intersectionality.
32m57s: Here is the Adam Ruins Everything episode on the "model minority" myth.
34m30s: Gil meant the "domino theory," a Cold War idea that suggested that one country that became communist would inevitably make its neighbors, and those neighbors, communist as well.
38m04s: More information about James Baldwin's writings on race.
45m19s: We had John talking safety tools on Ludology 227 - Respect the X.
53m03s: Edward Said’s Orientalism is an important analysis of how a group of colonizing nations perceive the nations they colonize.
57m56s: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
1h06m28s: Here is the comic Gil and Mendez are talking about, as well as the Sam Sykes tweet that inspired it.
1h11m43s: Here's another link to Jiangsi: Blood in the Banquet Hall (which seems to come up every episode!). We spoke with Banana in Ludology 228 - The Roles We Play, and Sen most recently in Ludology 236 - Role With It. Of course, you will hear a lot more from Sen soon on this very show!
We also mention the RPG Agon.
1h14m43s: Blaise Pascal first expressed the sentiment in his 16th Letter from his lettres provinciales: "Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte." Mark Twain wrote out a similar thought two centuries later: "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead."
1h19m08s: More information about Maria Dahvana Headley's modern-day vernacular translation of Beowulf. Also, Eric Zimmerman's plea to keep games away from art, because in his words, "enshrining something as art is death."
Scott describes the history of Quarriors!, which became the base system for both the Marvel and DC Dice Masters games, among other licenses.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A BOARD GAME
Emma, Gil, and Scott have a roundtable discussion in which they discuss the three sales channels, or markets, your board game can be available in: hobby, specialty, and mass. What are the differences between them, and how can a game move from one to another?
SHOW NOTES
0m48s: Erica and Sen are joining the show! You can watch them in the Meeple Syrup Show. Some of Sen's games: Junk Art, Akotiri, and Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall. Some of Erica's games: Bosk, Roar: King of the Pride, Kodama 3D, Scott Pilgrim Miniatures The World, Steven Universe: Beach-A-Palooza, and the forthcoming Rat Queens. Here's Sen's appearance on Ludology 236 - Role With It.
2m11s: The hobby "classics": Catan, Carcassonne. The new hotness as of this recording: Bonfire, Carnegie (which is so hot, it's not even out yet...).
2m55s: More info about PSI, the sales agent Gil (and many other publishers) use to sell their games to publishers.
4m11s: Yep.
4m36s: Wingspan, Terraforming Mars, Codenames
11m15s: Phoenix Games and Mox Boarding House in Seattle. Emma also mentions Century: Spice Road, Exploding Kittens, Just One, and her game Abandon All Artichokes.
16m49s: Gloomhaven: JOTL, Pan Am
17m46s: Yes, Gil's told this anecdote before. He's talking about Avowel, the mobile version of his game Wordsy.
27m00s: Wingspan was written up in both the New York Times and Smithsonian Magazine, among others.
33m17s: We had Kim Vandenbrouke on in Ludology 212 - Inventing Play.
40m03s: Yes, Gil made the same point in the last episode. Still relevant!
41m37s: Not sure why Gil brought up Root but completely forgot about Fort, from the same publisher! It's a better example.
44m24s: The idea of affordances and signifiers from a design standpoint was popularized by Donald Norman in his book The Design of Everyday Things. This subject came up when we chatted with game designer and graphic designer Daniel Solis in Ludology 204 - The Eyes Have It.
45m11s: Kingdom Builder
47m39s: Seven Wonders
50m01s: The story of Lizzie Magie, Charles Darrow, and the way The Landlord's Game eventually became Monopoly is worth knowing about. You can read about it here.
59m12s: Emma and Gil gushed about their Quivers a bit more than they expected to!
1h01m27s: Red Raven made their game Megaland exclusive to Target when it was released in 2018. The Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game also had components exclusive to Target.
1h04m23s: Scott is referring to the mechanism in each game in the Betrayal family of games, in which the game assigns one player to turn against the other players in one of dozens of wildly different scenarios.
1h08m31s: We discussed complexity in Ludology 238 - Unraveling Complexity.
1h11m33s: Gil likes to occasionally return to this lukewarm review of Catan from 1998, complaining about game length, runaway leader, and balance issues. The more things change...
1h12m13s: Here's Emma's talk for the Tabletop Mentorship Program about playtesting!
1h13m48s: More info about the AEG Pitch Project. Also, more info about Scott's forthcoming game Alien: Fate of the Nostromo.
Geoff looks at a recent study that attempted to find a correlation between participants' actions in a game and how they would score in a survey of leadership skills. How can a game tell us whether a person is more or less likely to prefer to lead a group?
Emma and Gil welcome Emerson Matsuuchi back to the show to discuss his experience designing the Century game series, and what it's like designing 3 "mixable" games.
SHOW NOTES
0m37s: We last heard Emerson as a guest on Ludology 106 - Hide and Seek.
1m01s: In addition to the Century series, Emerson has designed Reef and Foundations of Rome.
1m45s: When there's no pandemic raging around the world, Gil runs a playtest group in New York City. Emma and Emerson were both members before they moved away.
4m31s: Ah, the classic sitcom misunderstanding.
8m12s: A list of cards currently banned in Magic: The Gathering tournament play.
11m17s: Bruges
13m03s: Dominion: Second Edition
14m11s: You can watch Emma appear on Table Takes on Gen Con's Twitch channel.
26m56s: The Betrayal family of games.
29m14s: An API (application programming interface) is a software interface that allows programmers to allow various computer programs and other devices to talk to each other.
31m27s: In writing, "pantsing" means writing by the seat of your pants - in other words, not "plotting," or planning out your story in advance.
40m58s: Wingspan
46m24s: More information about Jones Theory, which suggests that gamers can optimize their collection by only collecting the "best" game of each genre or type.
47m40s: ZineQuest, a Kickstarter initiative for creators to launch small RPGs in zines, ran for the month of February. We discussed it with Jeeyon Shim in Ludology 244 - Games Brought to Life.
48m32s: Source code control, or version control, is a way for computer programmers to store all iterations of their code, so they can easily switch between older and newer versions of their programs, and integrate revisions to code with other people on their team. As Emma mentions, some code-savvy board game designers use version control systems like Git to track different versions of their games.
49m47s: We mention legendary board game designers Reiner Knizia and Uwe Rosenberg, and their games Medici, Medici: The Card Game, Caverna, Agricola
52m39s: Emerson mentions Runewars, Star Wars: Legion, Wings of War, and Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game. For a detailed history of these games, check out Biography of a Board Game 210.5 - Wings of War.
56m26s: Tom Lehman is dividing his expansions for Race for the Galaxy into several different arcs, which are not meant to be mixed.
57m54s: Eric Lang's tweet that Emerson mentions.
Scott delves into the history of the first big board game success on Kickstarter: Tory Niemann's Alien Frontiers.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A BOARD GAME
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AUDIO:
Emma and Gil chat with Jeeyon Shim, game designer, nature fan, and mushroom enthusiast. Jeeyon's games are about connecting with one's environment, and we discuss what it's like to make games like this. We also discuss playtesting (or not playtesting) indie games, the conception of "nature" and its connection with humanity, and how cute our pets are.
SHOW NOTES
1m53s: The IGDN is the Indie Game Developer Network, an organization supporting indie tabletop designers. They offer mentorships and convention scholarships; one of these is to Metatopia, a tabletop game design convention in New Jersey.
4m25s: Jeeyon's games Dear Poppy, First Lesson, Your Dead Friend
8m30s: Daniel Kwan, half of the Asians Represent podcast.
12m09s: Avery Alder's Belonging Outside Belonging and D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker's Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) are both tabletop RPG "engines" that can be used to make other games. Belonging Outside Belonging first appeared in Dream Askew, and PbtA first appeared in Apocalypse World.
13m36s: Here, have some sample ecosystem maps.
31m56s: The genus Lactarius, aka Candy cap mushrooms.
34m32s: We had Kienna Shaw, Lauren Bryant-Monk, and John Stavropoulos on Ludology 227 - Respect the X discussing safety tools in games.
39m55s: Matthew Gravelyn is a tabletop game designer. Jeeyon mentions her game Pin Feathers (part of a diptych with its second half, Cloud Studies).
41m05s: Pontifuse was part of the Cheapass game collection Chief Herman's Next Big Thing.
41m31s: We've already mentioned Avery Alder's Belonging Outside Belonging. Variations On Your Body is a collection of 4 solo LARPs and one essay about learning to accept oneself.
43m50s: Jeeyon's game Crimson.
47m09s: Avery Alder's game from Variations that Emma is referring to is "Teen Witch."
57m27s: We chatted with toy inventor Kim Vandenbrouke in Ludology 212 - Inventing Play.
1h09m10s: "Itch" is itch.io, a popular sales platform for digital and tabletop indie games.
1h11m33s: Pseudohydnum gelatinosum, aka cat's tongue mushrooms.
1h19m12s: "Rubenesque" refers to the work of Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens, who was known for painting plus-sized women.
1h21m51s: More info about Zine Quest, from Kickstarter.
1h25m57s: More info about Lucian Kahn's Zine Quest anthology Hibernation Games, which includes one of Jeeyon's games.
Geoff considers a classic problem: how do two parties in two different locations agree on a random number result, like a die roll? We cover the clever solution wargamers worked out, as well as an ultra-modern approach.
Emma and Gil chat with Sam Rosenthal and Stephen Bell of The Game Band, known for their bizarre cosmic horror sports sim Blaseball. We discuss the unique feedback loop between Blaseball's fans and its creators, the benefits of apophenia, and how baseball was uniquely suited for this treatment at this moment in history.
SHOW NOTES
7m00s: The score bug that Gil is referring to is the graphic that appears overlaid on most sports broadcast, showing the game's score and other vital stats. Gil also refers to external chest protectors that baseball umpires used to wear, an icon of baseball from decades past.
7m59s: The Blaseball wiki.
10m00s: The music that Stephen refers to is literal fan-made music. Fan canon says that the team the Seattle Garages are actually a rock band forced to play Blaseball. Fans have actually recorded and released these albums.
19m05s: Here's Cat Manning's excellent Blaseball primer. It's a good way to get a sense of the lore of the game.
22m11s: We chatted with game designer and wide receiver Adrienne Smith in Ludology 240 - Are You Receiving Me?
26m15s: Apophenia is the tendency to make connections between disconnected things. Game designers can use it to make meaningful experiences and memorable stories, but other people can use it for very bad things.
27m42s: Kayfabe is a wrestling term that denotes the acceptance of the fictionalization of staged events. In other words, a wrestling announcer working in kayfabe will treat a match as if it is a genuinely-contested sporting event with an uncertain outcome, not a scripted match in which all participants know the winner ahead of time.
Kayfabe is very much another example of a magic circle. You can hear Geoff Engelstein and Ryan Sturm discuss the magic circle with game designer Eric Zimmerman in Ludology 79 - The Magic Circle.
29m34s: SIBR is the Society for Internet Blaseball Research. Their name is a reference to SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research. (In real-world Major League Baseball, SABR is the organization that devised "sabermetrics," the advanced statistics that powered the Moneyball movement.)
SIBR has written several academic papers analyzing the effects various aspects of Blaseball.
32m54s: Taskmaster continues to be one of Gil's favorite shows.
35m44s: Uncharted is a series of video games about uncovering historical mysteries around the world, and killing a lot of bad guys in the process.
44m02s: More info on Twitch Plays Pokémon. Also, Our Place, a MUD.
48m17s: More info on the John Cage composition As Slow As Possible (Gil misstated the title as "As Long As Possible"). You can watch a video of one of the note changes here.
Also, Gil should have mentioned the 10,000 Year Clock, a Jeff Bezos-funded clock that is being built within a Texas mountain that will be designed to run 10,000 years without any human intervention. This is not the kind of scale humans are used to thinking in, which is what makes these projects so strange and intriguing.
53m04s: Welcome to Night Vale is highly recommended for anyone intrigued by the idea of comic cosmic horror. For example...
"The City Council announces the opening of a new dog park at the corner of Earl and Sommerset near the Ralph’s.
They would like to remind everyone that dogs are not allowed in the dog park. People are not allowed in the dog park. It is possible you will see hooded figures in the dog park. Do not approach them. Do not approach the dog park. The fence is electrified and highly dangerous. Try not to look at the dog park, and especially do not look for any period of time at the hooded figures. The dog park will not harm you."
55m51s: Baseball has several "unwritten rules" of decorum. One of them is that bunting to break up a no-hitter tends to be frowned upon. It happens every few years; in 2019, a minor-league team broke up a combined no-hitter in the 9th inning with a bunt, which resulted in a benches-clearing altercation.
1h00m42s: Here is the Blaseball Discord server.
1h05m40s: Gil is referring to Marcel Duchamp's readymade sculpture Fountain (although there are rumblings that the piece was actually made by Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven). Afterwards, Gil refers to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Chain of Command, in which a Cardassian tortures Jean-Luc Picard by inflicting pain if Picard does not claim he sees five lights when in fact there are only four in front of him (which itself is a reference from a scene in 1984).
1h06m57s: "The Commissioner Is Doing A Great Job" is a common Blaseball meme. The Coffee Cup was the most recent season of Blaseball before this recording, which was a knockout tournament of nontraditional Blaseball teams instead of a "traditional" season (whatever that means).
1h08m03s: Twitter links: The Game Band, Blaseball, Sam Rosenthal, and Stephen Bell. Here is Blaseball's Patreon.
1h10m16s: Guess which blaseball team Gil follows?
Scott delves into the history of two games released by entrepreneur Edwin Lowe: Bingo and Yahtzee. Both became enormous successes, and are now a part of our cultural fabric. How did they get there?
Emma, Gil, and Scott discuss winning in games. What defines winning in a game, and what are the different ways games can handle it?
Also, Emma shares a Big Announcement with us.
SHOW NOTES
2m44s: Type 1 - One winner, everyone else loses: Catan, Terra Mystica, Terraforming Mars
3m47s: Type 1a - Conditional win: Dune, Red November, Mission Catastrophe, Glory to Rome
6m48s: Vast, COIN (Counter-Insurgency) games
6m56s: Type 2 - One loser, everyone else wins: Jenga, Cockroach Poker, Kackel Dackel (which Gil mispronounced, and which was published in the US as Doggie Doo), Don't Wake Daddy, Bimbado/Packesel/The Last Straw (the game mentioned about loading a donkey), Pie Face, Perfection. The balloon game Scott describes is likely Bumm Bumm Ballon, known in the US as Boom Boom Balloon.
8m40s: Gil is using the term "atom" here as defined in the book Characteristics of Games, defined as "satisfying chunks of play shorter than a full game."
9m09s: Type 3 - Co-op games: Pandemic, Lord of the Rings, the Forbidden games, Quirky Circuits
10m15s: CO2
12m05s: We discuss meaning in games, beyond simple "fun," in Ludology 201 - Are We Having Fun Yet?
12m30s: This War of Mine
12m43s: Type 4 - Semi-coop games: Hellapagos, We're Doomed
14m41s: The Resistance, Werewolf, Codenames
15m17s: Type 4a - "Variable Coopability" (thanks Emma!) - Dead of Winter, Who Goes There
15m42s: Geoff discussed this in GameTek Classic 129 - Semi Coop Tournaments.
17m06s: Type 5 - Individual wins/losses
18m38s: Fog of Love. You can hear more from Fog of Love designer Jacob Jaskov in Ludology 194 - Lifting the Fog.
19m52s: The Crossroads mechanism forces players to make choices related to the narrative of the game, and delivers consequences based on those choices. Note that Gil is using "Crossroads" casually here, as only Plaid Hat Games can officially release Crossroads games.
20m46s: Emma's storytelling game ...and then we died.
21m08s: Type 6 - Improvement/Personal Best: Scrabble, Bupkis
23m14s: The Board Game Stats app, Fantasy Realms
24m02s: Cribbage
24m42s: More info about the Donkey Kong high score competition. The board game Take it Easy.
29m00s: Bennett Foddy's GDC talk Making It Matter, where he discusses how eSports can emulate real sports. Also, Gil's communication tool for board games, Check-In Cards.
32m13s: Geoff and Mike discussed legacy games with Matt Leacock in Ludology 121 - Pandemonium.
33m16s: Type 7 - Personal Experience. The chess-themed TV drama The Queen's Gambit.
43m55s: King Me, Cole Wehrle's GDC talk on kingmaking. Also, Cole's game Root. Cole is a friend of the show and has been on a couple of times, most recently on Ludology 222 - Johnny Fairplay.
48m06s: T.I.M.E Stories
54m28s: Another shout-out for Characteristics of Games. Here's Gil's Game Design 101 talk.
57m56s: The board games Dungeonquest and Kingdom Death: Monster. The video games Super Meat Boy and Dark Souls.
59m37s: The video game Hades.
1h03m52s: Check out Errol Elumir's 13 Rules for Escape Room Puzzle Design.
1h05m44s: Scott's book Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design.
1h06m54s: Betrayal: Legacy
1h07m54s: The video game Among Us, and the board games Nemesis and Zombicide.
1h10m23s: You can hear more about player psychographic profiles in Ludology 165 - Fowerian Slip.
Geoff takes us through what he (and many other people) feel is a flaw in the rules of basketball, and a possible solution that was first implemented by a new league in 2018. The Elam Ending is designed to eliminate the incentive for teams trailing on the scoreboard to constantly, intentionally foul the leading team, making for a more consistent and fun game to watch.
This GameTek Classic was recorded in 2018; since then, the NBA used the Elam Ending for the 2020 All-Star Game, although they added 24 points (in honor of Kobe Bryant) and played the entire fourth quarter without a clock. The trailing team won.
Read an interview with Nick Elam.
Watch a couple of examples of the Elam Ending in action: the end of the 2019 Basketball Tournament semifinals, and the end of the aforementioned 2020 NBA All-Star Game.
We continue our annual tradition of bringing board game industry veteran Stephen Buonocore, now retired from Stronghold Games/Indie Game Studios and focusing on media and podcasting. We explore the bizarre, catastrophic year of 2020, and consider what's in store for us in 2021.
Note that this episode was recorded on Monday, November 30, 2020; we occasionally say "this year" to mean 2020 instead of 2021.
SHOW NOTES
6m24s: "Travis" is Travis Worthington, CEO of Indie Game Studios.
9m00s: Back the Comeback is a movement to keep comic and game stores alive during the pandemic.
13m26s: Gravitation Games (who did not release their first game on Kickstarter), Chris Solis' Solis Game Studio, and NewMill Industries.
18m58s: More info about the idea of flight-to-quality.
22m04s: You can hear more from Luke Crane and Anya Combs on Ludology 223 - Kick Out the Jams.
27m41s: You can play Codenames online here.
29m13s: Tim Hutchings' 1000 Year Old Vampire, Travis Hill's zine games, Jeeyon Shim's games about nature and survival.
32m47s: Our socially-distanced Gen Con 2020 live show, Gil's blog post about online conventions.
33m46s: Gil's thoughts here were really driven by Jeff Tidball's blog post here.
40m13s: Castle Tricon
42m01s: Board Games Insider
43m06s: Some board game Twitch streamers: The Brothers Murph, Ruel Gaviola, Board Game Blitz
46m17s: Our Family Plays Games, Before You Play
1h04m59s: Stephen's Facebook, website, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
Emma and Gil welcome Adrienne Smith, designer of the card game Blitz Champz and wide receiver for the Boston Renegades women's gridiron football team. We discuss the intersection of mass market, kids, and sports game design, the state of women's football in modern America, and serial entrepreneurship.
This episode was recorded on November 16, 2020. A couple of weeks later, Vanderbilt brought their varsity women's soccer goalie, Sarah Fuller, onto their men's football team as a kicker.
Note: This will be the last Ludology episode of 2020! We are taking our annual winter break, during which time there will be no episodes of Ludology, Biography of a Board Game, or GameTek. We will return on January 10, 2021 with our annual "State of the Industry" episode with the Podfather, Stephen Buonocore.
SHOW NOTES
2m05s: Wondering how you can throw a spiral?
3m18s: Adrienne played for the New York Sharks. Here's the web page for the IFAF.
3m56s: More information about Jen Welter, the first female coach in the NFL.
5m14s: Gil wrote a Twitter thread about the history of women in football after the news about Sarah Fuller broke.
5m46s: Women's old-school football pants, versus MC Hammer's pants.
8m03s: The Women's Football Alliance, and the Women's National Football Conference
10m17s: More info about Ultimate, originally called Ultimate Frisbee.
10m42s: More info about Ultimate Hall of Famer Molly Goodwin.
14m00s: Adrienne is correct! The periodic table of the elements was first envisioned by Dmitri Mendeleev. Said he, "I saw in a dream a table where all elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper, only in one place did a correction later seem necessary."
21m56s: You can hear more from our interview with graphic/game designer Daniel Solis on Ludology 204 - The Eyes Have It.
25m23s: Here's a closer look at Adrienne's "Passing TD" card.
27m26s: You can hear more from our interview with mass market toy/game designer Kim Vandenbrouke on Ludology 212 - Inventing Play.
29m47s: Here's a clip of the amazing Kyler Murray "Hail Mary" pass that somehow landed in D'Andre Hopkins' arms. This happened the day before we recorded. (I do not recommend Bills fans clicking on that link.)
34m28s: Adrienne is talking about New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, winner of 6 Super Bowls.
42m46s: More info about Gotham Girls' Roller Derby, the NYC-based roller derby organization. (There are other fantastic roller derby organizations around the world, like the world #1-ranked Rose City Rollers in Portland, OR, and the world #2-ranked Victorian Roller Derby League in Melbourne, Australia, all run by the Women's Flat Track Derby Association.)
44m17s: You can hear more about Omari Akhil's views on the intersection of sports and games in Ludology 233 - A Sporting Chance.
55m26s: The legendary arcade game Galaga.
58m37s: It may not have been a tornado that hit NYC on November 15, but it seems to have come very close to one.
1h07m49s: More info about Title IX, passed in the US in 1972, which prohibits discrimination in education based on sex. The upshot of this is that for most sports, if a school wanted to field a men's team in a given sport, they had to field a women's team as well.
1h09m03s: Pop Warner Football is a US organization for youth football, roughly equivalent to Little League baseball. It's named for legendary coach Pop Warner. Also, more information about Utah Girls Tackle Football.
1h10m51s: If you want to know more about minorities in the middle ages, a great place to start is People of Color in European Art History.
1h13m48s: Here's Adrienne's Instagram page.
Scott takes us through the history of Dark Tower, the legendary electronically-enhanced board game, and its modern spiritual successor, Return to Dark Tower. The story's twists and turns include every designer's worst nightmare: a huge company stealing a designer's idea and making it their own.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A BOARD GAME
Wilderness Campaign, the Apple II game that helped inspire Dark Tower: https://www.mobygames.com/game/wilderness-campaign
Fan page with all sorts of info: https://well-of-souls.com/tower/index.html
Ruling on Burten v. Milton Bradley Co.: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/592/1021/1816724/
An article on the game's original release: https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/23/business/new-bradley-game-tests-fickle-market.html
Dark Tower commercial with Orson Welles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3HVCwPp7j0
Emma and Gil welcome Kathryn Hymes and Hakan Seyalıoğlu to the show to discuss the impact of language on play, and how to design games that revolve around the building, modification, and demise of a language.
SHOW NOTES
2m52s: Here's the Kickstarter for Thorny's new game Xenolanguage.
6m45s: Among Us is a social deduction digital game that, after a quiet two years on the market, suddenly blew up on Twitch and is now extremely popular. US congressional representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made headlines when she played the game live on Twitch with several popular streamers (and fellow representative Ilhan Omar, who turned out to be very good at the game).
9m09s: Myst
9m36s: Here's our episode on the Incan Gold experiment, run by Dr. Stephen Blessing of the University of Tampa.
15m43s: Dialect (Watch a playthrough with Hakan here)
20m33s: The earliest instance that the OED has found of the singular "they" is from 1375.
38m47s: Gil, Geoff, and Scott dug deep into party game design in Ludology 190 - The Life of the Party.
45m15s: Sign
49m47s: More info about the fascinating instrument known as the theremin.
52m54s: The instrument called the ondes Martenot (Gil apologies profusely to all French listeners for his poor pronunciation skills!). You can see its inner workings discussed here (video in French with English subtitles). You can hear it as one of the instruments in this absolutely wild Edgard Varése composition.
55m18s: More info on Code Talkers and how they helped transmit encoded messages in wartime.
56m01s: Here's a thread with Magic fans playing the translation game on Jace.
56m35s: Kathryn's GDC talk on artifacts of play.
58m07s: A Fake Artist Goes to New York
58m48s: Fall of Magic
59m15s: Qwixx
1h08m18s: A Buzzfeed article (forgive me) on how red Solo cups are viewed outside the US as a uniquely American symbol.
1h08m38s: Thorny Games on the web and Instagram. Also, you can find Kathryn and Hakan on Twitter.
Geoff discusses the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning, and its impact in board games and beyond.
In this episode, Geoff discusses the games Clue/Cluedo, Mastermind, and Zendo. He also discusses dark matter, WIMPs, and Einstein's theory of relativity.
Emma, Gil, and Scott discuss the idea of complexity in a board game. We explore 6 types of complexity, and discuss their effects on the games we play and design.
SHOW NOTES
0m51s: Pete Seeger was an American folk singer, known for songs like "If I Had a Hammer," "Turn, Turn, Turn," and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"
2m04s: Our list of complexities:
2m45s: Barenpark, New York Zoo
3m44s: The SAT is a standardized test in the United States that is a major factor in a college's admission of a prospective student.
4m16s: Number 9
4m32s: Bosk
5m31s: Photosynthesis
6m30s: Treasure Island, Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space, Specter Ops, Tigris & Euphrates
7m14s: Checking the rules, an Internal Conflict in Tigris & Euphrates happens when a Leader is moved to a Kingdom where there is already a Leader of the same color belonging to another player.
8m00s: Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game. Check out Scott's Biography of a Board Game on the Flight Path family of games, including X-Wing and Wings of War.
8m25s: The Warhammer family of games is absolutely massive. The flagship game, Warhammer 40,000, is in its 9th edition.
10m18s: The Funkoverse Strategy Game. We chatted with Chris Rowlands, one of its designers, in Ludology 224: Putting the Fun in Funko.
13m23s: Set
15m17s: Power Grid, Russian Railroads, and Gil's own The Networks
16m26s: The term "Goumbaud's Law" was coined by Jesse Schell in his book The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses.
21m12s: Sticheln (the pronunciation of which Gil has completely butchered) was recently re-released by Capstone Games as Stick 'Em. Smartphone Inc.
22m46s: Sushi Go, Disney: The Haunted Mansion – Call of the Spirits Game
25m38s: Search for Planet X, Zendo (Kory Heath's design diary for Zendo remains a fantastic look at how hard it is to design a seemingly simple game.)
26m40s: Mastermind
28m12s: Here's a description of the XYZ Wing solve technique for Sudoku.
28m33s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg21M2zwG9Q (explicit language warning)
28m59s: Hey, That's My Fish, graph theory, and the Traveling Salesman problem.
29m33s: Scott first proposed the 6 Zones of Play in Ludology 209 - The 6 Zones of Play.
32m28s: Formula D
33m27s: Seafall, the Betrayal family of games.
41m21s: Ra
43m53s: A Feast for Odin
44m22s: A Few Acres of Snow
46m45s: Nielsen Media Research is best known for its Nielsen TV ratings, that offer the TV industry in the United States metrics into the number of viewers a TV show enjoys.
48m06s: Advanced Squad Leader, The Campaign for North Africa
50m13s: We discussed the futility of 1:1 models with Volko Ruhnke in Ludology 178 - COIN Operated. Gil also brings up the "Map-territory relation" problem.
50m29s: Food Chain Magnate, Feudum, Cloudspire, Kanban
54m48s: Two designers who work in complex games: Vital Lacerda and Dávid Turczi. You can hear our chat with Dávid about complex games in Ludology 234 - Playing with Time.
55m34s: Brass: Lancashire
57m27s: Fresco
1h00m20s: Gil discussed his doomed auction mechanism most recently in Ludology 235 - Rise to the Challenge.
1h01m45s: Samurai, Steel Driver, For Sale. Here's Samurai's scoring system:
1h09m23s: Descent: Journeys in the Dark
1h10m45s: Geoff and Gil discussed "tight coupling" in Ludology 172 - Odd Coupling.
1h12m04s: Carcassonne (the type Gil was thinking of is Monk)
1h13m25s: The Betrayal family of games (again)
1h14m46s: GameTrayz
1h16m20s: Mike Selinker uttered this now-legendary quote in Ludology 189 - The Missing Selinker.
1h17m47s: Gil's announcements: BGG@Home, Weird Stories pregen settings, High Rise pre-orders opening soon, Rival Networks
1h20m02s: Battling Tops, and the legendary BGG Battling Tops tournament.
1h20m22s: Tabletopia
1h20m44s: Emma, Gil, and Scott recorded Ludology 215 - Table Topics live at BGG.CON 2019.
1h21m06s: Scott's announcements: Treats, Xeno Command, Comic Book Crisis, The Pitch Project.
1h24m06s: Emma's announcements: Game Maker's Guild panel, Dutch and Hungarian versions of Abandon All Artichokes.
1h25m26s: Our contact info: Emma (Twitter, Instagram, Web), Gil (Twitter, Facebook, Web), Scott (Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook)
Scott goes over the history of Which Witch, a game that's been adapted into many other games, including The Real Ghostbusters Game and the Scooby-doo! Haunted House 3D Board Game.
If you're interested in learning more about Marvin Glass and Associates, Scott recommends that you read A World Without Reality: Inside Marvin Glass's Toy Vault. We also discussed him in Ludology 212 - Inventing Play with Kim Vandenbrouke.
Emma and Gil welcome Karen Twelves, whose straddling of the worlds of gaming and improv led her to write the book Improv for Gamers. What can gaming and improv learn from each other?
Content warning: this episode contains brief references to non-consensual touching and racism.
SHOW NOTES
01m16s: AD&D is Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, the form of D&D most prominent in the 80s and 90s.
02m43s: A kinesthetic learner is one who learns through physical activity. We discussed kinesthetic learning and games (among other things) with Chidi Paige in Ludology 231 - STEAM Engine.
03m35s: Whose Line Is It Anyway? was a British radio show that became a British television show that became an American television show. In the show, four improvisers run through several short-form improv games.
08m25s: The Harold is a structure used in long-form improv.
09m31s: Del Close was a fundamental figure in the world of improv, creating many techniques and co-writing the book Truth in Comedy. Note that Gil misattributed the name of the Harold to Close. While Close helped develop and publicize the technique, improv actor and musician Bill Mathleu is credited with naming it.
12m33s: Kingmaker is an Adventure Path for the RPG Pathfinder.
12m48s: Most recently, we discussed failure in games with Sen-Foong Lim in our previous episode, Ludology 236 - Roll With It.
15m32s: LEEROY JENKINS (note explicit language in link)
31m00s: The story RPG Fiasco. We had designer Jason Morningstar on Ludology 161 - What's the Story, Morning Glory?
40m55s: The board games Karen mentions are Splendor, Forbidden Island, Forbidden Desert, and Pandemic.
50m58s: Alex Roberts, designer of Star Crossed and For the Queen.
52m50s: The TV show Taskmaster. Wouldn’t Alex Horne be a great Ludology guest?
1h01m03s: Burning Wheel, Pathfinder, Fiasco, Monsterhearts
1h02m22s: Archipelago
1h12m03s: Then She Fell, Sleep No More
1h12m57s: Gil is referring to Ludology 214 - Escape From Reality, with Hayley E.R. Cooper and Cameron Cooper.
1h13m32s: Palace Games in San Francisco. Their in-person experience is temporarily closed for the pandemic, but like many escape rooms, they are currently running virtual games.
1h15m11s: Here's Karen's current ongoing Thing & Thing Twitter thread.
1h18m18s: Karen’s Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok. Here are her websites: improvforgamers.com, karentwelves.com, and dtwelves.com.
Geoff compares the design process of the video game Diabolo to… the invention of calculus? Yes, there are surprising similarities, and seeing how the two dovetail leads to a stronger appreciation of both game design and mathematics.
Emma and Gil welcome Sen-Foong Lim back to the show to discuss the differences—and similarities—between board games and roleplaying games. We go through the perspectives of playing them, designing them, and examining the culture of play between both.
Sen originally appeared on Ludology 134: There's No "I" in Team with frequent co-designer Jay Cormier.
SHOW NOTES
0m41s: Board games Sen has designed or co-designed: Junk Art, Belfort, D&D: Rock Paper Wizard. RPGs Sen has designed, co-designed, or written for: Jiang-Shi: Blood in the Banquet Hall, Kids on Bikes, The Curse of the House of Rookwood, North Sea Epilogues
3m39s: If the comparison between RPG and improv intrigues you, wait till you hear Ludology 237...
4m47s: An example of a crunchy old-school RPG: Traveller
5m10s: Chainmail was the game that D&D evolved from.
5m20s: While Gil agrees with Sen that encumbrance as implemented by a game like D&D tends to bog down gameplay, a nice counter-example is Torchbearer, a dungeon-crawling TTRPG in which encumbrance is a central mechanism.
7m44s: You can see one Emma's chats with Peter Adkison (who founded Wizards of the Coast and owns Gen Con) here.
11m34s: Sen is currently watching Black Sails.
12m31s: RPGs where your character is likely to die: Fiasco, Paranoia
17m55s: The RPG Masks: A New Generation.
19m14s: Gil and Sen's friend and beloved loudmouth Errol Elumir.
19m40s: This is literally Errol's first rule of escape room puzzle design.
20m36s: Critical Role (with GM Matt Mercer) is the most popular of the vibrant active play scene.
21m46s: The party game Cranium.
22m25s: Save Against Fear, a convention about gaming in therapy.
23m01s: Roll20 is an online platform for playing RPGs, as is Role. Tabletop Simulator can handle crunchy RPGs like D&D as well.
28m21s: Formula D (née Formula Dé)
30m00s: We had Mike Selinker on the show for Ludology 189: Missing Selinker.
31m13s: Sen's favorite D&D module, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
31m30s: Star Frontiers
33m05s: You can hear more from Jiang-Shi co-designer Banana Chan on Ludology 228: The Roles We Play.
35m51s: Emma's storytelling games ...And Then We Died (...And Then We Held Hands is a different game)
45m02s: "Jay" is Jay Cormier, Sen's frequent collaborator. "Jesse" is game designer Jesse Wright.
45m30s: Jay and Sen's tabletop escape game Scooby Doo: Escape from the Haunted Mansion.
47m20s: The TV show Bob's Burgers.
48m50s: Itch is an online platform for digital games, but has a lot of downloadable PDFs for tabletop games. DriveThruRPG offers PDFs and PODs of many RPGs. 50m12s: RPGs that Emma mentions: Burning Wheel, Paranoia, FATE Core System, Ryuutama, Over the Edge.
51m58s: For more about safety tools in RPGs, check out Ludology 227: Respect the X.
53m04s: You can access all these tools via the TTRPG Safety Kit.
56m05s: Gil's board game safety tool Check-In Cards.
1h07m06s: Board games that allow for relaxed conversation: Sagrada, Lotus.
1h08m27s: More about the semiotic function.
1h09m57s: Sen mentions psychologist Lev Vygotsky.
1h10m30s: Emma is a Mythic-tier Magic player!
1h11m55s: More info about the D&D Adventurers League.
1h14m13s: Jay and Graeme's game In the Hall of the Mountain King. Jay also created the Fail Faster playtesting notebook.
1h19m31s: Sen's web series, the Meeple Syrup Show, with Jessey Wright and Erica Hayes-Bouyouris.
1h20m59s: Sen's licensed games: Batman: The Animated Series - Rogues Gallery, Legend of Korra: Pro-Bending Arena, and the Scooby Doo and D&D games mentioned above.
1h22m01s: The manga and anime My Hero Academia.
1h23m08s: Follow Sen on Twitter!
In the spirit of Halloween, Scott takes us through the spooky history of the Ouija board: its origins, the legal battles behind the curtain, and how a scientific phenomenon makes it all work.
Bibliography of a Board Game https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-strange-and-mysterious-history-of-the-ouija-board-5860627/
https://www.vox.com/2016/10/29/13301590/how-ouija-boards-work-debunked-ideomotor-effect
https://www.williamfuld.com/ouija_articles_03281886.html
Today, we are continuing our series of exploring the design decisions behind our own games! Emma and Scott sit down with Gil to talk about his game High Rise; about how it started life as an auction game, and the twisty route it took to publication.
SHOW NOTES
1m23s - Gil discussed the Wag auction in his Networks design diary on BGG.
2m45s - Gil's game Battle Merchants.
3m31s - A "MacGuffin" is an object in a film that the characters all want, but the actual nature of the object is irrelevant (like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction). All that matters from the perspective of the film is that the characters want it. Looney Labs has since published an actual game with this term, Get the MacGuffin.
4m03s - Gil's game The Networks.
6m24s - Games with auctions as an element in the game: Princes of Florence, Goa
6m54s - Knizia games that are built entirely around their auctions: Ra, Modern Art, Medici, High Society
8m18s - The digital board game Sumer (Gil credited Josh Raab with the game design, but neglected to mention co-designers Geoffrey Suthers, Misha Favorov, and Sig Gunnarsson).
8m51s - The legendary video game M.U.L.E. - not a commercial success, but since regarded as seminal and influential. For a while, "M.U.L.E. as a board game" was a game designer's grail, but that's since been handled by board games Wealth of Nations, Planet Steam, and of course, M.U.L.E. The Board Game.
14m41s - Gil is talking about Roger Caillois, and his book Man, Play, and Games. Play is usually associated with having no real-world implications, but Caillois knew to draw in gambling as a counter-example.
19m04s - High Rise's look would not have nearly been so amazing without the graphic design of Heiko Günther and the illustrations of Kwanchai Moriya.
20m36s - Rocco is also designer of the game Ninja Dice.
23m04s - You can follow the High Rise Kickstarter here; it goes live on October 6.
24m54s - Bryn Smith runs Doomsday Robots, a board game publishing company.
27m02s - Expancity, Manhattan. The Manhattan kaiju "expansion" Gil was thinking of turned out to be a variant designed by Brian Bankler and Eric Moore.
27m56s - The amazing Daniel Newman, who is quite an excellent game designer himself (he made Dead Man's Cabal), and who is designing the High Rise plastic buildings.
28m11s - Not to mention, Elastoplast is a brand of bandages.
28m59s - The High Rise design diary.
30m28s - Gil's online playtest group, Remote Playtesting.
32m24s - Two rondel games, both by Mac Gerdts: Navegador, and Imperial.
33m57s - Time track games similar to High Rise: Tokaido, Glen More, Francis Drake, and Kraftwagen.
34m28s - Ryan Courtney, designer of Pipeline
36m29s - Eric Lang's tweet about turn angst. You can hear more directly from Eric in Ludology 175 - Auld Lang Design.
38m33s - Food Chain Magnate.
45m33s - Geoff and Gil discussed ludonarrative dissonance in Ludology 190 - Diabolus in Ludica. A positive example of ludonarrative dissonance: Unspeakable Words.
46m55s - Cloudspire.
50m28s - Emma is referring to Ludology 209 - The 6 Zones of Play.
51m51s - Bohnanza
51m58s - Here's an example of Magic Card flicking. It's even worse when the cards are sleeved.
55m36s - Uno, The Mystery Rummy series of games.
59m33s - The Sears Tower in Chicago is now called the Willis Tower.
1h02m57s - The preview page for the High Rise Kickstarter campaign.
Having previously discussed relatively new advances in AI that allows computers to beat humans at games like Chess and Go, Geoff moves on to games in which AI will have a much harder time being competitive. What is it about these games that makes it so difficult to make a good automated opponent?
1m00s: Geoff introduced AlphaZero and AlphaGo in GameTek Classic 218.5. 1m34s: Codenames 3m18s: IBM's Watson 4m09s: Mysterium
Emma and Gil welcome game designer, developer, solo mode designer, and self-described "grump" Dávid Turczi to the show. We discuss the design of complex games with many interlocking systems, how to play with time in games, and the six (plus one) things Dávid looks for in a strategy board game.
SHOW NOTES
1m18s - Battlestar Galactica 2m03s - Dávid's game [redacted] (yes, that's the name of the game) 2m34s - Trickerion, published by Mindclash Games 3m01s - Dávid's game Anachrony 4m36s - Dávid's games Kitchen Rush and Dice Settlers 8m32s - Splendor, Century: Spice Road, Gizmos 9m05s - Azul 11m40s - Dice Settlers' expansion is Dice Settlers: Western Sea 14m17s - For some outstanding Martin Wallace loan mechanisms, check out Age of Steam, Brass, and London. 15m24s - Agricola 15m43s - The "Taschini method" refers to Daniele Tascini, co-designer of Tzolk'in, Teotihuacan, and The Voyages of Marco Polo. 20m22s - The Gallerist, Cloudspire 21m15s - Vital Lacerda is the designer of The Gallerist, Vinhos, and Kanban 21m43s - Mac Gerts is the designer of Concordia, Navegador, and other clever rondel games. 22m00s - Dávid's new game Perseverance 22m48s - Arkwright 24m00s - Dávid's new game Tekhenu 27m39s - Dávid's new games Tawantinsuyu and Rome & Roll 32m05s - Viticulture 35m13s - Dávid is referring to scoring using a triangular sequence, which many board games adopt as a gentler alternative to the harsh slope of exponential scoring. 37m13s - Black Angel 38m05s - Dávid's criteria for games he likes, 1/6: Narrative integration, or the fiction/action rule. 38m39s - Dávid's criteria for games he likes, 2/6: Elegance, or depth/rules ratio. 39m07s - Dávid's criteria for games he likes, 3/6: Strategic curve. 39m19s - Orléans 39m52s - Dávid's criteria for games he likes, 4/6: Replayability. 40m30s - Dávid's criteria for games he likes, 5/6: Achievement. 43m00s - Dávid's criteria for games he likes, 6/6: Interaction. 44m27s - Terra Mystica 48m12s - David's criteria for games he likes, 7/6: Uniqueness 55m38s - Tapestry 55m48s - David's solo modes - Teotihuacan, Keyper, Cerebria. If you want to hear more about designing solo modes for games, check out our episode with Morten Monrad Pedersen, Ludology 154 - Leave Me Alone! 1h01m49s - Trismegistus 1h03m36s - A Feast for Odin 1h05m32s - Petrichor 1h06m16s - John Brieger is an excellent developer. Heiko Günther is the best graphic designer (Gil may be a bit biased here, though) 1h09m11s - High Rise (Gil is blushing right now!) 1h09m30s - Glen More, Kraftwagen (Dávid named a seminal German electronic band instead), Tokaido, Tzolk'in 1h10m08s - Tutenkhamen 1h15m33s - Budapest: Days of Ire 1h17m43s - Excavation Earth 1h18m35s - Pocket Dragon 1h19m34s - Steal This Game! 1h20m40s - David Mortimer - Cousins' War, Ming Voyages 1h23m49s - Dávid's BGG profile 1h24m16s - Imperium: Classics and Imperium: Legends
Scott covers the "beautiful game" of Subbuteo, the tabletop association football flicking game, as well as its predecessor Newfooty.
Bibliography of a Boardgame
http://www.peter-upton.co.uk/ https://fistf.com/history-of-the-game/ http://www.gamingcorner.nl/subbuteo-timeline.htm
http://www.sporttischfussball.at/index-Dateien/Page2918.htm https://www.newstalk.com/news/6-things-you-probably-never-knew-about-subbuteo-724933 http://www.mumimuseum.com/english/focus06.html https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/subbuteo-alive-and-flicking-with-the-single-greatest-game-ever-invented-1.3217077 https://qprreport.proboards.com/thread/5203 https://100objectskent.co.uk/object/subuteo-prototype/#&gid=1&pid=1 http://subbuteo.online/subbuteo-streakers-are-a-real-thing-as-a-limited-edition-accessoryEmma and Gil welcome game designer and publisher Omari Akil to the show to discuss the plight of the sports-themed board game. What kinds of unique challenges do we face when designing one of these games?
Omari's game Hoop Godz will be on Kickstarter soon.
SHOW NOTES
1m21s: Board Game Brothas, Tabletop Backer Party, Pathways Fellowship 4m55s: Gil was 5 years off - Mike's game is Baseball Highlights: 2045. 12m09s: Football Strategy 12m47s: Gil would like to shout out Arthur Franz IV's self-published game Breakaway Football as a game with a really nice mix of play deciding versus output randomness. 15m32s: Gil will defend the term "soccer," seriously. It's a perfectly good way to refer to association football! 16m06s: Strat-O-Matic Baseball, released in 1962. 17m41s: Dino Dunk 18m07s: Crokinole 18m25s: Nok Hockey, Air Hockey, Electric Football. We also neglected to mention the flicking game family Subbuteo, which represents all sorts of sports. 22m43s: Gil eventually gets to his curling thoughts at 39m22s. 25m48s: Madden is EA's long-running NFL gridiron football video game sim (named for legendary player, coach, and broadcaster John Madden). 28m58s: Ultimate is a competitive sport using a throwable disc (like a Frisbee) instead of a ball. 29m50s: In 2017, Geek and Sundry launched a "T-Sports" league for competitive tabletop games (strangely, announcing it on April 1, and then having to explain that it was real). Sadly, it did not go far. 30m57s: Bennett Foddy's talk "Making it Matter: Lessons from Real Sports". Foddy is known for making punishingly-hard digital games like QWOP and Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy. 38m36s: Omari is referring to the common sports term GOAT, an acronym of Greatest Of All Time. 41m28s: Hystericoach 43m16s: Bottom of the Ninth 45m09s: Blaseball. RPG designer Meguey Baker's thread on it. 46m56s: Omari wrote more about how his lived experience affected the design of Rap Godz. 48m24s: More info about how Omari and YouTuber (and all-around excellent person) Danny Plays Gamez raised $80,000 for BLM: 56m25s: Paula Deming's channel, Things Get Dicey, is absolutely amazing to behold. Top-notch writing, performing, and filming. 57m11s: For those of you who don't have the honor of consuming Capri Sun in the part of the world where you live, it's a (vaguely) fruit-flavored beverage. 1h01m16s: The GIF Omari is referring to, featuring young Brazilian skater Rayssa Leal. The GIF Gil is referring to, linked to from famous skater Tony Hawk.
Geoff ponders a tricky question: how come we get iconic characters from video games, like Mario or Pac-Man, but none from board games?
In the past few years, Ludology has recorded a live episode at Gen Con. We weren't going to let a global pandemic stop us this year!
Recorded as part of Gen Con Online 2020, Emma, Gil, and Scott streamed this recording live on Twitch. We had an excellent turnout in the chat, and everyone seemed to really enjoy this new twist on Ludology Live!
You can watch unedited video of this chat here.
It's possible we may return to this format in the future! Stay tuned…
SHOW NOTES
1m54s: We mention Gil's Twitch channel several times in this episode. 2m13s: Of course, this note to turn it tickets doesn't apply to people listening to the podcast. Don't let that note trigger any vague feelings of guilt! Also, for reference, we began recording at 5 pm EDT. 3m29s: "This much on the timeline" - at this point, Gil is holding up his finger and thumb with a few centimeters of space in between. 4m46s: Scott is holding up a Gamemaster DVD at this point. 5m40s: You can watch the Gen Con Gamemaster panel here. 6m01s: The shot in question (no Gil to be found, sadly). 7m16s: Alas, neither the Instagram Live nor Table Takes interviews are archived anywhere. :( 8m36s: Remote Playtesting (#rpt) is the playtest group that Gil helps to run. You can see and buy the t-shirt with Aaron Wilson's logo here. 8m54s: Aaron's new publishing company with Ian Zang, Gravitation Games. 9m55s: Here's Scott's quarantine playlist. 10m10s: Abandon All Artichokes 11m43s: High Rise is almost sold out! And Rival Networks pre-orders are still going strong. 12m02s: Check-In Cards. 12m37s: Here's the video for Animal Crossing Fiasco. More info for one of Gil's favorite games, De Vulgari Eloquentia. 14m38s: draw.io, a collaboration tool that Emma really likes. 14m56s: Here's a tweet that sums up Emma's game Unravel quite well. Emma also mentions the Our Innermost Thoughts Kickstarter project by Travis Hill. 18m27s: More info on the Tabletop Mentorship Program. 18m42s: Glenn Cotter's Fickle. 22m01s: Gil presented a lot of these thoughts in this blog post. 25m47s: The "G" Gil is trying to point to would be a fraction of a millimeter large in most screens. 26m21s: There will be another Virtual Gaming Con in November. 32m59s: GenCan't has been an online alternative to Gen Con for several years now. 36m21s: Here is an example of BuonoCardboard making the rounds. 39m27s: Scott's 50th episode of Biography of a Board Game just dropped, and it's wonderful! He covers the history of his own game, Rayguns and Rocketships. 40m24s: We at Ludology were all touched by Marcel Claxton's thoughtful analysis of Ludology's recent direction and its significance in the current age. 43m21s: Jason Morningstar appeared in Ludology 161 - What's The Story Morning Glory? 50m32s: There aren't many board games about falling in love, but quite a few digital and RPGs! (Gil would also like to suggest wargames and games coming out of that historical/political sphere as the board game parallel to documentaries.) 59m34s: For those who may not have heard of it, the MacArthur Fellows Program is awarded to 20-30 Americans every year who show "extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction." Between the high criteria for being named and the generous amount of money received ($625,000), it's nicknamed the "Genius Grant." 1h03m49s: Emma mentions a few tools here: Tabletop Simulator, Tabletopia, Trello, and Slack. 1h06m25s: At this point, Scott holds up a Playstation controller. 1h14m57s: This Discord Has Ghosts In It. 1h17m57s: Scott's links: his blog, his Patreon, his Twitter, and his Instagram. 1h18m54s: Emma's links: her website, her Twitter, and her Instagram. 1h19m28s: Gil's links: his company website, his personal website, his Twitter, and his Twitch.
This is the 50th Biography of a Board Game episode! To celebrate, Scott takes us through the history of his first board game, Rayguns and Rocketships.
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A BOARD GAME
0m36s: Video game publisher THQ 0m51s: God of War, Pac Man World, Soul Blade 1m37s: The Star Wars Album 1m43s: The legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, and Republic Pictures, responsible for many well-remembered serials 5m17s: More info on Hodgkin's lymphoma 8m22s: More info on the new Gamemaster film
Emma and Gil welcome game designer, educator, and birder Chidi Paige to discuss how games and play benefit education, how she designed her bird-themed game Birdwiser, and how competitive birdwatching has affected her as a person.
SHOW NOTES
0m22s: From educationcloset.com: "STEAM Education is an approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics as access points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking." It is an evolution of the older STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) approach in that it adds the arts. 1m29s: The Newark Museum in Newark, NJ. Fun fact: back when Chidi was working at the museum, Gil was a block away working at audible.com. Small world! 1m36s: Columbia University in New York, NY. 2m45s: Wonderstar Foundation has no web presence yet. Hopefully soon! 7m11s: ClassCraft 7m36s: Labster 8m01s: Chidi is referring to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for DNA replication, and to CRISPR for genome editing. 13m43s: Explorer's Program at the Newark Museum 23m06s: Our episode with Dr. Mary Flanagan was Ludology 226 - Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo 23m43s: You can hear more from Elizabeth Hargrave on Ludology 203 - Winging It. 25m31s: The Big Year on IMDB. 27m29s: Sadly, we could not find the video that Emma mentioned! 30m40s: Chidi's web site for Birdwiser. 32m00s: Whot and Uno are variations on the public domain game Crazy Eights. 33m18s: Birdwiser’s illustrations are by Emily Willoughby, with graphics by Kristine Mathieson of Tropikality Designs 36m26s: Sibley and Peterson are two of the best-known bird guides out there. 38m43s: We discussed Emma's Infinite Potato Problem in Ludology 225 - A Study in Emma-rald. 41m09s: The site Chidi is referring to is Upwork, originally called oDesk. 42m29s: Gil is talking about his word game Wordsy. 42m45s: "Complexity Budget," an idea Richard Garfield popularized. 47m09s: More info about certifying your garden for wildlife. 50m01s: More info about the World Series of Birding. 1h00m05s: The scientists Chidi mentions are Eric Kandel and Richard Axel.
Geoff muses on the difference between explicitly calling out the way a game system works, versus letting players implicitly discover how the players discover how the system works. Is one clearly better than the other?
Tell us how you feel in the Ludology forums!
Here's more information about Geoff's game Versailles 1919.
Emma and Gil invite award-winning game designer, teacher, and not-scholar Sharang Biswas to the show to discuss verbs in games. What actions do we actually perform when we play a game, what actions do they represent, and how does that impact the game experience?
You can find Sharang on Twitter or on the web. Here is his itch.io store.
CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains references to sex and sexuality.
Show Notes
2h31m: Sharang teaches at The International Center of Photography (Bard College), and at Fordham University. 3m05s: We had Dr. Mary Flanagan on the show for Ludology 226 - Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo 3m26s: Playcrafting is an organization that holds game design events, mainly for digital games, in New York City, San Francisco, and Boston. 5m04s: Anna Anthropy is an influential game designer, and current designer-in-residence at DePaul College in Chicago. 5m15s: Ian Bogost's Persuasive Games. 10m08s: Android: Netrunner 11m33s: We discussed ludonarrative dissonance, especially in board games, in Ludology 190 - Diabolus in Ludica. 12m05s: The uselessness of 1:1 scale maps came up in our conversation with Volko Ruhnke for Ludology 178 - COIN-Operated. 12m29s: If you haven't heard us discuss at length what a "game" is, check out Ludology 151 - High Definition. 12m35s: More information about the word autotelic, which is extremely useful when discussing games and play. 13m35s: Frank Lanz is a game designer and director of the NYU Game Center. 16m35s: Great Western Trail, Food Chain Magnate 17m10s: Ryan and Geoff discussed the magic circle with game designer and professor Eric Zimmerman in Ludology 79 - The Magic Circle. 17m29s: You can find more about Honey & Hot Wax, edited by Sharang and Lucian Kahn, here. 18m25s: The phrase "turtles all the way down" is one of Gil's favorites. 20m54s: Hungry Hungry Hippos, Mouse Trap, Pretty Pretty Princess, Electronic Dream Phone 21m30s: MegaCity Oceania 21m54s: Mountains of Madness 23m10s: Pandemic Legacy: Season One 24m11s: Sharang's game with Max Seidman, Mad Science Foundation 26m35s: The RPG Sign. 28m10s: More information about the larp Sarabande. 29m42s: Geoff and Gil discussed "soft incentives" in Ludology 185 - Soft Boiled. 30m38s: Jiangshi, an RPG about Chinese immigrants juggling running a haunted restaurant, by Banana Chan and Sen-Foong Lim. We had Banana on the show a few weeks ago, for Ludology 228 - The Roles We Play. 31m10s: Some of the discussion about "Press F To Pay Respects" in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. 31m31s: Untitled Goose Game 35m53s: Sharang compares Chaos in the Old World to Assault of the Giants. Chaos was designed by the incomparable Eric Lang, who we had on the show for Ludology 175 - Auld Lang Design. 37m13s: Sagrada 38m19s: DC Comics Deck-Building Game 40m00s: John Cage's 4'33", which instructs the performer to play no notes for the duration of the piece. 40m27s: Positive examples of ludonarrative dissonance: Typing of the Dead, Unspeakable Words 40m58s: Brenda Romero's well-known art game Train. 41m16s: Sharang's game Feast, inspired by Felix Gonzalez-Torres' original art piece Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.). 41m45s: The RPG With Great Power… 42m31s: Team Fun's interview with Sharang, featuring the phrase "Jump, Decapitate, Kill." 43m44s: Journalist, larp designer, and game writer Lizzie Stark. 45m00s: The 2001 video game Black & White. 45m17s: French literary critic Roland Barthes proposed the idea of the Death of the Author in a 1967 essay, suggesting that critics don't need to understand an author to contextualize their work. 45m24s: The Effing Foundation for Sex Positivity. 47m16s: Thumb Wars (or thumb wrestling) 51m45s: The games A Guide to Casting Phantoms In The Revolution, and Can You Hear Me? 52m34s: Sharang's game Several Miles from Heaven. 53m36s: The Jenga-implementing RPGs Dread and Star Crossed, and the apocalyptic RPG Ten Candles. 54m45s: Metatopia is a game designer convention based in the northeastern US that specializes in tests of board games, TTRPG, and larp. 56m41s: Sharang's solo food-based RPG Verdure. 57m52s: We had Jenn Sandercock on in Ludology 210 - The Way to a Gamer's Heart to discuss her edible games. 58m41s: The 200-word RPG Stardust. 1h00m00s: The bizarre Hellcouch (taking the idea of the "couch co-op to the next level), amd Mattie Brice's empathy machine. 1h00m45s: Marina Abramović's seminal performance art piece Rhythm 0, in which she allowed visitors to do whatever they wanted to her body for 6 hours. Visitors were gentle at first, but became more cruel as the piece went on, several times aiming a loaded gun in her head. The most powerful part of the performance emerged at the end; once the 6 hours ended, Abramović stood up and approached the audience, who promptly left, unable to face her as a person who had regained her bodily autonomy. 1h06m08s: Alex Roberts' Pop! is part of Sharang's project Honey and Hot Wax, co-edited by Lucian Kahn. 1h06m37s: Emma's degree is in Product Design. 1h08m45s: Sharang has written a couple of articles for Killscreen. 1h10m38s: Wingspan. We had the pleasure of chatting with designer Elizabeth Hargrave for Ludology 203 - Winging It. 1h12m15s: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was a horrifying tragedy in which 146 sweatshop workers in New York City were killed by a fire. The workers were locked into their working space, so they could not exit on foot; many leapt to their deaths. The fire resulted in legislation that improved factory safety standards and strengthened union powers. 1h14m42s: Clio Yun-Su Davis' RPG Pass the Sugar Please was run by theater company Intramersive. 1h16m44s: Sharang is referencing Kat Jones' game Glitzy Nails. 1h17m43s: The RPG Flatpack 1h19m34s: The productivity games Habitica, SuperBetter, Chore Wars, and Zombies Run. 1h20m58s: Sharang's game A Shroud for the Seneschal.
Scott takes us through the rise, fall, and rise again of the game Vinci, which designer Philippe Keyaerts and publisher Days of Wonder re-implemented as Small World.
Bibliography of a board game
Text: Meepletown interviews designer Keyaerts. Text: Boardtime interviews designer Keyaerts (the site is Polish, but the interview is in English). Text: Related Small World products from publisher Days of Wonder. Text: Tabletop Gaming magazine September 2019 - How We Made Small World (paywall) Text: Tabletop Gaming magazine #10 Jun/Jul 2017 - First Turn: Phillipe KeyaertsEmma, Gil, and Scott go back to a topic that Ryan and Geoff discussed earlier in the show's history: Deckbuilding! With all that's changed (including Emma having designed a deckbuilder), what has changed, and what have we learned?
0m41s: The episode that Ryan and Geoff did was Ludology 119 - Deck the Halls. 0m46s: Dominion (which did come out in 2008) 2m39s: StarCraft: The Board Game, which is generally believed to be the first game with an in-game deckbuilding component (if we assume that Magic: The Gathering's deckbuilding component is technically not "in-game," but is part of the metagame). 5m12s: Trains, and A Few Acres of Snow 6m26s: Smash Up 14m45s: Concordia, Aquatica 17m13s: Ascension, Thunderstone, Nightfall 22m26s: Eschaton, Copycat 30m08s: Aeon's End, Thunderstone Quest, Big Book of Madness, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle 31m39s: Puzzle Strike 32m36s: The Quacks of Quedlinburg 33m19s: I think we have the name to Scott's next game... :) 34m03s: Black Friday 34m47s: Quarriors (and its themed re-implementation, Dice Masters) 36m58s: Rattlebones 37m40s: Dice Forge (which Gil mistakenly called Dice Vault) 38m25s: According to designer Stephen Glenn, Rattlebones had been in the works since 2009. 40m05s: Blank White Dice (which Emma called Blank Dice) 41m07s: Abandon All Artichokes, Xenon Profiteer, Fine Sand 44m18s: Mystic Vale, Edge of Darkness 46m21s: The game Scott was thinking of is Dead Reckoning 46m36s: Slay the Spire 48m09s: Gil is using the definition of "atom" from the book Characteristics of Games: "The smallest complete unit of play, in the sense that the players feel they've 'really played' some of the game." 49m51s: The bits in question 50m05s: VENOM Assault 51m27s: Monster Train 54m17s: Self-promotion time!
Geoff uses an interesting bag-building example to discuss how a mechanism that is designed to be fair and equitable to all colors in the bag winds up favoring a single color over time. This example has incredible significance to our hobby, and our world.
You can reach out to Geoff via Twitter or email (geoff@ludology.net).
Emma and Gil welcome Banana Chan: game writer, larp/RPG designer, board game publisher, horror movie buff, and pop-up museum aficionado. We talk about writing for all kinds of games, how game mechanisms support intense experiences in larp and RPG, the effects of emancipatory bleed, and the effect of moving roleplay online.
Content warning: we discuss games with intense themes, like human sacrifice.
4m29s: The Spire RPG
5m59s: The Circle is a reality show in which contestants are isolated in their homes and can only communicate with others via a text-based app. They're free to adopt any persona they wish. You can watch the first episode of the American reboot here.
6m27s: Pork roll vs. Taylor ham (two names for the same kind of processed meat) is a long-running debate in the Garden State.
7m01s: Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit, a legendary play with a classic twist.
9m03s: The RPGs This Discord Has Ghosts In It and Long Time Listener, Last Time Caller
10m06s: For those of you just joining Ludology, welcome, and we just covered safety tools in Ludology 227 - Respect the X.
11m27s: To make it clear, bleed is a general term to describe a phenomenon (occurring mainly in larp) where a character's emotions and identity start mixing into a player's emotions and identity, and vice versa. It can be extremely intense, and larps usually feature necessary wrap-up sessions where players can talk out feelings that the game brought up. Here is an article with a couple of excellent examples of bleed. Jonaya Kemper, who Banana mentions, has written about emancipatory bleed here. Read more about Kemper and her work here.
11m59s: Here's Albert Kong's tweet about emancipatory bleed.
12m21s: More info about the Baphomet larp.
17m29s: Diplomacy is a game that's long-established for challenging friendships.
18m41s: Banana's new RPG, Jiangshi: Blood in the Banquet Hall, co-designed with Sen-Foong Lim
22m44s: Warp's Edge
24m51s: Angelus Morningstar has a good write-up on cultural appropriation in board games here. (Also, when Gil says "I wish this is something more board games would do," he means "hire cultural sensitivity readers.")
29m07s: They're Onto Me. The Golden Cobra Challenge is a contest for freeform larp.
31m06s: Dads on Mowers, a module for the RPG Kids on Bikes.
31m57s: Cobwebs RPG.
32m19s: Alice is Missing RPG.
32m37s: Banana is talking about an episode of the TV series Masters of Horror. This particular episode (which Gil and Emma will never watch) is called "John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns."
33m53s: Betrayal at Mystery Mansion is a re-implementation of Betrayal at House on the Hill, but with a Scooby-Doo theme.
35m58s: As We Know It.
37m32s: Roll20 is a website that facilitates online RPG play. Discord is an online text/voice chat program for gamers.
38m48s: By "corpse," Gil is referring to the surrealist writing exercise Exquisite Corpse.
41m39s: Banana's dinner party films: The Invitation, Get Out, Coherence. She also mentions Midsommar.
42m28s: Here's the article Gil mentions that describes the benefits of experiencing a horror movie entirely from its Wikipedia page.
43m02s: Here's Avery Alder's body horror RPG, Abnormal.
44m08s: The Park Avenue Armory, one of Gil's favorite places in NYC. Banana discusses The Funhouse in Toronto, which is now closed.
46m05s: The mangaka Junji Ito.
46m58s: Battle of the Boy Bands, a game by Clio Yun-su Davis and Vicci Ho that Banana published under the Game and a Curry label. Enjoy some music from Stray Kids and BTS.
50m05s: Night Witches, by Jason Morningstar. We had Jason on in Ludology 161 What's the Story, Morning Glory? Banana also mentions his game Juggernaut.
50m52s: Avery Alder's Monsterhearts.
51m25s: Here's the moment in the video Gil was mentioning. Alex Roberts, who plays the ghost, is the designer of the award-winning RPG Star Crossed.
52m13: Gil is referring to Ludology 226 - Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo, in which Dr. Mary Flanagan discussed how psychological distance helps people better associate with a subject.
53m39s: If you're interested in Goat-2-Meeting, here are the details.
56m44s: The designers Banana mentions are: Jabari Weathers, Jonaya Kemper (mentioned above), and Fertessa Allyse.
Scott takes us through the twisted history of the classic game Twister. How did it overcome its risqué premise to become a perennial favorite?
Bibliography of a Board Game:
7m46: One interesting note is that Shuffle Twister's gameplay is similar to Bez Shahriari's independently-released In a Bind, but Shahriari released her game in 2015, one year earlier. In a Bind went on to be re-implemented by French publisher Gigamic as Yogi.
9m19s: To clarify, Monkey Auto Races wasn't #1 on the BGG Hot Games; as an April Fool's joke in 2007, a bunch of BGG users gave the game a high rating, and it was actually the #1 game on BGG for one day.
Emma and Gil moderate a roundtable on safety tools in games, with guests Kienna Shaw and Lauren Bryant-Monk (creators of the TTRPG Safety Toolkit) and John Stavropoulos (creator of the X-Card).
We discuss consent and safety in games, starting with tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), but expanding to all sorts of games. How can safety tools help in games, and in what ways do they help?
Content Warning: this episode mentions occurences of consent violations, domestic abuse, and sexual assault.
SHOW NOTES
23m25s - The D&D Adventurers League is an official ongoing play, organized by D&D's publisher Wizards of the Coast.
32m29s - Kids on Bikes, by Jon Gilmour and Doug Levandowski.
33m17s - Avonelle Wing is a longtime RPG/LARP player, convention organizer, and advocate for equality and justice for games. She's one of Gil's idols.
34m11s - Kate Bullock is a TTRPG designer, advocate, writer, and president of the Indie Game Developer Network.
39m58s - Nordic LARP is a form of LARP with minimal rules and GMing, but heavy atmosphere and story. Compare it to demonstrative (boffer) LARPs, which tend to be more fantastical and have NPCs and combat rules.
43m20s - An otome game is a story-based video game that generally has the player control a female character, to try to develop a relationship with one of the game's male characters.
46m10s - Here's an especially horrifying story about an awful GM that came out of UKGE last year (BIG CONTENT WARNING for sexual assault in that link). Note that this is one story, but there are many more that never get this much coverage. The story about the public live stream that went wrong is here, and carries a similar content warning.
52m07s - You didn't think we were going to go a full episode without bringing board games into it, did you? :)
1h00m26s - Self-Promotion: you can find more info about Gil's Check-In Cards here.
1h00m57s - Twilight Imperium being a 6 hour game about galactic conquest.
1h06m58s - Psychologist Susan Silk and her friend Barry Goldman wrote about this in the LA times. They called it "Ring Theory," and in it, they discuss how you can comfort a grieving person while not burdening them with your own pain, by placing them in the "center" of the crisis and being mindful of where you are relative to others in that ring.
1h10m03s - Restorative justice is a methodology that has the victim and offender meeting (often with community members), with the expectation that the two parties will come to a consensus on what happened, how much damage was caused, and how the damage can be repaired. This gives the offender a clear path to righting the wrong, and empowers the victim in the process of seeking justice.
Geoff discusses the phenomenon of counterfeiting in game production. How prevalent it it, and how badly does it affect game publishers?
Emma and Gil welcome Dr. Mary Flanagan, designer of Monarch, Visitor in Blackwood Grove, Buffalo, Awkward Moment, and plethora of other games in a myriad of styles and platforms, from party to strategy on digital in tabletop. Dr. Flanagan is also an artist, having exhibited works (many game-related) all around the world, and teaches game design at Dartmouth, who also hosts her game design and research lab, Tiltfactor.
We discuss designing games from the perspectives of fun and meaningful change. How does one make a transformative game that players actually enjoy, but that is still effective at building empathy and fighting prejudice?
CONTENT WARNING: There is a brief mention of racial prejudice, and sexual assault in literary works towards the end of the episode.
SHOW NOTES
0m21s: "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically correct sentence. This video explains it, and other lexically ambiguous sentences.
1m21s: Tiltfactor, Dr. Flanagan's game design and research lab at Dartmouth
1m57s: If you're reading this, congratulations, you're reading the show notes!
3m58s: Professor Scott Rogers covered The Game of The Goose in Biography of a Board Game 221.5.
4m27s: For more information on these French Revolution-themed versions of Game of the Goose (Jeu de la Revolution Francaise), check out page 17 of this PDF. It's also interesting to note that Robespierre attempted to install a new state religion for France during the Revolution, the Cult of the Supreme Being (Culte de l'Être suprême); it's entirely possible that its dogma was reinforced through things like board games. Perhaps it also helped with the bizarre decimal-time-based calendar that Robespierre couldn't get to stick, but that still frustrates historians to this day.
5m30s: More information about Dr. Flanagan's book, Critical Play.
6m39s: The Landlord's Game by Lizzie Magie is the game that Monopoly was based on.
7m51s: September 12: A Toy World is a game where a player is trying to kill terrorists by firing missiles at a village. But every terrorist you kill creates more terrorists, as the locals get angrier at your actions. Soon, the village is gone and you are surrounded by terrorists. There is no way to win the game through shooting.
7m56s: Paolo Pedercini also makes commentary games. (Note that this link contains adult content.) Jump to the McDonald's Videogame here.
8m13s: More info on Profit Seed.
8m33s: More info on Layoff.
9m40s: More info on Pox: Save the Puppies.
10m32s: "Designing Games to Foster Empathy," the paper Dr. Flanagan wrote with Jonathan Belman.
15m04s: More info about psychological distance.
16m16s: Gil is referring to Ludology 213.5 - The Incan Gold Experiment, run by Dr. Stephen Blessing and research assistant Elena Sakosky. (Gil refers to the game from the original European release's name, Diamant, but it was released in English as Incan Gold.)
19m51s: For a longer discussion on what "fun" means in a game, and on a deeper level, how games create meaning, check out Ludology 201 - Are We Having Fun Yet?
21m20s: More info on the party game Buffalo.
24m14s: More info on social identity complexity
26m13s: More info on the party game Awkward Moment.
31m10s: For more discussion on board games and colonialism, check out Ludology Episode 197 - Empires Up in Arms. For more information about the effects of "terra nullius" in board games, check out this article from Nancy Foasberg.
32m26s: "Failed Games: Lessons Learned from Promising but Problematic Game Prototypes in Designing for Diversity," by Dr. Flanagan, Max Seidman, and Geoff Kaufman.
34m15s: Dr. Lawrence Summers, president of Harvard University, has suggested that biological differences could explain why there were fewer women in science.
36m18s: More info about Blokus.
39m39s: More info on the strategy game Monarch.
40m04s: Dr. Flanagan's book (with co-author Helen Nissenbaum) Values at Play.
40m18s: Here are some articles on Will Wright and Chris Trottier.
45m12s: More info on This War of Mine: The Board Game and Freedom: The Underground Railroad.
49m05s: More info on Dr. Flanagan's art, including giantJoystick.
50m40s: Gabriel Orozco's Horses Running Endlessly.
51m48s: Dr. Flanagan's paper, with Sukdith Punjasthitkul and Geoff Kaufman, on "Social Loafing."
54m53s: The article in question is "The Mechanical Muse," published in The New Yorker on January 7, 2020.
56m28s: Here's an article in Wired on the paper in question, in which large collections of photos used to train image-recognition software - including one used by Google and Microsoft - were found to amplify exisiting biases.
57m15s: In 2015, Google apologized for their facial recognition software mislabeling Black people as "gorillas."
57m42s: More info about Reload: Rethinking Women and Cyberculture.
58m49s: The story here is "No Woman Born," by C.L. Moore.
1h03m31s: The show will be called "Gameplay: Video Game Culture," at the CCCB in Barcelona, Spain.
1h04m07s: "Max" is Max Seidman, game designer at Resonym and frequent collaborator with Dr. Flanagan.
1h05m41s: We've covered the lightweight interactive fiction platform Twine before on the show, most notably on Ludology 217 - What IF?
Join Scott as he recounts the history of the game that blurred the line between a game and a toy: Mousetrap.
Bibliography of a Board Game for Mouse Trap It’s All a Game by Tristan Donovan A World Without Reality: Inside Marvin Glass’s Toy Vault by Bill Paxton Mental Floss – Mouse Trap Game Facts Chicago Tribune – Toying with Success Best Play – History of Mouse Trap: Murder, Playboys and Plagiarism Google Patents Rube Goldberg.com Smithsonian Mag – Teaching physics with a massive game of mouse trap
Today, we put Emma in the spotlight to find out what went into designing her newest game, Abandon All Artichokes, how many cards she actually designed for it, and how the game was almost derailed by an Infinite Potato Problem.
SHOW NOTES
5m44s: Magic: The Gathering and the marvelous deckbuilding video game Slay the Spire. Also check out Ludology 198 - Inspired, featuring Slay the Spire's co-designer Anthony Giovannetti.
6m00s: Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, two video games where the player starts in a remote area with very little in the way of equipment, and ends up building a small town.
7m22s: If you want to check out more deck-wreckers, try Xenon Profiteer (one of Gil's personal favorite games), or Fine Sand.
8m39s: Don't let the bean theme throw you off. Bohnanza is one of the best trading games you'll find.
9m15s: Bonnie Pang did the wonderful art for Artichokes.
9m43s: Sushi Go, by Phil Walker-Harding and also published by Gamewright, is an excellent light drafting game. It was good enough to spawn a family of light, charming drafting games.
Phil has mentioned in passing that Sushi Go took many, many tries to get right. Another example of how hard it is to make a good, light game!
11m16s: Emma mentions some other Gamewright titles that fit a similar mold: Go Nuts for Donuts and Qwixx.
15m22s: Emma casually references Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey here.
26m29s: Seth Jaffee's article on balancing game elements and "finding the unit" is still immensely valuable to game designers everywhere.
31m59s: Cardboard Edison's publisher directory is an invaluable resource to game designers looking for a publisher for their prototypes.
48m44s: The incredibly adorable Abandon All Artichokes trailer and its accompanying how-to-play video.
49m18s: We'll post a link to the design diary in the Ludology forums as soon as it goes online!
55m16s: Emma's first episode.
56m43s: Dominion, the game that popularized deckbuilding as an in-game mechanism.
Geoff ruminates on the limitations of using AI to balance games. Why can't we use machine learning to fully balance a game experience, and finally make a game that everyone on BGG will find perfectly fair on the first play?
SHOW NOTES
1m17s: For more on this subject, check out our two GameTek episodes on AlphaGo : GameTek Classic 218.5 Alpha Zero, and GameTek Classic 222.5 Alpha Zero, Part 2. 2m00s: Geoff's game The Expanse. 5m29s: The fantastic trading game Sidereal Confluence (which will soon have a new edition!) 6m18s: League of Legends has grappled for a long time with how to balance their champions for players of all skill levels. Here's their latest approach on how they're trying to do it.
Emma and Gil sit down with Chris Rowlands of Funko Games to discuss the design of IP-based games, and what it's like to design as part of a group collective.
SHOW NOTES
0m00s: Playtest safely online with Gil and Emma! 4m11s: Mox Boarding House is one of the premier board game stores in Seattle. (Here's hoping they can stick around until everything is able to reopen!) 12m21s: The Frosthaven Kickstarter project. 16m45s: Personal plug: Abandon All Artichokes is Emma's newest game. 19m47s: Power Grid is the #36th ranked game on BGG. (Rankings are not absolute, objective measures of quality, of course, but still. It's a big game.) 24m01s: Beth Hawley was responsible for the amazing art in Chris' game Under My Bed. 27m18s: Disney Villainous, in which each player is a Disney villain with unique special powers, is one of their more well-known titles. 29m05s: The party game Yeah Nope. 30m52s: Funkoverse, the tactical minis game using modified Funko figurines. 32m33s: All of "Prospero Hall's" credited games on BGG. 34m04s: The games Horrified and Jaws. 38m17s: Prospero Hall's website. 43m28s: The "tracer" scene from Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy. (Explicit language warning) 50m31s: Personal plug: Avowel is currently available on Android, and coming to iOS soon! 54m10s: The game Jurassic Park: Danger. 1h02m35s: Paper Girls and Manifest Destiny 1h03m26s: Sea of Thieves 1h03m48s: Infocom's original help guide entry to the horrible and notorious Babel Fish puzzle in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy video game, written by Douglas Adams himself, is an absolute wonder to read. Keep clicking "Next Answer." Favorite quote on step 19 of the hint: "At this point, brave men have been known to break down and cry." 1h05m11s: Building the Game, a podcast on game design. 1h06m34s: Some articles about wrestling's current audience-less format. 1h12m04s: Our episode on ludonarrative dissonance was Ludology 192 - Diabolus in Ludica. 1h14m04s: Back to the Future: Back in Time and Last Defense!
Scott goes into the checkered history of The Game of Life, which has had many inspirations and incarnations, and is still going strong.
(Content warning: this episode contains quick, passing references to sex and suicide.)
0m00s: Join Gil's and Emma's remote playtesting groups! 1m44s: A Little Pretty Pocket Book. Fun fact: this book contains the first appearance of the term "base-ball," although that term at the time was an alternative regional name for the sport now known as Rounders. 2m37s: The New Game of Human Life. Here's the original French game that inspired it, which BGG has under the name La Vie Humaine un Nouveau Jeu. 3m19s: More information about the teetotum, which was often used to avoid the impression of gambling. 5m48s: The Reward of Merit, The Mirror of Truth: Exhibiting a variety of Biographical Anecdotes and Moral Essays calculated to Inspire a Love of Virtue and Abhorrence of Vice, and The Mansion of Happiness. 7m45s: The Checkered Game of Life. 9m17s: The Game of the Telegraph Boy, Game of To the North Pole By Airship, and The Game of Playing Department Store. 9m32s: More information about toy and game designer Reuben Klamer. 10m48s: The famous blue and pink pegs are, of course, the inspiration for the name of the excellent board game podcast Blue Peg, Pink Peg. 11m44s: Here's a page with a photo of the 1960 edition of The Game of Life. 12m28s: More information about the resolution of the lawsuit between Klamer and Markham. 13m32s: The Game of Life: Twists and Turns 14m08s: The Game of Life Express 16m33s: This would also be a good time to mention some modern board games that handle the same subject matter, and were no doubt somehow inspired by The Game of Life. The Pursuit of Happiness, Funny Friends, CV, and My Story.
Emma and Gil welcome Anya Combs and Luke Crane from Kickstarter to discuss how crowdfunding is changing, especially in light of recent events.
Anya: anya@kickstarter.com, games@kickstarter.com, @anyayna Luke: @burning_luke, burningwheel.com
Note that this episode was recorded on March 25, 2020, so if we talk about things happening "a few weeks ago," we're referring to late February/early March. This wouldn't normally be an important detail, but things are changing a lot quickly these days.
SHOW NOTES
0m00s: Playtest safely online with Gil and Emma!
1m28s: For those who have never heard it, the MC5's "Kick Out the Jams" set a template for punk rock's sound well before its time. (Explicit language warning)
3m52s: More info about the Burning Wheel roleplaying system.
8m32s: The original Alien Frontiers and Cards Against Humanity projects. Both were modest successes. Double Fine Adventure, Wasteland 2, Shadowrun Returns, and Shenmue were much larger successes.
9m48s: The original Kingdom Death: Monster was a wild success, but the second edition was one of the largest Kickstarter Games campaigns ever run.
9m56s: We recorded this episode before Frosthaven launched. As of the time of this episode's release, it has raised over $7 million USD.
10m31s: Gil's Kickstarter projects are all visible here.
12m39s: The Dispel Dice Kickstarter project.
17m23s: The F*** Yeah Dice Kickstarter project (Explicit language warning, of course).
16m56s: Itten made the unique game Stonehenge and the Sun. Oink and Bouken don't have any Kickstarter projects, but their games are worth your attention for their distinctive look and style. Luke also brings up Bouken's game Diet & Friends.
17m17s: W.M. Akers has a series of baseball simulators called Deadball.
18m23s: You can find Emma's weekly news show on Twitch every Friday at 2 pm Pacific.
20m00s: Here's the Fantastic Factories Kickstarter project. Here's the Kickstarter for Coloma, designed by Jonny Pac, who was on Ludology 221: The Pac Less Traveled.
20m36s: Here's the Gladius Kickstarter project.
21m51s: More info about the Skylanders video game, which discontinued support in 2017.
24m42s: Here's the Multiverse Kickstarter project. (Incidentally, if you're interested in a platform similar to Multiverse, check out Roll20).
27m34s: More info about the Jackbox party games.
28m20s: The Spaceteam Kickstarter project (Note that this is for the original video game, not the card game inspired by it).
30m10s: More info about Twine. We go more into detail about this platform in Ludology 217: What IF?
30m43s: More info about AVOWEL, the mobile version of Wordsy.
31m05s: The latest Chronicles of Crime Kickstarter.
32m46s: Commands & Colors by Richard Borg is a family of outstanding light wargames that includes BattleLore and Memoir '44.
34m33s: More information about Kickstarter's Make100 and ZineQuest initiatives.
43m16s: More information about the newest God of War game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_War_(2018_video_game).
43m36s: Animal Crossing! Hoo hoo! That's a link to more info about New Horizons, the newest game in the series. There's a lot of interesting discussion going on about the game and how timely it is, how its soothing imagery is perfect for the current times, and how it offers an escapist fantasy (literally escaping to a desert island) to people who are stuck at home.
47m13s: Ankh, the newest CMON game, is at over $1 million USD from about 14,000 backers at the time of this episode release. Tapeworm has not yet launched at the time of this episode release.
46m45s: Pax Pamir's most recent Kickstarter. It's from Cole Wehrle (and his brother Drew), whom you heard two weeks ago on Ludology 222: Johnny Fairplay.
47m06s: The Sea of Stars Kickstarter project, and the Swords 'n Magic and Stuff project.
52m34s: Anya performs in the Hungry March Band, the Funkrust Brass Band, and the Brooklyn Wind Symphony.
55m26s: Of course, Team Ludology does not subscribe to Luke's spicy hot take here, and we're pretty sure Rob Daviau has played D&D more than once. :) Rob was guest on Ludology 70: Risky Business. If you want to hear him GM, check out the actual play podcast Story Roost and its first story arc, The Unmarked. (Explicit language warning)
59m17s: DRUGGIES AND BULLIES BEWARE BULLYPROOF Kickstarter project.
1h00m30s: OLDIE BINGO Kickstarter project.
Geoff continues the discussion about Alpha Zero, this time pointing out the impact a self-learning AI can have on an established tournament meta, like Magic or Hearthstone.
Show Notes:
0m47s: More info about Agent57, the DeepMind AI that can beat humans at 57 different Atari 2600 games. 1m52s: The Ares Project, Geoff's first published board game (designed with his son Brian) 2m15s: More info about the Halifax Hammer strategy from A Few Acres of Snow. 2m29s: The current list of banned cards in Magic: The Gathering. And, the current list of changed Hearthstone cards.
Emma and Gil welcome accomplished designer Cole Wehrle, designer of Root, Oath, and Pax Pamir (Second Edition), back to the show (Cole previously appeared on Ludology 163 - A Pain in the Asymmetry). We discuss fairness in games. Has it been around for as long as we think it has? What can an "unfair" game do that other games can't?
Cole is a staff designer at Leder Games, and co-founded Wehrlegig Games with his brother Drew.
SHOW NOTES
2m18s: You can watch Cole's GDC talk here.
12m02s: Learn more about Twilight Imperium (this is the most recent version, but there were previous versions with slightly different rulesets)
13m52s: Learn more about Memoir '44.
14m25s: Learn more about Scythe.
16m04s: Learn more about Blood Rage and Sushi Go!
19m30s: Gil remembers a bunch of Viking games in the mid-aughts. One of the biggest was Michael Kiesling's Vikings, whose gameplay, while clever, did little to evoke actual Vikings.
22m41s: The book Strike Four was recommended to me by Dennis Goodman, who is himself a baseball historian and rules expert, and has written a streamlined rulebook for the sport.
24m16s: The book Cole refers to is The Games Ethic and Imperialism (Sport in the Global Society) by J. A. Mangan.
25m14s: I'm referring to the book The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer/Football, by David Goldblatt. The exact title depends on if you buy the US or UK version; this link is to the US version.
27m07s: Cole refers to the book Making England Western, by Saree Makdisi.
27m33s: Thomas Arnold was headmaster of Rugby School from 1828, and was influential in reforming the British public school system. Tom Brown's School Days was written by Thomas Hughes and published in 1857, and popularized British public schools as a literary setting.
28m11s: If you're curious, here is the official 2019 NFL rulebook. If your eyes aren't crossed yet, here is the official 2019 MLB rulebook (though note Dennis Goodman's streamlined take on the rules of baseball, mentioned above). And to finish you off, here is the official ICC web page on all the Playing Conditions of every form of cricket (although to be fair, they have to handle all three major forms of the game - imagine if the NFL rulebook had to account for Canadian and Arena Football as well!)
Side note: I also checked out the official Laws of World Rugby Union, and I was stunned to see how clearly-written they were! They are made to be read by a layperson, not a lawyer, and come with many video examples of rule violations.
30m42s: This is a good time to remind you to check out Scott Rogers' Biography of a Board Game last week for The Game of the Goose. It's not technically a Victorian board game - no one knows how old it is - but it's the template for many Victorian parlor games. (I wish we could say we planned these episodes to run consecutively, but it was just a happy coincidence!)
32m08s: We're discussing The Landlord's Game, by Elizabeth Magie (interestingly, Hasbro still does not officially acknowledge Magie's role in the creation of Monopoly, perhaps for legal reasons)
32m56s: More like 150-175 years old, really. Most sports rules began getting formally codified in the mid-19th century (though cricket had already started getting codified in the 18th century).
33m14s: The Eton Wall Game is still played today. And yes, there's video of it! Note that Eton has a second code of football, the Eton Field Game, which is closer to soccer, but still contains many elements found in rugby. There's a video of the Eton Field Game here.
36m34s: Cole is referring to Bernie De Koven and his book The Well-Played Game. He also refers to the games Acquire and Caylus.
37m23s: To Emma's point, Prussian college professor Johann Christian Ludwig Hellwig invented the first wargame in 1780, but it was Kriegsspiel, designed by Prussian nobleman George Leopold von Reisswitz in 1812 and refined by his soldier son Georg Heinrich Rudolf Johann von Reisswitz in 1824, that introduced realism and verisimilitude into the form. Note that these wargames were designed more for military training than recreation.
37m43s: H.G. Wells, who wrote many seminal science-fiction novels like The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds, was also a game designer. In his books Floor Games and Little Wars, he establishes rules for the first recreational wargames. (Also, the idea of games solving world problems is still alive, most notably by Jane McGonigal in her book Reality is Broken.)
38m53s: Alexander Pope's classic (albeit somewhat overly-dramatically-named) poem The Rape of the Lock. Read it here.
39m58s: Roger Caillois' Man, Play and Games, written in 1961, probably deserves its own episode.
42m00s: Hare and Tortoise is, of course, the first Spiel des Jahres winner. (On a related note, Scott's Biography of a Board Game about Eurogames is a really good listen on this subject.) Cole then mentions Die Macher and Catan.
46m20s: I did not come up with this "roll a die at the end of a game of Chess to see who wins" thought experiment, but I can't remember where I read it! Maybe Characteristics of Games?
47m29s: Relevant quote from Mike Selinker from Ludology 189 - Missing Selinker: "Frustration is a valuable, positive thing up to a point. You’ve just got to know where the table flip is."
48m08s: Cole is kind enough to mention Gil's forthcoming game High Rise after playing it at GDC 2019. Cole gave his talk on defending kingmaking; Gil gave his talk on how indirect interaction in games can be good.
52m21s: More info about Descent, Dark Venture, and Tomb.
59m30s: More info about Byzantine themes.
1h04m44s: More info about Liberté.
1h06m36s: More info about The History of Rome podcast.
1h08m58s: The political compass of Root, as suggested by Reddit user u/orionsbelt05.
In today's Biography of a Board Game, Scott takes us through the long history of The Game of the Goose, which became a template for almost every roll-and-move game into Victorian times and beyond.
Show notes:
1m49s: The ancient Egyptian game of Mehen
2m04s: History of the labyrinth
2m24s: The Discus of Phaistos, also known as the Phaistos Disc
2m50s: Games mentioned
3m33s: Bibliothèque curieuse et instructive de divers ouvrages anciens et modernes, a book by Claude-François Ménestrier, is available to read online in French.
4m33s: Works mentioned:
5m07s: Works mentioned:
Emma and Gil welcome Jonny Pac, designer of Coloma and other games set in the Gold Rush West. Our main topic of discussion is multiple paths to victory: what it brings to a game, what kinds of games need it, what kinds of games don't, and how to avoid the dreaded "point salad" effect.
Jonny's published games:
Show notes:
06m28s: Jonny likens Scythe to a race game. Check out Chapter 2 of Characteristics of Games (George Skaff Elias, Richard Garfield, K. Robert Gutschera) for more information about the distinction between a "race" and a "brawl."
07m35s: Games mentioned: Lords of Waterdeep Caylus Caylus 1303
08m32s: Games mentioned: Catan
09m48s: Games mentioned: 7 Wonders Duel 12m56s: Ah, the "Victory Points Suck" argument! Here is the original talk, and here is the rebuttal blog post that Gil wrote. (Scott Westerfeld is actually a really cool person; he was just being a bit hyperbolic.)
13m32s: Games mentioned: Get Bit Red Dragon Inn 15m02s: Games mentioned: Agricola 18m06s: Games mentioned: Azul El Grande 6 Nimmt! 22m27s: Games mentioned: Point Salad
32m01s: Games mentioned: Century: Spice Road 34m09s: Games mentioned: Dominion 35m58s: Games mentioned: Tzolk'in Terra Mystica 42m12s: Games mentioned: Carcassonne 46m47s: Games mentioned: Ticket to Ride Amazonas 49m28s: Zero-level heuristics - the strategies and tactics players embrace when first learning the game. Go back to Characteristics of Games, Chapter 4, for an excellent introduction to this topic.
51m11s: Games mentioned: Stone Age 53m14s: Games mentioned: Concordia 56m38s: Tragedy of the Commons is a well-known game theory problem that pits collective good versus self-interest.
1h01m55s: Games mentioned: Santa Maria Raja of the Ganges Castles of Burgundy 1h04m58s: For those who may not know, ASCAP and BMI are the two largest music performance rights organizations in America. They monitor radio play and live performances, and make sure that every time a song is played publicly, its rightsholder gets paid.
1h06m27s: Eat Poop You Cat is the activity that Telestrations was based on.
1h09m42s: More info on Placerville, CA.
1h13m42s: Games mentioned: Five Tribes Trajan Istanbul Spacewalk 1h14m34s: Jonny is referring to Ludology 176 - Taxonomy Driver.
Geoff welcomes Dr. James Wootton, quantum computing expert and one of the people behind the digital game Hello Quantum, which is made to teach its player about the fundamentals of quantum computing.
Here is the Quantum Information Science Kit (QISKIT) blog Dr. Wootton mentioned.
If you're technically inclined, here is Dr. Wootton's GitHub repository. And if you want to take a quantum computer out for a spin, here is the cloud-based service Dr. Wootton mentioned.
Emma and Gil welcome Jennifer Ellis and Keith Baker of Twogether Studios. We discuss their approach for integrating stories into their game, whether directly embedded in their game, letting them emerge from the players, or evoked from the look of the product.
Show notes:
05m03s: Check out Keith and Jenn's games: Gloom Illimat Action Cats Phoenix: Dawn Command
17m04s: Keith and Jenn's forthcoming Adventure Zone game is based on the Adventure Zone D&D actual play series.
36m46: More info about Descent.
38m36s: Illimat is a card game conceived by and designed with the band The Decemberists.
40m00s: More info about Cthulhu Fluxx.
49m19s: More info about Keith's award-winning D&D setting Eberron.
Scott leads us through the history of Trivial Pursuit, from its conception from two Canadian journalists after trying to play a game of Scrabble with missing pieces, to a full-fledged global 80s fad, to a billion-dollar empire.
Professor Scott Rogers joins Gil and Emma once again! This time, we're discussing Scott's time as an Imagineer designing games and experiences for Disneyland, and his subsequent work designing VR attractions. It's a fascinating topic, with a surprising amount of overlap into any kind of game design!
Show notes:
05m45s: More info about Disney Play here.
08m06s: Scott is right, sportscaster Al Michaels was indeed traded for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
18m16s: Ludology 189 - Missing Selinker, wherein Mike Selinker shares a funny story testing Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom:
30m20s: The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald Norman. Highly recommended to anyone who wants a better understanding of how people interact with objects.
40m53s: The history of how Tetris has chosen its pieces is really fascinating!
41m29s: Some more information about Legends of Frontierland: Gold Rush.
46m09s: We discussed dark rides and the challenge of choice in an immersive environment Ludology 214 - Escape from Reality with Strange Bird Immersive.
52m34s: Two-Bit Circus, the place in LA where you can experience the Terminator-themed dark ride that Scott worked on.
1h02m46s: Geoff interviewed Curtis Hickman, CCO of The Void, in GameTek 134.
1h05m51s: More info about Dreamscape.
1h06m37s: More info about Evermore.
1h10m58s: We discussed emergent vs. embedded narrative in Ludology 213 - Your Humble Narrator.
1h11m24s: Look, it was a long recording session, okay? :)
Geoff discusses Alpha Zero, a neural net that can play Go, Chess, and Shogi better than anyone in the world. It defeated the best AI in those respective games (each of whom had previously defeated the best humans in the world) with only a few hours of training. What does this spell for the future of AI, and the future of game design?
Emma and Gil welcome Geoff Engelstein and Isaac Shalev back to the show to discuss their new book Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design. This is a reference of board game mechanisms that any designer, new or experienced, can use to look up different tools they can use to solve problems in game design.
Games and other things mentioned in this episode:
19m30s:
19m39s:
22m13s:
23m11s:
33m55s:
35m22s:
41m07s:
51m30s:
52m10s:
53m07s:
54m27s:
55m55s:
1h04m54s:
Scott uncovers the history of the classic game Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, which has been delighting kids (and kids-at-heart) since 1964. He discusses the influences that converged in making the game, why the combatants are robots, and how it's influenced everything from video games to real-life combat robotics.
Legendary Interactive Fiction writer Andrew Plotkin joins Gil and Emma to talk about text-based stories that players can participate in. We explore the form's history and unique strengths, and discuss what good writing can bring to a game's experience.
Interactive Fiction platforms mentioned in this episode:
Check out some of Andrew's IF work:
Other video games mentioned in this episode:
Board games and analog IF mentioned in this episode:
If you would like to explore the world of IF, a good place to start is the Interactive Fiction Database - it's like the BGG of IF!
Some good games to start with (this is hardly an authoritative list):
Enjoy exploring the IF rabbit hole!
In this GameTek Classic, Geoff describes the idea of "path dependence," and discusses how human game players allow their past to affect their present. Should players care about how they got to a certain point in their game?
Ludology returns for 2020, with our annual tradition of bringing on board game industry veteran Stephen Buonocore from Stronghold Games/Indie Game Studios to discuss the state of the industry.
2020 will be an interesting year for board games. What challenges await us? Is it smooth sailing? Doom and gloom? Somewhere in-between?
In this episode recorded at BGG.CON, Scott and Gil tell Emma all about Tabletop Network, a convention about the theory behind game design that happens right before BGG.CON. We gush about our favorite talks, and tell you what makes Tabletop Network so unique.
Scott gives us a history of the classic social deduction game Mafia, from its origins in a Russian high school classroom to its transformation beneath a full moon into Werewolf.
Escape rooms have been providing a new form of play for much of this decade. At the same time, immersive theater has been providing a new form of storytelling. What happens when the two get mixed?
In this episode, Emma and Gil are joined by Haley E.R. Cooper and J. Cameron Cooper of Strange Bird Immersive, who run the hybrid escape room/immersive theater piece The Man From Beyond, and the Immersology blog.
How can escape rooms use immersive theater to tell a story? And how can we learn from that to better tell stories in our games?
(Note: starting this episode, we are going to feature more detailed show notes of things we bring up in our conversation. That's especially important in this episode, as we refer to theater works that may not be well-known to others!)
Games mentioned in this episode (all digital):The Stanley Parable Myst Gone Home
Theater shows mentioned in this episode:Sleep No More Sweeney Todd (2017 off-Broadway semi-immersive) Selfie museums (e.g. Color Factory) Meow Wolf Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 Then She Fell The Nest
Also mentioned this episode: Improv for Gamers (book) Bartle Taxonomy of Gamer Types Ludology Episode 159 - Getting Out Scott Free (with Scott Nicholson)
Back in Ludology 185, Geoff brought up a thought experiment. What if someone rethemed Incan Gold to a firefighting game? Would people play any differently?
Dr. Stephen Blessing (@cognitive_gamer) of the University of Tampa took up the challenge, and with the help of research assistant Elena Sakosky, designed and ran the experiment that Geoff proposed.
In this GameTek, Dr. Blessing and Sakosky join Geoff to discuss their findings. Did players take more risks if they felt, thematically, that lives were on the line?
If you'd like to hear more of Dr. Blessing's work, listen to his podcast, Cognitive Gamer: http://cognitivegamer.com/
Gil and Emma discuss narrative in games. How can narrative improve games? What is the difference between embedded and emergent narrative? And what the are common ways that prototypes of narrative games can fail?
In this special episode of Ludology, recorded live at GrandCon 2019, Gil and Geoff go back in time to recount their earliest game designs. Were they as embarrassing? Were they any good? What is Gil's infamous action mechanism, and was Geoff able to capture the essence of the Battle of Cannae for a school assignment? We also take some live listener questions at the end.
Emma and Gil welcome mass-market game and toy inventor Kim Vandenbrouke to the show. How is "inventing" a mass-market game different than "designing" a hobby game? Why is the toy/mass-market industry so much more secretive? And how does one deal with all the publisher rejection?
You can read Kim's writings on the toy and mass-market game industry here: https://www.thegameaisle.com/kim-vandenbroucke/
Geoff welcomes digital archaeoludologist Cameron Browne, principal investigator of the Digital Ludeme Project, to find out how we can use artificial intelligence and machine learning to try to derive the rules to ancient games like Senet by breaking games down into what Browne calles "ludemes."
Find out more about the Digital Ludeme Project on Twitter (@archaeoludology) or the web: http://ludeme.eu/
You can play some games that Browne has constructed from ludemes here: https://ludii.games/
In May 2012, Geoff and Ryan brought Michael Lee, owner of the relatively new company Panda Games Manufacturing, on the show to discuss the art and design of manufacturing games.
Over 5 and a half years later, Gil and Emma are delighted to welcome Michael back! Panda Games Manufacturing has grown along with the industry, and Michael hasn't stopped focusing on the intersection of components and game design.
What has changed in manufacturing since 2012? What kinds of components does Michael find most exciting? And how do components inform the experience of a game, especially in the current gaming boom?
You can find Panda Games Manufacturing on Twitter and Instagram at @pandagm.
Scott covers the lineage of games that began in 2004 with Wings of War: Famous Aces. The "Flight Path" system that appeared in this game spawned follow-up titles Wings of Glory, Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Card Game, Star Trek: Attack Wing, D&D: Attack Wing, and Battlestar Galactica: Starship Battles.
Gil and Emma are joined by game designer Jenn Sandercock to discuss her edible games. How do you design a game where the players eat the components? What design challenges does that bring up? And how do players react to being allowed to literally play with their food?
Find out more about Jenn here: http://jennsand.com/
Find out more about Jenn's edible games here: https://ediblegames.com/
In this GameTek Classic, Geoff covers the history of dice, and the social stigma attached to them. Who were the first civilizations to play with dice, and how did they deal with the way their society frowned on them?
Emma, Gil, and Scott discuss a theory Scott is working on that describes 6 distinct physical zones when playing a board game. How does the physical dimensionality of a board game affect its gameplay?
Read more about the 6 Zones of Play here:
https://mrbossdesign.blogspot.com/2019/07/the-6-zones-of-play.html
https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/94203/pleasure-arousal-dominance
Scott takes a peek at the history of the frantic real-time co-op game Space Cadets, designed by our own Geoff Engelstein, his daughter Sydney Engelstein, and his son Brian Engelstein.
Emma and Gil welcome the multitalented Hawke Robinson, who discusses his experiences using role-playing games as therapy for at-risk youth and adults. How can games help people gain empathy and pull them into a positive mindset? And how has Hawke's 40+ years of RPG experience helped him form these programs?
You can learn more about Hawke and his work here: http://www.hawkerobinson.com/
CONTENT WARNING: This episode touches on sensitive topics like suicide, homicide, violence against children, and sexual assault.
Geoff reviews the concept of "information" from a mathematical perspective, which might be different from the definition you're used to. What real-world implications did this concept lay the groundwork for?
Emma and Gil welcome Justin Gary, designer of Ascension and Shards of Infinity, to discuss card-based strategy games. What makes them so different than other games? How does one handle things like balance, plans for expansions, and in-game marriage proposals?
Gil, Emma, and Geoff field listeners' questions in an episode recorded live at Gen Con 2019 in Indianapolis.
Emma and Gil welcome accomplished designer Tom Lehmann (Race for the Galaxy, Res Arcana, and many others) to discuss game arcs versus story arcs and how an inflection point can help the arc of a longer game. We also get into how the plot of Romeo & Juliet compares to a cooperative game, and how game design could possibly connect to contra dancing.
In this GameTek from August 2017, Geoff goes through three interesting bits of of game design-related research. Is there such a thing as momentum in sports? How does the brain react to the prospect of punishing others for violating social norms? And how does the Prisoner's Dilemma change if we alter its framing?
Scott did some research and came up with all the different ways a board game can end. In this super-sized episode, Scott, Emma, and Gil go through this list and share our thoughts on how a game experience concludes, and how we designers can affect our players based on the different ways we wrap up our games.
Scott covers the history of the seminal board game Dune, its legal tangles with its IP, and its retheming as Rex: Final Days of an Empire.
Daniel Solis (@danielsolis) joins Gil and Emma to talk about graphic design from a nuts-and-bolts perspective. What are the elements of graphic design that game designers should be aware of?
During the show, Daniel mentions the website https://blambot.com for fonts, and https://game-icons.net and http://thenounproject.com for icons. We also bring up his Bird Bucks (https://www.drivethrucards.com/product/128925/Bird-Bucks) project that replaces generic paper money in games.
In this special GameTek, Geoff sits down with Micha Le Bourhis of Asmodee Research to discuss how Asmodee scientifically studies people's interactions with board games.
For more information, go to the Asmodee Research website here (French only, at the time of this episode release): https://www.game-in-lab.org/
Elizabeth Hargrave (@elizhargrave) joins Gil and Emma to discuss the design of her hit strategy game Wingspan. We start by discussing engine-building games, but we'll also touch on the benefits of a rigorous playtest schedule, the best ways to prepare a prototype, scaling to a good player count, working with Stonemaier Games, and the range of things people can really say with flowers.
Scott tells us about Icehouse, the real-time game that's celebrating its 30th birthday this year, and whose distinctive plastic pyramids launched an entire game system.
Jeroen Doumen, co-founder of Splotter and co-designer of games Food Chain Magnate, Antiquity, and Roads & Boats, joins Gil and Emma to discuss the design of unforgiving games. What choices do you have to make when making a game that can be harsh to mistakes? We also talk about testing, publishing, and of course, hamburgers.
You can reach Jeroen by emailing him at jeroen@splotter.nl.
Geoff discusses an unusual and somewhat tragic condition in sports called "The Yips." Is it mental, or does it have a physiological basis?
Gil, Emma, and Scott talk about fun and meaning in games. What is fun, and how can we achieve fun in our games? What are games that try to balance fun within a more serious topic? And how about games that are not meant to be fun at all; how do they provide meaning for their players?
During the episode, Scott discusses Marc LeBlanc's 8 Types of Fun, which you can read more about here: https://theangrygm.com/gaming-for-fun-part-1-eight-kinds-of-fun/
Note: In the last 20 minutes of the episode, be advised that we discuss games that deal with traumatic subjects, like the deaths of close family members.
Scott discusses the history of the legendary deduction game Cluedo.
After 200 episodes, Geoff has decided to step back from Ludology to focus on game design and book writing. So we've gathered previous co-hosts Ryan Sturm and Mike Fitzgerald, as well as future co-host Emma Larkins and future contributor Professor Scott Rogers, for a big slam-bang going away party!
You'll continue to hear Geoff with his GameTek segment every 4 weeks. And if you'd like to stay in touch, follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gengelstein
Geoff discusses the art of x-ray diffraction, and how it relates to board games.
Gil and Geoff discuss uncertainty in games, using Greg Costikyan's _Uncertainty in Games_ as a guide. What kinds of uncertainty are there in games? How do they affect the game experience?
Scott takes a deep dive into the twisted and fascinating history of the game Othello.
Gil and Geoff are delighted to be joined by Anthony Giovannetti, one of the designers of the popular video game Slay the Spire, a deck-building rogue-like dungeon crawl.
How did the board game concepts of deckbuilding translate into a computer game? What advantages did the solo roguelike format give the designers?
Geoff takes a look at the long history of drinking games.
Gil and Geoff welcome Mikael Jakobsson and Rick Eberhardt from the MIT Game Lab to discuss their research into colonial themes in board games, and the game design workshops they run in former colonial countries.
Scott Rogers is back with a new Biography of a Board Game, this time looking at Apples to Apples and Cards Against Humanity.
Gil and Geoff welcome guests Allison Parrish and Tim Szetela, designers of Rewordable, to discuss word games. What particular design techniques are required for this type of game?
In this GameTek, Geoff explores the connection between Ritual and Play.
Gil and Geoff discuss valuation within games - what are the different ways of determining resource value? How does value flow and change over the course of play?
In this new interview, Geoff talks with Nolan Bard from Google Deep Mind and Jakob Foerster from Oxford University about their proposal to use the card game Hanabi as the next frontier in Machine Learning and AI research.
The original paper can be found at https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.00506.
Gil and Geoff are live at ToyFair NY with the designer of Fog of Love, Jacob Jaskov. What was his development process like for this innovative design? What does that tell us about creating narrative inside games?
Scott Rogers is back with the biography of Merchant of Venus!
Gil and Geoff welcome back Stephen Buonocore from Stronghold Games for their traditional annual State of the Industry discussion. What trends did we see in 2018? What do we see for the future of tabletop gaming?
In this classic GameTek Geoff talks about ties and tie-breakers. What makes a good tiebreaker?
Gil and Geoff talk about Game Loops and how they can be designed to accomplish a variety of goals.
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about the work of Thomas Schelling.
Gil and Geoff welcome Scott Rogers to discuss party games. What features make for a good party game? What are the dos and don'ts for designers?
Scott Rogers is back with Part 2 of his Eurogame-Ameritrash series!
Gil and Geoff discuss the idea of Ludonarrative Dissonance. What is it? How can it sink a game or make it soar?
In this classic GameTek, Geoff looks at the criminally under-used "I Cut, You Choose" mechanism.
Gil and Geoff are joined by game and puzzle designer Mike Selinker to discuss the relationship between puzzles and games.
Scott Rogers takes a look at the origin of the term "Eurogames".
Gil and Geoff welcome designer Corey Konieczka to discuss his new "Unique" game, Discover: Lands Unknown. What is it like to design a game that will have a unique combination of components in each copy? How does it impact playtesting and production?
Duration: 47:14
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a look at a recent study about who wants to play games - and why.
Gil and Geoff take a look at game balance. What is it, exactly?
Duration: 54:34
In a spooky Biography of a Board Game, Scott Rogers takes a look at Chill: Black Morn Manor and Betrayal at House on the Hill.
Gil and Geoff are joined by Isaac Vega, designer of Dead of Winter and Neon Gods to discuss ways to integrate story into the board games.
Duration: 55:25
In this classic GameTek, Geoff dives into the details of the AI that defeated the top poker players on the planet.
Gil and Geoff discuss hard incentives vs soft incentives. What makes people want to play a game? What makes them have fun? What makes them want to play again?
Duration: 56:12
Professor Scott Rogers is back with the biography of Twilight Imperium.
Duration: 10:20
Gil and Geoff are delighted to welcome Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier games. We discuss life after Kickstarter, and Jamey's design philosophy.
Duration: 58:18
In this classic GameTek, Geoff looks at the relationship between luck and strategy.
Duration: 6:20
Gil and Geoff deconstruct the new Wolfgang Warsch game The Mind. What makes it tick? What does it do right, and what does it do wrong?
Duration: 1:02:19
Scott Rogers is back with a look at the history of Pandemic!
Duration: 5:17
Gil and Geoff once again welcome Ryan Sturm to recap the development of Trade on the Tigris.
Duration: 1:17:14
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about the Talmud, and it's relation to game rules.
Gil and Geoff broadcast live from Gencon with super-special guest Ryan Sturm!
Duration: 51:31
Gil and Geoff are joined by special guest Suzanne Sheldon to talk about Roll and Write games! What makes them tick? What special design considerations are there?
Duration: 1:03:49
Scott Rogers is back with another Biography of a Board Game! This time - Kill Dr. Lucky from James Earnest!
Contest results! Gil and Geoff wade into an incredibly strong field to pick the top 16 entries in the latest theme/mechanism competition. Who will end up on the top of the heap?
Duration: 59:05
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses design considerations for real time games. Plus a coda!
Duration: 9:11
Gil and Geoff are pleased to welcome Volko Ruhnke, designer of the COIN series, about Counter-Intelligence operations throughout history. How do you capture the dynamics of these complex conflicts in a game? What are the challenges with designing simulations and general? And what can he tell us about his time in the CIA?
Duration: 1:09:25
Professor Scott Rogers is back with another Biography of a Board Game! This time, Agricola is under the spotlight.
Duration: 11:55
We welcome Theresa Duringer of Temple Gates Games, developer of the Race for the Galaxy app to talk about the process of developing and incorporating AI, how to make it smarter or dumber or more human, and more.
Duration: 59:27
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about how we see patterns even when there aren't any, and what that means for game designers.
Duration: 8:01
Since there were humans, they've been putting things into categories. What are some of the ways games are categorized? Is this useful, or a distraction?
Duration: 59:56
Professor Scott Rogers is back with another Bio of a Board Game, taking a look at Talisman!
Duration: 9:28
Recorded live at the Gathering of Friends, Gil and Geoff have an opportunity to sit down and chat with Eric Lang, designer of Rising Sun, the Dice Masters series, and much more. We talk about his role at CMON, his design process, and the state of the industry.
Duration: 44:36
Gil and Geoff are pleased to welcome guest Naomi Clark, professor at the NYU Game Center, and designer most recently of the card game Consentacle. We discuss tackling adult themes in board games in a serious way, and what she learned during the development of Consentacle.
Duration: 1:15:54
Professor Scott Rogers is back with another Biography of a Board Game. This episode he heads to the old west to check out Bang!
Duration: 07:55
Gil and Geoff are pleased to welcome guest Isaac Shalev to discuss the idea of Design Patterns for tabletop games. What are Design Patterns, and how are they helpful? What are some examples?
Duration: 1:08:34
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses his experience with a new type of VR.
Duration: 5:40
Gil and Geoff take a look at the different ways that subsystems of a game can be coupled, and what that means for complexity and player agency.
Duration: 1:05:44
We are pleased to welcome podcaster, gamer, actor, and all-around great guy Jeff Cannata to Ludology! Jeff can be heard on DLC, We Have Concerns, and the /Filmcast.
We take a very deep dive into the contrasts between tabletop and video games. This one gets very philosophical, so be prepared :)
Duration: 1:18:32
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a look at some recent court cases involving games.
Duration: 5:59
Gil and Geoff field a litany of listener questions!
Duration: 1:20:22
Scott Rogers is back with another Biography of a Board Game, this time focusing on Scrabble!
KWYJIBO for the win!
Duration: 9:56
Gil and Geoff are thrilled to welcome Raph Koster, author of A Theory of Fun, and video game designer. We talk about a wide range of topics, include MMOs, keeping players engaged, emotions in games, and, of course, fun.
Duration: 1:28:41
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about the Prisoner's Dilemma facing Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri.
Duration: 6:05
Gil and Geoff talk about designing low-interaction games. Sometimes you just want to work on your own little corner of the world - and some players prefer that. What are techniques create engaging experiences without conflict?
Duration: 56:53
A sweet surprise! Biography of a Board Game takes a look at Candyland.
Duration: 8:51
Gil and Geoff are joined by Stephen Buonocore from Stronghold Games to discuss the state of the board game industry as we enter 2018.
Duration: 1:12:05
Geoff has an insight about how game structure can keep players engaged, and is excited to share.
Duration 56:39
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about how we are really bad at telling how good we really are.
Duration: 6:03
Gil and Geoff are delighted to welcome Tim Fowers to discuss player psychology, and how that can be leveraged by game designers.
Tim is the designer of Burgle Bros, Paperback, and more, and the owner of Fowers Games, which publishes his titles.
Duration: 1:11:46
Scott Rogers is back with a super-sized Bio of a Board Game, with the history of The Settlers of Catan!
Duration: 12:14
Gil and Geoff discuss the very early stages of design and play testing. How much should be on paper, and how much in your head?
Duration 1:05:21
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a different angle on the connection between theme, mechanics, and player experience.
Duration: 6:40
Gil and Geoff are pleased to welcome guests Patrick Leader (Vast) and Cole Wehrle (Root, An Infamous Traffic) to discuss asymmetry in games, and the particular challenges it presents to the designer.
Duration: 1:07:19
Scott Rogers is back with another Biography of a Board Game! This time, he talks about the history of Scotland Yard, and early SdJ winner!
Duration: 7:25
Gil and Geoff take a deep dive into the design of Terraforming Mars. What makes it tick? What works and what doesn't?
Duration: 1:17:52
In this classic GameTek, Geoff looks at classic story-telling techniques to see how they might apply to game design.
Duration: 05:52
Gil and Geoff are delighted to welcome Jason Morningstar, designer of Fiasco, The Shab-Al-Hiri Roach, Night Witches, and other innovative RPGs. We discuss how to better integrate story and narrative into games when there is no GM, the social contract that requires, and pitfalls along the way.
Duration: 1:10:35
In this Biography of a Board Game, Scott Rogers reveals the secret history of Uno!
Duration: 07:45
Gil and Geoff take a look at the different ways of controlling turn order in a game. What are the rules of thumb for when to use the different methods?
Duration: 1:23:17
What would you do if you were playing Rock, Paper, Scissors for $20,000,000?
Duration: 04:42
Gil and Geoff are pleased to welcome Professor Scott Nicholson from Wilfrid Laurier University to discuss Escape Rooms. What are they, how do they work, and what lessons do they hold for game design?
If you're not familiar with Escape Rooms, please check out this video from Scott with an overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqnw7g5iIFQ
Duration: 1:19:47
Biography of a Board Game returns with the classic Operation!
Duration: 06:12
Gil and Geoff host the first-ever Ludology live Q&A from Gencon 50!
Duration: 51:39
Gil and Geoff are pleased to welcome guest Matt Wolfe, to discuss the concept of Decision Scales in games.
Duration 1:10:04
In this classic GameTek, Geoff dives into the details of Alpha Go, Google's Go-playing AI.
Duration: 06:41
Gil and Geoff are joined by the gang from the Flip The Table podcast to talk about Roll & Move games. What works (and doesn't) with this much-maligned mechanic?
Duration: 1:07:00
Scott takes a look at the history of the Mystery Rummy series, by a designer y'all might know...
Duration: 6:24
Gil and Geoff talk about different methods for using mathematical modeling and simulation during the design process.
Duration: 1:12:12
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a look at the physics behind the coin toss.
Duration 5:39
Gil and Geoff are pleased to welcome Morten Monrad Pedersen, to discuss the art of designing solo games.
Morten has designed several popular solo variants to games, including Scythe and Viticulture. What are the design techniques for solo games? How do they differ from multiplayer games?
Duration: 1:14:38
Scott Rogers joins us with a new Biography of a Board Game - Arkham Horror!
Duration: 6:16
Gil and Geoff tackle ties in games. How important are tiebreakers? What are good and bad ways to design them?
Duration: 1:18:18
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses the difference between a cheat and a spoilsport, and what that means for society.
Duration: 05:49
Gil and Geoff are thrilled to welcome Chris Cobb from Riot Games, creator of the number one online game in the world, League of Legends. Until recently Chris was the technical lead for the Player Behavior team, which was tasked with designing in-game and out-of-game systems to encourage players to be nicer to each other, and deal with players who don't.
Over the years, what did they learn about behavior, and how to design systems to encourage it to improve?
Duration: 1:02:29
Ludology welcomes Scott Rogers and his Biography of a Board Game segment! This episode he traces the history of Risk, from the early 20th century to today.
Duration: 09:10
For their first show as a duo, Gil and Geoff revisit the question posed in the very first episode of Ludology - What is a game?
The answer may surprise you.
Duration: 1:23:24
New Content! Geoff interviews Eric Janszen, the CEO of VirZoom.
VirZoom makes a Virtual Reality exercise bike, that interfaces with all the major VR platforms, and uses games to keep people exercising. What lessons have they learned about gaming and engagement?
Duration 25:39
Changes! We bid a fond farewell to Mike, and a big hello to Gil!
Duration: 1:25:22
New content! Geoff interviews Rogelio Cardona-Rivera, a researcher at North Carolina State, about Procedural Narrative Generation - systems that can create and manipulate story structure in a game on the fly.
For more information, please check out http://rogel.io and http://storygen.org
Duration: 32:58
Mike and Geoff are pleased to welcome Justin Jacobson from Restoration Games, to talk about what they've learned from bringing older games back for a modern audience.
Duration: 1:01:35
In this classic GameTek, Geoff looks at games that help improve teamwork.
Duration: 05:41
Mike and Geoff are pleased to welcome guest J.R. Honeycutt, to discuss the role of the Developer in the game design and publication process.
Duration 59:25
In this classic GameTek Geoff discusses some techniques for estimating things in your head.
Duration 6:19
Mike and Geoff field a bevy of listener questions.
Duration: 1:10:21
In this classic GameTek Geoff looks at how the language people use can give clues to their treachery.
Duration: 6:32
Mike and Geoff are pleased to welcome designer Andrew Parks to discuss taking a second shot at a design, whether it's revisiting a mechanic or taking an entire system into a new direction.
Duration: 1:15:42
In this classic GameTek Geoff looks at how choosing a color may affect how you play.
Duration: 06:17
Mike and Geoff discuss multi-use cards - their history, and how they can be used by designers.
Duration: 1:03:53
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses the use of pronouns when writing rules.
Duration: 06:17
Mike and Geoff are pleased to welcome returning guest Stephen Buonocore of Stronghold Games to discuss the state of the gaming industry going into 2017.
Duration: 1:19:43
In this classic GameTek Geoff pays tribute to game theorist John Nash.
Duration: 06:35
How do different player counts affect the design process? How important is it that a game support a variety of player counts?
Duration: 1:08:06
Mike and Geoff are pleased to welcome slot machine game design Jeremy Hornik. Jeremy has been designing slots for over 15 years, including Money Burst, Willy Wonka, Monopoly, and Baron von Bacon's Million Credit Bonus.
What are the special considerations for slot machine design, and what do they learn from video and board games?
Duration: 1:16:28
In this classic GameTek, Geoff wraps up his discussion of entropy and statistical mechanics by exploring the way that disorder and energy flow through a game system.
Duration: 6:19
Mike and Geoff dive into real time games. What design techniques work for this mechanism? What does it do to the player experience?
Duration: 1:00:50
In this classic GameTek Geoff continues his exploration of thermodynamics by talking about Statistical Mechanics and what it tells us about the world.
Duration: 7:05
Mike and Geoff are thrilled to welcome guest Mark Herman to the program. Mark is the designer of a slew of games, including the first Card Driven Game (CDG) We The People. His latest design is Churchill.
However the focus of our conversation is on Mark's work designing and executing simulations for the military and businesses, to test out their assumptions and strategies. He details these in his book Wargaming For Leaders.
Duration 1:16:59
In this classic GameTek, Geoff looks at the scientific concept of entropy.
Duration: 5:32
Mike and Geoff take a deep dive into Martin Wallace's latest game, Via Nebula. They look at all the design choices, from game play to theme to production.
Duration: 1:09:04
In this classic GameTek Geoff looks at lead changes, and some simple mathematical models that reveal some surprising truths.
Duration: 06:31
Mike and Geoff discuss the different ways you can win a game, and how that effects the design and player experience.
Duration: 1:13:29
In this classic GameTek Geoff examines rules as a logical structure, and the way that relates to math concepts of axioms and completeness.
Duration: 06:28
Mike and Geoff are thrilled to welcome two of the designers of Thornwatch, Mike Krahulik and Mike Selinker, to discuss their game design process, and their views on gaming culture. Mike Krahulik is the artist for the popular webcomic Penny Arcade and co-founder with Jerry Holkins. Mike Selinker is founder of Lone Shark games, and designer of many titles, including the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.
Duration: 1:15:33
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses games with 'Hidden But Trackable' information. Is it OK to write things down?
Duration: 06:19
Mike and Geoff discuss the way that constraints, both internal and external, affect the design process. They are pleased to welcome guest Grant Rodiek, designer of Cry Havoc, to discuss his 54-card Guild, which challenges designers to develop games using only 54 cards.
Duration: 1:06:26
In this classic GameTek, Geoff looks at the ancient Greek practice of Antidosis, and it's application as a game mechanism.
Duration: 05:34
Mike and Geoff talk about teaching games in convention environments. If you are giving demos of a game in a booth, what are the key things to focus on? How much depth do you go into?
They also discuss teaching games in general, with tips for getting things going smoothly.
Duration: 1:07:30
In this all-new content, Geoff interviews Curtis Hickman, Chief Creative Officer of The Void, a company pioneering an immersive extension of Virtual Reality called Hyperreality. Debuting a few weeks ago as the Ghostbusters Dimension experience at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in New York City, it got immediate rave reviews.
What's new about this technology, and how can it be extended in the future?
Duration: 16:09
Mike and Geoff are pleased to welcome guests Sen-Foong Lim and Jay Cormier, designers of Godfather: A New Don, Junk Art, and many more games. How does their collaboration work? What are the advantages and disadvantages of working as a team?
Duration: 1:04:54
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about Scoring Tracks, and how to make them work with your players, instead of against them.
Duration: 06:26
A little window into dinner time at the Engelstein household: Young Brian asks the question "Can a board game make the players cry?" and he ends up on a podcast.
So can they? Mike, Geoff, and Brian explore what makes people sad, and whether board games can do that - and how that affects their status as 'art'.
Duration: 56:13
Mike and Geoff are pleased to welcome Walter Crist, archeologist and co-author of Ancient Egyptians at Play, to discuss the history of board games in ancient Egypt, and their impact on culture and society.
Duration: 51:10
It's another Listener Question episode! Mike and Geoff take on all comers. Can they survive?
Duration: 1:11:21
In this GameTek, Geoff discusses the role that mental models play in how we interact with objects in the world.
Duration: 06:00
Mike and Geoff are pleased to welcome Suzanne Sheldon and Sydney Engelstein to discuss the topic of diversity and inclusion in gaming.
Duration: 1:49:42
In this classic GameTek, Geoff looks at options for structuring tournaments for semi cooperative games.
Duration: 06:27
Mike and Geoff are pleased to welcome guest Soren Johnson. Soren was the lead designer on the computer game Civilization, and recently released Offworld Trading Company, which marries a traditional boardgame style economic battle with computer-based real time mechanics.
Soren discusses the influence of board games on computer game design, and we go into depth on AI implementations.
Duration: 1:09:20
In this classic GameTek, Geoff looks at semi-cooperative games, and the particular challenges they create for social dynamics.
Duration: 06:13
Mike and Geoff discuss player motivations. What makes people want to play games? How do you design games to appeal to that type of player?
Duration: 1:16:16
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses the smart design choices made by the designers of Cosmic Encounter.
Duration: 06:15
Mike and Geoff interview a panoply of designers of designers at the Gathering of Friends to hear about what inspires them.
Duration: 46:36
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about the psychological state called 'Flow'.
Duration: 6:41
Mike and Geoff are thrilled to have special guest Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari games. What were the game design considerations of the early video game industry? When you are inventing an entire new genre, where do you look for ideas?
Duration: 42:15
In this classic GameTek Geoff discusses a study that looks at how much people enjoy just sitting with nothing to do.
Duration: 05:43
Mike and Geoff present the third and final part of the game design checklist. You can download the full checklist from http://cardboardedison.com/, under the Featured Content link.
Duration: 1:08:30
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a look at an 'interesting' game from the 1994 Caribbean Cup soccer tournament.
Duration: 06:58
Mike and Geoff continue their discussion of the Game Design checklist, with questions about game mechanics.
Duration: 01:16:59
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses the psychological concept of Zero Risk Bias.
Duration: 07:45
Mike and Geoff have been hard at work developing a checklist for game designers, and it is time to go public! In this first of three episodes, they discuss the questions surrounding creating the desired player experience.
Duration: 01:14:17
In this episode, Mike and Geoff discuss the art and science of selecting a name for your game, and what you should consider.
Duration: 1:13:02
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses what we know, what we don't, and how that affects our psychology.
Duration: 05:13
Mike and Geoff are pleased to welcome guest Matt Leacock, co-designer of new #1 game on Board Game Geek, Pandemic Legacy. We get into the spoiler-free details on designing a Legacy game.
What are the special design considerations for Legacy games? What worked and what didn't? How do production considerations enter into the design process?
Duration: 56:16
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a look at the question of how much you can copy a game and still call it 'new'.
Duration: 06:06
For our annual State of Games episode, Mike and Geoff are pleased to welcome back Stephen Buonocore of Stronghold games, to discuss the state of the board game industry.
Duration: 1:14:20
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a look at research performed in China on Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Duration: 06:02
Mike and Geoff take a look at the Deck Building mechanic. How has it evolved over the last
Duration: 1:18:45
Mike and Geoff are pleased to welcome special guest Jamie Madigan, author of the Psychology of Video Games blog, and author of the just released Getting Gamers.
Our topic is Avatars, and player representation in games. How does the role we take on in a game affect our experience and behavior?
Duration: 1:16:48
In this classic GameTek Geoff takes a look at the math behind the popular game Werewolf.
Duration: 06:35
During BGG.CON 2015, Mike asked several publishers the same question:
How do you decide what games you want to publish?
With the myriad of pitches and submissions that publishers receive, it is vital for designers to understand what attracts someone's eye.
Publishers interviewed:
Duration: 01:07
New Content! Geoff interviews Barry Joseph and Eric Teo about the game Gutsy. Barry is the Associate Director of Digital Learning at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and as part of a new exhibit on the human microbiome the team at AMNH worked with Eric Teo, to develop the card game Gutsy.
Many of you know Eric Teo as the host of the Push Ur Luck Podcast, and he is also a graduate student studying game design at the NYU Game Center.
Why do a card game? What do they hope to teach, and what other roles do games have to augment museum exhibits?
A Print & Play copy of Gutsy can be downloaded at the AMNH website!
Duration 25:45
Mike and Geoff take a look at "Take That" games. When does this mechanic work, and when does it fail?
Duration: 1:13:34
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about the revolutionary studies about the human microbiome, and what that can teach us about playing and designing games.
Duration: 06:13
What changes are usually made between a first and second edition of a game? And what does that teach us about the design process?
Mike and Geoff are joined by guest Paul Grogan, who was heavily involved in the new edition of Through The Ages with CGE, to examine these questions.
And since we're talking about Through The Ages, we had to invite Ryan Sturm to come back for an encore visit to the program.
Duration 01:21:00
Geoff gives a quick report on his play of Advanced Civilization last week.
Duration: 08:17
Mike and Geoff talk CHAOS! Mike loves it in his games. Can he convince Geoff of its charms?
Duration: 1:04:37
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses the Sunk Cost Fallacy.
Duration: 05:05
What games cross over into traditional retailers like Target and Barnes and Noble? Mike and Geoff are joined by Andrew Lupp, National Sales Manager of PSI, to learn the ins and outs. Andrew works with big chains to help them decide which games will sell to the general public, and walks us through the process.
Duration: 1:18:15
NEW CONTENT! Geoff interviews Vlad Niculae of Cornell about his recent research on predicting betrayal via written communications. The foundation of the study? An only repository of 300 Diplomacy games and all 150,000 messages they generated.
Vlad's new project is the online game StreetCrowd, which is also exploring communications and team dynamics.
Duration: 20:27
Mike and Geoff select their top 10 entries from the Ludology contest, and reveal the winner!
Duration: 1:04:57
In this classic GameTek Geoff looks at memory, and how games work with or against it.
Duration: 06:10
Mike and Geoff are pleased to welcome pinball game designer Keith Johnson, designer of games such as Simpsons Pinball Party, Revenge From Mars, and Lord of the Rings.
What are the special design techniques used for designing a pinball game? How do you keep players engaged? How do you make the fixed physical layout feel different in different modes?
Duration: 01:05:40
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about luck and what increases or decreases it.
Duration: 06:13
Mike and Geoff are pleased to welcome guest Richard Borg to discuss the art of designing war games with mainstream appeal. Mr. Borg is the designer of the Command and Colors series of games, which includes Memoir 44 and Battlelore. What are the features of an entry-level wargame? How can you simplify but still capture the essence of a battle?
Duration: 56:06
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about making the player feel powerful.
We also launch our part of the big Dice Tower Network contest!
Duration: 7:42
Mike and Geoff open up the mailbag and answer difficult and interesting listener questions!
Duration: 1:09:26
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a look at the debate that raged in the 1990's between Narratologists and Ludologists.
Duration: 05:59
Geoff is pleased to welcome Scott Rogers, designer of video games such as Darksiders and God of War, and author of the books Level Up! and Swipe This!
The discussion centers around the concept of a 'level' as popularized in video games. Why is it such a popular way to organize games? What advantages does it give the designer? And what is the analog in the boardgame world?
Duration: 01:16:05
In this classic GameTek, Geoff looks at how a good analogy can dramatically simplify learning a game.
Duration: 06:00
Mike and Geoff take a deep dive into the Antoine Bauza game Seven Wonders. What works? What doesn't? What drove the design decisions?
Duration: 01:16:26
In this classic GameTek, Goeff talks about how innovative a game can really be.
Duration: 06:14
Mike and Geoff welcome guest Emerson Matsuuchi, designer of Specter Ops and VOLT Robot Battle, to discuss hidden and programmed movement in games. Why use these techniques? What are good and bad examples?
Duration: 01:14:11
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses a game designed to explore the relationship between rules and morality.
Duration: 6:15
Inspired by an article by Matt Thrower, Mike and Geoff talk about games that try to tackle controversial topics, and why there aren't more of them.
Duration: 1:05:35
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a look at what factors make a game 'mean'.
Duration: 06:18
Mike and Geoff are joined by guest Rich Sommer, host of the Cardboard! podast and star of stage and screen to discuss games receiving mainstream acceptance. Is it good for the hobby to have games go mainstream? If so, what can designers, publishers, and hobbyists do to make that happen?
Duration: 01:05:09
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a look at an ancient text that lists games that will distract you from achieving enlightenment.
Duration: 06:18
Mike and Geoff dive deeper into the world of cards. What is a card? What tools do cards give the designer? What card games exhibit great depth?
Duration: 01:22:22
In this classic GameTek, Geoff looks at the way different types of noise mirror different random processes in games, and how these can be tuned for maximum player interest.
Duration: 06:24
Mike and Geoff are joined by Stronghold Games President Stephen Buonocore, to discuss the current state of the board game industry. Special guests may also pop in!
Duration: 01:20:18
In this classic GameTek, Geoff explores the different types of noise.
Duration: 06:21
Geoff and new host Mike Fitzgerald talk about card games and why they are often treated as second-class citizens in the game world.
Duration: 01:07:00
For their 100th episode, and Ryan's last, the guys take a look back at their favorite moments from the show.
Duration: 1:25:13
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses the legacy of Allan Calhamer and his game, Diplomacy.
Duration: 07:02
Ryan and Geoff talk about Gamification, the application of gaming techniques to real world tasks. Why do it? What are some good and bad examples?
Duration: 1:21:30
In this ALL NEW GameTek, Geoff interviews Dr. Michael Bowling of the University of Alberta. Mike and his team put together computer hardware and software to 'solve' Heads-Up Limit Texas Hold'Em. So how does it work? And what does 'solve' really mean in a game with so much hidden information?
Duration: 38:00
Ryan and Geoff are thrilled to welcome Richard Garfield, designer of Magic: The Gathering, Robo Rally, Netrunner, King of Tokyo and more, along with bonus guest Mike Fitzgerald, whose latest designs include Diamonds and Baseball Highlights: 2045.
We discuss Richard's design philosophy, the origins of Magic, types of gamers, and much more.
Please also visit our geeklist to share your memories of Ludology for our 100th episode spectacular!
Duration: 01:31:23
In this classic GameTek, Geoff looks at a curious incident at Johns Hopkins University.
Duration: 04:14
Ryan and Geoff discuss heuristics, and the way they are used in games. How can designers shape a game's heuristics to increase both depth and accessibility?
Duration: 01:30:34
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses the many instances of people cheating in chess tournaments.
Duration: 05:52
Ryan and Geoff revisit the topic of theme. Specifically how is theme expressed and integrated in games?
Duration: 01:26:58
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a look at how the physical aspects of a game can be designed to deter or prevent cheating.
Duration: 05:39
Ryan and Geoff talk about their search for a publish for "Trading in the Mediterranean", and what the next steps are.
There is also an important announcement about the future of the show, so stick around until the end.
Duration: 1:03:10
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses Reputation as an antidote to Cheating, and how it breaks down as groups grow in size.
Duration: 06:40
Ryan and Geoff are thrilled to welcome Ben Brode, Senior Game Designer for Hearthstone, the online card game from Blizzard Entertainment.
Ben joins us to discuss the design considerations behind Hearthstone, how they took advantage of the digital medium while still feeling like a physical card game, and why you should deliver pizza to your favorite game studio.
Duration: 41:20
In this classic GameTek, Geoff begins a two-part exploration of cheating with a personal admission.
Duration: 6:10
With Geoff goofing off, Ryan is very pleased to welcome noted designer Bruno Faidutti to discuss his article Postcolonial Catan, about how boardgames use cliches and stereotypes as shortcuts to generate theme.
DurationL 56:30
In this classic GameTek episode, Geoff explores an experiment that uses loss aversion to create an incentive. Is this a new type of carrot?
Duration: 07:15
Ryan and Geoff welcome Vincent Salzillo to the show! Vincent runs a variety of cons, including Metatopia, for game designers. He also runs the First Exposure Hall at Gencon for new designers to publishers and playtesters.
His most recent venture is the Envoy program, which helps publishers get their product demonstrated at stores and cons.
Duration: 55:48
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses the psychological phenomenon of Hindsight Bias, and how it may prevent us from being better players.
Duration: 06:37
In this episode of Ludology we are thrilled to welcome Peter Olotka, one of the designers of Cosmic Encounter, Dune, and many other classic games. We discuss the early development of Cosmic Encounter, how it evolved, and other games in the Eon line.
Duration: 01:16:25
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses expectation value, and how it can be used - and misused - in games.
Duration: 05:39
Ryan and Geoff take a close look at the body of work of Reiner Knizia, one of the most influential and prolific designers of the modern era.
What common threads run through Knizia's work? What lasting impact has he had on the hobby? What are the highlights, lowlights, and hidden gems of his oeuvre? And just how do you pronounce 'oeuvre' anyway?
Duration: 01:24:54
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about putting tiles down without repeating any patterns.
Duration: 06:15
Ryan and Geoff are very pleased to welcome guest Jordan Weisman, founder of FASA, Wizkids, and Harebrained Schemes, and designer of Battletech, Heroclix, and the just-released Golem Arcana.
Jordan joins us to discuss incorporating digital technology, like smartphones and tablets, into the realm of the board game. What special considerations need to be given to the design? Is the technology hobbling or liberating? And what will the future hold for hybrids?
Duration: 01:13:42
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses a study done on playing Rock, Paper, Scissors with one player blindfolded and one able to see. Who comes out on top?
Duration: 04:41
Ryan and Geoff are pleased to be joined by Travis Chance and Nick Little of Action Phase game, designers of Heroes Wanted. This was the first time Action Phase has exhibited at Gencon, and we discuss what it was like. When did they get their booth? How much planning did they do? What was the total cost to do the show? What worked and what didn't?
Duration: 01:12:05
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses Artificial Intelligence, and how it affects our play.
Duration: 06:15
Geoff finally acquiesces to Ryan's wish to discuss game shows. And you know what? It turned out to be a very fertile area for analysis. What special considerations are there for game shows? What can game designers learn from them?
Duration: 01:08:58
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about IBM's Jeopardy-playing Watson, and how it fits into the history of Artificial Intelligence research.
Duration: 06:10
Ryan and Geoff are joined by guest Andrew Tullsen of Print & Play productions to discuss prototypes. What are the different types of prototypes? What are the tools and techniques to create them in a simple yet professinoal manner?
Duration: 1:08:58
In this classic GameTek, Geoff investigates the true randomness of dice.
Duration: 06:15
Ryan and Geoff dip back into the mail bag to respond to more listener comments and questions about luck and randomness.
Duration: 1:00:31
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses brain imaging studies on shogi players.
For images relating to this story, check out Geoff's blog entry on BoardgameGeek.
Duration: 06:58
Ryan and Geoff are joined by guest Gil Hova, designer of Prolix and Battle Merchants to discuss playtesting.
What are the different types of playtests? How do you get the most out of your testing? What should you look for in testers?
Duration: 01:10:38
NOTE: This is a revised version of this episode that corrects the audio issue.
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses tournament structure in sports, and the way that may effect the play of the individual games.
Duration: 06:54
Ryan and Geoff do a deep dive into the world of Worker Placement games. What makes them tick? Why would designers use that mechanism? What are the pitfalls to avoid?
Duration: 01:06:39
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about how games can teach us about economics.
Duration: 07:13
Ryan and Geoff are very pleased to welcome Dominic Crapuchettes to Ludology! We discuss designing party games, dealing with mass market retailers, starting a game company, and their recent pivot into the strategy market with Evolution.
Duration: 01:11:30
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about shuffling, big numbers, uniqueness, and the origin of life.
Duration: 07:35
Ryan and Geoff respond to a random sampling of the listener questions about luck and randomness. Thanks to all who sent in your thoughts, comments, and questions!
Duration: 01:07:06
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses the psychological property called Competence, and how you can use it to annoy people.
Duration: 06:47
Ryan and Geoff take one last look at the Most Influential Games of the 20th Century. Do they have any second thoughts? Any overlooked games that should have been included?
They also put on their pointy prognosticator caps and give their picks for the top 10 games that will be most influential on the 21st century.
Duration:
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about recent research on willpower.
Duration: 07:00
Ryan and Geoff are pleased to welcome back Eric Zimmerman, professor at NYU's Game Center and author of The Rules of Play. This episode we discuss the concept of the "magic circle" and how designers can foster and benefit from it.
Duration: 01:24:56
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about the state of game criticisim.
Duration: 10:53
Ryan and Geoff conclude their survey of the most influential games with the 90's. Which games have cast shadows into the 21st century?
Duration: 01:20
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses Kickstarter, and it's links with the concept of Patronage, in the past and future.
Duration: 06:47
Ryan and Geoff are very pleased to be joined by guest Keith Burgun of DinoFarm games and author of Game Design Theory. Keith is the designer of a variety of mobile games, including 100 Rogues, Empire, and the upcoming Auro, all of which have a true board game flavor to them.
We discuss the relationship between board games and video games, and using board games design techniques to prototype and inform the video game design space.
Duration: 01:37:27
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses the different types of intellectual property protection available to authors and companies.
Duration: 06:48
Ryan and Geoff continue their series on the most influential games of all time, and take a look at the 1980's. What were the key games when we all weren't trying to unscramble our Rubik's Cubes?
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses the impact 3D printing technology may have on the game hobby.
Duration: 07:30
Ryan and Geoff are very excited to be joined by special guest Mike Gray. Mike has a long history in the game industry, working for Milton Bradley, TSR, and Hasbro. He designed Fortress America, Shogun, The Omega Virus, and many other classics during his tenure. Mike gives us a fascinating glimpse into the world of the largest game publisher, including the genesis of the Gamemaster series, acquisition of Avalon Hill, and development of modern classics like Queen's Gambit.
Duration: 01:14:45
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses the importance of endings, and the difference between "the experiencing self" and "the remembering self."
One of Geoff's favorites!
Duration: 06:06
Ryan and Geoff continue their series on the most influential games of all time, and take a look at the 1970's. What were the key moments in the decade of disco?
Duration: 01:21:58
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about Power Creep. Is it a big conspiracy? Or is there a less nefarious explanation?
Duration: 06:19
Ryan and Geoff are joined by JVMF-auction winner Chaz Marler, to discuss the use of icons in games. Why use icons? What games have useful icons, and others not so much? And what is Geoff's suggestion for the Dice Tower musical episode?
Duration: 01:17:28
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a look at playtesting. What are the different types of playtesting, and how do they fall short?
And we're back!! Ryan and Geoff kick off the new year with a new series: The Most Influential Games.
Part 1 covers 1900 - 1969. What are the most influential games from these years?
Duration: 1:08:47
Geoff and Ryan are joined by Steve Kendall of the Ragnar Brothers and designer of History of the World, Viking Fury, and more, to discuss Area Control or 'Dudes on a Map' games. What are the outstanding examples? What are the key ingredients of this genre? What are the strengths and weaknesses?
Duration: 01:17:12
NEW CONTENT! Geoff talks with Quintin Smith of Shut Up and Sit Down about his recent experience at The Betrayer's Banquet, a Prisoner's Dilemma-themed dinner party. Does backstabbing improve the taste of chicken feet?
Duration: 22:56
Ryan and Geoff are joined by Rob Daviau, of Iron Wall Games, and formerly with Hasbro. While at Hasbro Rob worked on a slew of games you know, including Heroscape, Betrayal at House on the Hill, and Axis and Allies.
But we've invited him on to discuss his 'Legacy' series of games, starting with Risk: Legacy, and the upcoming Seafall. How did he come up with the idea for Risk: Legacy? What were the design challenges and blind alleys he overcame? What is he trying to do differently with Seafall?
Duration: 01:15:15
In this classic GameTek, the GameTek players present "Wild West Showdown". Who will win this three-sided gunfight... of doom?
Duration: 07:44
Hot on the heels of talking about Set Collection, Ryan and Geoff tackle its cousin, Area Majority, a mechanic which comes wearing many disguises. How does it differ from Set Collection? What makes it work or not?
Duration: 01:11:12
In this classic GameTek episode, Geoff talks about gamification, specifically the way that it is used by fold.it to use game mechanics to solve real world problems.
Duration: 06:32
In this episode Ryan and Geoff discuss Set Collection as a tool for game designers. What attributes can set collection add to a game? What are some of the pitfalls? What games have used it well or badly?
Duration 1:04:32
In the classic GameTek, Geoff talks about Chaos Theory, and how it is reflected in game design.
Duration: 06:54
In this episode, Geoff interviews Frank Merrick from FIRST about using games to get kids excited about science and technology. What are the special considerations when designing a game to be educational, fun, and challenging?
Duration: 34:15
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about two recent research results about choice.
Duration: 5:15
Ryan and Geoff are joined by special guest Corey Koneiczka of Fantasy Flight Games designer of such classics as Battlestar Galactica, Mansions of Madness, and the upcoming Eldritch Horror. The topic? Expansions! Are they good or bad for the industry? Do you design a game with expansions in mind or bolt things on afterwards? What are the do's and don't's of expansions?
Duration: 01:03:29
This episode of Ludology is sponsored by Scott King Photography, for all of your game photographing needs!
How are dice and planets connected? Listen to this classic GameTek and find out!
Duration: 06:47
Ryan and Geoff dedicate the entire show to reviewing their top 10 entries to the Dice Tower Network / Cool Stuff Inc contest, and announce the winner!
Duration: 01:00:44
In this classic GameTek, Geoff explores fuzzy logic and how it applies to our attempts to categorize games - and everything else in the world.
Duration: 07:45
Ryan and Geoff are joined by guest Mike Fitzgerald. Mike is the designer of a variety of card games including the Mystery Rummy series and Hooyah, but also spent many years working on CCGs like Wyvern, Magic, and Pokemon. Mike joins us to discuss the early history of CCGs, how they changed the gaming industry, and what special design techniques are required for the CCG and LCG arenas.
This episode of Ludology is sponsored by Nations, the new publication from lautepelit.fi. Nations will be released at Essen 2013.
Duration: 01:14:12
In this classic GameTek, Ryan and Geoff interview game designer Bob Abbott, designer of classic games like Confusion, Eleusis, and Code 777.
Duration: 09:29
This episode of Ludology is sponsored by Nations, the new publication from lautepelit.fi. Nations will be released at Essen 2013.
Ryan and Geoff take a very high level look at the structure of games - the phases and turns that make them tick. What structures were there in ancient games? How has this changed over time? How does the structure selected by the designer influence the game experience?
We also launch our portion of the big Dice Tower Network contest! Big prizes at stake!
Duration: 01:17:47
This episode of Ludology is sponsored by Nations, the new publication from lautepelit.fi. Nations will be released at Essen 2013.
In this classic GameTek, Geoff shares a technique for making it simpler to calculate probabilities in your head.
Duration: 06:06
Ryan and Geoff are joined by John Meindersee of Campfire Creations, to talk about the special challenges in creating digital versions of boardgames. Campfire Creations developed the iOS version of Stone Age, and John shares the details of the challenges and opportunities that presented.
Duration: 1:16:04
Meaningful decisions are what drive deep strategy games. But can there be too much of a good thing? Can having too many choices hinder our ability to make good, or any, decisions?
Duration: 06:42
In this third listener question episode, Ryan and Geoff respond to a veritable panoply of user questions, and field them with their usual combination of aplomb and pithy aphorisms.
Duration: 1:04:57
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about PokerBots: How they are programmed, why they're a problem, and how to detect them.
Duration: 04:54
Rules! Every game has them, but they are a big source of gamer frustration. Ryan and Geoff put their heads together to come up with rules for rules.
What makes for a good set of rules? What are common pitfalls? How should they be structured? What should be highlighted?
Duration: 01:13:35
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about the difference between playing a human vs an AI opponent. Do we act and feel differently about the game? If so, why?
Duration: 5:58
As humans we overvalue losing something and undervalue gaining it. This is called Loss Aversion, and is a well studied psychological effect.
How do games incorporate Loss Aversion? How does it affect us as players, and how can game designers use it to create a more emotional and engaging experience? When can Loss Aversion hurt a game rather than help it?
Duration: 58:22
In this classic GameTek episode, Geoff discusses long games and how to keep players engaged for many hours. What are the different types of engagment, which are effective, and which are mentally taxing?
Duration: 05:52
Ryan proposes a radical change to the mechanics of Trading in the Mediterranean to simplify and smooth our the gameplay, and Geoff wants to talk about it. Will it throw the baby out with the bathwater? What is the heart of the game?
Duration: 1:16:05
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a look at car washes and the Endowed Progress Effect. How can we use it to get players more engaged in a game?
Duration: 05:30
Ryan and Geoff tackle the concept of an 'objective' in a game - not just end game objectives, but techniques for building a series of mini-objectives to keep the player engaged and the game moving forward.
What types of objectives work well? What is the difference between public, private, and hidden objectives, and how do those interact?
Duration: 01:17:54
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about how businesses are trying to use games to appeal to customers.
Duration: 07:25
Licnesed games like X-Wing and the upcoming Star Trek: Attack Wing are hugely popular. But how is designing a game with a license different? Ryan and Geoff are pleased to welcome back guest Andrew Parks to delve into these questions. Andrew is the designer of a wide variety of licensed games, including The Nightmare Before Christmas TCG, 300, Hogwarts House Cup, Hunger Games District 12, and the upcoming Star Trek: Attack Wing.
How do you invoke the theme of the licensed property? Does it make game design simpler or more challenging? How much is dictated by the licensing company?
Answers to all of these questions, plus tons of spoilers about Attack Wing and a very special Core Worlds reveal!
Duration: 01:02
In this classic GameTek, Geoff looks at intransitive dice - Dice where die A tends to beat die B, which tends to beat die C, which tends to beat die A.
This was a big topic of discussion on the Dice Tower form when it was first released, so please continue the conversation over on the Ludology forums!
Duration: 08:28
Ryan and Geoff reivew the status of "Trading in the Mediterranean", their publicly-developed board game. After talking about the current version and how it has evolved, they talk about what's working and what's not, and how to fix it.
Duration: 01:13:50
This episode of Ludology is sponsored by Sissyfight 2000, now on Kickstarter!
In this classic GameTek, Geoff interviews Gil Hova, who designed the game Prolix, about the different concerns in designing a word game versus other genres of games.
Duration: 26:35
Ryan and Geoff discuss the interplay between short and long-term objectives in games. How can designers use these to create a richer game experience? What impact do they have on complexity and the learning curve?
Duration: 01:04:15
This episode of Ludology is sponsored by Relic Expedition, currently on Kickstarter!
In this classic GameTek, Geoff continues talking about Entanglement and quantum physics by introducing the game Quantum Tic-Tac-Toe. Check out the full rules on Wikipedia, which also links to several online implementations.
Duration: 06:54
This episode of Ludology is sponsored by Relic Expedition, currently on Kickstarter!
This special episode of Ludology is a recording of a game design panel Geoff particiated in at PAX East 2013, in Boston. The topic was "Impact of Video Game Design Techniques on Board Games".
Joining Geoff were Christopher Badell, designer of Sentinels of the Multiverse, Colby Dauch, designer of Summoner Wars, Matt Morgan, writer for Wired GeekDad, and Russ Wakelin of the D6 Generation.
Duration: 1:05
This episode of Ludology is sponsored by Relic Expedition, currently on Kickstarter!
In this classic Gametek, Geoff talks about Entanglement, Quantum Mechanics, and why our intuition about probability can be woefully incorrect. One of Geoff's favorite episodes!
Duration: 09:00
This episode of Ludology is sponsored by Relic Expedition, currently on Kickstarter!
This episode Ryan and Geoff tackle games that feature negotiation, either as a designed-in feature, or a by-product of the player interactions. What features make for a great negotiation game? What types of player experiences can they engender? Can Ryan get Geoff to agree to anything?
Duration: 1:13:10
This episode of Ludology is sponsored by Relic Expedition, currently on Kickstarter!
In this classic GameTek, Geoff examines regret - why we would rather not make a choice at all, rather than make it and have it not work out.
Duration: 6:26
Ryan and Geoff return with the second half of their new games for 2012. Plus their top picks for the year!
Duration 1:20:55
This episode is sponsored by the game Influence, now on Kickstarter!
In this classic GameTek, Geoff introduces the Monty Hall problem, an old chestnut that never fails to amaze those who have not heard it before.
Duration: 08:25
This episode is sponsored by the game Influence, now on Kickstarter!
To celebrate the 50th episode of Ludology, Ryan and Geoff talk about 50 games that were new to them in 2012: The good, the bad, and the design features that stood out.
Duration: 1:10
This episode is sponsored by the game Influence, now on Kickstarter!
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about Martin Gardner, who wrote the Mathematical Games column for Scientific American magazine from the mid 50's to the 1980's, and passed away in 2010.
Duration: 06:36
Ryan and Geoff are joined by guest Zack Johnson, designer of the online game Kingdom of Loathing, to discuss the use (and misuse) of humor in games. How is humor used in games? Are there special considerations for making a game funny? Is Geoff capable of telling a joke?
Duration: 58:40
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a close look under the hood at the Reiner Knizia game High Society, to tease out what makes it such a dynamic and engaging design.
Duration: 6:35
No, not listener feedback - Feedback loops. What are the different types of feedback, and how do designers incorporate them into games? Do certain types of games benefit from feedback? Is feedback necessary for a rich game experience?
Duration: 1:06
In this GameTek from 2010, Geoff and his son Brian talk about what they are worried about as their game The Ares Project nears publication. Special bonus recap of how on target we were!
Duration: 8:50
In our first episode of the new year, we are joined by the godfather of gaming, Tom Vasel, to dissect 2012 and speculate on the direction of the industry in the upcoming year.
For the final full episode of 2012, Ryand and Geoff are very pleased to welcome Martin Wallace to the program, designer of such classics as Age of Steam, Brass, and Runebound.
We discuss Mr. Wallace's design approach and philosophy, and dig deeply into Age of Steam and Brass. Big question of the episode - Can Ryan keep his fanboy gushing in check? Listen and find out! (Spoiler alert: No.)
Duration: 56:45
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about the art of rules writing. Why is it hard? What options are available to the designer?
Duration: 10:15
Ryan and Geoff are very pleased to welcome Eric Zimmerman of the NYU Game Center, and author of the book Rules of Play. Yes, that's three links in one sentence, but Eric is worth it!
After a brief overview of Eric's work at NYU, the gang dives into a discussion of Emergence, when the unexpected emerges from a basic set of rules. What conditions are more likely to result in emergence? Can a designer truly design in emergent behavior? And is it important for a good game, anyway?
Duration: 1:08
Finally! Ryan corrals his buddies into trying Trading in the Mediterranean, and records their thoughts afterwards.
Reviewing the rules, cards, and other playtest materials may be helpful to understanding this episode.
Duration: 33:30
Ryan and Geoff welcome special guest Christopher Badell, designer of Sentinels of the Multiverse and one of the principals of Greater Than Games. We have a wide-ranging discussion about starting and growing a small game publishing company, specifically for a 'Single Game Game Company'.
How does just having a single game system impact the marketing, growth, and design direction for a publisher? Is it good to have focus, or do you get pigeon-holed? When is Kickstarter good for a small publisher, and when is it bad?
Duration: 56:45
In this classic GameTek from February 2010, Geoff introduces the FIRST Robotics competition and the way the program is structured around games.
Duration: 8:54
Ryan stays up past his bedtime as he and Geoff welcome special guest Jason Matthews to the show. Jason is the codesigner of Twilight Struggle, 1960, Founding Fathers, 1989, and other great political games. What makes Twilight Struggle tick? What special considersations are required for the design of political games?
Duration: 55:00
In this classic GameTek from January of 2010, Geoff discusses the economics of gift-giving, and some games that explore gift exchanges.
Duration: 06:45
Ryan and Geoff get down in the weeds to discuss the details of the cards and card mix in Trading in the Mediterranean. How will the trade goods relate to the ideas? How will they be acquired? How many of each combination should there be? Hopefully this is more interesting than it sounds.
Duration: 24:00
Ryan and Geoff are joined by special guest Eric Summerer for a deep dive into Pick Up and Deliver games. What are some of the best examples of this genre? What makes them appealing? When do they work, and when do they fail? Will Eric make it through the Lightning Round?
All these questions and more, will be answered!
Duration: 1:08
In this GameTek from December of 2009, Geoff discusses advances in 'multitouch table' technology, tech which eventually found it's way into tablets like the iPad.
Duration: 07:45
Ryan and Geoff tackle some more listener questions in the aptly named 'Listener Spectacular 2'.
Duration: 55:57
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a look at rules. Can you learn everything there is to know about a game just by reading the rules?
Duration: 07:00
Ryan and Geoff are joined by special guest Giles Pritchard to discuss the use of games in the classroom. Both Ryan and Giles teach kids ages 8-11, and have extensively used games to augment the traditional curriculum.
Geoff has taught no one, and is happy to moderate and share embarassing stories about his childhood.
In addition, Ryan discusses his new venture Games Teach, which is designed to spread the use of games by creative teachers, and is launching on Kickstarter on September 18th.
Duration 1:22
Ryan and Geoff continue brainstorming on Trading in the Mediterranean, trying to zero in on how different types of governments and social factors can be incorporated into the design.
Duration: 28:00
After a brief summer break, the Ludology team is back!
In this episode, Ryan and Geoff discuss Roll and Move games, including their history, what they do well, and what they do poorly. What attempts have been made to bring roll and move into the modern era? What has worked and what hasn't? Is there a place for roll and move in the game designer's toolbox?
Duration: 1:14:00
Ryan and Geoff continue their development of Trading in the Mediterranean, working to flesh out how to include 'ideas' in the game.
Duration: 48:00
Ryan and Geoff talk about maps, geography, and spatial relations in game design.
Duration: 1:25:15
In place of the 'Classic GameTek' segment that we normally post in between full episodes of Ludology, we are posting some bonus content about the design process for Trading in the Mediterranean.
Make sure you let us know what you think about Ryan's "interesting" idea for voyages!
Duration: 38:00
In this episode, Ryan and Geoff discuss different approaches to starting a new game design. And then, they embark on a grand project of their own, designing a game of their own!
Duration: 1:04:30
In this classic GameTek segment Geoff talks about NP Complete problems in mathematics, and the ways that certain problems can be transformed into others.
Duration: 06:00
(Yes, I know there was no GameTek Classic 35. Real Life got in the way a few weeks ago, and I decided to keep the numbering in sync with the Ludology numbering for simplicity)
Ryan and Geoff take a close analytical look at Alan Moon's Ticket To Ride, and lift up the hood to figure out what makes it tick. What design decisions set it apart from similar games? How does it draw on Moon's earlier work? And what does it do better than other mainstream euro games like Settlers of Catan?
Duration: 01:15
In this episode Ryan and Geoff analyze the environment that games create. Some games tend to be very competitive and tense, and others light and social. What pushes gameplay in these directions? What should game designers look for if they want to create a specific environment for the players?
Duration: 1:30:53
In this classic GameTek, Geoff and Brian continue to talk about The Ares Project, and the design challenges they faced. They specifically discuss designing with constraints as a way to spark creative solutions.
Duration: 6:00
Ryan and Geoff take a look at the use of uncertainty and randomness in games. What works and what doesn't? When should you have more randomness and when less?
Duration: 1:09:45
In this classic GameTek, Geoff announces that he is going to publishing a game with Z-Man Games called - wait for it - The Ares Project. This was originally broadcast in August of 2009 on Dice Tower episode 154.
Duration: 07:15
This episode Ryan and Geoff are very pleased to welcome Michael Lee, founder and co-owner of Panda Games, manufacturer of games like Pandemic and Eclipse, to discuss the nuts and bolts of actually getting a physical game into the world.
Duration: 1:10:50
In this GameTek segment Geoff looks at the math behind Push Your Luck games. When another roll is one roll too many...
This was originally broadcast in Dice Tower episode 143 in March of 2009.
Duration: 05:50
Ryan and Geoff tackle reviews and criticism. What are the different types? What drives people to write reviews? How do people use them? Do game reviews need to differ from film or book reviews? All these questions, and more, are discussed, dear listener, in this latest episode of Ludology.
Duration: 1:05
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about the characteristics of a good trading game. What drives the gameplay? How much does value need to be obscured? Is it better or worse to have stuff worth more to some players than others?
Duration: 5 minutes
Ryan and Geoff conduct a 'virtual interview' with William Attia, the designer, most notably, of Caylus. Ryan declares that Caylus is the "most important game since Puerto Rico". Can he support that bold contention?
Note: This file has corrected the 'stereo' issue with the earlier posting.
Well before the current wave of online boardgames, both web-based and mobile, Geoff reflected on his experience with PBEM gaming back in the dark ages in this classic GameTek episode.
05:00
Geoff and Ryan field several listener questions this episode, weighing in on quite a diverse range of topics. To add to the difficulty, Ryan responds to all questions with the flu.
Length: 1:01
In this classic GameTek Geoff looks at research linking temperature to social interactions. When should you give your opponents a cup of coffee instead of a soda?
We have also started a new file naming scheme with this episode that hopefully will meet everyone's needs.
Ryan and Geoff continue their discussion of the Auction mechanic. How much should the true value of what you're bidding on be hidden? And how can that be done? Plus, mechanics that really are auctions but don't look like one, and the Sturm Theory of Unified Prioritization.
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses the concept of Visibility in computer games versus board games, using the PC game Armageddon Empires as a case study. How do board games and computer games differ in the way they present information to players?
Note that this was put out many years before smart phones, so there are many more boardgame implementations that you can carry around on a portable device. But the contrast still remains relevant.
Ryan and Geoff begin their two-part exploration of auction mechanics. Auctions are a part of many games, sometimes just as a minor role, and sometimes as the star.
What are the advantages of the auction mechanic? What are the different ways it can be implemented? And what would we like to see more and less of?
49' 26"
This classic GameTek was originally broadcast during a Dice Tower episode on Train Games. Geoff explores the connections (get it - connections?) between creating rail networks and the branch of mathematics called Graph Theory.
5' 35"
In this episode, Ryan and Geoff look at the hot new space game Eclipse as a way of revisiting topics from prior shows. How does Eclipse handle issues like multiple strategies, turn sequence, and victory points? What works and what doesn't? Please join us for an in depth exploration of the design of Eclipse.
In this classic GameTek, Geoff examines games about evolution. Which work, and which don't, and do any of them accurately capture the key concepts of evolutionary science?
Ryan and Geoff are joined by Dr. Lewis Pulsipher to talk about games that feel epic. What features are required for a game to feel epic? Can a short game be epic? Is it impossible to make an epic game about certain topics?
Dr. Pulsipher is the designer of Britannia, and a noted writer on game theory.
In this classic GameTek, Geoff takes a look at hot streaks, cold streaks, and our predisposition to see patterns in what is actually random data.
Today is Superbowl Sunday, and Team Ludology is tackling sports boardgames with guests Cody Jones and John Richard from Game On with Cody & John. Are there game design challenges particular to sports games? What has worked and what doesn't? And what do we want to see more of? All your questions will be answered in this action packed episode! (Well, not really, but some questions and a bit of action).
In this GameTek from 2008 Geoff discusses voting in general, and the specific voting system in the United States. Do the rules in the United States lead towards a two-party system? Or is it possible for a third party to have a shot at the presidency?
(Note: This podcast is not endorsing any particular party or candidate. It is merely a discussion of the 'rules' of voting and how that may impact results)
A bit of a departure for Ludology, as we take a more topical look at the state of the gaming hobby as we move into the new year.
To give a business perspective, Ryan and Geoff are joined by industry insider Stephen Buonocore of Stronghold Games. Ryan believes we are at a 'fulcrum', trading quality for quantity, and is concerned for the future. Do Geoff and Stephen agree? And what does all this have to do with the movie industry?
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about how people approach gains and losses differently. This peculiarity of human psychology is the basis for Prospect Theory, developed by Kahneman and Tversky in the 1970's.
We are pleased to welcome special guest Russ Wakelin, from The D6 Generation to discuss graphic design. The graphic design of a game can have a huge impact on the playability of the game and our enjoyment. What do we look for in great graphic design? What games have excellent graphic design and which are lacking?
Are the kids out of school yet? If so, here's a bonus GameTek that is sure to keep their math skills freshly honed during the break. Geoff discusses how to estimate the 'Expectation Value' and how you can use that to help your gaming.
Ryan and Geoff are pleased to be joined by special guest Phil Eklund, designer of many games including High Frontier and Origins: How We Became Human.
We discuss designing games as simulations, rather than just as games. What are the specific design challenges that are faced? How do you balance accuracy, playability, and fun? And can novel things be learned from a game?
Following up on the last bonus GameTek episode about Regression Towards the Mean, Geoff discusses the USCF chess rating system with it's developer, Dr. Mark Glickman. How are they calculated? How is the system designed to prevent 'gaming' the system? And once again we tackle the question of how you know if you're getting better or not.
It's Thanksgiving in the USA, so everything is bigger than usual. In this supersized 90 minute Ludology, Ryan and Geoff tackle the question of innovation in games. Where does innovation come from? What games are innovative and which build on existing mechanics? Is it possible for a game to be too innovative?
Plus Ryan and Geoff reveal their picks for the most innovative game of the modern era. Do you agree?
Why do we get worse after we get better? In this classic GameTek Geoff explores the concept of 'Regression Towards the Mean', and tries to figure out how we can really tell if we're improving or just getting lucky.
In the episode, Geoff & Ryan discuss Victory Points - What are the different ways they are used? What works and what doesn't? Are they a crutch for lazy design or a useful tool in the arsenal of the game designer?
In this classic GameTek Geoff talks about Group Think in games - what causes it, and different ways to think about it.
With Geoff out of commission due to a freak snowstorm, Mark Johnson steps up to the plate to join Ryan in a discussion of two versus three player games. What are the differences? What design choices does player count present the designer?
In this classic GameTek, Geoff discusses shuffling - A little of the math behind it, how online shuffling works, and a brief glimpse into the science of thermodynamics. Not bad for five minutes!
Ryan and Geoff interview Dr. Luke Rendell of the University of St. Andrews. Dr. Rendell's team conducts research on social learning and the spread of ideas and culture throughout society. To assist in their reserach they ran a tournament in 2009 where anyone could submit a strategy to play a game based on social learning.
Dr. Rendell is now sponsoring a new tournament with some added depth to the game, this time with a 25,000 euro prize. for the best solutions.
We invited Dr. Rendell to join us to discuss the role of gaming in research, what they have learned from the prior tournament, and possible pitfalls.
If you are interested in learning more about the competition, including full game rules, please check out the link here.
Note that this time they are having a special 1,000 euro prize for the best performing strategy submitted by a a school class (through high school), so if you are a teacher this may be an excellent project for a group of interested students.
Back in 2009 Geoff interviewed Scott Nesin, builder of a Dice Tower capable of rolling 1.3 million dice per day. What inspired him to take on a project like that?
Check out the video before listening to the inteview:
In this episode, Ryan and Geoff are joined by special guest Norbert Brunhuber, who is very active in the Warmachine/Hordes community. The discussion centers around two topics:
'Monogamers' - those who play only a single game or game system (not gamers who have mono!). What is necessary in a game that will hold someone's interest for years? Why do some people prefer a single game system and others want to play a different game every week?
Miniature Gaming - what is the appeal? What are the differences between board and miniature games, and where is there crossover?
Back in 2008 Geoff talked about a tournament to learn about how individuals interact within a social group. He and his family submitted an entry, but sadly did not win the 10,000 euro prize.
However there's a successor tournament with more options and more strategies to explore. In this week's Ludology we replay the original segment, and give a quick review of some of the changes this time around.
If you're interested in the finding out more about the tournament, check it out here: Social Learning Strategies Tournament.
Ryan and Geoff look deep into the heart of cooperative games to figure out why some work and some don't. What special problems face the designer of a coop?
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about streakiness in dice rolling in The Settlers of Catan. How often should it occur? And what effect does a 'Dice Deck' have on the game?
Fresh off of their visit to Gencon in August, Ryan and Geoff talk about the subcultures of gaming, their similarities, differences, and the ways they interact.
Original research from the GameTek Laboratories! Geoff looks at the Cube Tower from Wallenstein/Shogun and experiments to see if there is any pattern to when the cubes fall out. Take your Shogun game to the next level!
Ryan and Geoff finally resolve the cliff-hanger back from episode 12 and reveal the game they think brought dice back into popularity as a design tool not just a randomizer but as an integral part of gaming mechanics. They discuss a variety of techniques that have been used to incorporate dice into modern games, and speculate on what the future will bring.
What is involved in localizing a game into a different language? Geoff talks with the team who worked to translate Agricola from German to English and finds out.
This episode we are pleased to be joined by Mike Elliott. Mike is the designer of Quarriors and Thunderstone, and also worked for many years with Wizards of the Coast doing design work on Magic and other CCGs. We discuss the specific design issues that arise for deck-building games and collectible card games.
Can you outguess your opponent? Geoff digs into some experiments that may give the answer in this classic GameTek episode.
In this episode, Ryan and Geoff explore dice, and dissect the history of their use in games.
In this classic GameTek episode, Geoff takes a look at the classic Rock, Paper, Scissors, and what it tells us about game theory.
Ryan and Geoff discuss Family Games - What are they and what makes them work? Ryan goes back to his educational theory studies to break it down.
In this classic GameTek episode, Geoff takes a look at abstract games, and attempts to solve them by computer. And does it matter if they are?
Ryan and Geoff are very pleased to be joined this episode by special guest Scott Nicholson, of On Boardgames, and Boardgames with Scott. They discuss complexity - different types of complexity, when complexity is called for, and how it can be managed.
In this classic GameTek episode, Geoff takes a look at research that was done on the fairness of dice. How 'unfair' can standard off-the-shelf dice get?
Ryan and Geoff discuss the differences between turn-based and simultaneous-action games. What are the advantages of each type of design?
In this episode, Geoff explores the Ultimatum Game, which is used by social scientists to explore human concepts of fairness, competition, and cooperation.
Ryan and Geoff tackle another angle on story in games - the narrative arc. What creates rising tension, and what game elements can create a dramatic climax?
In this classic GameTek episode, Geoff talks about the iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, and what it implies about social science and evolution.
Ryan and Geoff are joined by special guest Andy Parks to begin their discussion on how games incorporate story and narrative structure elements.
Andy is a game designer of many games including Ideology and Camelot Legends, and is the author of a recent article on creating narrative in games for the website Booklife.
In this classic GameTek episode, Geoff talks about the Prisoner's Dilemma and how it applies to board games.
Ryan and Geoff conclude their discussion of balance by looking at a variety of questions:
What does it mean for a game to be balanced?
What are the different types of balance?
Can a game be too balanced?
In this classic GameTek segment Geoff takes a look at triangular numbers and the way they are used in game designs. Features a bonus appearance by Alan Moon (sort of)!
Games that seem to have multiple strategies sometimes end up having just one dominant strategy that players follow. In this episode, Ryan and Geoff discuss ways the pitfalls of game design that can lead to this, and ways designers avoid it.
In this classic GameTek episode from 2007 Geoff talks about Multitouch Tables like the Microsoft Surface, and the role they may play in the future of boardgames.
In this episode, Ryan and Geoff discuss the difference between strategy and tactics, and the different forms that strategy can take in games.
What, another Ludology episode already?
In episode 3, Catch The Leader, Ryan and Geoff both opined that the turn order mechanic in Power Grid diminishes the overall experience. This prompted a lot of passionate debate in the forums.
For this bonus episode, we are joined by listener and poster Tim Koppang, who defends this Catch the Leader mechanic as integral to the Power Grid experience, and essential to gameplay.
Episode 4 will be posted as scheduled, on March 20.
Here is the next classic GameTek episode. This is on one of Tom Vasel's favorite topics - reviews!
This is purely 'bonus' content, and we will still be keeping to our regular two week release schedule.
In this episode, Ryan and Geoff begin their series on balance. First up: Catch The Leader.
What exactly is Catch The Leader? When is it needed, if ever? When does it work and when doesn't it?
Regular Ludology episodes will be released every two weeks.
As an experiment, on the 'in between' weeks we are going to be releasing classic GameTek segments from The Dice Tower. This is the very first GameTek that was ever aired, on the topic of luck, and like all GameTeks is about 5 minutes long.
This is purely 'bonus' content, and we will still be keeping to our regular two week release schedule.
Please drop by our BGG guild and let us know if you enjoy these bonus releases!
In our second episode we take a look at what attracts people to games, and what keeps them coming back for more. Plus Ryan and Geoff share personal stories about some of their game experiences over the years.
Welcome to Ludology! In this, our first episode, we tackle the question of what is a game, and what isn't.
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