The Game Design Round Table

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#269 Joseph Kelly Talks Molly House Jan 04, 2022

Show notes

Joseph joins Dirk and David to talk about their game Molly House, which was a Zenobia Award finalist. They discuss the historical theme behind the game, which was the Molly Houses where 18th century queer communities would gather. A major topic is how the game keeps players involved and engaged while including historical setbacks that the queer community faced. Other topics include the hardest aspects to include in the game, which mechanics worked most successfully, and what types of games Joseph might try to tackle in the future.

#268 Sherria Ayuandini Talks From Darkness to Light Dec 22, 2021

Show notes

Sherria joins Dirk and David to talk about her game From Darkness to Light, which explores the intersection between the education of women in Indonesia and the Indonesians' fight for independence. Plenty of historical background is provided as Sherria discusses why the theme is important to her and how her game represents these stories through mechanics. Other topics include the difficulty of publishing games with niche themes and how traditional euro game mechanics might map onto other themes when approached with a new lens.

#267 Crowdfunding on Kickstarter with Anya Combs Dec 08, 2021

Show notes

Anya, Director of Games for Kickstarter, joins Dirk and David to talk about how the crowdfunding platform works with creatives in the games industry. The three discuss why games, and especially tabletop games, have thrived on the platform and how to make sure a Kickstarter campaign has the best chance of working for your game. Topics covered include game-adjacent products, changes in Kickstarter over the years, community building, and discoverability on the platform.

#266 Banana Chan Talks Suburban Consumption of the Monstrous Nov 24, 2021

Show notes

Banana Chan joins Dirk and David to talk about her experience in multiple areas of game design, and how thematic games can be made in each medium. First, Banana discusses live action roleplaying (LARP) design at length, providing tips for a thematic design and explaining how monetization might work as a LARP designer. Next, the trio talks about tabletop roleplaying games and specifically on how to pick the right system and mechanics for a theme. Finally, Banana shares some thoughts on her current Kickstarter projects, Suburban Consumption of the Monstrous and An Exquisite Crime.

#265 Round Table on Past Projects and Untapped Potential Nov 02, 2021

Show notes

Kathryn joins Dirk and David for a round table discussion based on recent shows. Dirk and David get Kathryn's perspective on card games and how they help her create story-based games. Then discussion moves to market trends and demographics for cooperative games. Next the trio talks about unused game concepts, inspired by the interview with Will Thompson. All three hosts have a conversation on past projects that are "the ones that got away," using the episode with Jesse Howard as a starting point. And finally Kathryn, Dirk, and David share their thoughts on video game to board game adaptations, and vice versa.

#264 Will Thompson Talks Winter Rabbit and PaleoVet Oct 14, 2021

Show notes

Will returns to the show with Dirk and David to discuss his game Winter Rabbit, a finalist for the Zenobia Award. A contest for designers from underrepresented groups in the hobby, the Zenobia Award pairs promising applicants with mentors and awards winners with a cash prize and help with publication. Will, a member of the Cherokee Nation, talks about how Winter Rabbit was designed from the start to incorporate indigenous themes. The group also discusses the Zenobia Award itself, as well as another design Will is working on: the dice manipulation game PaleoVet, where players help dinosaurs recover from illnesses.

#263 Old World: Sorting Through Feedback Sep 25, 2021

Show notes

Soren returns to the show with Dirk and David for the third and final episode in this mini-series on his game Old World. They talk about the reception for Old World now that it's been released, the narrative elements of the event system that became important to the design, and how other systems were finalized through feedback from a lengthy early access period. Additionally, Soren discusses his relationship with the 4x genre—starting out working on the Civilization series and eventually returning to the genre to make Old World. And finally, the trio briefly talks about the future of 4x games.

#262 Diving into Co-op Card Games with MJ Newman Sep 08, 2021

Show notes

MJ Newman joins Dirk and David to discuss co-op card games and her work on the Lord of the Rings and Arkham Horror LCGs published by Fantasy Flight Games. They talk about how these co-op games are designed compared to a competitive collectable card game, and how MJ's love for narrative led to a stronger RPG-like aspect to the games she worked on. Finally, the game discusses some of the considerations when designing a Lovecraftian game—from the question of how to incorporate combat to the question of how to adapt the genre while avoiding the horror author's problematic ideas.

#261 Jesse Howard Talks Hype Tag Aug 20, 2021

Show notes

#260 Diving into LCGs with Andrew Navaro Aug 04, 2021

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