The Who, What, Why? Game Design Podcast

I received a very unique text one day from my father-in-law. One of his patients had designed a game, and he shared with her that his son-in-law (yours truly) was a game podcaster. So, we connected, and I invited her and her co-designer onto the show. Here is that show.

Anna Purves and David Schwittek joined me to discuss Dead Poets Rise, a unique game about writing poetry. I had the pleasure of watching some games take place at a library near me. Funny enough, David lives close to where I live, and Anna lives close to where I work. The game brings players into a world where they are trying to resurrect a dead poet from obscurity. The game uses a Chinese checkers style board with marbles and two decks--The creation and chaos decks-- to bring the players into a world of poetry writing.

The conversation was a really interesting one, especially talking with two designers who exist outside of the normal circles of designers who I tend to engage with. If you are interested in learning more about the game, please visit Dead Poets Rise.

Warning: I had a cough during the recording that I couldn't escape. It turned out I had strep throat, which took me out of commission later that week. I did my best to edit the coughing fits out.

Kelp me! Kelp me!

All joking aside... this is a serious podcast...

Carl Robinson, the designer of the 2-player game Kelp, joined me to talk more about his games and expand upon frustrating games in general. We discussed his game in detail, but we also branched off into games that use frustration in good and bad ways.

Check out Kelp, live on Kickstarter right now if this sounds like something you are interested in.

Joe Slack, a frequent guest of the show, joined me once again to help me dip our toes into the conversation about AI art in board games. We did our best to explain AI art from our knowledge base and to explore some of the uses of it so far and even what future uses should look like.

I have an ongoing cough, so I did my best to remove those loud coughs.

I asked ChatGPT to write me a script for a podcast about AI art. I will release that as an episode in December.

Also, I asked ChatGPT to create an Arkham Horror trick-taking game. The game is enclosed in quotation marks.

"Absolutely! Let's call it "Eldritch Echoes: Arkham Trickery." Here's a basic idea for how the game might work:

Number of Players: 3-5

Objective: Players aim to gather Eldritch Echoes, fragments of cosmic knowledge, by winning tricks through strategic card play.

Setup:

1. Deck: A custom deck with suits representing different aspects of the Arkham Horror universe (e.g., Mysteries, Artifacts, Creatures, Spells).
2. Eldritch Echoes Cards: Special cards with varying point values representing the cosmic knowledge players seek.

Gameplay:

1. Dealing: Deal a set number of cards to each player, creating their starting hand.
2. Trick-Taking: Players take turns playing cards to form a trick, following suit if possible. The highest-value card of the leading suit or the highest trump card wins the trick.
3. Eldritch Echoes: Certain cards hold Eldritch Echoes values; winning a trick earns those points for the player who won it.
4. Special Cards: Include special cards that can alter gameplay (e.g., Ancient Tome that acts as a wild card, Shub-Niggurath as a powerful trump card).
5. Strategic Elements: Introduce elements like sanity cards or mythos cards that add unpredictability or risk, affecting the outcome of tricks or forcing players to discard.

Winning:

1. The game can be played over several rounds or until a set score is reached.
2. The player with the highest accumulated Eldritch Echoes at the end wins.

Strategy:

1. Players need to gauge when to play their powerful cards strategically to win high-value tricks.
2. Balancing the use of trump cards or Eldritch Echoes cards with keeping useful cards for later rounds becomes crucial.

Thematically: Incorporate elements of Arkham Horror lore, where players are investigators seeking cosmic knowledge, encountering mystical artifacts, eldritch creatures, and otherworldly spells.

Remember, the fun in trick-taking games often lies in their simplicity and the layers of strategy that develop as players become more familiar with the deck and its nuances. Adjustments and balancing may be needed through playtesting, but this framework could provide a solid foundation for an Arkham Horror trick-taking game!"

Jason Peercy, co-designer of The Real Thing RPG, joined me to talk about the expansions he is crowdfunding titled Angel Dust and King For a Day. You might remember The Real Thing RPG as the Faith No More inspired RPG. Jason and his co-designer Jason took the themes and stories they heard in Faith No More's The Real Thing album and created an RPG system out of it. Well, they are back at it again expanding the world they created through 2 new books. We discussed the reaction to the game, working with a band as an IP holder, and more.

If you are interested in the game, please check it out on BackerKit.

I planned to have on Jeff Warrender to talk about his game Lost Adventures, out on Kickstarter now, but Jonny Pac and the always fun Ben Maddox happened to join the podcast. We had a blast on this one. We mostly stayed on topic focusing on some of the interesting design decisions in Lost Adventures.

If you have any interest in this game, check it out on Kickstarter now.

Becky Annison, designer of Wreck This Deck and co-owner of Black Armada Games, joined me to talk about her latest design up on BackerKit right now. Wreck This Deck is a solo-journaling RPG where you trap demons in playing cards and wreck those cards in all sorts of artistic ways, whatever you fancy. You can burn cards, fold them, paint them, cut them, etc. Becky encourages players to go ham on that deck. She sees the game as an opportunity for players to let their creativity fly.

We discussed the genesis of the game and how it developed and is still developing. We also talked briefly about Legacy games and how those influenced her design.

Check out Wreck This Deck if you have an itch to get destructive to a deck of playing cards.

Sam and Ed Stockton... or Ed and Sam Stockton... joined me to talk about their newest game live on Kickstarter right now. Forges of Ravenshire is a unique dice worker placement game where you are crafting items and using dice, but the hitch is that the dice aren't owned by one particular player. We talked about a lot of topics here from the allure of dice to the intricacies of worker placement, a genre rife with games.

Check out the Kickstarter if you are interested.

Wrestling fans and gaming fans! I have a guest to unite you both. Steve Resk, designer of The Super Show, joined me to talk about how to keep LCG/CCGs alive and well. We explored how the Super Show grew from just a couple of decks with a small fanbase to a community with its own regional federations and belts. We also talked about some of our favorite wrestling storylines from the past.

Check out the Super Show here. And they have a convention coming up this weekend (March 17) in Cleveland.

Jonny Pac and Jeff Warrender return for another episode about a topic in game design. In this episode we discuss competitiveness in games. We focus on games with a lot of direct interaction compared with games with indirect interactions (like Multiplayer Solitaire games). No, we do not come down on "which is better," but we muse on what makes each of these styles interesting.

Remember: today is the last day to submit your game to the Cardboard Edison Award. Go do it!

Nick Accardi, co-designer and artistic director for The Boys: This Is Going to Hurt, joined me to talk about this game from Dynamite Entertainment. We discussed the intricacies of adapting a licensed property into a board game. Nick talked about how the game doesn't follow the comics exactly, but instead crafts its own plausible story, so players can get immersed in something new. We also discuss set building and prop work because Nick is interested in some of that, and set building was my previous profession. This game follows the comic and not the Amazon TV show.

If you are interested in getting your unpublished game judged, check out Cardboard Edison. I am a judge and have been for a few years. I enjoy the process of judging through Cardboard Edison. They're a great pair of people. This is not a paid ad or anything, but they did ask me to mention the award and since I value them as designer friends, I emphatically said yes.

Gonzalo and Will joined me to talk about their game called Nawalli. It's a head-to-head card battling game with some incredible artwork inspired by the Aztecs. It's an easy game to learn and play because of its relative language independence (once you know it all). I was drawn to this game because of its artwork and knew I had to find out more. What better way than have the designers on the show.

Also, the Cardboard Edison Award is here again. All submissions must be in by Jan. 31. Check out www.cardboardedison.com/award for more information. They did not pay me to say this, but they should since I'm a prestigious podcaster (kidding).

So, I recently went to PaxU (again) with my wife and baby daughter. I decided to try something new for when I go to cons. I put all of my thoughts together in this episode about the con and what I love about it.

James Cole, designer of the upcoming game Thrown Under the Bus, joined me to talk about his game about corporate intrigue and power positioning. The game is a lighthearted look at the kind of stuff that may happen in a corporate office between people who want to be in the best position they can be. We talked about a lot of different things about the game's design and even got into some stories from James' past working in a corporation.

The game will be releasing on Kickstarter sometime in January. Check it out if you are interested.

Jonny Pac, co-designer of Unconscious Mind, joined me to talk about the design of this big game. We focused on the way this game keeps players involved thematically and helps keep these various mechanisms flowing intuitively between one another.

If you are interested in this game, check it out on Kickstarter.

Joe Slack joins me yet again! It's a second threepeat!

In this episode, Joe and I discuss when to pitch your game vs. when to self-publish. There are a lot of things to consider with both avenues. First, you've got to have a game worth publishing at all. Then you have to decide to either give your creation to someone else where you may lose some creative control, or to become a publisher replete with the benefits and drawbacks that that entails. It's scary to navigate. Thankfully, Joe (and I to a lesser degree) have some thoughts here.

Joe has a Kickstarter running right now called 14 Frantic Minutes. You can check it out if you want.

Fabricio Leotti, designer of Hyperwars (now on KS), joined me to talk about the genre of real-time games. We explore what the term means to us, what games embody it, and where it falls flat. We also weave in discussion of how Fabricio's latest game, Hyperwars, attempts to capture the feel of real-time action.

If you'd like to learn more about Hyperwars, check out my interview with Fabricio from back in Aug of 2021! Oh, look. I released the last episode with Fabricio on a 31st as well.

If you have interest in the game, please look at the Kickstarter running right now. Hyperwars Kickstarter

Joe Slack joined me (again!) to talk about when he shelves a design and when he returns to one on that shelf. This was a good conversation where I get to wax lyrical about some of my own lost designs. Remember, designers, it's okay to put something away for a little while to give yourself some clarity on it.

Check out Joe's Kickstarter for 14 Frantic Minutes: Click!

Joe Slack, designer of Relics of Rajavihara and the forthcoming 14 Frantic Minutes, joined me for another threepeat of episodes. The first one explores the idea of a game being "done." How does one know when to call their design done and move on to the next phase of its life? Joe and I attempt to provide some insight into this quesiton.

Joe also has a Kickstarter campaign for 14 Frantic Minutes. He speaks briefly about his own game and when he decided it was done. Check it out if you are interested.

Aaron Trammel, Shelley Jones, Edmond Y. Chang, and Evan Tormer are four of the members of the editorial board at Analog Games Studies. This group of smart folk joined me to talk about the journal itself and about the importance of treating games from an academic lens. This episode involved a lot of smart discussion from these four about some deeper topics in games than a lot of other shows get into.

Please consider reading the articles posted at Analog Games Studies. You can find some interesting stuff there such as Tanya Pobuda's two articles about representation on the box art and in the rulebooks. There's a lot more stuff there to check out.

Another ska-cast is back from Who, What, Why! This time I invited on Crystal Mazur who's been on my show to talk about games, but now she helps me talk about ska. We look at some of the ways ska music shows up in all sorts of media from movies to commercials.

Check out Crystal's work at The Geeky Panda