Game Design Deep Dive

Brian Asklev designed my favorite wargame of last year, 1812: Napoleon's Fateful March. We discuss what went into his phenomenal design, his upcoming game Baltic Empires, event design, and the challenges of playtesting multiplayer games. Outro music: Sons of Kemet "The Hour of Judgement"Send us a text

Pako Gradaille has flexed an impressive range of historical topics and systems with his designs Plantagenet, Cuius Regio, Habemus Papam, and Onoda. We discuss how solitaire games can present challenging narratives, considerations when designing negotiation-based systems, and much more. https://gamefound.com/en/projects/saltandpepper/habemus-papamSend us a text

SEASON FINALE: We welcome designer and developer Joe Schmidt to discuss In the Shadows: Resistance in France 1943-1944 (a game we designed together), his Levy & Campaign game Henry, solitaire design for Gunnar Holmback's Weimar Republic (GMT), and his development work on the forthcoming game Hellraisers from Wehrlegig. Outro music: "Help Save the Youth of America" - Billy BraggSend us a text

Today, I chat with Talia Rosen, designer of First Monday in October which is a game about the history of the US Supreme Court coming soon to Kickstarter from Fort Circle Games. We discuss what inspired Talia's first design and the challenges of modeling the supreme court. Outro music: "The Devil's Great Grandson" - Sons of the PioneersSend us a text

As a designer, John Butterfield is a bit of a troublemaker. He likes to insert friction in his designs where wargamers aren't used to finding it. His games don't just tell stories, they host a space for players to make their OWN stories. His titles include Ambush, RAF, Enemy Action: Ardennes & Karkov, the D-Day Series, Hell's Highway and so many more. We discuss solitaire design, the evolution of his work, and his collaboration with Kai Jensen on Downfall.Outro music: Jessica Ackerley All Of the Colours Are Singing | Jessica Ackerley (bandcamp.com)Send us a text

For this episode, we chat with filmmaker and game designer Yoni Goldstein about his upcoming game Chicago '68 from The Dietz Foundation about the 1968 DNC protests and his journey in game design.  Chicago '68 on Kickstarter:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dietzfoundation/chicago-68Jean Genet in Chicago:https://vimeo.com/78486625Outro Music: "Popular Myth and the Destruction of Sodom" by Peter Thomas Sound OrchesterSend us a Text Message.

We decided to break from our usual format. Dan Thurot of Space Biff joins us for a discussion about narrative and storytelling in board games, particularly how it relates to historical boardgames. SPACE-BIFF! | Fiercely Independent. Independant? Crap. (spacebiff.com)Outro Music: Sun Ra Arkestra - Between Two Worlds

Maurice Suckling is a screenwriter, author, teacher of design as well as vast experience in various roles of video game production. We discuss his recent design Crisis 1914 from Worthington, the upcoming Peace 1905 from Fort Circle, and Operation Barclay (currently on Gamefound). 

Sebastian Bae is a research scientist and senior game designer for the Center of Naval Analyses' Gaming and Integration Program as well as a faculty advisor for the Georgetown University Wargaming Society. He has two commercial designs, Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacific with Dietz Foundation and a multi-pack Crisis In Korea being released through Catastrophe Games. We discuss the challenges of designing on the topic of North Korea, the value of modeling hypothetical war, and the frontier of designing for modern conflicts. 

Carlos Marquez Linares is the designer of TWO upcoming games, The Other Side of the Hill from NAC Wargames and Imperial Fever from GMT (currently on the P500). We discuss his controversial topics and his design approach in each of the aforementioned games. 

Natalia Wotjowicz has written an excellent book called Wargaming Experiences about approaches to professional wargame design informed by her experience with the NATO Civil-Military Cooperation Center of Excellence. Her book offers a lot of guidance relevant to both historical games and wargames, so I invited her to discuss it along with differences between professional and commercial design. Books by Natalia Wojtowicz: Wargaming Experiences (2 book series) Paperback Edition (amazon.com)Outro music: Marnie Stern "Plain Speak" The Comeback Kid | Marnie Stern (bandcamp.com)

Gina Willis has designed A Glorious Chance, an excellent solitaire game about naval operations during the War of 1812 and collaborated with Jeremy White on the design of Skies Above Britain. We discuss both of these games, the emphasis on narrative in solitaire design, age of sail, and much more. A Glorious Chance (mybigcommerce.com)

On this episode, I chat with Jo Kelly to discuss their upcoming game Molly House which is being published by Wehrlegig (maybe you heard of it) and is coming to Backerkit on October 17th. Jo Kelly is also a Zenobia finalist. We talk about the making of Molly House, Zenobia, and much much more. Molly House - A game of queer joy and betrayal in 18th century London. (backerkit.com)

Domhnall Hegarty and his Citog Creative have provided graphic design for a number of high profile and award-winning releases, such as Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna, People Power, Red Flag Over Paris, The Vote, and more. We chat about the considerations that go into his work and the discussion surrounding the use of AI-generated images in games. 

Brian Train has been at the forefront of designing games about insurgency and urban warfare. He is probably best known for his COIN volumes: A Distant Plain & Colonial Twilight, his District Commander Series, Nights of Ire, Brief Border Wars and much more. We discussed designing for insurgency, irregular warfare, and the tension between unpleasant topics and fun gameplay. 

Mark Herman's work is vast and influential in the world of wargaming. We narrowed our chat in May to discussing his co-design with D.B. Dokter covering the first three months of the Russia-Ukraine War, the challenges of designing the first draft of history, and how he views the moral quandary of designing for an ongoing conflict. 

Harold Buchanan's contributions to historical games go above and beyond his celebrated designs: Flashpoint South China Sea, Liberty or Death and Campaigns of 1777. Harold has been very active launching the San Diego HistCon, the Summit Award and the webzine Conflicts of Interest. We discuss depicting the South China Sea conflict and the challenges of designing the "small" game. 

Alex Knight is the designer of an outstanding new game Land and Freedom, published by Blue Panther. We discuss his unique take on the Spanish Civil War, Land of Freedom and his design journey. More info on Land of Freedom here: https://www.bluepantherllc.com/products/land-and-freedom

Cole Wehrle has designed Pax Pamir, John Company and Infamous Traffic as well as fan favorites Root, Oath and (most recently) Arcs. We chat primarily about his historical designs, discussing Kevin Zucker's Napoleon's Last Battles, second editions, model-driven history versus polemics, and much more. 

In this episode, I chat with filmmaker and game designer Robert DeLeskie about his designs The Wars of Marcus Aurelius, Stilicho, and the recently released Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna. We discuss the role of narrative and some of the unique considerations that go into designing a siege game. 

For this episode, I chat with Betsy Joslyn, a Research Associate for the Joint Advanced Wargaming Division at the Institute for Defense Analysis. Her recent design TURNING TIDES is a microgame demonstrating competing interests between nations to reduce global greenhouse gases at a geopolitical level. We discuss her design approach to great power competition and the virtues of micro-gaming heavy topics.You can download Turning Tides here

I chat with 3 first-time designers that I met at San Diego HistoCon. We spoke with Taylor Shuss, designer of Stonewall Uprising(Catastrophe Games), Justin Fassino, designer of Seljuk: Byzantium Besieged (GMT) and with Non-Breaking Space, designer of Cross Bronx Expressway (GMT). 

Matilda Simonsson is a brilliant designer from Sweden that incorporates handmade components into some incredibly clever games about historical subjects that fuse the intimate with the abstract. I chat with her about her recent release Turncoats, upcoming projects and her collaboration for the second CONSIM Game Jam. Milda Matilda Games – I make these by hand (wordpress.com)

We chat with prolific designer David Thompson of the Undaunted Series (Osprey), Valiant Defense Series (DVG) and his recent collaborations Sniper Elite and Resist!

In the final episode of Season 1, I chat with Volko Ruhnke. His designs have covered everything from insurgencies in Andean Abyss & Labyrinth to medieval warfare in his Levy & Campaign Series, so his insights draw on a broad design palette. We chat about the impact of assumptions held by historical participants when designing historical games. 

For a change of pace, we discuss game development with Kai Jensen. Her recent credits include Dominant Species: Marine, SpaceCorp, Welcome to Centerville and Downfall. We discuss her collaborations with the late Chad Jensen, the upcoming Downfall and Kai offers some great development insight for designers.

In a special crossover episode with Homo Ludens, I chat with Catherine Ramen, designer of Red Carnations on a Black Grave and Fred Serval, designer of Red Flag Over Paris to discuss their distinct approaches to the Paris Commune in their designs while we explore what we can learn from how role-playing games and board games tackle historical subjects. Red Carnations on a Black Grave: Red Carnations on a Black Grave [Print+PDF] :: Print+PDF Bundles :: IPR (indiepressrevolution.com)Red Flag Over Paris 2nd Printing is available on the GMT P500

I sat down with Emily Yoder and Sebastian Bae to chat about their brilliant design Malign, which was developed to explore the impact of misinformation/malinformation influence campaigns. We discuss their game, malign influence and the differences in approach between the world of professional wargame design and its commercial cousin. 

Amabel Holland has one of the most varied design catalogs, having created train games, dinosaur games, wargames, and unapologetically weird games. She is also one half of the creative force behind the publisher Hollandspiele. We discuss her catalogue, the upcoming Siege of Mantua and much much more. 

In this episode we chat with Damon Stone. Damon has considerable design experience, having created expansions for Netrunner, Call of Cthulhu and Game of Thrones LCGs. He has recently been putting the finishing touches on his board game design Liberation Haiti, which was a Zenobia Award finalist about the Haitian Revolution and his collaboration with Ted Torgersen on the design of Free At Last from the Dietz Foundation.  We discuss the virtues of designing within constraints, historical game design vs established IP, and the role of narrative in games. 

In this episode I talk to Jeremy White (whom I call Jerry nonstop throughout the episode). Jerry has designed some incredibly innovative games like Atlantic Chase, Skies Above the Reich, Enemy Coast Ahead and more. Right now, he has two projects being published by GMT: Skies Above Britain (co-designed with Gina Willis) and Infernal Machine (co-designed with Ed Ostermeyer).We discuss the role of geography in games, the virtues of collaborative design and the delicate nature of playing bad guys in historical games.