Podcasts about ludology

Episode 32 - Sen-Foong Lim Sen-Foong Lim can be found on Twitter @SenFoongLim, on the Meeple Syrup Show, and the podcast Ludology. Support us on Patreon Find us on Twitter @CultClassicPod Find us on Instagram @CultClassicCallbackLinsae Find more episodes at boardsalivepodcast.com/category/cult-classic-callback Theme song "Ghost Run" by Jean-Marc Giffin @JeanOfmArc

Steph Campbell brings their segment, TTRPGKids, to Ludology. This week, they breakdown their TTRPG "Photosynthians" that they made as a resource to demonstrate how to teach science with TTRPGs and how to integrate lesson plans and other classroom basics into the game itself for designers.  The game is free and part of the classroom-ready toolkit that Steph made and is available here: https://ttrpgkids.itch.io/the-classroom-ready-ttrpg-toolkit (name your price)  

Sen and Erica welcome Professor Camilla Zamboni to discuss "Roll for Learning", a book she co-edited that contains 51 microRPGs that are intended for use in K-12+ classrooms in fields as diverse as STEM, SEL, and the Humanities.  You can download the pdf of the book for free here: https://playstorypress.org/books/roll-for-learning/  

In this Host Roundtable, Erica and Sen talk about the importance of understanding who the audience for a specific game is during the design, development, and publication process. They discuss some of the ways in which they determine who the audience is and how knowing the key characteristics and desires of the demographic can help them make a game that satisfies the core consumer by design.

Sen and Erica welcome Jay Cormier of Off the Page Games to the podcast to talk about his penchant for making puzzley games that make players feel clever while giving them a sense of exploration and adventure, Jay discusses his first time at PAXU as well as his newest releases, Corps of Discovery and Design Your Destiny.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to keep a FLGS afloat in this age of online retailers and Amazon Prime? Sen and Erica welcome Caleb Wunderlich, Assistant Manager at Millennium Games in Rochester, NY - the biggest game store in the USA - to talk about building community, running events, and catering to customers' needs.

Sen and Erica welcome former host Scott Rogers back to the show to dive into his latest book, "Your Turn: The Guide to Great Tabletop Game Design" and tell us what he's been up to as of late. 

Erica and Sen welcome Theresa Duringer to talk about her role as a tabletop game app developer at Temple Gates Games. They discuss what it takes to make an app translation of a tabletop hit, what some differences might be between the physical and digital versions, how the AI opponents are trained, and more!

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 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.

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 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.

Games! Play! Fun! Addiction? Flim-flam? From the origins of tabletop classics to the future of VR, Dr. Jane McGonigal answers our burning questions. This video game developer, TED speaker and bestselling author is an expert on how playing -- and especially video games -- can motivate, soothe and connect us. Will video games turn your child into a future car thief? How do they make you stronger? How much is too much? What about slot machines? Everyone who loves games (and everyone who hates games) should hear this one.Dr. McGonigal's website and XDr. McGonigal's book “Imaginable”A donation went to AbleGamers  Full-length (*not* G-rated) Ludology episode + tons of science linksMore kid-friendly Smologies episodes!Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a monthOlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, masks, totes!Follow @Ologies on X and InstagramFollow @AlieWard on X and InstagramSound editing by Zeke Thomas Rodrigues & Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam MediaMade possible by work from Mercedes Maitland, Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Kelly R. Dwyer, Emily White, & Erin TalbertSmologies theme song by Harold Malcolm

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!

Jeff Engelstein joins us today to share his expansive journey in the gaming world. An award-winning tabletop game designer, Jeff has crafted acclaimed titles such as Space Cadets, The Fog of War, Pit Crew, and Super Skill Pinball. Beyond game design, Jeff is an adjunct professor at the NYU Game Center, where he imparts his deep knowledge of game mechanics and theory. He has contributed extensively to the Dice Tower podcast series on the math, science, and psychology of games and has hosted the Ludology podcast, diving into the intricacies of game design. With a degree in physics and electrical engineering from MIT and leadership roles at companies like Mars International, Mind Bullet Games, and Navar Engelstein Associates, Jeff brings a unique blend of analytical rigor and creative insight to his work. In this episode, Jeff discusses his origin story, the impact of psychology on gameplay, and the evolving tools and techniques that shape game design today. Tune in to uncover the depth of Jeff Engelstein's expertise and his contributions to the games industry. Get full access to Think Like A Game Designer at justingarydesign.substack.com/subscribe

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.

This week Anna & Paul are joined by Ryan Slattery of Slatt Studio to discuss the pros and cons of text parser and the pros and cons of point and click, but like, comparatively. I guess it's parser vs point and click but idk, the "vs" gives it like a grudge match kinda vibe and we didn't really frame it like one of them has to win and the other lose. Here, let's start over with an overtly intellectual vibe:    This week your hosts are joined by one R. J. Slattery to discuss - Exegesis on Interactive Paradigms: The Dialectical Tension Between Point-and-Click Interfaces and Text-Parser Mechanisms in Digital Ludology.   Ah very good. That was most better. Mangia!   Download Betrayed Alliance: Book 1 here! Support SlattStudio on Patreon!   Vote for The Phantom Fellows to be released on GOG! Wishlist our adventure game! The Phantom Fellows    Let's hang out at the Adventure Game Fan Fair!   Shek out our friends in the Adventure Game Hotspot Network: Space Quest Historian's This tech could have revolutionized the voice-over industry (feat. Al Lowe) Adventure Game Geek's Talisman (PC DOS 1995) – Just Another Day In Thurania! (feat. Paul!) OneShortEye's The Insanity of King's Quest Speedruns Conversations with Curtis' Paul & Daniel play Thimbleweed Park! Tech Talk with Daniel Albu's A Conversation with Khris Brown (Full Throttle / The Dig / The Curse of Monkey Island / Psychonauts) Adventure Game Hotspot's  11 "OH HELL NO" moments in adventure games (feat. Paul!) Laura Cressup's Twitch & YouTube Channels   AGHN Content Creators Podcast Episode 3: AGHN Content Creators Podcast - Episode 3: Audio and Why It's Important to Your Ears (feat Anna & Paul!) AGHN Content Creators Podcast Episode 5: AGHN Content Creators Podcast - Episode 5: Stress and Expectations (feat Anna & Paul!)   Say hi I guess! Twitter (Anna) - @CGGpodcast Twitter (Paul) - @PhantomFellows ThePhantomFellows.com Send us your words! E-mail:  mail@classicgamersguild.com Become a Patreon to support the show? www.patreon.com/ClassicGamersGuild Join the group and talk about neat stuff! Facebook Page Facebook Group We're also on Instagram & YouTube  "CGG Theme" and "A Minor Concussion" by The Volume Remote Intro greeting (usually) by (and thank you to) Hope Kodman VonStarnes   Games In the Episode: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Betrayed Alliance Book 1 Quest For Glory Series King's Quest IV Police Quest 2 Laura Bow - he Colonials Bequest Gabriel Knight Sins of the Fathers  Gold Rush! Leisure Suit Larry 3 Space Quest 3 & 4 Monkey Island Series  Conquests of the Longbow     And finally, I'm gonna have to go ahead and ask you- I am once again asking you, to wishlist my game. I'm workin real hard on it, full time, and I think you're gonna love it. BUT, I'm gonna need you to tap on this and then tap several more times, until it's wish listedOMG THANK YOU SO MUCH ThePhantomFellows.com The Phantom Fellows on Steam    

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.

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.

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.

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.

This week I'm bringing you an episode from the new podcast Lyrical Ludology with host Logan Timmins, a show all about lyric games. I'm very excited for it. There's already at least one more episode of Lyrical Ludology published, so if you like this one, go subscribe and take a listen!

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.

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? 

Do you play D&D? Do you have a friend who does, but you don't totally *get* what it is? Did you see the recent film Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and think "wow, that role playing game went MAINSTREAM!?" Then this episode is sure to satisfy your curiosity about this zeitgeisty game! Hannah, who herself plays D&D, leads Marcelle through a history of the tabletop role-playing game created by Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax, tracing its origins all the way to Dungeons & Dragons 5E (the most recent edition). They then use ludology, the study of games and gaming, to understand the unique role D&D has at the intersection of gaming and narrative. And then, as always, the episode is wrapped up with a beautifully tied together thesis (from Hannah) about the transformation, or rather, realization of the game through the radical acts of people playing it. To learn more about the research that went into today's episode, be sure to follow Witch, Please Productions on Substack at https://ohwitchplease.substack.com! And if you like our show, please share it with family and friends! Word-of-mouth is the primary way we reach new listeners who are interested in feminist materialist critique, pop culture and laughing at and from within *the discourse.*We'll be back in two weeks for another episode, but until then, be sure to check out all the bonus content we have on our Patreon at Patreon.com/ohwitchplease. You can learn more about the show at ohwitchplease.ca and on our instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Want more from us? Check out our website ohwitchplease.ca.***Material Girls is a show that aims to make sense of the zeitgeist through materialist critique* and critical theory! Each episode looks at a unique object of study (something popular now or from back in the day) and over the course of three distinct segments, Hannah and Marcelle apply their academic expertise to the topic at hand.*Materialist Critique is, at its simplest possible level, a form of cultural critique – that is, scholarly engagement with a cultural text of some kind – that is interested in modes of production, moments of reception, and the historical and ideological contexts for both. Materialist critique is really interested in the question of why a particular cultural work or practice emerged at a particular moment. Music Credits:“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dave Chalker (co-designer of Restoration Game's Thunder Road) joins Erica and Sen to talk about toys, games, and toyetic games.

Erica and Sen make some resolutions about game design and predictions about the tabletop industry to ring in the new year!

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.

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!

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!

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. 

Professor, Designer, and Podcaster Sen-Foong Lim joins us on the Submarine! Sen is the designer of many board games and RPG's and hosts the Ludology and Meeple Syrup shows. Today we are able to dive into not only board games...but RPG's and Comic Books as well. Sen has a game in development with Off the Page Games and we learn a little bit more about the story behind it. Then, he shares and epic story involving a bottle, and Jenga tower, and a little bit of Dread. All this and more on today's voyage!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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. 

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 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.