Game Design Deep Dive

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.  Send us...

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 Send us Fan Mail

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.  Send us Fan Mail

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.  Send us Fan Mail

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 to...

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).  Send us Fan Mail

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

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) Send us Fan Mail

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.  Send us Fan Mail

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. Send us Fan Mail

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 Carnatio...

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.  Send us Fan Mail

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.  Send us Fan Mail

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...

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 g...