The Game Design Round Table

Sydney Engelstein joins Dirk and David to talk about her history in game design and her work on multiple card-centric games. After discussing some of her earlier games such as the Space Cadet games, Sydney talks at length about her experience working on some of the popular game series in the Stronghold Games lineup: Aeon's End and Terraforming Mars. The discussion covers what it's like making expa...

Damon Stone joins Dirk and David to discuss his game Liberation Haiti, a historical-themed deckbuilder and a Zenobia Award finalist. First, Damon talks about his experience in game design and development, including how he got started working with Fantasy Flight. Next, Damon talks at length about the historical setting for Liberation Haiti and explains how he mapped different mechanics to that them...

Dave Scott joins Dirk and David to discuss the upcoming tabletop roleplaying system Everyday Heroes, a revived and updated version of the old D20 Modern system. Dave discusses how he worked with a team of game designers to create rulesets for a system and roleplaying space that has fascinated Dave for years. One topic is a deep dive into the problems with chase mechanics in RPGs and how those mech...

Charlie Cleveland joins Dirk and David to discuss his work on the underwater survival game Subnautica–an indie hit and a standout in the genre. The trio talk about the game's somewhat unusual theme and the difficulties of making a game set underwater. They also talk about how that theme helped influence the game's mechanics and continually reinforced the core design pillar for the game: thrill of...

Lauren talks to Dirk about her Regency era game, The Season. She gives a lot of background on the Regency romance setting and the Georgian Era in general. She explains how elements of her game reflect its historical setting. Lauren also talks about her experience with the Zenobia Awards competition and how it helped inspire her to finally follow through on a design she'd been thinking about for a...

Once again, Kathryn Hymes joins Dirk and David for another round of listener questions. The discussion starts with a thorough examination of how to best grow an audience for a game when starting at zero. Other conversations cover the new hot genres in games, consent and session zero conversations for board games, and what the cohosts look for with their personal gaming choices. Finally, the talk w...

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 asp...

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 publ...

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 o...

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...

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...

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...

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 re...

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 considerati...

Firaxis designer David McDonough joins the show to talk strategy game design with Dirk and David. Topics in their discussion include: player stories vs game stories, the spectrum between full sandbox games and historical simulations, and how immersion in player stories can be encouraged. Along the way many games are covered, including both the Civilization series and the XCOM series.