Game Design Deep Dive

Akar Bharadvaj is designer of the upcoming game Chalice of Poison about the Iran-Iraq War from GMT and the Zenobia Award-Winning Tyranny of Blood . We chat about both designs, the future of the Zenobia awards, and much more.  Hellcouch  designed by Carol Mertz and Francesca Caletto-Leon also came up in conversation, and we are all about giving credit where due.  Outro music: Lifeguard "It Wil...

We welcome back Cole Wehrle (who hopefully needs no introduction) for a wide ranging discussion about expansions, Buried Giant- his new publishing home, and much much more.  Outro music: "King's Army" The Scarring Party  Send us Fan Mail

Liz Davidson has co-designed Queen of Spies and the forthcoming Night Witches with David Thompson. She is also the Creative Director at Leder Games, but you may know her best for her work on her Bobby Nunez-award winning Beyond Solitaire podcast. We chat about her work at Leder, her historical design work, and the transition from game critic to game designer. Note: This episode is tagged explicit...

Our guest is designer John Carnahan. His latest, Come Out Fighting will be on Kickstarter on November 30th. I am not sure how many listeners have dipped their toe in miniature games, but I had to invite John to discuss his latest design, because it incorporates something extraordinary and radical in that space.  Come Out Fighting on BGG Come Out Fighting on Kickstarter Outro Music: Gene Autry &quo...

Recorded live at SD HistCon, our esteemed panel was comprised of designers John Butterfield (RAF, Enemy Action Series, D-Day Omaha, Ambush), David Thompson (Valiant Defense Series, War Story, Undaunted), and Jeremy White (Skies Above Series, Enemy Coast Ahead Series, Atlantic Chase). We discuss embedded vs emergent narrative in historical games and how one leverage mechanisms to achieve the desire...

Greg Loring-Albright is the designer of Ahoy, Keep the Faith, and co-designed Bloc by Bloc: Uprising with T.L. Simmons. Moreover, he teaches Game Studies and Game Design at Harrisburg University. We discuss his recent zine RULEBOOKS FOR RADICALS on the importance of designing games in dire times.  Outro music: Radioactivity "Time Won't Bring Me Down"  Send us Fan Mail

Lisa Smedman is a best-selling author, journalist, and designer of many RPG games and modules. We discuss Trench Raid, her first solitaire tabletop wargame for Compass, the tactical approach to the topic of WW1, and the relationship between serious games and design intent.  Trench Raid from Compass Games Outro music: "Kingdom Come" by Cindy Lee  Cindy Lee is marvelous! Go check out Diamo...

In this episode, a proper interview with Fred Serval, designer of A Gest of Robin Hood, Red Flag Over Paris, and A Very Civil Whist. Fred is also the host of an excellent channel dedicated to historical tabletop gaming, Homo Ludens. We discuss his design approach and how it informs critique of other games. Outro music: "All Good Things Will Come to Pass" - Lael Neale Send us Fan Mail

Mary Flanagan, is a game designer, professor, and an author. She joins us to discuss her book, co-authored with Mikael Jakobson, PLAYING OPPRESSION: THE LEGACY OF CONQUEST AND EMPIRE IN COLONIALIST BOARD GAMES . We discuss representation of non-western cultures, colonialist mechanisms, and whether or not decades of conquest and exploitation based games have calcified to form the bedrock of competi...

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 Fan Mail

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-papam Send us Fan Mail

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 Bragg...

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 Pioneers Send us Fan Mail

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...

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-68 Jean Genet in Chicago: https://vimeo.com/78486625 Outro Music: "Popular Myth and the Destruction...

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 Send us Fan Mail

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).  Send us Fan Mail

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 o...

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.  Send us Fan Mail

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...

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) Send us Fan Mail

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) Send us Fan Mail

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.  Send us Fan Mail

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.  Send us Fan Mail

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.  Send us Fan Mail