Ludology

Emma and Gil welcome game designer, educator, and birder Chidi Paige to discuss how games and play benefit education, how she designed her bird-themed game Birdwiser, and how competitive birdwatching has affected her as a person. SHOW NOTES 0m22s: From educationcloset.com : "STEAM Education is an approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics as access p...

Geoff muses on the difference between explicitly calling out the way a game system works, versus letting players implicitly discover how the players discover how the system works. Is one clearly better than the other? Tell us how you feel in the Ludology forums ! Here's more information about Geoff's game Versailles 1919 .

Emma and Gil invite award-winning game designer, teacher, and not-scholar Sharang Biswas to the show to discuss verbs in games. What actions do we actually perform when we play a game, what actions do they represent, and how does that impact the game experience? You can find Sharang on Twitter or on the web . Here is his itch.io store . CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains references to sex and...

Scott takes us through the rise, fall, and rise again of the game Vinci , which designer Philippe Keyaerts and publisher Days of Wonder re-implemented as Small World . Bibliography of a board game Text: Meepletown interviews designer Keyaerts . Text: Boardtime interviews designer Keyaerts (the site is Polish, but the interview is in English).   Text: Related Small World products from publisher Day...

Emma, Gil, and Scott go back to a topic that Ryan and Geoff discussed earlier in the show's history: Deckbuilding! With all that's changed (including Emma having designed a deckbuilder), what has changed, and what have we learned? 0m41s: The episode that Ryan and Geoff did was Ludology 119 - Deck the Halls . 0m46s: Dominion (which did come out in 2008) 2m39s: StarCraft: The Board Game , which is g...

Geoff uses an interesting bag-building example to discuss how a mechanism that is designed to be fair and equitable to all colors in the bag winds up favoring a single color over time. This example has incredible significance to our hobby, and our world. You can reach out to Geoff via Twitter or email (geoff@ludology.net).

Emma and Gil welcome Banana Chan: game writer, larp/RPG designer, board game publisher, horror movie buff, and pop-up museum aficionado. We talk about writing for all kinds of games, how game mechanisms support intense experiences in larp and RPG, the effects of emancipatory bleed, and the effect of moving roleplay online. Content warning: we discuss games with intense themes, like human sacrifice...

Scott takes us through the twisted history of the classic game Twister. How did it overcome its risqué premise to become a perennial favorite? Bibliography of a Board Game: Video - Twister was created 55 years ago Video - Ren Guyer: The Man Who Invented Twister & Nerf Video - Original Twister Commercial  Video - Twister Mania for Xbox 360 review Text - Ren Guyer's story of Twister from his officia...

Emma and Gil moderate a roundtable on safety tools in games, with guests Kienna Shaw and Lauren Bryant-Monk (creators of the TTRPG Safety Toolkit ) and John Stavropoulos (creator of the X-Card ).  We discuss consent and safety in games, starting with tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), but expanding to all sorts of games. How can safety tools help in games, and in what ways do they help? Content...

Geoff discusses the phenomenon of counterfeiting in game production. How prevalent it it, and how badly does it affect game publishers? Here's the ICV2 interview he mentions.

Emma and Gil welcome Dr. Mary Flanagan, designer of Monarch , Visitor in Blackwood Grove , Buffalo , Awkward Moment , and plethora of other games in a myriad of styles and platforms, from party to strategy on digital in tabletop. Dr. Flanagan is also an artist, having exhibited works (many game-related) all around the world, and teaches game design at Dartmouth, who also hosts her game design and...

Join Scott as he recounts the history of the game that blurred the line between a game and a toy: Mousetrap.  Bibliography of a Board Game for Mouse Trap It's All a Game by Tristan Donovan A World Without Reality: Inside Marvin Glass's Toy Vault by Bill Paxton Mental Floss – Mouse Trap Game Facts Chicago Tribune – Toying with Success Best Play – History of Mouse Trap: Murder, Playboys and Plagiari...

Today, we put Emma in the spotlight to find out what went into designing her newest game, Abandon All Artichokes , how many cards she actually designed for it, and how the game was almost derailed by an Infinite Potato Problem. SHOW NOTES 5m44s: Magic: The Gathering and the marvelous deckbuilding video game Slay the Spire . Also check out Ludology 198 - Inspired , featuring Slay the Spire's co-des...

Geoff ruminates on the limitations of using AI to balance games. Why can't we use machine learning to fully balance a game experience, and finally make a game that everyone on BGG will find perfectly fair on the first play? SHOW NOTES 1m17s: For more on this subject, check out our two GameTek episodes on AlphaGo : GameTek Classic 218.5 Alpha Zero , and GameTek Classic 222.5 Alpha Zero, Part 2 . 2m...

Emma and Gil sit down with Chris Rowlands of Funko Games to discuss the design of IP-based games, and what it's like to design as part of a group collective. SHOW NOTES 0m00s: Playtest safely online with  Gil  and  Emma ! 4m11s: Mox Boarding House is one of the premier board game stores in Seattle. (Here's hoping they can stick around until everything is able to reopen!) 12m21s: The Frosthaven Kic...

Scott goes into the checkered history of The Game of Life , which has had many inspirations and incarnations, and is still going strong.  (Content warning: this episode contains quick, passing references to sex and suicide.) 0m00s: Join Gil's and Emma's remote playtesting groups! 1m44s: A Little Pretty Pocket Book . Fun fact: this book contains the first appearance of the term "base-ball," althoug...

Emma and Gil welcome Anya Combs and Luke Crane from Kickstarter to discuss how crowdfunding is changing, especially in light of recent events. Anya: anya@kickstarter.com, games@kickstarter.com, @anyayna Luke: @burning_luke, burningwheel.com Note that this episode was recorded on March 25, 2020, so if we talk about things happening "a few weeks ago," we're referring to late February/early March. Th...

Geoff continues the discussion about Alpha Zero, this time pointing out the impact a self-learning AI can have on an established tournament meta, like Magic or Hearthstone. Show Notes: 0m47s: More info about Agent57 , the DeepMind AI that can beat humans at 57 different Atari 2600 games.  1m52s: The Ares Project , Geoff's first published board game (designed with his son Brian) 2m15s: More info ab...

Emma and Gil welcome accomplished designer Cole Wehrle , designer of Root , Oath , and Pax Pamir (Second Edition) , back to the show (Cole previously appeared on Ludology 163 - A Pain in the Asymmetry ). We discuss fairness in games. Has it been around for as long as we think it has? What can an "unfair" game do that other games can't? Cole is a staff designer at Leder Games , and co-founded  Wehr...

In today's Biography of a Board Game, Scott takes us through the long history of The Game of the Goose , which became a template for almost every roll-and-move game into Victorian times and beyond. Show notes: 1m49s: The ancient Egyptian game of Mehen   2m04s: History of the labyrinth 2m24s: The Discus of Phaistos , also known as the Phaistos Disc  2m50s: Games mentioned The Mansion of Happiness  ...

Emma and Gil welcome Jonny Pac , designer of Coloma and other games set in the Gold Rush West. Our main topic of discussion is multiple paths to victory: what it brings to a game, what kinds of games need it, what kinds of games don't, and how to avoid the dreaded "point salad" effect. Jonny's published games: Hangtown Coloma A Fistful of Meeples Sierra West Lions of Lydia ( on Kickstarter as of t...

Geoff welcomes Dr. James Wootton , quantum computing expert and one of the people behind the digital game Hello Quantum , which is made to teach its player about the fundamentals of quantum computing.  Here is Dr. Wootton's blog . Here is the Quantum Information Science Kit (QISKIT) blog Dr. Wootton mentioned. If you're technically inclined, here is Dr. Wootton's GitHub repository . And if you wan...

Emma and Gil welcome Jennifer Ellis and Keith Baker of Twogether Studios . We discuss their approach for integrating stories into their game, whether directly embedded in their game, letting them emerge from the players, or evoked from the look of the product.  Show notes: 05m03s: Check out Keith and Jenn's games: Gloom Illimat Action Cats Phoenix: Dawn Command 17m04s: Keith and Jenn's forthcoming...

Scott leads us through the history of Trivial Pursuit, from its conception from two Canadian journalists after trying to play a game of Scrabble with missing pieces, to a full-fledged global 80s fad, to a billion-dollar empire.

Professor Scott Rogers joins Gil and Emma once again! This time, we're discussing Scott's time as an Imagineer designing games and experiences for Disneyland, and his subsequent work designing VR attractions. It's a fascinating topic, with a surprising amount of overlap into any kind of game design!  Show notes: 05m45s: More info about Disney Play here.  08m06s: Scott is right, sportscaster Al Mic...