Marvin Hegen

Nerdlab

Leisure EN ↓ 10 episodes

If you want to design your own games, this podcast is for you. We will dive deep into topics like development tools, game mechanics, card design, marketing and discuss everything you need to know to start your first Kickstarter campaign. To analyse these topics, we will be looking at existing card games and board games and take a deeper look at their core mechanics in order to use them as inspiration for our own games. Everything we discuss will be applied to a fantasy adventure card game we develop in parallel to the podcast. The goal of this podcast is to provide you with everything you need...

Author

Marvin Hegen

Episodes

099 – Mindbug Survey – How you saved us from making Mindbug worse 19.05.2026 38:52

In today’s episode, I’m going to walk you through the results of a Mindbug survey we ran last year, and explain how those insights shaped some of the most important design decisions we made for the future of Mindbug. This is a great example of why I believe it’s incredibly important to involve your players

098 – The Secret Formula Behind Successful Card Games 24.04.2026 31:51

In this episode, we explore why some card games thrive for years while others disappear after just a few releases. We break down the key drivers behind long-term success in card games: from metagame evolution and strategic depth to community engagement, competitive play, and emotional connection. And then we make it practical: How can these

097 – Life of a Game Designer with Chris and Christian Kudahl 12.09.2025 57:36

Welcome back to The Nerdlab, where we transform our love for gaming into powerful game designs and uncover the secrets of what makes games truly shine. In this special episode, things are a little different: Marvin hands over the microphone to Chris, who takes the lead as interviewer. Why? Because today, the spotlight is on

096 – Nerdlab Games – Behind the Scenes of Publishing Board Games 07.08.2025 1:00:16

Chris, a podcast listener and fellow game designer, reached out wondering why there hadn’t been any new episodes lately. He generously offered to take on the role of interviewer for this episode, giving listeners an exclusive behind the scenes look at what’s been happening at Nerdlab Games over the past two years. I am incredibly

095 – Designer Diary for Mindbug Beyond with Richard Garfield, Christian Kudahl & Skaff Elias 21.04.2023 51:11

In this episode, I discuss with Richard Garfield, Skaff Elias and Christian Kudahl about the design process of Mindbug Beyond. Support our Current Kickstarter Campaign for Mindbug Beyond: Mindbug Beyond Kickstarter Campaign

094 – Mindbug Kickstarter Lessons Learned 03.01.2023 59:17

Hello everyone and happy new year. Today we have January 2nd and I have a special guest today. It is my co-designer and friend Christian Kudahl. Hi Christian and welcome to the show. Today we're going to be looking back at the year 2022, and reflecting on our very first Kickstarter campaign for the game,

093 – A Working Day as a Games Publisher 27.05.2022 31:25

It's been over half a year since I recorded the last podcast episode. That's definitely far too long. I hope that I will be able to record new episodes much more often in the future. Because I really missed being able to exchange ideas with other game designers and to delve deeply into specific game

092 – Mindbug – Officially Announced 05.10.2021 31:00

A lot has happened in the last couple of months in the Nerdlab. Christian and I got the chance to work with industry veterans Richards Garfield and Skaff Elias on our Game Mindbug. In this podcast episode, I talk about the things I have been working on with regards to Game Design, Game Development and

091 – The Journey of AracKhan Wars with Robert Palmer 29.07.2021 1:18:31

Today we have a great guest on the show and I am really excited to learn more about his game. He is the designer of AracKhan Wars, a strategy card game that just got successfully funded with more than 100k on Kickstarter last month. It’s a highly strategic game about card placement, positioning, and maximizing

090 – Designing Slay the Spire – The Boardgame – with Gary Dworetsky 20.07.2021 59:31

Today we have a great guest on the show. Gary Dworetsky is the designer and publisher of the very successful game Imperium: The Contention. The game has an incredible 8.1 rating on board game geek and is a 4-X card game about deploying fleets, moving ships into the right position, and then crushing your opponent