Today, we are continuing our series of exploring the design decisions behind our own games! Emma and Scott sit down with Gil to talk about his game High Rise; about how it started life as an auction game, and the twisty route it took to publication. SHOW NOTES 1m23s - Gil discussed the Wag auction in his Networks design diary on BGG . 2m45s - Gil's game Battle Merchants . 3m31s - A " MacGuffin " is an object in a film that the characters all want, but the actual nature of the object is irrelevan...
Oct 04, 2020•1 hr 5 min
Having previously discussed relatively new advances in AI that allows computers to beat humans at games like Chess and Go, Geoff moves on to games in which AI will have a much harder time being competitive. What is it about these games that makes it so difficult to make a good automated opponent? 1m00s: Geoff introduced AlphaZero and AlphaGo in GameTek Classic 218.5 . 1m34s: Codenames 3m18s: IBM's Watson 4m09s: Mysterium...
Sep 27, 2020•6 min
Emma and Gil welcome game designer, developer, solo mode designer, and self-described "grump" Dávid Turczi to the show. We discuss the design of complex games with many interlocking systems, how to play with time in games, and the six (plus one) things Dávid looks for in a strategy board game. SHOW NOTES 1m18s - Battlestar Galactica 2m03s - Dávid's game [redacted] (yes, that's the name of the game) 2m34s - Trickerion , published by Mindclash Games 3m01s - Dávid's game Anachrony 4m36s - Dávid's g...
Sep 20, 2020•1 hr 28 min
Scott covers the "beautiful game" of Subbuteo , the tabletop association football flicking game, as well as its predecessor Newfooty . Bibliography of a Boardgame http://www.peter-upton.co.uk/ https://fistf.com/history-of-the-game/ http://www.gamingcorner.nl/subbuteo-timeline.htm http://www.sporttischfussball.at/index-Dateien/Page2918.htm https://www.newstalk.com/news/6-things-you-probably-never-knew-about-subbuteo-724933 http://www.mumimuseum.com/english/focus06.html https://www.irishtimes.com/...
Sep 13, 2020•14 min
Emma and Gil welcome game designer and publisher Omari Akil to the show to discuss the plight of the sports-themed board game. What kinds of unique challenges do we face when designing one of these games? Omari's game Hoop Godz will be on Kickstarter soon. SHOW NOTES 1m21s: Board Game Brothas , Tabletop Backer Party , Pathways Fellowship 4m55s: Gil was 5 years off - Mike's game is Baseball Highlights: 2045 . 12m09s: Football Strategy 12m47s: Gil would like to shout out Arthur Franz IV's self-pub...
Sep 06, 2020•1 hr 4 min
Geoff ponders a tricky question: how come we get iconic characters from video games, like Mario or Pac-Man, but none from board games?
Aug 30, 2020•8 min
In the past few years, Ludology has recorded a live episode at Gen Con. We weren't going to let a global pandemic stop us this year! Recorded as part of Gen Con Online 2020, Emma, Gil, and Scott streamed this recording live on Twitch. We had an excellent turnout in the chat, and everyone seemed to really enjoy this new twist on Ludology Live! You can watch unedited video of this chat here . It's possible we may return to this format in the future! Stay tuned… SHOW NOTES 1m54s: We mention Gil's T...
Aug 23, 2020•1 hr 21 min
This is the 50th Biography of a Board Game episode! To celebrate, Scott takes us through the history of his first board game, Rayguns and Rocketships . BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A BOARD GAME 0m36s: Video game publisher THQ 0m51s: God of War , Pac Man World , Soul Blade 1m37s: The Star Wars Album 1m43s: The legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa , and Republic Pictures , responsible for many well-remembered serials 5m17s: More info on Hodgkin's lymphoma 8m22s: More info on the new Gamemaster film...
Aug 16, 2020•10 min
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 points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking." It is an evolution of the older...
Aug 09, 2020•1 hr 5 min
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 .
Aug 02, 2020•6 min
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 sexuality. Show Notes 2h31m: Sharang teaches at The International Center of Photography (Bard Colleg...
Jul 26, 2020•1 hr 26 min
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 Days of Wonder . Text: Tabletop Gaming magazine September 2019 - How We Made Small World (paywall) Text: ...
Jul 19, 2020•10 min
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 generally believed to be the first game with an in-game deckbuilding component (if we assume that Mag...
Jul 12, 2020•1 hr 2 min
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 ([email protected]).
Jul 05, 2020•6 min
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. 4m29s: The Spire RPG 5m59s: The Circle is a reality show in which contestants are isolated in thei...
Jun 28, 2020•59 min
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 official website Text - Twister on Board Games Galore Fandom Wikia Text - Patent information on Twister ...
Jun 21, 2020•12 min
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 Warning: this episode mentions occurences of consent violations, domestic abuse, and sexual assault. ...
Jun 14, 2020•1 hr 16 min
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.
Jun 07, 2020•6 min
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 research lab, Tiltfactor . We discuss designing games from the perspectives of fun and meaningful ch...
May 31, 2020•1 hr 8 min
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 Plagiarism Google Patents Rube Goldberg.com Smithsonian Mag – Teaching physics with a massive game of mouse t...
May 24, 2020•13 min
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-designer Anthony Giovannetti. 6m00s: Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing , two video games where the pla...
May 17, 2020•59 min
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 . 2m00s: Geoff's game The Expanse . 5m29s: The fantastic trading game Sidereal Confluence (which will so...
May 10, 2020•9 min
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 Kickstarter project. 16m45s: Personal plug: Abandon All Artichokes is Emma's newest game. 19m47s: Power Gr...
May 03, 2020•1 hr 17 min
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," although that term at the time was an alternative regional name for the sport now known as Rounders. 2m37s: ...
Apr 26, 2020•18 min
Emma and Gil welcome Anya Combs and Luke Crane from Kickstarter to discuss how crowdfunding is changing, especially in light of recent events. Anya: [email protected], [email protected], @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. This wouldn't normally be an important detail, but things are changing a lot quickly these days. SHOW ...
Apr 19, 2020•1 hr 4 min
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 about the Halifax Hammer strategy from A Few Acres of Snow. 2m29s: The current list of banned cards in ...
Apr 12, 2020•6 min
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 Wehrlegig Games with his brother Drew. SHOW NOTES 2m18s: You can watch Cole's GDC talk here . 12m02s: Lea...
Apr 05, 2020•1 hr 14 min
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 The Checkered Game of Life 3m33s: Bibliothèque curieuse et instructive de divers ouvrages anciens et mod...
Mar 29, 2020•9 min
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 the release of this episode!) Merchant's Cove Show notes: 06m28s: Jonny likens Scythe to a race game....
Mar 22, 2020•1 hr 21 min
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 want to take a quantum computer out for a spin, here is the cloud-based service Dr. Wootton mentioned ....
Mar 15, 2020•21 min
