The Game Design Round Table

The team is joined by Colby Dauch, president of Plaid Hat Games, the developer behind Summoner Wars and the upcoming Bioshock Infinite board game. These games are discussed, as well as the story behind Plaid Hat’s founding, Colby’s approach to business and design, and whether or not the digital/tabletop convergence is real.

New occasional co-host David Heron rejoins the show to analyze the impact of Free to Play (F2P) from a business and design perspective. The group discusses the philosophical implications of F2P, along with real life examples that include Banner Saga: Factions, World of Tanks and League of Legends.

Jon and Dirk are guest-free this week and provide an update on what they’ve been working on and playing. On the Kickstarter front, ‘At the Gates’ has wrapped up and ‘War Stories’ will soon be doing the same. A recent playtest of ‘Tomorrow’ and Jon’s thoughts on a recent version of the game. They also discuss some of the games played at ‘Abnercon’, including ‘The World Cup Game’, ‘Railroad Tycoon’ and ‘Mare Nostrum’.

With the sad passing of Allan Calhamer, Dirk and Jon felt it appropriate to honor his memory and the legacy left behind by his finest work: Diplomacy. They are joined by Jim Burgess, a distinguished member of the Diplomacy community. The crew discusses what’s made it a gaming favorite for fifty years, a few ideas for improvements and what the future holds for the title.

This week Jon and Dirk are joined by Derek Yu, designer of Spelunky. He shares his design approach, the importance of challenge and permadeath. Derek also describes what it’s like to be a designer/artist hybrid, as opposed to the designer/programmers that this show has tended to focus on more in the past. He also touches on his unique development cycle where he oscillates between PC freeware and professional, for-purchase titles.There are a few small spoilers, so beware, should you have any interest in exploring the game’s nuances for yourself!

With the At the Gates funding campaign coming to a close, Jon and Dirk are joined by the timely Fred Hicks of Evil Hat to talk about launching and running a Kickstarter drive. They delve into the demands and challenges of Kickstarter, and Fred shares the success story and design behind his latest project, Fate Core.

Jon and Dirk are joined by Michael Tan, lead designer of War Stories, a new tabletop wargaming franchise that just launched on Kickstarter. Michael and Dirk talk about the experience of remotely designing a game together, and share many of the exciting and innovative features that help it stand out from other wargames.

In this week’s episode Jon and Dirk discuss two of their favorite tactical combat games: Relic’s Company of Heroes, and Firaxis’ XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Our hosts discuss what these games did well, poorly and what changes they would make to them.

Soren Johnson, the brilliant designer behind Civilization IV, joins the hosts to dive deep into the world of 4X games. They discuss the allure of historical versus space-themed 4X titles and share personal anecdotes about the Civilization series. Key insights include the importance of player agency and the intricacies of turn-based versus real-time strategies. The conversation also touches on persistent endgame issues and inventive solutions to enrich late-game experiences. Finally, they explore the unique challenges of bringing 4X gaming to mobile platforms.

Lucky #13! In this week’s episode, our hosts discuss Jon’s new game: ‘At the Gates,’ a 4X strategy game where you play as a barbarian tribe during the fall of Rome. They discuss the background for the game’s development, as well as the design thinking that went into many of its features. ‘At the Gates’ will be available on Kickstarter from February 6th until March 8th, so please check it out!