Ludology

Scott takes us through the history of the classic word game Scrabble.

Gil and Sen chat with game designer, developer, and polyhedral dice addict Sydney Engelstein of Indie Game Studios about how to pitch your game to a publisher, the process of designing and developing Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition, coming up with new narrative for Aeon's End, and what kinds of theater would best be adapted into a board game. SHOW NOTES 8m28s: Obsession 19m07s: Race for the Galaxy 56m16s: Noises Off! 57m44s: Sen is making a reference to the game Thanos Rising: Avengers Infinity War. Then Sydney refers to the early Uwe Rosenberg game Mamma Mia. 58m46s: Gil is thinking that the game Sydney mentioned is Hamlet! 

Geoff chats with Mikael Le Bourhis of Asmodee Research and Game In Lab about the work they are doing studying the impact of tabletop gaming on society and life. You can find out more information from Game In Lab here.

Erica and Sen chat with localization expert, "gaming handyman," and occasional street busker Matthew Legault of Scorpion Masqué to discuss what it takes to move a game from one language to another.  SHOW NOTES 25m03s - Here's the bonus episode we did about the production and translation of Agricola. Scott Rogers also did a Biography of a Board Game about it. 30m36s - Guy LaFleur was a legendary ice hockey player who won 5 Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens. 49m57s - Strike, Team Team, Stop Thief, and Sen's game with longtime friend and collaborator Jay Cormier, Mind MGMT, based on the comic book.

In this classic Biography of a Board Game, Scott takes us through the sweet history of the kids' game Candyland.

Gil and Erica sit with game developer and new music fan Brenna Noonan to talk about her experiences developing games with her development company Quillsilver Studios, her experiences working on the smash hit Everdell, and the intersection of music and games. SHOW NOTES 2m59s: Everdell, Roll Player: Adventures, Dog Park 6m14s: Erica and Scott chatted with the Laukats about making games as a family in Ludology 251 - All In the Family. 10m17s: Gil and Geoff discussed ludonarrative dissonance in games in Ludology 190 - Diabolus in Ludica. 11m22s: The sequence in question from the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. 12m33s: Sorry, spoiler alert! Hitchcock's Psycho had a legendary twist. 18m32s: Brenna mentions the productivity apps Toggl and ClickUp. 35m35s: A good sample Colvini brainburner is Carolus Magnus. Also Samurai, Sharang's episode Ludology 230 - Design Re-Verb, High Society 36m47s: The New Complexity school of music, Brian Ferneyhough, Conlon Nancarrow and his wild player piano music. (We should also mention the more recent phenomenon of Black MIDI music, like this MIDI version of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody with 2.06 million notes.) 41m06s: Coherence, recommended by Banana Chan in Ludology 228 - The Roles We Play. 44m04s: Brenna's 3 composers she'd have over for dinner: Kaija Saariaho, Giacinto Scelsi, and Frederic Rzewski 45m13s: Gil was close! It was Charles Ives, at a performance of his music. The exact quote: "You goddamn sissy... when you hear strong masculine music like this, get up and use your ears like a man!"

Geoff runs us through the Hypergeometric and Binomial functions in a spreadsheet application like Microsoft Excel. Don't be intimidated by their names; they're actually pretty easy to use, and invaluable for game designers. You can find Geoff's GameTek newsletter on this subject here.

Erica, Gil, and Sen have a roundtable discussion about their experiences with contracts. What are things designers should look for when negotiating their contracts? Note that none of us are lawyers, and at no point in this episode do we give out actual legal advice. If you need legal advice, please consult an actual lawyer! SHOW NOTES 25m46s: Here's the Meeple Syrup episode on localization, with Mike Raftopolous. 38m18s: "Spin" is SpinMaster, the game publishing company that Erica works for. 43m01s: If you're not familiar with the story of the rock band Van Halen and brown M&Ms, here it is.

In this classic Biography of a Board Game, Scott takes us through the history of the classic deduction game Scotland Yard.

Gil sits down for a one-on-one with game designer, teacher, and lecturer Marc LeBlanc to discuss some of his game design ideas, especially his 8 Kinds of Fun and the Mechanics/Dynamics/Aesthetics (MDA) framework.  NOTE: Towards the end of the episode, Gil's mic cable started to get unhappy. Apologies for the static! SHOW NOTES 0m50s: Looking Glass Studios, Ultima Underworld II, Thief, System Shock, Defense of the Oasis, Heroes Welcome 4m30s: Marc's 8 types of fun: Sensation, Fantasy, Narrative, Challenge, Fellowship, Discovery, Expression, and Submission. 9m31s: Wildermyth 11m28s: Nicole Lazzaro's 4 Keys to Fun, Self-Determination Theory, Quantric Foundry's Gamer Motivation Model, Jason VendenBerghe's Engines of Play 12m46s: Tim Fowers was on Ludology 165 - Fowerian Slip. Gil also mentions philosipher Roger Caillois and his book Man, Play, and Games. 23m52s: Reiner Knizia's classic auction game Ra. 31m34s: Spy Party 33m39s: Geoff discussed the Incan Gold experiment in GameTek 213.5. 36m46s: Gil's talk at Tabletop Network has been lost to tech gremlins. Fortunately, he gave the same talk online during the pandemic. 38m01s: Any mention of Caylus would make Ludology co-founder Ryan Sturm happy. 39m34s: Sharang Biswas was on Ludology 230 - Design Re-Verb. Geoff discussed his most recent game, Super Skill Pinball, on Ludology 268 - Pinball Wizard. 47m21s: 7 Wonders 51m08s: Slay the Spire 54m38s: Alan Moon's Oasis vs. Reiner Knizia's Through the Desert 56m05s: Return to Dark Tower, the Through the Ages digital adaptation, Pokemon Unite, Titan, Zach Gage's really bad chess. 1h00m02s: The Lynx web browser.