
Ludology
Welcome to Ludology, an analytical discussion of the how’s and why’s of the world of board games. Rather than news and reviews, Ludology explores a variety of topics about games from a wider lens, and discusses game history, game design and game players.
Ludology is part of The Dice Tower Network, the premier board game media network.
Latest episodes

Mar 17, 2019 • 8min
GameTek Classic 195 - Ritual
In this GameTek, Geoff explores the connection between Ritual and Play.

Mar 10, 2019 • 1h 7min
Ludology Episode 195 - Value Added
Gil and Geoff discuss valuation within games - what are the different ways of determining resource value? How does value flow and change over the course of play?

Mar 3, 2019 • 34min
GameTek 194 - The Hanabi Challenge
In this new interview, Geoff talks with Nolan Bard from Google Deep Mind and Jakob Foerster from Oxford University about their proposal to use the card game Hanabi as the next frontier in Machine Learning and AI research. The original paper can be found at https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.00506.

Feb 26, 2019 • 1h 2min
Ludology Episode 194 - Lifting the Fog
Gil and Geoff are live at ToyFair NY with the designer of Fog of Love, Jacob Jaskov. What was his development process like for this innovative design? What does that tell us about creating narrative inside games?

Feb 16, 2019 • 7min
GameTek Classic 193 - Merchant of Venus
Scott Rogers is back with the biography of Merchant of Venus!

Feb 10, 2019 • 1h 7min
Ludology Episode 193 - Lean and Mean in 2019
Gil and Geoff welcome back Stephen Buonocore from Stronghold Games for their traditional annual State of the Industry discussion. What trends did we see in 2018? What do we see for the future of tabletop gaming?

Feb 3, 2019 • 6min
GameTek Classic 192 - Ties
In this classic GameTek Geoff talks about ties and tie-breakers. What makes a good tiebreaker?

Jan 27, 2019 • 54min
Ludology Episode 192 - Loops I Did It Again
Gil and Geoff talk about Game Loops and how they can be designed to accomplish a variety of goals.

Jan 21, 2019 • 8min
GameTek Classic 191 - Schelling
In this classic GameTek, Geoff talks about the work of Thomas Schelling.

Jan 13, 2019 • 1h 15min
Ludology 191 - The Life of the Party
Gil and Geoff welcome Scott Rogers to discuss party games. What features make for a good party game? What are the dos and don'ts for designers?