Leisure
We are joined by Jamey Stegmaier to discuss seeking excellence in board game design. We discuss setting expectations, blind playtesting, how our views on excellence have changed, and figuring out what games to publish. Jamey Stegmaier – @jameystegmaier / stonemaiergames.com Kim Brebach – @secretbasegames / secretbasegames.com Aaron Lim – @ehronlime / theactionpointspodcast.com Sye Robertson – @syelon / syelon.com What we talked about What makes a game exceptional? 2:20 Meeting audience expectations 8:25 Changing views of excellence across Stonemaier games 11:12 Blind playtesting 13:40 Play testers as promoters 28:00 Our changing views on excellence and uniqueness 30:00 The game ‘experience’ 34:30 Studying the craft of game design 37:40 Outside inspiration 42:28 Top 3 resources for improving your game design craft 46:45 How important is the meld between theme and mechanics in game design for the promise of excellence? 56:00 Importance of art in the promise of excellence 58:33 What does Stonemaier games look for in other peoples designs it considers publishing? 1:04:55 Retheming 1:06:12 How is kickstarter mixing things up in game design and publishing? 1:09:00 What is the publisher’s role in publishing exceptional games? 1:10:20 Links to what we talked about Check out Jamey’s blog here Jamey’s book “A Crowdfunder’s Strategy Guide” can be found here Jamey’s blog post “An Open Letter to Game Designers” Ignacy Trzewiczek’s blog post “I challenge you! Honest publisher manifesto!” Games we mentioned Scythe on Kickstarter Scythe art by Jakub Rozalski Viticulture Euphoria Between Two Cities MONSTROUS Robots and Rockets Gloomhaven Consentacle Bycatch …and then we held hands Patchwork Game Design Resources Ludology The Game Design Round Table Stuff You Missed in History Class History of Pirates Podcast Art and Graphic Design for Tabletop Games on Facebook Cardboard Edison Gamasutra 99% Invisible The Psychology of Video Games MailChimp Print and Play Productions Board Game Geek Design Forum – Brief crash course on game design Perfect Information Podcast Tabletop Game Designers Australia Other Facebook Groups: Card & Board Game Designers Guild Kickstarter Best Practices Tabletop Games Kickstarter Advice Tabletop Game Publisher’s Guild Writing for Tabletop Games Check out our interviews with Malaysian board game designers in our previous episode If you’re in Australia, there are some Australia-specific resources here as well. Music: Something Small (Instrumental) by Minden is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License. Based on a work at http://needledrop.co