Alternate Worlds Podcast

Brian Tinsman was the lead designer on many Magic: the Gathering sets & blocks in the 00’s (Champions of Kamigawa, Time Spiral), with Rise of the Eldrazi being the most popular.Brian was the first person I met at Wizards of the Coast who espoused top-down design, and leveraged it while designing Judgement to make some really unique & cool cards.He since went on to join Zynga pre-IPO, continued on an entrepreneurial path, and most recently launched Wonders of the First.He’s also a black belt in jiu-jitsu, spending 25 years on that journey to mastery. Wonders of the First is the game design manifestation of that spirit. Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

Cole Medeiros designed and self-published the game Gubs, joined Zynga to design games, worked on three of the biggest — CityVille, Mafia Wars and FrontierVille - then went on to continue his creative journey at Storm8 & Jam City.He’s launched a successful kickstarter, acted in a two-person play, written a book that’s publishable now — but he’s not quite ready to do so, and most recently designed the Stardew Valley board game.Today, he runs operations & business development for Stardew Valley, that is, when he’s not helping his kids become better humans. Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

Michael J. Flores has written more words about Magic: the Gathering than anyone else.He’s also a former pro player, a renowned deck builder, a well-traveled raconteur, a proud parent, and a fan of Cleveland sports teams.(On that last point, “no one can be perfect.”)In his professional life, Mike wears the CMO hat & has many career successes, but in this call, he’s all Magic. Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

The William Jockusch MtG Journey:William Jockusch was a PhD in mathematics, then a professor, then quickly realized that making Magic: the Gathering might be “a bit more fun” than teaching was, so he lobbied Wizards of the Coast to be one of it’s earliest game makers.William joined in 1995, and logged nearly a decade making Magic sets and games like the Harry Potter TCG.Since then, he’s gone on to play poker professionally & to develop software, and has applied his war-gaming background to try and figure out solutions for these complicated times.William had few edits or “let me explain further” items from this discussion, which he wrote up below: Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

The BDM Gaming JourneyBrian David-Marshall started out in comics — both creating them and creating events to support them — then quickly learned to love Magic: the Gathering (as people began coming to the comic store asking for it), and became a major force in the New York Magic scene for both running tournaments and for organized play — at the first major gaming hub for Magic: the Gathering, Neutral Ground.Brian’s done so much in the games industry, the comics industry, and for Magic: the Gathering (hard not to mention running the well-loved Commander & Cocktails events) — it’s hard not to just say, “BDM, take a bow!”So I’ll say it — “BDM, take a bow!”BDM’s next effort is Cataclysm Arcade, which incorporates all of Brian’s experiences with card games, storytelling & organized play, and distills his learnings into one, well-loved design, meant to bring players together at the card table from Day 0.To learn more about Cataclysm Arcade:* Cool Article: https://www.polygon.com/cataclysm-arcade-preview-brian-david-marshall/* Discord: https://discord.com/invite/cataclysmarcade* Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cataclysmarcade.bsky.social* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cataclysmarcade Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

The Randy Buehler Gaming Journey:Randy Buehler was a Pro Tour Champion at Chicago as the Captain of Team CMU, and went on to have a Hall of Fame playing career.He was hired by Wizards of the Coast at the end of his playing days, and he became the first lead developer (or “lead of final design”), a function created to try and make the game play as well as possible & also ensure the game’s production went as smoothly as possible.Randy’s hiring was fortuitous on a few fronts — * Randy was more mature than most other players, a natural leader who helped build the processes that allows teams to better make Magic* Many of the heavyweights who’ve walked WotC’s walls come from Randy’s prior team at CMU (Aaron Forsythe, Mike Turian, Erik Lauer, me, Nate Heiss, Paul Sottosanti, etc.)Without Randy, I likely would never have taken this game-making & entertainment path, so it was a nice opportunity to reminisce and also express gratitude.Making games is an above average way to spend a life.Thanks Randy! Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

Mike Turian is the Senior Executive Producer for Magic: the Gathering, which is one of the biggest game franchises in the world.Magic has blossomed under Turian’s wing, and the world is better for it.Mike and I met over 30 years ago, logged time on the same pro Magic: the Gathering team (CMU), and later worked in R&D making the game — and it’s always a joy to catch up with him.He’s a Magic HOFer & a pro tour winner who has done pretty much everything one can do in the game.And he’s very happy to keep on keeping on, in that same vein. Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

The Matt Place Gaming Journey:Matt Place and I have played more Magic: the Gathering against each other than we will ever play against other humans.And for the rest of our days, that stat will likely remain.Matt was a Pro Tour champion at Mainz, joined us at Wizards of the Coast in 2001, “bet it all on black” with Path of Exile, and went on to work on the WoW TCG, Hearthstone & Eternal.Topics here run the gamut, but we do get into some of the quirks of the early Magic R&D department, calling out the group’s many wins in game design & the games business over the last few decades.WotC R&D was a lucky place to be.Matt’s current effort is Once Upon a Galaxy, which is meant to optimize for what a TCG can be on mobile & has been getting very strong reviews so far. Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

The Mike Elliott Gaming Journey:Mike Elliott is in tabletop gaming Hall of Fame, for his work on Magic: the Gathering, Pokemon, Duelmasters and Battle Spirits.He and I worked together for many years & reminisce about many topics Magic-related that aren’t commonly discussed outside closed doors.He did a lot of heavy lifting on many of my favorite blocks — Mirage, Tempest, Urza’s Saga - and created many of Magic: the Gathering’s most popular mechanics.Also he can draw blood just by throwing a Magic card. :) Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

The Josh Kermond Gaming Journey:Josh Kermond got his start making RTS games, then shifted to Zynga and was Game Producer on CityVille & FrontierVille, before shifting to become an EP on DomiNations.Josh was the GM of the flagship product at Captain.tv, Stream Raiders, and knows a ton about rallying teams to create & deliver great games.He’s currently on the board for Baltimore’s IGDA, and is also a natural community builder, which I personally love. :) Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

Albert Birckhead (aka Mason Trace) is a Magic: the Gathering historian, who has grown a nice following on his YouTube channel, The Tranquil Domain.Albert’s topics run the gamut of what made the 90’s an especially fertile ground for gamers to grow and develop — and he has talked with almost everyone to piece those narratives together.It’s impressive stuff.In addition, Albert is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and will play the first ever head-to-head “Mag-itsu” match for the “Magic the Gathering” belt against Magic Hall of Famer Raphael Levy.Should be very entertaining, to say the least. :) Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

Ben Seck is a Hall of Fame-eligible Magic player who has also gone on to have a fabulous career in game-making.Fun tidbit: TBS has played with every set of Magic: the Gathering, and has played on every continent where the game is played.Only Antarctica remains.(Get on that Wotc!)Despite the fact that Ben and I have been near each other’s lives for years (in the 90’s, 00’s), we didn’t really get to know each other until we both showed up at Zynga, in its very early days.Today, Ben calls London home, and is a successful gaming executive who indexes heavily on the creative side (which is the best side). Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

Brandon Bozzi was the Creative Coordinator on the Magic: the Gathering team, and was responsible for making sure the story, art and flavor all connected for the player.Here we discuss decisions he made that he remembers fondly, and not so fondly — but most memories are good ones.After shifting his gears towards new products and Tiny Adventures (an early Facebook game themed around D&D) during his time at Wizards of the Coast, he did stints at Big Fish Games, Wargaming & most recently Rec Room, as a design director & creative powerhouse.For the longest time as a creative, Brandon sought to work on the next hot platform.Today, he’s developing analog-only experiences, that harken back to life before the internet.Learn more about his journey below! Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

Great call today with Alex Shvartsman, who is a candidate for “most interesting person in the world.”Alex and I met 30 years ago in Philly or NJ or New York (most likely), and have been friends ever since.He ended up having 5-7 great years as a pro player, traveled the world to play in and win major events (in an innovative fashion — he’s played in events on six continents!), began learning how the game business trade worked while on his travels, opened the longstanding & successful shop King’s Games (located in Brooklyn), then went on to write & edit dozens of sci fi & fantasy titles with many of the top writers in the field (Adrian Tchaikovsky, Ken Liu, George Martin, and so many others).Along the way, Alex began translating books to & from the Russian & Ukrainian market for many top authors, and has also worked on many successful games such as Ascension and the upcoming title, Reclusion (made with fellow former Magic pros Alan Comer and Brian Weissman).When Alex creates, he is happy. So he pretty much always creates. :)If you want to check out is current gaming effort, visit https://www.reclusionthegame.com.If you want to check out Alex’s speculative fiction, visit https://alexshvartsman.com.Thanks Alex!IN ADDITION:I’ve tried to avoid sending out too many emails, so I didn’t send out this video with Paul Barclay on Friday — but it was a great call that’s worth visiting if you were ever deeply into Magic: the Gathering or want to know behind-the-scenes topics that really only a few people know. Paul knows some of the most esoteric aspects of the full-stack Magic-baking process, and he did a fantastic job here recapping those aspects.Lastly:All of these recordings are available wherever you listen to podcasts (with the exception of YouTube Podcasts, as I need to chat with Substack about how that flow is presently broken — all part of the fun).I imagine most of us who are interested in this content are more podcast-forward than video-forward, but I also admit I could be wrong on this.You should be able to find all available podcasts & relevant access points here: https://bschneidmtg.substack.com/podcastEven more lastly:I submitted the audiobook to ACX late last week, so hopefully within the next week the audiobook will go live on Audible, Apple & Amazon.Crossing fingers. :)Thanks all! Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

Paul Barclay was Director of Production at Wizards of the Coast, and started off in R&D as the Rules Manager for Magic: the Gathering.If a game designer wanted to do something really fun, and we didn’t know if we could technically pull that fun thing off, Paul’s job was to figure out how to make that work.We dive deeply into our memories of the sets we worked on (starting in Invasion Block, shifting through Time Spiral block) and discuss many other things along the way.Enjoy!#mtg #gamingAlternate Worlds is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s chat is with Bradley Ross, a two-time founder, who has built companies closely related to the sphere and headspace Substack lives in today (Cointent, Captain.tv).Another lifetime ago, Brad and I were on the leadership team at CityVille, the flagship game (once the biggest in the world) that allowed Zynga to successfully IPO 15 years back, and more recently formed part of the executive team at Captain.tv, which built a platform of games that streamers could play directly with their audiences.Brad’s an avid Magic player and is an incredibly thoughtful & creative gaming executive and startup junkie.Enjoy!Thank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app. Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe

Nate Heiss has been designing card games and video games for the last 25 years. If you’ve played Magic: the Gathering, Dominion, the Plants vs. Zombies card game, or hundreds of other titles, feel free to complain to Nate with anything you don’t like about them. :)Nate’s a wonderful human being, and it was fun to do a first test run with him to understand how we want to do podcasts like these moving forward.P.S. I shuffle a fancy deck of cards when I talk to people, which a) is not attractive and b) still worth it.I still love to shuffle cards, and it helps me focus on the person, not the Internet.Thanks Nate! Get full access to Alternate Worlds at bschneidmtg.substack.com/subscribe