Claim OwnershipGame Design Deep Dive
Subscribed: 28Played: 271
Subscribe
© 2025 Game Design Deep Dive
Description
Dan Bullock interviews game designers with a focus on the challenges of historical board game design.
34 Episodes
Reverse
Lisa Smedman is a best-selling author, journalist, and designer of many RPG games and modules. We discuss Trench Raid, her first solitaire tabletop wargame for Compass, the tactical approach to the topic of WW1, and the relationship between serious games and design intent. Trench Raid from Compass Games Outro music: "Kingdom Come" by Cindy Lee Cindy Lee is marvelous! Go check out Diamond Jubilee by Cindy Lee here: https://cindylee.bandcamp.com/album/diamond-jubilee Send us a text
In this episode, a proper interview with Fred Serval, designer of A Gest of Robin Hood, Red Flag Over Paris, and A Very Civil Whist. Fred is also the host of an excellent channel dedicated to historical tabletop gaming, Homo Ludens. We discuss his design approach and how it informs critique of other games. Outro music: "All Good Things Will Come to Pass" - Lael Neale Send us a text
Mary Flanagan, is a game designer, professor, and an author. She joins us to discuss her book, co-authored with Mikael Jakobson, PLAYING OPPRESSION: THE LEGACY OF CONQUEST AND EMPIRE IN COLONIALIST BOARD GAMES. We discuss representation of non-western cultures, colonialist mechanisms, and whether or not decades of conquest and exploitation based games have calcified to form the bedrock of competitive play. Outro Music: "Funeral for Justice" - Mdou Moctar Public Nominations for the Summ...
Brian Asklev designed my favorite wargame of last year, 1812: Napoleon's Fateful March. We discuss what went into his phenomenal design, his upcoming game Baltic Empires, event design, and the challenges of playtesting multiplayer games. Outro music: Sons of Kemet "The Hour of Judgement" Send us a text
Pako Gradaille has flexed an impressive range of historical topics and systems with his designs Plantagenet, Cuius Regio, Habemus Papam, and Onoda. We discuss how solitaire games can present challenging narratives, considerations when designing negotiation-based systems, and much more. https://gamefound.com/en/projects/saltandpepper/habemus-papam Send us a text
SEASON FINALE: We welcome designer and developer Joe Schmidt to discuss In the Shadows: Resistance in France 1943-1944 (a game we designed together), his Levy & Campaign game Henry, solitaire design for Gunnar Holmback's Weimar Republic (GMT), and his development work on the forthcoming game Hellraisers from Wehrlegig. Outro music: "Help Save the Youth of America" - Billy Bragg Send us a text
Today, I chat with Talia Rosen, designer of First Monday in October which is a game about the history of the US Supreme Court coming soon to Kickstarter from Fort Circle Games. We discuss what inspired Talia's first design and the challenges of modeling the supreme court. Outro music: "The Devil's Great Grandson" - Sons of the Pioneers Send us a text
As a designer, John Butterfield is a bit of a troublemaker. He likes to insert friction in his designs where wargamers aren’t used to finding it. His games don’t just tell stories, they host a space for players to make their OWN stories. His titles include Ambush, RAF, Enemy Action: Ardennes & Karkov, the D-Day Series, Hell’s Highway and so many more. We discuss solitaire design, the evolution of his work, and his collaboration with Kai Jensen on Downfall. Outro music: Jessica Ackerley A...
For this episode, we chat with filmmaker and game designer Yoni Goldstein about his upcoming game Chicago '68 from The Dietz Foundation about the 1968 DNC protests and his journey in game design. Chicago '68 on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dietzfoundation/chicago-68 Jean Genet in Chicago: https://vimeo.com/78486625 Outro Music: "Popular Myth and the Destruction of Sodom" by Peter Thomas Sound Orchester Send us a text
We decided to break from our usual format. Dan Thurot of Space Biff joins us for a discussion about narrative and storytelling in board games, particularly how it relates to historical boardgames. SPACE-BIFF! | Fiercely Independent. Independant? Crap. (spacebiff.com) Outro Music: Sun Ra Arkestra - Between Two Worlds Send us a text
Maurice Suckling is a screenwriter, author, teacher of design as well as vast experience in various roles of video game production. We discuss his recent design Crisis 1914 from Worthington, the upcoming Peace 1905 from Fort Circle, and Operation Barclay (currently on Gamefound). Send us a text
Sebastian Bae is a research scientist and senior game designer for the Center of Naval Analyses' Gaming and Integration Program as well as a faculty advisor for the Georgetown University Wargaming Society. He has two commercial designs, Littoral Commander: Indo-Pacific with Dietz Foundation and a multi-pack Crisis In Korea being released through Catastrophe Games. We discuss the challenges of designing on the topic of North Korea, the value of modeling hypothetical war, and the frontie...
Carlos Marquez Linares is the designer of TWO upcoming games, The Other Side of the Hill from NAC Wargames and Imperial Fever from GMT (currently on the P500). We discuss his controversial topics and his design approach in each of the aforementioned games. Send us a text
Natalia Wotjowicz has written an excellent book called Wargaming Experiences about approaches to professional wargame design informed by her experience with the NATO Civil-Military Cooperation Center of Excellence. Her book offers a lot of guidance relevant to both historical games and wargames, so I invited her to discuss it along with differences between professional and commercial design. Books by Natalia Wojtowicz: Wargaming Experiences (2 book series) Paperback Edition (amazon.com) Ou...
Gina Willis has designed A Glorious Chance, an excellent solitaire game about naval operations during the War of 1812 and collaborated with Jeremy White on the design of Skies Above Britain. We discuss both of these games, the emphasis on narrative in solitaire design, age of sail, and much more. A Glorious Chance (mybigcommerce.com) Send us a text
On this episode, I chat with Jo Kelly to discuss their upcoming game Molly House which is being published by Wehrlegig (maybe you heard of it) and is coming to Backerkit on October 17th. Jo Kelly is also a Zenobia finalist. We talk about the making of Molly House, Zenobia, and much much more. Molly House - A game of queer joy and betrayal in 18th century London. (backerkit.com) Send us a text
Domhnall Hegarty and his Citog Creative have provided graphic design for a number of high profile and award-winning releases, such as Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna, People Power, Red Flag Over Paris, The Vote, and more. We chat about the considerations that go into his work and the discussion surrounding the use of AI-generated images in games. Send us a text
Brian Train has been at the forefront of designing games about insurgency and urban warfare. He is probably best known for his COIN volumes: A Distant Plain & Colonial Twilight, his District Commander Series, Nights of Ire, Brief Border Wars and much more. We discussed designing for insurgency, irregular warfare, and the tension between unpleasant topics and fun gameplay. Send us a text
Mark Herman's work is vast and influential in the world of wargaming. We narrowed our chat in May to discussing his co-design with D.B. Dokter covering the first three months of the Russia-Ukraine War, the challenges of designing the first draft of history, and how he views the moral quandary of designing for an ongoing conflict. Send us a text
Harold Buchanan’s contributions to historical games go above and beyond his celebrated designs: Flashpoint South China Sea, Liberty or Death and Campaigns of 1777. Harold has been very active launching the San Diego HistCon, the Summit Award and the webzine Conflicts of Interest. We discuss depicting the South China Sea conflict and the challenges of designing the "small" game. Send us a text
Comments
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store
United States