Player Lair Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

You can watch this episode with video on YouTube! Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paxJFQ90qAY

I sat down with David Turczi to talk about his approach to game design, working with other designers, and what goes into making amazing games.

Sponsors:

Hero Time Manufacturing (5% discount + free quote): https://herotime1.com/?utm_source=ivanalexiev
Omnibus Gaming: https://omnibusgaming.com

My Upcoming Games:

Siege Perilous: https://playsiegeperilous.com
Grimbrew: https://grimbrewgame.com
Song of the Wildkin: https://songofthewildkin.com

Book a call with me: https://calendly.com/ivanalexievv/5x55gamedesign
Join the Discord server: https://discord.com/invite/AeJmRJaEV3
Get your game professionally playtested (fill in bottom of the form): https://playerlair.net/playtesting-and-design-consultations/

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Danish game designer and publisher Preben Møller joins me to talk about the long road of creating and publishing his ambitious 4X board game Sky Empire. We discuss how the project evolved over two years of development, the lessons learned from canceling a first crowdfunding campaign, and what changed before launching again successfully. Preben also shares insights into marketing board games, designing meaningful solo modes, gathering honest playtesting feedback, and why designers should decide early whether they want to pitch their games or publish them themselves. 

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Daniel is a former Magic: The Gathering external developer and designer of Radlands.
He also writes illuminating board game design articles, which can be found at daniel.games. 

"This (referring to daniel.games) is an excellent resource for people who want to get into game design; it is filled with great language for them to learn the craft, and the hard truths of getting something to be worth publishing." - Richard Garfield, designer of Magic: The Gathering.

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Chris Backe (rhymes with hockey) is the founder of Entro Games. His games typically play in under 30 minutes, feature a wide variety of player counts, and a diverse range of themes. The thing they all have in common: they're easy to learn, easy to play, and offer plenty of strategy and replayability.

Chris is the co-creator of No Box Games alongside Kristian Fosh and Roque A. Deleon, and Virtual Playtesting alongside Ian Brocklebank. He also runs Tabletop Publishers, a database of publishers to help designers pitch their games better.

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Daryl is a game designer and a member of the Game Artisans of Canada (GAC).

He has published over 30 board games, actively visits conventions, offers consultations, and much more!

Twitter: http://twitter.com/darylmandrews
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/darylandrews/
Website: http://www.darylmandrews.com/

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Brett and Trevor are both board game designers, who have an amazing portfolio of games.  Mandala, Undaunted, Guild of Merchant Explorers are all games one or both of them have worked on. In this episode, we talked about their community of game designers, and how they design and co-design games. If you listen closely you're sure to hear some well-kept secrets of board game success.

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Check out Mayan Curse on Kickstarter!

Joe Slack is the designer and publisher of Relics of Rajavihara and the Montalo's Revenge expansion, the designer of King of Indecision and Zoo Year's Eve, and the co-designer of Four Word Thinking, and Kingdom's Candy: Monsters.

Many of his current designs are on display at www.crazylikeabox.com.

Joe is also a game design instructor and author of 4 books on game design, including the #1 best-seller, The Board Game Designer's Guide. He previously taught at Laurier University in the Game Design & Development Program and now runs his own online course for new game designers, The Board Game Design Course.

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Scott Rogers has helped design many successful video games including: Pac-Man World, the Maximo series, God of War, Drawn to Life series and Darksiders. A former Disney Imagineer and VR designer, Scott currently teaches game design at the New York Film Academy and the University of Southern California's interactive media department. His segment "Biography of a Board Game" can be heard on the award-winning Ludology Podcast (and back episodes of the Dice Tower Podcast).

Link to Scott's Amazon page. Be sure to check out Scott's new book "Your Turn! The Guide to Great Tabletop Game Design"

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Adrian Adamescu has been designing games for the last decade! He is known for designing light-to-midweight games with clean mechanics. He co-designed Sagrada, Dice Theme Park,  Mistwind, and so many more great games! Enjoy the conversation!


Check out my games! :
99 Ninja - Currently on Kickstarter!
Rise of Babel - Coming Q1-Q2 2024

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Sandy Petersen has been creating RPGs, video games, and board games for over 40 years!

He's been on the team of successful video games like Age of Empires, Civilization, Doom, and Quake.

In 2013 he returned to the tabletop realm with the successful Kickstarter project Cthulhu Wars.

He is now the founder of Petersen Games, and in addition to the Cthulhu Wars game line, has designed the Orcs Must Die board game, Glorantha: The Gods War, and upcoming projects.

Episode hosted by Ivan Alexiev and Nikola Petrov. Thanks for listening!

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