#51: Alpha Centauri & Evolving as a Designer. With Brian Reynolds

FromThe Game Design Round Table

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#51: Alpha Centauri & Evolving as a Designer. With Brian Reynolds

FromThe Game Design Round Table

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Length:

89 minutes

Released:

Oct 28, 2013

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

Jon and Dirk are joined by Brian Reynolds, designer of ‘Civilization 2’, ‘Alpha Centauri’, ‘Rise of Nations’ and more. They discuss Brian’s career as a designer, his approach and what makes ‘Alpha Centauri’ stand up so many years later.

Released:

Oct 28, 2013

Format:

Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Covering the full breadth of digital, tabletop, and role playing games, The Game Design Round Table inspires and educates aspiring and experienced game designers.

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#3: Trends in Digital & Tabletop Game Design: Bill Abner from Conquistador Games joins Jon and Dirk to talk about trends in digital and tabletop games, as well as his experiences transitioning from gaming media into game development. by The Game Design Round Table
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#13: Jon’s New Game - At the Gates: Lucky #13! In this week’s episode, our hosts discuss Jon’s new game: ‘At the Gates,’ a 4X strategy game where you play as a barbarian tribe during the fall of Rome. They discuss the background for the game’s development, as well as the design thinking ... by The Game Design Round Table
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#2: Memory, Innovation and Being an Indie. With Rob Daviau.: Risk: Legacy designer and newly-minted indie game design company owner Rob Daviau joins Dirk and Jon to talk about a wide-range of topics including memory and persistence in games, innovation, and starting your own game company. Spelunky, Stone Age, Lo... by The Game Design Round Table
94 min listen
#4: Storytelling & Crusader Kings 2. With Paradox.: Henrik Fahraeus and Chris King from the Paradox Interactive design crew join Jon and Dirk to talk about storytelling in games. by The Game Design Round Table
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#5: Digital vs. Tabletop Game Design: An intimate show this week in which our co-hosts “go commando,” as Dirk puts it. We compare and contrast tabletop and digital game design, and dig into the process Dirk went through when creating Tomorrow. The crew dives deep into the “nuts and bolts” ... by The Game Design Round Table
69 min listen
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89 min listen
#9: Journey of a Part-Time Indie. With Jesse Howard: This week Jon and Dirk are joined by Jesse Howard, an academic turned part-time tabletop designer - at age 40. They delve into Jesse’s ongoing journey to develop ‘Ploy’, a promising and innovative abstract card game. The design of Ploy is a very intere... by The Game Design Round Table
82 min listen
#6: Running a Game Company. With Uwe Eickert: This week Dirk and Jon are joined by Uwe Eickert, founder of Academy Games and designer of several acclaimed board games. They discuss a few of Uwe’s projects including Conflict of Heroes and 1775. Also covered is how and why he got into the business, ... by The Game Design Round Table
94 min listen
#16: War Stories. With Michael Tan: Jon and Dirk are joined by Michael Tan, lead designer of War Stories, a new tabletop wargaming franchise that just launched on Kickstarter. Michael and Dirk talk about the experience of remotely designing a game together, and share many of the exciting... by The Game Design Round Table
60 min listen
#15: Tactics, Company of Heroes & XCOM: In this week’s episode Jon and Dirk discuss two of their favorite tactical combat games: Relic’s Company of Heroes, and Firaxis’ XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Our hosts discuss what these games did well, poorly and what changes they would make to them. by The Game Design Round Table
69 min listen
#7: Experience & Replayability. With Scott Lewis: This week Jon and Dirk are joined by Firaxis designer and programmer Scott Lewis. He comes on the show to jump into a discussion about “experience” games, which target the player’s first experience, and replayable games, which are designed to hold up o... by The Game Design Round Table
66 min listen
#8: End-of-Year Spectacular 2012: In the final episode of 2012, Jon and Dirk hand out the first annual TGDRT Game Design Awards. Our hosts highlight some favorites from past episodes but also share their thoughts on a few newcomers - their Games of the Year might come as a bit of a sur... by The Game Design Round Table
67 min listen
#10: Battle of the Bulge, Updates, and More: An intimate show this week where Jon and Dirk cover a variety of topics ranging from the new Battle of the Bulge iOS game to Jon’s recent article contrasting turn-based and real-time games. Dirk also provides an update on the progress of his current ga... by The Game Design Round Table
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#37: Failure, Punishment and Learning: Jon, Dirk and David discuss the role of failure in games and how it ties in with how people learn how to play. What does punishment add, and where can it go wrong? How do you effectively teach players strategy games? What do PLAYERS get out of failure?... by The Game Design Round Table
73 min listen
#20: ‘Tomorrow’, Abnercon Games & Updates: Jon and Dirk are guest-free this week and provide an update on what they’ve been working on and playing. On the Kickstarter front, ‘At the Gates’ has wrapped up and ‘War Stories’ will soon be doing the same. A recent playtest of ‘Tomorrow’ and Jon’s th... by The Game Design Round Table
79 min listen
#30: Design Lessons & Sirlin Games. With David Sirlin: Jon and Dirk are joined by David Sirlin, designer of tabletop titles Puzzle Strike, Yomi and Flash Duel. The group discusses his past games, future plans, building a tabletop company, David’s interesting journey from the Street Fighter community into d... by The Game Design Round Table
87 min listen
#17: Kickstarter & Fate Core. With Fred Hicks: With the At the Gates funding campaign coming to a close, Jon and Dirk are joined by the timely Fred Hicks of Evil Hat to talk about launching and running a Kickstarter drive. They delve into the demands and challenges of Kickstarter, and Fred shares t... by The Game Design Round Table
59 min listen
#21: Free to Play. With David Heron: New occasional co-host David Heron rejoins the show to analyze the impact of Free to Play (F2P) from a business and design perspective. The group discusses the philosophical implications of F2P, along with real life examples that include Banner Saga: F... by The Game Design Round Table
56 min listen
#12: CCGs & Dominion. With David Heron: Jon and Dirk are joined by designer David Heron to discuss his work on the Legend of the Five Rings CCG (Collectible Card Game). Along the way, they examine the business side of building a CCG. The discussion then shifts to deckbuilding and drafting ga... by The Game Design Round Table
70 min listen
#11: Storytelling & The Walking Dead. With Telltale: A “high-energy” episode this week as Jon and Dirk are joined by Telltale Games designers (and Idle Thumbs hosts) Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin. The guests share their experiences developing story-based games, with a particular focus on The Walking Dead.... by The Game Design Round Table
80 min listen
#35: Ethics in Design, Hotline Miami & Updates: Jon and Dirk cover a variety of games they’ve played lately, including the new ‘Walking Dead’ expansion, ‘Ascension’ and ‘1775’. The discussion gets serious when ‘Hotline Miami’ comes up, and the crew debates the role of ethics in game design. They wra... by The Game Design Round Table
86 min listen
#18: Spelunky. With Derek Yu: This week Jon and Dirk are joined by Derek Yu, designer of Spelunky. He shares his design approach, the importance of challenge and permadeath. Derek also describes what it’s like to be a designer/artist hybrid, as opposed to the designer/programmers t... by The Game Design Round Table
77 min listen
#23: Magic, Drafting & Updates: Dirk shares his first ‘Magic’ drafting experience, and why the game and format now has its hooks into him. He and Jon then step back and evaluate the drafting mechanic and ponder whether the reason why it works is BECAUSE of a steep learning curve. The... by The Game Design Round Table
68 min listen
#22: Bioshock Infinite & Plaid Hat Games. With Colby Dauch: The team is joined by Colby Dauch, president of Plaid Hat Games, the developer behind Summoner Wars and the upcoming Bioshock Infinite board game. These games are discussed, as well as the story behind Plaid Hat’s founding, Colby’s approach to business... by The Game Design Round Table
70 min listen
#39: Skyward Collapse, AI and Business. With Chris Park: Jon and Dirk sit down with Chris Park of Arcen Games to discuss his latest game, Skyward Collapse, the development and business challenges of developing indie strategy games, and the important role AI can play in asymmetric games. by The Game Design Round Table
85 min listen
#32: Don’t Starve, Shogun, Wiz-War & Updates: Jon and Dirk discuss a few games they’ve played lately which make good first impressions but ultimately fall short: ‘Don’t Starve’, ‘Shogun’ and ‘Wiz-War’. They then transition over to talking about what they’ve been working on, including AI character ... by The Game Design Round Table
85 min listen
#29: Solium Infernum, ‘Futbol Strategy’ & More: Jon and Dirk finally get around to discussing ‘Solium Infernum’, a tabletop-digital “hybrid” strategy title where you aim to become the lord of hell. They wheel around and talk about the light worker placement game ‘Stone Age’ and why it might be a gre... by The Game Design Round Table
71 min listen
#19: Diplomacy & Allan Calhamer. With Jim Burgess: With the sad passing of Allan Calhamer, Dirk and Jon felt it appropriate to honor his memory and the legacy left behind by his finest work: Diplomacy. They are joined by Jim Burgess, a distinguished member of the Diplomacy community. The crew discusses... by The Game Design Round Table
84 min listen

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#310 Listener Questions: Dirk and David answer another round of listener questions! They discuss how mobile and desktop games differ, what makes a game “broken”, and tips to follow when designing around a licensed property. They also delve into design stagnation and... by The Game Design Round Table
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#51: Alpha Centauri & Evolving as a Designer. With Brian Reynolds

#51: Alpha Centauri & Evolving as a Designer. With Brian Reynolds

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from The Game Design Round Table