In this week’s episode of Board Gaming with Education Dustin interviews Sam Mendez, a student at MIT studying Comparative Media and also the designer of the board game Unfundable. The two talk about Sam’s game that puts you in the shoes of a Public Health Researcher as you compete with colleagues for funding. We learn about Sam’s background in gaming and his experience with the MIT research groups, like The Game Lab, and their roles in introducing Sam to the academic side of game design. Sam then goes through his experiences with playtesting his game and the differences between developing for academic applications and developing to appeal to games hobbyists. Board Gaming with Education Updates- newsletter, YouTube - 1:27 Our Sponsor: Evolution: Education Edition Who is Sam Mendez? - 2:39 Sam Learns through Typing - 4:54 From Gamer to Designing Learning Games - 7:49 The MIT Game Lab - 10:59 Unfundable - 15:15 Development and Playtesting - 21:54 Last Words of Advice: Playtesting and Matching Outcomes - 28:29 Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down Rapid Fire Round - 32:19 Website: samuelanimates.com Unfundable: unfundable.fun Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samuelanimates How can you support us? There are many free and paid ways to support the show. Be sure to check out our support page!  Support our podcast! Thank you to Purple Planet Music for the wonderful contribution of their song "Retro Gamer" for our Interview Segment. This song can be found in full on this music archive. Also, thank you to Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) for his creative commons 4.0 contribution of "Getting it Done" for our Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down Rapid Fire Round. Thank you to Dallas Welk, the editor of this episode! Always be sure to check out our show notes (website blog post) to read a recap of the episode topics and games mentioned in the episode. https://www.boardgamingwitheducation.com/sam-mendez