#307 Roundtable with Soren Johnson

FromThe Game Design Round Table

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#307 Roundtable with Soren Johnson

FromThe Game Design Round Table

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Length:

52 minutes

Released:

Jan 2, 2024

Format:

Podcast episode

Description

Dirk and David are joined by Soren Johnson, friend of the show and founder of Mohawk Games. The trio answers questions and design problems from the community, and follow up on recent episodes. Topics include achievements and collectables, the importance of having an art style, when to innovate and when to fall back on convention, and how to integrate community involvement in the design process.

Released:

Jan 2, 2024

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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#1: Hello World!: The Game Design Round Table launches with hosts Dirk Knemeyer and Jon Shafer talking about their background in gaming and design. by The Game Design Round Table
45 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
#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
#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
#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
89 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
#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
#27: Board Game Design. With Martin Wallace: Dirk (the solo host for this week) sits down with acclaimed game designer Martin Wallace of Tree Frog Games. Martin’s star-studded resume includes Railroad Tycoon, A Few Acres of Snow, Waterloo, and the Discworld licensed games. by The Game Design Round Table
63 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
#31: Tactics & Repetition: Jon, Dirk and David discuss tactics in a more general sense. What is a tactical game? What problems does the genre have? Why does Jon hate basically all of them? And is it the players’ fault if their tactical choices aren’t as interesting as they could... by The Game Design Round Table
79 min listen
#26: Puzzle Strike, Becoming a Designer, & More: A lengthy episode where Jon and Dirk cover a variety of topics. First, they discuss the superb ‘Puzzle Strike’, basically “‘Dominion’ done right.” The conversation shifts to ‘Magic’ and the pluses and minuses of an immense learning curve. Our hosts the... by The Game Design Round Table
95 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
61 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
#25: Information & Obfuscation: David Heron, Jon and Dirk noodle over the role of information and obfuscation in game design. Why does ‘Persona 4’ work when the BioWare games do not? And when can hiding info be GOOD for a game? by The Game Design Round Table
64 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
#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
#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
74 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
#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
60 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
#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
#34: Progression Systems. With Soren Johnson: Soren Johnson returns to the show to discuss progression systems with Jon and Dirk, with a special focus on technology trees. What are the advantages and disadvantages of abstraction? How do Diablo 2 and 3 and Civilization 4 and 5 differ? What is At th... by The Game Design Round Table
63 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
#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
#14: 4X Games & Civilization. With Soren Johnson: This week Jon and Dirk are joined by Soren Johnson, best known as the designer of Civilization IV. The gang discusses the 4X genre with a particular focus on the Civilization series. They dig into what makes this category of games special, what problem... by The Game Design Round Table
69 min listen
#41: Paradox Games, Poker and AI: Jon and Dirk cover a wide variety of topics this week, notably: the problems with automation and user interface in Paradox titles like Hearts of Iron 3 and Europa Universalis 4, the psychological appeal and the (possibly too-important) role of money in... by The Game Design Round Table
77 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

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#315 Civilization Series 3: Welcome back to the Civilization Series. In the third installment, David and Dirk break down their experiences with Millennia, the latest 4X offering from C Prompt Games and Paradox Interactive. They discuss what aspects of the game worked for them,... by The Game Design Round Table
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#313 Civilization Series 2: Welcome to the second episode of the series on the “Civilization” games, as well as other 4X titles. Continuing from episode one, the pair talk about the phenomenon of “One More Turn”, using overlapping progression paths, and quality life... by The Game Design Round Table
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#312 Civilization Series 1: This episode marks the beginning of a new series focused on the Civilization series of games. Dirk and David are joined by Soren Johnson to discuss their background with the Civilization games, and how they got introduced to the series. They discuss... by The Game Design Round Table
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47 min listen
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#308 Narrative AI with Emily Short: Dirk and David are joined by legendary interactive fiction writer and creative director of Failbetter Games Emily Short. The trio discuss Emily’s career, her contributions to interactive fiction, and some of her thoughts on both traditional game AI... by The Game Design Round Table
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#304 Listener Questions November 2023: It’s time for another round of listener questions! In this episode, Dirk and David field questions from the community, discussing a variety of subjects. Topics include the validity and usefulness of player taxonomies, the pros and cons of game jams,... by The Game Design Round Table
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#307 Roundtable with Soren Johnson

#307 Roundtable with Soren Johnson

Description

Titles in the series (100)

More Episodes from The Game Design Round Table

Related podcast episodes