Game Design Deep Dive

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.

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 commerci

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)

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)

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.

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.

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.

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&quo

Alex Knight is the designer of an outstanding new game Land and Freedom, published by Blue Panther. We discuss his unique take on the Spanish Civil War, Land of Freedom and his design journey. More info on Land of Freedom here: https://www.bluepantherllc.com/products/land-and-freedom

Cole Wehrle has designed Pax Pamir, John Company and Infamous Traffic as well as fan favorites Root, Oath and (most recently) Arcs. We chat primarily about his historical designs, discussing Kevin Zucker's Napoleon's Last Battles, second editions, model-driven history versus polemics, and much more.