Patrick Rauland: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Indie Board Game Designers Podcast where I chat to an independent gamer designer talk about their experience in game design and the lesson they've learned along the way. My name is Patrick Rauland, and today I'll be talking with Jeremy Lounds who designed Fruit-for-All, which recently won the Social Deduction Challenge on The Game Crafter, which we are definitely going to talk about. He also a self-published DECO which is also on The Game Crafter. Jeremy, welcome to the show.

Jeremy Lounds: Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

Continue reading “#124 – Jeremy Lounds”

Patrick Rauland: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Indie Board Game Designers podcast, where I sat down with a different independent game designer every single week, and we talk about their experience in game design and the lessons they've learned along the way. My name is Patrick Rauland, and today I'll be talking with Patrick Engro, who designed Reach and Okazaki. I hope I pronounced that right. Patrick, welcome to the show.

Patrick Engro: Thanks, Patrick. Good to be here.

Continue reading “#123 – Patrick Engro”

Patrick Rauland: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Indie Board Game Designers podcast, where I sit down with a different independent game designer every single week, and we talk about their experience in game design and the lessons they've learned along the way. My name is Patrick Rauland, and today I'll be talking with Brent Critchfield, who designed Gruff, which is a living card game all about mutated monster goats, which we are definitely going to talk about.

And because this is literally day one of another Kickstarter campaign for him, I thought it'd be cool to get a guest on the show when they're literally on day one of their Kickstarter campaigns. We're going to talk about his living card game and what it's like to design one of those, and we're also going to talk about day one of the Kickstarter campaign and leading up to that. So with that in mind, Brent, welcome to the show.

Brent Critchfield: Hey, it's good to be here. Thanks for having me on.

Continue reading “#122 – Brent Critchfield”

I want to talk about COVID-19 AKA the Corona Virus. A lot has changed in the past week and it’s easy to be depressed.

  • Big events like SXSW are cancelled
  • Professional sports are cancelled
  • University is going online or cancelled
  • A lot has changed just in the last week and even just in the last weekend.

The advice we’re getting from the US government is to “socially distance” ourselves.

  • The White House recommends 15 days where you don’t gather in groups of more than 10 people
  • CDC said to cancel events for 50 people for the next few months

It’s very likely your summer conventions are going to be cancelled. I know I was excited for both: Origins & PAX Unplugged.

And based on some initial news reports I’ve seen we can expect to social distance for 2-8 weeks. I’ve seen other sources say 2-3 months. And others say it could go through 2020. But let’s say it’s 2-3 months.

That would take the pandemic in the US into June. And Origins will likely be cancelled. But maybe if we’re lucky Gen Con in August will still be on.

Pitching Games will slow down. I just received notice from one of the publishers I sent Kintsugi to. They responded and said they like the game but can’t get together until after the corona virus.

So even if you have a really good game you might not be able to sell it right now

What You Can Do

Get Your Games Ready

Learn a new skill!

I’m excited about: creating vectors & 3d modeling.

What you can do:

  • Basic graphic design
  • Learn Photoshop or InDesign
  • Uploading art to Tabletop Simulator
  • Mathematically balance games in Excel or Google Sheets

Keep Yourself Healthy

I normally like to watch a short YouTube video while getting ready for bed.  Recently I’ve been watching news about Corona Virus. And I can’t sleep. I’m anxious about what I should do & how I should prepare.

I’m making a commitment here: to not watch Corona Virus news in the evening. Instead I’ll watch something silly or I can read a book.

So take care of yourself mentally. You don’t have to read every article.

I love following news & politics but it might be too much this season so I’m going to only process it during the day and in the evening let my mind wander into the fiction world.

That’s all from me. Take care of yourselves. Socially distance. Wash your hands. And… keep designing great games.

Patrick Rauland: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Indie Board Game Designers podcast, where I sit down with a different independent game designer every single week, and we talk about their experience in game design and the lessons they've learned along the way. My name is Patrick Rauland, and today I'll be talking with Chris Brooks, who designed Space Empire, which was in the mint tin challenge along with my game. Space Empire got fourth place out of 183 games, which is amazing. Chris, welcome to the show.

Chris Brooks: Thanks very much. Glad to be here.

Continue reading “#120 – Chris Brooks”

Patrick Rauland: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Indie Board Game Designers podcast, where I sit down with a different independent game designer every single week, and we talk about their experience in game design and the lessons they've learned along the way. My name is Patrick Rauland, and today I'll be talking with Kevin Russ, who designed Calico, and a game that should be on Kickstarter when this episode airs, Tumble Town. Kevin, welcome to the show.

Kevin Russ: Hi. Thanks, Patrick, for having me on.

Continue reading “#119 – Kevin Russ”

Patrick Rauland: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Indie Board Game Designers podcast, where I sit down with a different independent game designer every single week, and we talk about their experience in game design, and the lessons they've learned along the way. My name is Patrick Rauland, and today I'll be talking with Zach Given, who designed Dragoon: The Rogue and Barbarian Expansion for Dragoon, Human Era, and Life Siphon. Zach, welcome to the show.

Zach Given: Good to be here.

Continue reading “#118 – Zach Given”

Patrick Rauland: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Indie Board Game Designers podcast, where I sit down with a different independent game designer every single week, and we talk about their experience in game design, and the lessons they've learned along the way.

My name is Patrick Rauland, and today I'll be talking with Thomas Shepherd, who designed Viking Games, Dodgeball, Pirates, Wizards, and Witches, Djinns of the High Desert and a ton more. I should say, he's also in my local playtest group and I also saw him at Tabletop Network. So Thomas, welcome to the show.

Thomas Shepherd: Hey, Patrick. It's good to be here.

Continue reading “#117 – Thomas Shepherd”

If you've been listening to my show you probably heard about my game Mintsugi. 

I entered Mintsugi into the Mint Tin Challenge on The Game Crafter

  • The deadline was October 28 2019
  • And the results are finally in!
  • There were 183 entries into the contest
  • And Mintsugi got 3rd place which I’m pretty pumped about!

First I want to talk about the detailed results and feedback from the contest.

Then I want to talk about what I want to want to do with Mintsugi moving forward

Continue reading “#116 – Mint Tin Challenge Results”

Patrick Rauland: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Indie Board Game Designers podcast, where I sit down with a different independent game designer every single week, and we talk about their experience in game design and the lessons they've learned along the way.

My name is Patrick Rauland, and today I'll be talking with Ken Franklin who designed The Mansky Caper and Imagineers with Chris Leder, he was part of the design team for Tsuro: Phoenix Rising, and this coming summer a few other designers and himself are working on a new Back to the Future cooperative game which should be coming out by Ravensburger.

And just as a bonus fact, his son Matt Franklin illustrated Fry Thief and some of my other games, like Mintsugi. Lots of cool connections there. Ken, with that giant introduction, welcome to the show.

Continue reading “#115 – Ken Franklin”