Patrick: Hello, everyone. Welcome to 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'm going to be talking with Rob Newton, who designed Sonora, Shuffle Grand Prix— Sorry, it's the end of the day here, and I'm stumbling on my words. Mixtape and a bunch more. Rob, welcome to the show.
Patrick Rauland: Hello, everyone, and welcome to 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'm going to be talking with Joe Slack, who designed Relics of Rajavihara. Joe, welcome to the show.
Joe Slack: Hey, Patrick, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Patrick: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Indie Board Game Designers podcast, where I sit down with a different independent game designer to talk about their experience in game design and the lessons they've learned along the way. My name is Patrick Rauland, and today I'm going to be talking with Aaron Moline and Eric Manahan, who designed Antematter, which is a combination of poker and space strategy.
It looks like a 4x game, it is launching on Kickstarter a couple of days after we record, and it'll probably be out for about a week or so before this episode comes out. So, I will have a link for the Kickstarter in the show notes. Last thing, Aaron is the co-creator, and Eric is the creative director. Aaron and Eric, welcome to the show.
Patrick: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Indie Board Game Designers podcast, where I sit down with a different independent game designer, and we talk about their experiences in game design and the lessons they've learned along the way.
My name is Patrick Rauland, and today I'm going to be talking with Pete Jank, who designed a bunch of games on The Game Crafter, including– I've got a whole list here. Pocket Slimes, Soda Pop City, Starfall, Quest for the Last Pixel, Villages, Master of Disguise, Drunk Driver, Amethyst, and Evolution X. That's a lot. Pete, welcome to the show.
Patrick: 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'm going to be talking with Ta-Te Wu, who designed Cat Sudoku, Cat Rescue— I'm going to try to pronounce this one, Di Renjie, Kung Pao Chicken and a bunch more. Ta-Te, welcome to the show.
Patrick: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Indie Board Game Designers podcast, where I sit down with a different independent game designer and talk about their experience in game design and the lessons they've learned along the way.
My name is Patrick Rauland, and today I am going to be talking with Cameron Art, who designed Vowl. Cameron, welcome to the show.
Patrick: 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'm going to be talking with Kris Fosh, who designed Catapult Kingdoms, which is on Kickstarter as we are recording. It'll probably be off Kickstarter by the time you hear this, by about a week or so. There will be late backing, and we will talk about that a little bit later, but Kris, welcome to the show.
Kris: It is great to be here, thank you. Thanks for the call.
Today is a special episode of the podcast. I have some exciting personal news that I wanted to share and then at the end talk about how it affects the podcast.
Achievement Unlocked: Engaged
Last week I proposed to my girlfriend and she said yes so I’m now engaged.
So needless to say I’m very excited. Since flashmobs aren’t exactly cool both because of corona virus & because it's 2020 and flashmobs feel like a 2012 phenomenon. I decided to do it in my own special super nerdy way.
I made a mini escape room for her to solve. When she came in in the morning she noticed a ring in a ring box in a cryptex. So she can see the ring but she can’t get it. The bottom of cryptex has a 5 letter lock.
Puzzle Pod (cryptex) containing the engagement ring
That was the introduction to the puzzle. She then had to search for all sorts of other little clues around the apartment. All in all there were 5 mini puzzles and it took her about 20 minutes until she could finally get the ring and she said yes.
The ring & some of the puzzles
How Does This Affect the Podcast
So how does this affect the podcast? Well we’re planning on a private ceremony and having a few smaller parties when coronavirus goes away. So we’re planning a few different events and it’s taking all of my brainpower and I just don’t have the time to continue running the podcast.
I’m not going to shut anything down but I’m not going to promise to have an episode every week. As long as I have time I’ll release episodes but if I’m behind in wedding planning that’s going to take priority.
This is episode #141 and I feel like I’ve got so much out of this podcast. I’ve met over 100 game designers and heard their stories. I found the traditional route to publishing games and I learned about a few non-traditional routes. I also created, planned, ran a Kickstarter, and fulfilled my own game Fry Thief.
All of that has me wondering if there’s someone in my audience who would be interesting to hold the torch. Maybe it’s you – the person listening to me right now.
I think it might be nice to have someone take the framework of this show, interviewing indie game designers, but putting their own spin on it. Asking their own questions. I only have my own point of view and I’d love to hear someone else’s point of view.
So if you want to interview a few board game designers reach out to me through my website. I’m happy to help you get started with whatever you need. I really think it could breathe a new life into the podcast and give all of the listeners a fresh perspective.
So that’s it for this week. I should have a regular episode next week and I have a few interviews setup for the following week so there will be more content coming. But I can’t promise exactly when it will come out.
I’d love to have all of your help.
Thank You Patrons
I want to say thank you to my patrons on Patreon. They’re currently paying for hosting so because of them it makes sense to keep hosting this podcast so that everyone can hear these past 140 episodes.
I will be posting how exactly I planned this engagement on Patreon. I’ll share my initial plan which I setup before COVID-19 and then I’ll share the scaled back plan during COVID.
Wrap Up
Thanks everyone, keep making awesome games & happy designing.
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 to talk about their experience in game design and the lessons they've learned along the way. My name is Patrick Rauland, and today I'm going to be talking to the awesome and amazing Ben Moy, who designed Breakdancing Meeples and plenty of other games on The Game Crafter. And he creates awesome content reviewing components for The Game Crafter called The Board Game Blueprint. Ben, welcome to the show.
Ben Moy: Thank you very much, Patrick. It's great to be here.
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'm going to be talking with Jon Vallerand, who designed With A Smile & A Gun, which should be on Kickstarter when this episode airs. He also designed Cartographia, which was supposed to come out at Origins this year, and it was delayed because of coronavirus. We'll talk about that a little bit later.
Right before we get to the show, I normally talk about my Patreon at the end of the show, but I wanted to share a little update in today's episode that two people recently joined. They help me support the show, and I just wanted to say thank you. I'll share a little bit more at the end of the show, but just one more time. I super appreciate it, and it means a lot to me in these crazy times where someone gives you five bucks for the work you put into it. I think it means a little bit more, even now during this coronavirus time, so thank you very much. Now, Jon, welcome to the show.
