Think Like A Game Designer

Monte Cook is a legend among roleplaying game designers. Monte has worked on hundreds of roleplaying products. He is probably best known for his work on the 3rd Edition of Dungeons & Dragons, Planescape, Ptolus, and Arcana Evolved. In addition, his own games Numenera, the Cypher Systems, and Invisible Sun, have won numerous awards. In this episode, we'll discuss Monte's philosophies on developing roleplaying games, the importance of clear rules and good writing, and what it takes to bring new people into strange and wondrous worlds. Enjoy!

Rob Daviau pioneered the legacy game genre, stating with Risk: Legacy. In addition, he’s worked with a variety of beloved titles: Star Wars, Axis & Allies, Pandemic, Betrayal at House on The Hill, just to name a few. In this episode, we go into detail about Legacy Game development and how to successfully work with beloved properties.

Matt and I both started our careers as Magic Pro Players. Since then he’s garnered more experience in digital trading card games than anyone I know. Matt has worked for Wizards of the Coast, Dire Wolf, and Blizzards on games including Magic Online, Hearthstone, and Eternal (the precursor to Runeterra). Matt is currently working on his own auto-battler game called Story Book Brawl. I’m excited to sit down with one of my oldest friends in the industry and talk about game design.

Michael Gnade started his career in games with Indie Game Magazine, writing and reporting about the newest games from independent creators. Inspired by Ascension, Michael developed Brass Empire, which he created on Kickstarter. Michael Gnade put together one of the more comprehensive looks at Kickstarter metrics out there, if you’re interested you can check that out here. Otherwise, grab your notebook, there’s some awesome advice on this one!

Elan Lee is the creator of Exploding Kittens, the most-backed game in Kickstarter history, by the number of backers. He started as an intern at Industrial Light and Magic, working on Star Wars Episode I, before moving on to working with legendary game designer Jordan Weisman at Microsoft. His interview is filled with incredible design insights, so get your notebook out and be prepared to take some notes and have some fun.

Scott Gaeta has been in the game industry for over 20 years. He’s the founder of Renegade Game Studios. Scott started as a comics and game store owner before shifting into game design, cutting his teeth on popular products such as the Star Wars, Star Trek, and Lord of the Rings CCGs. He’s worked as the Senior Vice President of Decipher and Senior Director at Upper Deck (that’s where we first met!). At Upper Deck, Scott worked on Yu-Gi-Oh!, DC Comics, World of Warcraft, Marvel Comics, Hello Kitty, and more. I was super excited to catch up and learn some lessons from the veteran of the industry.

Isaac Childres is the creator of Gloomhaven and Frosthaven. Gloomhaven is the #1 rated game on BoardGameGeek for three years, and Frosthaven, the highest funded game on Kickstarter. We’ll dig into what motivated Isaac to create these legendary games, and what he’s learned along the way.

In this special episode, we dive into the upcoming game Ascension Tactics. Emphasizing the techniques and principles used to create Stone Blade's big summer Kickstarter game.

Eric Lang is a legendary game designer who has created more games that I’ve personally enjoyed than almost anyone. Just to name a few Eric designed: The Game of Thrones Card Game, Quarriors, and Blood Rage. He’s launched several highly successful Kickstarters and has a lifetime worth of wisdom when it comes to game design. There are a lot of lessons here, grab your notebooks.

Tom Lehmann is a former economist, programmer, and game publisher turned full-time game designer. He’s the creator of Race for the Galaxy and has created expansions for games like Pandemic and St. Petersburg. Today we discuss everything from economics, expansions, and reward systems in games. There’s a lot of wisdom here, so grab a notebook!

Keith Baker is a renowned game designer and storyteller. He was the creator of the D&D setting Ebberon and Gloom. He has traveled the world creating and running Story based games. If you’re into role-playing games like D&D or any other story-driven games there’s a lot to learn here.

Satine Phoenix is the first non-game designer on our podcast, but she is an icon in the gaming industry. Satine is a professional Dungeon Master and storytelling coach who supports people in regards to writing games, RPG adventures, screenplays, and novels. What’s even wilder is that she travels the world playing role-playing games and bringing gaming communities together. I can’t wait to dig into this episode.

Devin Low is an award-winning designer who’s worked on some of the most popular games in the world. He was the head developer of Magic: The Gathering, a designer on Legendary: The Marvel Deck-Building Game, and the lead designer of Plants vs. Zombies Heroes.

Wright Bagwell started his career by designing mods for Quake. He is the CEO and co-founder of Outpost Games. He was the design director of the Farmville franchise at Zynga. Prior to that, he worked on Dead Space as a creative director at Visceral Games and was the lead designer at Electronic Arts. In case that wasn’t awesome enough, he also has a Ph.D. in neuroscience. So… Yeah, this guy is pretty amazing and has a lot to offer. Enjoy!

Richard Garfield is the legendary creator of Magic: The Gathering, KeyForge and a number of other successful games. He is a pioneer in the collectible card game genre and one of the most well-known game designers in the world. In this episode of the show, we discuss his life in game design, the development of Magic: The Gathering and KeyForge, and a variety of topics dealing with the challenges of creating collectible card games. This episode is, without a doubt, one of the most remarkable episodes I’ve recorded for Think Like a Game Designer – grab a notebook and take a listen!