Episode 480. Designing Board Games

Published by austin on

Set designer and board game designer Alan Ernstein talks about the practice and philosophy behind the designing of board games. Featuring the important of mechanics and theme, popular types and templates, figuring out puzzles, lots of research, games that move beyond roll/move/react, theme park rights, a special appearance by “Ray Charles” (actually, actor Thomas Hobson), and how, if you look at it right, everything can turn into a game. (Length 21:06)


2 Comments

austin · March 28, 2016 at 4:02 pm

What a great question! I’ll try to put this out there on Twitter and if we get any response.

Brenda Sharpe · March 24, 2016 at 6:08 am

I really enjoyed this episode, even though I knew little to nothing about board game design previously. Are you familiar with any board games scenes in plays? One that comes to mind is Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests “Living Together,” where characters reluctantly play a cops and robbers game one of them has invented.

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