Victory Pointers 007 – Seeking Excellence with Jamey Stegmaier
Release Date: 04/09/2016
Victory Pointers 018 - The Great Action Victory Pointers Crossovercast
Victory Pointers
In this episode: It's a big crossover podcast for Action Points and Victory Pointers as we all got together on the last day of PAX Aus 2016 to chat about the expo, the games we enjoyed, the panels we attended and other cool stuff we saw. Feel free to send us any feedback at [email protected]. You can also follow us on Twitter as and , and on and . You can also find us on Twitter as , , , and For Victory Pointers, you can follow and . Music: Theme for Harold (var. 2) and Overworld by is licensed under a . Something Small (Instrumental) by is licensed under a . Based...
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Victory Pointers 017 - PAX Aus 2016 Interviews
Victory Pointers
We were at PAX Aus 2016 and had a chat with some local creators about their projects, with the organizers behind the TGDA, and chat about connecting with the local RPG design community. Kim Brebach – / Aaron Lim - / Sye Robertson - / Feel free to send us any feedback or questions for the show at [email protected] (for now). You can also follow us on Twitter as . What we talked about 1:22 - Interview with Allan "Chesh" Chesher of Kingdom of Aer: Kingmaker 7:29 - Interview with Alex Wynnter and Wesley Lamont from Tabletop Game Designers Australia 23:30 - Interview...
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Victory Pointers 016 - GenCon 2016 with Sean Carroll
Victory Pointers
We are joined by Sean Carroll of 93 Made Games to chat about Gen Con 2016 from the perspective of a publisher attending for the first time. Sean Carroll - / Kim Brebach – / Aaron Lim - / Sye Robertson - / Feel free to send us any feedback or questions for the show at [email protected] (for now). You can also follow us on Twitter as . What we talked about 0:44 - Introducing Sean Carroll of 93 Made Games 2:20 - The power and beauty of spreadsheets in designing games 10:30 - How UI design affects how people play games 12:05 - Considering emotional highlights...
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Victory Pointers 015 - Designing and Publishing with David Harding and Phil Walker-Harding
Victory Pointers
We are joined by guests Phil Walker-Harding and David Harding (in a rare back-to-back appearance) to chat about their different paths taken in designing and publishing games, getting your foot in the door with publishers, game design competitions, theme in games, and second editions of games. Phil Walker-Harding - David Harding - / Kim Brebach – / Aaron Lim - / Sye Robertson - / Feel free to send us any feedback or questions for the show at [email protected] (for now). You can also follow us on Twitter as . What we talked about 2:58 - How did you start designing? 14:30...
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Victory Pointers 014 - BorderCon with Joel Finch and David Harding
Victory Pointers
We were just in Albury for BorderCon, an annual board game convention that attracts plenty of board gamers from the surrounding states. While we were there, we caught up with fellow game designers/publishers Joel Finch and David Harding to chat about what they've been up to. We also talk about games that we played at the con, setting up consecutive playtests and other conventions coming up where you might find us. Joel Finch - / David Harding - / Kim Brebach – / Aaron Lim - / Sye Robertson - / What we talked about 1:14 - Chatting with Sye about BorderCon and games we...
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Victory Pointers 013 - Designing Experiences and Tabletopia Playtesting with Philip duBarry
Victory Pointers
We are joined by consummate game designer, Philip duBarry to talk about designing games around experiences, working with intellectual property, getting games published in the era of Kickstarter, playtesting on Tabletopia, and designing with kids. We also chat about searching out uncommon themes, editing content as part of game design, and what happens when someone else makes the game you were also designing. Philip duBarry - / Kim Brebach – / Aaron Lim - / Sye Robertson - / What we talked about 2:01 - Variants in games and publisher changes 4:05 - Looking out for uncommon game themes...
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Victory Pointers 012 - Designing for Kids and Networking with Peter C Hayward
Victory Pointers
Kim's game, Monstrous, is now being shipped to backers! We also...
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Victory Pointers 011 – Game Industry Conventions
Victory Pointers
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Victory Pointers 010 – Kickstarting Publishing with Allen Chang and Alistair Kearney
Victory Pointers
We are joined by Allen Chang and Alistair Kearney from Rule & Make to discuss collaborating on designs, focusing on the core of games, Kickstarting a publishing company, communicating with backers, taking backer suggestions, ideal player counts and building relationships. ...
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Victory Pointers 009 – Design Philosophies and Collaboration with Matt Dunstan
Victory Pointers
We are joined by Matt Dunstan to discuss finding a community, collaborating on designs, how we come up with game ideas, working with publishers, and recognizing different philosophies of game design. ...
info_outlineWe are joined by Jamey Stegmaier to discuss seeking excellence in board game design. We discuss setting expectations, blind playtesting, how our views on excellence have changed, and figuring out what games to publish.
Jamey Stegmaier – @jameystegmaier / stonemaiergames.com
Kim Brebach – @secretbasegames / secretbasegames.com
Aaron Lim – @ehronlime / theactionpointspodcast.com
Sye Robertson – @syelon / syelon.com
What we talked about
What makes a game exceptional? 2:20
Meeting audience expectations 8:25
Changing views of excellence across Stonemaier games 11:12
Blind playtesting 13:40
Play testers as promoters 28:00
Our changing views on excellence and uniqueness 30:00
The game ‘experience’ 34:30
Studying the craft of game design 37:40
Outside inspiration 42:28
Top 3 resources for improving your game design craft 46:45
How important is the meld between theme and mechanics in game design for the promise of excellence? 56:00
Importance of art in the promise of excellence 58:33
What does Stonemaier games look for in other peoples designs it considers
publishing? 1:04:55
Retheming 1:06:12
How is kickstarter mixing things up in game design and publishing? 1:09:00
What is the publisher’s role in publishing exceptional games? 1:10:20
Links to what we talked about
- Check out Jamey’s blog here
- Jamey’s book “A Crowdfunder’s Strategy Guide” can be found here
- Jamey’s blog post “An Open Letter to Game Designers”
- Ignacy Trzewiczek’s blog post “I challenge you! Honest publisher manifesto!”
Games we mentioned
- Scythe on Kickstarter
- Scythe art by Jakub Rozalski
- Viticulture
- Euphoria
- Between Two Cities
- MONSTROUS
- Robots and Rockets
- Gloomhaven
- Consentacle
- Bycatch
- …and then we held hands
- Patchwork
Game Design Resources
- Ludology
- The Game Design Round Table
- Stuff You Missed in History Class
- History of Pirates Podcast
- Art and Graphic Design for Tabletop Games on Facebook
- Cardboard Edison
- Gamasutra
- 99% Invisible
- The Psychology of Video Games
- MailChimp
- Print and Play Productions
- Board Game Geek Design Forum – Brief crash course on game design
- Perfect Information Podcast
- Tabletop Game Designers Australia
Other Facebook Groups:
- Card & Board Game Designers Guild
- Kickstarter Best Practices
- Tabletop Games Kickstarter Advice
- Tabletop Game Publisher’s Guild
- Writing for Tabletop Games
Check out our interviews with Malaysian board game designers in our previous episode
If you’re in Australia, there are some Australia-specific resources here as well.
Music: Something Small (Instrumental) by Minden is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License. Based on a work at http://needledrop.co