In this BGDL rewind from May of 2018, I chat with Richard Garfield about finding the right balance of luck vs skill when designing a game.

The post Finding the Right Mixture of Luck and Skill with Richard Garfield appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, Jason Perez and I chat about how designers can boost their creativity by thinking outside the box, pushing past tropes, and being more intentional about their thematic choices.

The post How to Boost Creativity and Avoid Tropes | Jason Perez appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, Geoff Engelstein and I chat about design theory and break down Geoff’s favorite examples and how they relate to designing games.

Geoff’s book about loss aversion can be found here: https://amzn.to/3rIgi7y

More info about the Tabletop Network Conference can be found here: https://www.tabletopnetwork.com

The post 4 Amazing (and Useful) Examples of Board Game Design Theory with Geoff Engelstein appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

In this episode, I chat with Jason Tagmire about everything related to 18-card games. We talk about designing, publishing, manufacturing, shipping, marketing, crowdfunding, and more!

The post Small Games that Pack a Big Punch with Jason Tagmire appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Stephen Schwartz and Floyd Lu, designers of Slash and Spells, talk about designing asymmetrical games.

We talk about creating interesting differences, balancing factions, the challenges of playtesting these kinds of games, and more.

And be sure to check out Stephen and Floyd’s game on Kickstarter HERE!

The post How to Design Asymmetrical Games with Stephen Schwartz and Floyd Lu appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Frank Sarro, designer of Pathways, talks about abstract dexterity games. We get into component quality, manufacturing challenges, complexity, and more.

The post [BGDL Community Spotlight] Designing an Abstract Dexterity Game with Frank Sarro appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Phil Walker-Harding, designer of Sushi Go, Barenpark, Imhotep, Gizmos, and several other great games, takes us behind the scenes of his personal design process.

We talk about coming up with ideas, honing big ideas into super fun games, knowing when to walk away from a design, pitching to publishers, and more.

The post The Design Process of Phil Walker-Harding appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

The post How to Design 2 Player Games with Alf Seegert appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Scott Smith, designer of Dungeon Drop, discusses how to design games by starting with the components. Scott has become a master at this, and it’s an interesting way to approach design that often begins with theme or a mechanism.

The post [BGDL Community Spotlight] Component First Game Design with Scott Smith appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.

Jerry Hawthorne, designer of Stuffed Fables, discusses how to design a game that focuses on storytelling.

Jerry has created several super popular storytelling games (and has a new one about to come out), and we dive into writing, scenario design, combat mechanisms, and more.

The post Designing Storytelling Games with Jerry Hawthorne appeared first on Board Game Design Lab.