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Design Doc

Design Doc

Hannah Shaffer and Evan Rowland

Come along with Hannah and Evan in a living documentation of the game design process, from the first spark of an idea, to every disastrous surprise. It’s not an instruction manual, but a travel guide, with lots of unexpected stops along the way.
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Top 10 Design Doc Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Design Doc episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Design Doc for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Design Doc episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Design Doc - FLETs (Fiddly Little End Things)
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10/05/22 • 52 min

Hannah and Evan talk about the fiddly little end things that make a project go on, and on, and on much longer than you expected.

Design Doc intro/outro theme: by Pat King

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Design Doc - Better Never Than Late?
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01/11/24 • 51 min

Kickstarter stretch goals are notorious for getting project creators into trouble. Sometimes, they over promise content. Other times, they create financial strain. Often, it's all of the above. In this episode, we talk about Top Tracks, a stretch goal project we just completed that's so overdue... nobody even remembered it.

CW: This episode contains a discussion of sexual harassment.

EPISODE LINKS/CREDITS:

Top Tracks! https://turtlebun.itch.io/damntheman (under Download Demo)

Our games: turtlebun.com

Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun

Join the Turtlebun Discord! https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz

Get in touch! Designdocpod (at) gmail (dot) com

Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King

Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun

Turtlebun Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun

Design Doc on Twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod

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Design Doc - Scopeful Optimism
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01/12/21 • 56 min

We talk about what makes a game's scope big or small, why Q2 has taken so long, and all the projects we've made in the meantime.

Support Design Doc on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/turtlebun

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Design Doc - Bad lo-fi game ideas to study or relax to
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05/28/22 • 32 min

Hannah reads you a game ideas to-do list for 30 minutes.

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Design Doc - FLETs (Fiddly Little End Things)
play

10/05/22 • 52 min

Hannah and Evan talk about the fiddly little end things that make a project go on, and on, and on much longer than you expected.

Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King

Design Doc on twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod

Turtlebun links

Our games: turtlebun.com

Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun

Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun

Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun

Discord: https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz

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Design Doc - The UltraLux Bait-and-Switch
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07/24/19 • 36 min

Questlandia 2 has been delayed. Now, we're releasing an entirely different RPG first. We talk about—and try not to apologize for—how timelines and business have to adapt to design difficulties.

Design Doc intro/outro theme: by Pat King

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Design Doc - Your Kickstarter Questions (Mostly) Answered
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06/18/19 • 78 min

We asked on Twitter what you wanted to know about running a roleplaying game Kickstarter. Now, we're answering your questions. From self-promotion to self-care, what to say when there's nothing to say, and pretending we know anything about taxes.

Show notes:

  • Design Doc Intro/Outro theme by Pat King
  • Additional music: New Ages 1 by Little Dog Big Ears
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Design Doc - We Still Don't Know Who the Junk Poets Are
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04/16/19 • 48 min

Who are the Junk Poets and what do they add to Questlandia? We go over what we know, what's still missing, and how they could make a GMless game easier to play!

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Design Doc - Finding the Game's Emotional Core
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03/13/19 • 46 min

We've finished the first two playtests of Questlandia and something is still missing. In this episode we talk about how to hone in on the emotional core of the game. What stories does this game want to tell and how do we make sure it tells them?

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Design Doc - Obsessions

Obsessions

Design Doc

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02/21/24 • 48 min

What’s the difference between a “theme” and an “obsession?” Inspired by a classic writing book from the ‘80s, we share our respective obsessions and talk about how they show up in our work, intentionally or otherwise.

EPISODE MENTIONS:

Learn how to play Go: https://online-go.com/learn-to-play-go

Learn how to smell things (Introduction to Perfumery Kit or Perfumery Notes Kit from Perfumer’s Apprentice): https://shop.perfumersapprentice.com/c-58-educational-kits.aspx

Writing Down the Bones (book by Natalie Goldberg)

Synecdoche, New York (film)

The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity (book by Graeber and Wengrow)

A Pattern Language (architecture and urban design book by Alexander, Ishikawa, Silverstein)

Eating Raoul (film)

The Clock Crew (Newgrounds wiki link)

FOLLOW/CREDITS:

Our games: turtlebun.com

Patreon: patreon.com/turtlebun

Join the Turtlebun Discord! https://discord.gg/XD4WVDjvbz

Get in touch! Designdocpod (at) gmail (dot) com

Design Doc intro/outro theme by Pat King

Instagram: instagram.com/turtleandbun

Turtlebun Twitter: twitter.com/turtleandbun

Design Doc on Twitter: twitter.com/designdocpod

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FAQ

How many episodes does Design Doc have?

Design Doc currently has 84 episodes available.

What topics does Design Doc cover?

The podcast is about Leisure, Games, Design, Podcasts and Arts.

What is the most popular episode on Design Doc?

The episode title 'Designing a Game Design Workday' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Design Doc?

The average episode length on Design Doc is 47 minutes.

How often are episodes of Design Doc released?

Episodes of Design Doc are typically released every 27 days, 5 hours.

When was the first episode of Design Doc?

The first episode of Design Doc was released on Oct 17, 2017.

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