The Game Design Round Table
Dirk Knemeyer & David V. Heron
Covering the full breadth of digital, tabletop, and role playing games, The Game Design Round Table inspires and educates aspiring and experienced game designers.
1 Listener
All episodes
Best episodes
Top 10 The Game Design Round Table Episodes
Best episodes ranked by Goodpods Users most listened
#276 Round Table on Market Considerations for Game Themes
The Game Design Round Table
05/12/22 • 52 min
Kathryn rejoins Dirk and David for another Round Table discussion of past episodes. First, in reference to the recent episode with Sydney Engelstein, the group talks about card-based expansions. Then the discussion turns to the various Zenobia award finalist guests who have been on the show—topics include unique themes, alternative funding for games, and how to utilize popular IPs while maintaining your own vision for the game. Finally, the group has a conversation about the Dave Scott episode and discusses how they’ve used customizable experiences in their own games.
1 Listener
#239 Listener Questions May 2020
The Game Design Round Table
05/27/20 • 73 min
#234 Sen-Foong Lim Designs Edge Cases Out of the Game
The Game Design Round Table
03/17/20 • 56 min
Sen-Foong Lim rejoins the show to chat with Dirk and David about his design axiom: design edge cases out of the game. The definition of an edge case is explored at length, and the importance of context when discussing edge cases is emphasized. Sen talks about what types of games can afford to include edge cases, and why he usually opts to either remove them or turn them into features of the game.
#237 Old World: Utilizing Playtesters Effectively
The Game Design Round Table
04/28/20 • 64 min
Soren rejoins Dirk and David to discuss what’s new with his 4X game Old World—including a new name! The trio talks about publisher changes, how playtesting has incrementally improved the game, and some of the unique mechanics that Old World brings to the 4X table.
#236 Tanya X. Short Makes Game Systems Obvious
The Game Design Round Table
04/15/20 • 48 min
Tanya X. Short talks with Dirk and David about her design axiom: if the player doesn’t see it, it might not exist. They discuss both some of the games Tanya has worked on, as well as other games that contradict or reinforce this rule. One key point of the discussion is how complex (and costly) systems created by the designers might go completely unnoticed by players if the user interface or the game’s objectives don’t align well with the system.
#235 Diving Into MOBA Foundations
The Game Design Round Table
03/31/20 • 66 min
Dirk and David team up with show producer Skye to dive into the MOBA genre, a first in a series meant to explore the design of this popular genre. They discuss the genre’s roots in real-time strategy game mods and give an overview of the most popular MOBAs on the market. Additionally, the trio talks about tabletop and mobile MOBAs, and why they haven’t taken off (at least in North America, that is).
#238 Round Table on How Different Game Mediums Handle Edge Cases
The Game Design Round Table
05/12/20 • 56 min
Kathryn once again rejoins Dirk and David to discuss the last few episodes of the podcast. The trio talks about the differences in edge cases between TTRPGs, board games, and video games. Then they move on to discuss the merits of the axiom: if the player doesn’t see it, it might not exist. The group rounds out the discussion chatting about their familiarity with the 4x genre as well as MOBAs and why Kathryn, Dirk, and David all enjoy watching esports.
#233 Round Table on the Challenges of Pleasing Customers
The Game Design Round Table
03/04/20 • 68 min
Kathryn returns to the show to chat with Dirk and David about the last three episodes of the Designing Thematic Games series. The group chats about hybrid games, designing additional content for games, and handling criticism. They also answer some listener questions about remote work and art contracts. Overall, a great deal of this episode focuses on the customer level and the difficulties (and joys) of designing with customers in mind.
#232 Chris Bourassa Talks Darkest Dungeon
The Game Design Round Table
02/18/20 • 56 min
Chris Bourassa joins Dirk and David to discuss his work on the indie hit Darkest Dungeon. They talk about the inspiration for some of Darkest Dungeon’s characters, enemies, and mechanical systems. They also cover the game’s difficulty and learning from some of the public outcry during the game’s early access stage.
#240 Ryan Scott Aims for Balanceable, Not Balanced
The Game Design Round Table
06/09/20 • 52 min
Ryan “Morello” Scott joins Dirk and David on the show to discuss his design axiom: balance isn’t important, but balanceable is critical. Ryan discusses why planning ahead for a balanceable piece of content is critical to avoid making balance feel chaotic for players and designers alike. With his experience working on League of Legends and Riot’s new FPS, Valorant, he shares specific examples of where balance went wrong and steps designers can take to make things right.
Show more
Comments
0.0
out of 5
Rating
Review or comment on this podcast...
Post
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this
Copy