I recently wrote about multi-use cards in games. Some people pointed me to episode 145 of the great game design podcast Ludology saying they already covered that topic. I sometimes listen to Ludology but I will admit I hadn’t listened to this specific episode.

Game Design podcasts

This brings me to the topic of good resources on board game design. The most well known is probably Board game Designers Forum. But as a podcast listener here are my favorites 2 (board)game design podcasts.

Ludology

Ludology is hosted by 2 well known game designers: Geoff Engelstein of Space Cadets fame and Mike Fitzgerald creator of the Mystery Rummy serie of games. They often have fellow game designers and publishers on the show and they like to explore the mechanics of game design and how some specific tweaks can make a game click and feel great.

Geoff started his podcast career doing the GameTek segments on the Dice Tower. These short segments would cover games from a scientific angle and often involve math, statistical and psychological studies that really shed a different light on the hobby of gaming.

Game Design round table

The Game Design Roundtable covers both video game design as well as board game design. Over its history, lots of different designers have hosted the podcasts. In the beginning, Jon Shafer of Civilization 5 fame would talk about video games. But he was quickly swamped by all his work on At the Gates and left the podcast. His co-host is the constant of the show: Dirk Knemeyer covers boardgame design as well as publishing. He is the founder of Artana Games and has created and published multiple games.

These days, 2 new designers help Dirk in hosting the show. David Heron covers the video game angle as he is a game developer himself. Finally one of my favorite game author Rob Daviau completes the trio. Rob has worked on some of the most innovative designs of the past few years, The Legacy Games: Risk Legacy, Pandemic Legacy, Seafall and the up coming Chronicles 1: Origins with Dirk as co-author.

As a podcast, they share a lot of their past and especially their current experience. It gives a look “under the curtain” of game design and what are the problems and questioning of game designers and publishers.