In this episode, Adam Saltsman interviews Chelsea Howe, who is a Creative Director at EA Mobile. She is best known for her work at TinyCo, where she led the design of Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff, and for her community efforts organizing the Queerness and Games Conference, the Global Game Jam in San Francisco, student workshops, and more. They discuss how DAU’s and LTV’s compare to Quarterback Ratings, why F2P games end up as conservative as AAA games, why mobile devs have to pay people to play their games, and if a game is worthwhile if the player isn’t learning something.

Games Discussed: Choice Chamber, Renga, Twitch Plays Pokemon, Candy Crush Saga, Dragon Age series, Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff

idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/chelsea-howe

In this episode, Soren interviews Daniel Cook, who is the Chief Creative Officer at Spry Fox. He is best known for his design work on games such as Triple Town, Realm of the Mad God, and Steambirds as well as for his writing on game design at lostgarden.com. They discuss the joy of making tile sets, why Lost Garden was originally an anonymous blog, whether Triple Town should be free-to-play, and why we wish we had been neighbors.

Games Discussed: The Faery Tale Adventure, Tyrian, The Circle, 1 vs. 100, Steambirds, Triple Town, Realm of the Mad God, Road Not Taken

idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/daniel-cook

In this episode, Soren interviews Henrik Fahraeus, who is a Game Director at Paradox Interactive, where he has worked on the Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, and Hearts of Iron series. Also sitting in on the interview is Jon Shafer, lead designer of Civilization 5 and currently at work on his independent strategy game At the Gates. They discuss whether the Civ and EU games live in alternate dimension, whether provinces are better than hexes, and why it’s bad to have too many sons.

Games Discussed: Lords of Midnight, Seven Cities of Gold, Europa Universalis series, Hearts of Iron series, Crusader Kings series, Civilization series

idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/henrik-fahraeus

In this episode, Soren interviews Frank Lantz, currently Director of the NYU Game Center. Frantz was also the co-founder of Area/Code where he led the design of Drop7. We discuss how to make sure your game gets written up in Boing Boing, why most people who like ARGs have never played one, and how to take advantage of your friend’s trip to the hospital in Parking Wars.

Games Discussed: The Manhole, Dungeon Master, Mortal Kombat, Wipeout, Gearheads, Diner Dash, PacManhattan, Shark Runners, Parking Wars, Drop7

idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/frank-lantz

For years now, I’ve been a frequent guest on various video game podcasts, especially Three Moves Ahead and The Game Design Roundtable. I’ve always enjoy the format and have now decided to start one of my own. Thus, I’d like to announce the Designer Notes podcast, in which I sit down with noted game designers to discuss why we make games.

The folks at Idle Thumbs offered to host the podcast, which greatly helped getting this new endeavor started. My first guest is Rob Pardo, formerly the Chief Creative Officer at Blizzard. We had such a long discussion that I had to break it into two parts, and the first half ranges from his first gaming memories through StarCraft, Brood War, and Warcraft 3. I’ll be posting the second half in early December. Future guests include Frank Lantz, Henrik Fåhraeus, Jon Shafer, Daniel Cook, Brad Muir, Brian Reynolds, Chelsea Howe, and Daniel Benmergui.

EDIT: The second half is now available.

I was on Dirk Knemeyer’s Game Design Round Table podcast twice last month and spent some time talking about how my current game, Offworld Trading Company, is progressing. On Episode 93, we discussed dynamic campaigns in strategy games and were joined by Firaxis designer Ananda Gupta, who shared his experience working on the (dynamic) campaign for the new XCOM. On Episode 94, we were joined by Civ 5 designer Jon Shafer to discuss the current state of Offworld and their impressions of the game.

As a reminder, Offworld can be purchased now on Steam at offworldgame.com.

I’ve been on a few podcasts recently that deserve mentioning:

• Three Moves Ahead on Building vs Battling (with Rob Daviau)
• The Game Design Roundtable on Development Streaming (with Brad Muir)
• The Game Design Roundtable on Pathfinder (with Ryan Dancey)
• The Game Design Roundtable on Transparency

You may have also heard that my new company, Mohawk Games, has announced its first game, Offworld Trading Company. I go into more detail on our company blog, and I did some interviews on the game with Ars Technica and Rock Paper Shotgun. You can pre-order now at offworldgame.com, which will get you access to our playable prototype this fall!

Last week, I was on a couple podcast that I frequently haunt. I joined Troy Goodfellow and Bruce Geryk on Three Moves Ahead to discuss the excellent recent iOS wargame Drive on Moscow. (Listen for my reference to noted game designer “Bruce” Reynolds.) I also discussed conflict in games on The Game Design Round Table with Jon Shafer and Dirk Knemeyer, which meant lots of talk about Diplomacy as well as why two-sided games are fundamentally different from multi-sided ones.

This week, I joined Dirk Knemeyer and Jon Shafer on The Game Design Round Table to discuss my new company, Mohawk Games, and new economic RTS project, code-named Mars. We talk about the challenges of making a game about economics, the ramifications of real-time versus turn-based design, and the new landscape for independent studios, including Kickstarter and Early Access.

http://thegamedesignroundtable.com/2013/11/11/episode-53-mohawks-martians-with-soren-johnson/

Last week, I joined Rob Zacny and Troy Goodfellow on Three Moves Ahead to discuss the state of RTS games, how much broader the genre could be, my new independent studio Mohawk Games, and my new economic real-time strategy game (currently code-named Mars).

https://www.idlethumbs.net/3ma/episodes/state-of-the-rts