SEASON FINALE: We welcome designer and developer Joe Schmidt to discuss In the Shadows: Resistance in France 1943-1944 (a game we designed together), his Levy & Campaign game Henry, solitaire design for Gunnar Holmback's Weimar Republic (GM...

Today, I chat with Talia Rosen, designer of First Monday in October which is a game about the history of the US Supreme Court coming soon to Kickstarter from Fort Circle Games. We discuss what inspired Talia's first design and the challe...

As a designer, John Butterfield is a bit of a troublemaker. He likes to insert friction in his designs where wargamers aren’t used to finding it. His games don’t just tell stories, they host a space for players to make their OWN stories. His ti...

For this episode, we chat with filmmaker and game designer Yoni Goldstein about his upcoming game Chicago '68 from The Dietz Foundation about the 1968 DNC protests and his journey in game design.  Chicago '68 on Kickstarter:

We decided to break from our usual format. Dan Thurot of Space Biff joins us for a discussion about narrative and storytelling in board games, particularly how it relates to historical boardgames. SPACE-...

Maurice Suckling is a screenwriter, author, teacher of design as well as vast experience in various roles of video game production. We discuss his recent design Crisis 1914 from Worthington, the upcoming Peace 1905 from Fort Circle, and Operati...

Sebastian Bae is a research scientist and senior game designer for the Center of Naval Analyses' Gaming and Integration Program as well as a faculty advisor for the Georgetown University Wargaming Society. He has two commercial designs, Littora...

Carlos Marquez Linares is the designer of TWO upcoming games, The Other Side of the Hill from NAC Wargames and Imperial Fever from GMT (currently on the P500). We discuss his controversial topics and his design approach in each of the aforement...

Natalia Wotjowicz has written an excellent book called Wargaming Experiences about approaches to professional wargame design informed by her experience with the NATO Civil-Military Cooperation Center of Excellence. Her book offers a lot of guid...

Gina Willis has designed A Glorious Chance, an excellent solitaire game about naval operations during the War of 1812 and collaborated with Jeremy White on the design of Skies Above Britain. We discuss both of these games, the emphasis on narra...

On this episode, I chat with Jo Kelly to discuss their upcoming game Molly House which is being published by Wehrlegig (maybe you heard of it) and is coming to Backerkit on October 17th. Jo Kelly is also a Zenobia finalist. We talk about the ma...

Domhnall Hegarty and his Citog Creative have provided graphic design for a number of high profile and award-winning releases, such as Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna, People Power, Red Flag Over Paris, The Vote, and more. We chat about the co...

Brian Train has been at the forefront of designing games about insurgency and urban warfare. He is probably best known for his COIN volumes: A Distant Plain & Colonial Twilight, his District Commander Series, Nights of Ire, Brief Border War...

Mark Herman's work is vast and influential in the world of wargaming. We narrowed our chat in May to discussing his co-design with D.B. Dokter covering the first three months of the Russia-Ukraine War, the challenges of designing the first draf...

Harold Buchanan’s contributions to historical games go above and beyond his celebrated designs: Flashpoint South China Sea, Liberty or Death and Campaigns of 1777. Harold has been very active launching the San Diego HistCon, the Summit Award an...

Alex Knight is the designer of an outstanding new game Land and Freedom, published by Blue Panther. We discuss his unique take on the Spanish Civil War, Land of Freedom and his design journey. More info on Land of Freedom here: <...

Cole Wehrle has designed Pax Pamir, John Company and Infamous Traffic as well as fan favorites Root, Oath and (most recently) Arcs. We chat primarily about his historical designs, discussing Kevin Zucker's Napoleon's Last Battles, second editio...

In this episode, I chat with filmmaker and game designer Robert DeLeskie about his designs The Wars of Marcus Aurelius, Stilicho, and the recently released Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna. We discuss the role of narrative and some of the uniq...

For this episode, I chat with Betsy Joslyn, a Research Associate for the Joint Advanced Wargaming Division at the Institute for Defense Analysis. Her recent design TURNING TIDES is a microgame demonstrating competing interests between nations t...

I chat with 3 first-time designers that I met at San Diego HistoCon. We spoke with Taylor Shuss, designer of Stonewall Uprising(Catastrophe Games), Justin Fassino, designer of Seljuk: Byzantium Besieged (GMT) and with Non-Breaking Space, design...

Matilda Simonsson is a brilliant designer from Sweden that incorporates handmade components into some incredibly clever games about historical subjects that fuse the intimate with the abstract. I chat with her about her recent release Turncoats...

We chat with prolific designer David Thompson of the Undaunted Series (Osprey), Valiant Defense Series (DVG) and his recent collaborations Sniper Elite and Resist!

In the final episode of Season 1, I chat with Volko Ruhnke. His designs have covered everything from insurgencies in Andean Abyss & Labyrinth to medieval warfare in his Levy & Campaign Series, so his insights draw on a broad design pale...

For a change of pace, we discuss game development with Kai Jensen. Her recent credits include Dominant Species: Marine, SpaceCorp, Welcome to Centerville and Downfall. We discuss her collaborations with the late Chad Jensen, the upcoming Downfa...

In a special crossover episode with Homo Ludens, I chat with Catherine Ramen, designer of Red Carnations on a Black Grave and Fred Serval, designer of Red Flag Over Paris to discuss their distinct approaches to the Paris Commune in their design...