Player Lair Podcast (Ivan Alexiev)
Explore every episode of Player Lair Podcast
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Oct 2023 | 26: Adrian Adamescu | 00:57:39 | |
Adrian Adamescu has been designing games for the last decade! He is known for designing light-to-midweight games with clean mechanics. He co-designed Sagrada, Dice Theme Park, Mistwind, and so many more great games! Enjoy the conversation! Links to my games: | |||
| 31 Oct 2023 | 27: Scott Rogers | 01:26:27 | |
Scott Rogers has helped design many successful video games including: Pac-Man World, the Maximo series, God of War, Drawn to Life series and Darksiders. A former Disney Imagineer and VR designer, Scott currently teaches game design at the New York Film Academy and the University of Southern California's interactive media department. His segment "Biography of a Board Game" can be heard on the award-winning Ludology Podcast (and back episodes of the Dice Tower Podcast). Links to my games: | |||
| 08 Nov 2023 | 28: Joe Slack | 00:55:21 | |
Check out Mayan Curse on Kickstarter! Many of his current designs are on display at www.crazylikeabox.com. Joe is also a game design instructor and author of 4 books on game design, including the #1 best-seller, The Board Game Designer's Guide. He previously taught at Laurier University in the Game Design & Development Program and now runs his own online course for new game designers, The Board Game Design Course. Links to my games: | |||
| 04 Dec 2023 | 29: Brett J. Gilbert and Trevor Benjamin | 01:20:17 | |
Brett and Trevor are both board game designers, who have an amazing portfolio of games. Mandala, Undaunted, Guild of Merchant Explorers are all games one or both of them have worked on. In this episode, we talked about their community of game designers, and how they design and co-design games. If you listen closely you're sure to hear some well-kept secrets of board game success. Links to my games: | |||
| 02 Jan 2024 | 30: Daryl Andrews | 01:02:50 | |
Daryl is a game designer and a member of the Game Artisans of Canada (GAC). Twitter: http://twitter.com/darylmandrews Links to my games: | |||
| 14 Feb 2024 | 31: Chris Backe | 01:02:50 | |
Chris Backe (rhymes with hockey) is the founder of Entro Games. His games typically play in under 30 minutes, feature a wide variety of player counts, and a diverse range of themes. The thing they all have in common: they're easy to learn, easy to play, and offer plenty of strategy and replayability. Chris is the co-creator of No Box Games alongside Kristian Fosh and Roque A. Deleon, and Virtual Playtesting alongside Ian Brocklebank. He also runs Tabletop Publishers, a database of publishers to help designers pitch their games better. Links to my games: | |||
| 07 Mar 2024 | 32: Daniel Piechnick | 01:36:41 | |
Daniel is a former Magic: The Gathering external developer and designer of Radlands. Links to my games: | |||
| 14 Mar 2024 | 33: Andrew Stiles | 00:53:58 | |
Andrew is an American game designer and co-host of the Tabletop Submarine podcast. His new game Wine Cellar is coming to Kickstarter in April 2024. Links to my games: | |||
| 26 Mar 2024 | 34: Richard Garfield | 01:06:22 | |
Richard Garfield is a game designer and mathematics professor known for creating the immensely popular card game Magic: The Gathering. In our conversation, we delve into topics such as game design, discovering fun where we don't initially feel it, playtesting, auto battlers, and much more! Additionally, we explore some of his other games, including Keyforge, Treasure Hunter, The Hunger, and, of course, Magic. Links to my games: | |||
| 12 Apr 2024 | 35: Andrew Bosley | 01:03:15 | |
Andrew Bosley is one of the co-designers of Planecrafters by Paisley Board Games and the artist behind Everdell, The River, Mission: Red Planet, and Citadels. He is a freelance illustrator, game designer, and writer working primarily in the board and video game industries. Links to my games: | |||
| 18 Jul 2024 | 36: Finding Your Board Game's Superfans with Ori Kagan | 01:18:27 | |
Ori Kagan is the creative force behind Kagan Productions, a renowned agency specializing in high-quality animated trailers for board games. With a proven track record of helping campaigns raise over $19 million, Ori collaborates with both established publishers and first-time creators to bring their tabletop games to life with captivating storytelling and marketing expertise. Links to my games: | |||
| 05 May 2020 | Episode 1: Arcana Magica and Mihail Ivanov | 00:52:19 | |
Ivan from The Player Lair welcomes Mihail Ivanov, designer of Arcana Magica. We talk about his creative process when designing board games, kickstarting projects, narrative in games and the influence of gaming in culture throughout history. He is currently doing a PhD in narrative in the digital age and shares many insights throughout the episode. Links to my games: | |||
| 15 May 2020 | Episode 2: Garphill Games and Shem Phillips | 00:58:27 | |
Ivan from The Player Lair talks to Shem Phillips from Garphill Games. We talk about various challenges that he's faced in his experience, which spans longer than a decade. We discuss the general design process and differences between working by yourself and sharing the creative process. Links to my games: | |||
| 05 Jun 2020 | Episode 3: Nikola Petrov and The King of All Bards | 00:46:12 | |
Ivan from The Player Lair sits down with Nikola Petrov to talk about game design. Nikola is a full time game designer and shares his experience working with publishers. He is also the narrative director for ZenART VR and has experience working in both analogue and digital gaming. Links to my games: | |||
| 18 Jun 2020 | Episode 4: Keith Matejka and Thunderworks Games | 01:03:28 | |
We talk to Keith Matejka from Thunderworks Games. Keith has a ton of experience in board games as well as video games. We talk about game design, Kickstarter, game manufacturing and publishing. Some notable games he's worked on include: Roll Player, Cartographers: A Roll Player Tale, Bullfrogs, Lockup: A Roll Player Tale and Dual Powers: Revolution 1917. Keith's latest game, Roll Player Adventures, is coming to kickstarter on June 23rd. Links to my games: | |||
| 06 Jul 2020 | Episode 5: Sam Macdonald: Focusing on Player Interaction | 00:48:23 | |
Sam Macdonald, designer of Circadians and codesigner of all of the West Kingdom games, joins us to talk about his experience in game design. He's been designing games for only 3 years, but already many of his games are extremely popular and have some great aspects to their designs. Links to my games: | |||
| 21 Jul 2020 | Episode 6: Joe Slack: Making Puzzles and Teaching Design | 00:42:47 | |
Joe Slack, game designer and game design teacher, joins us to talk about his project Relics of Rajavihara, which is live on Kickstarter. We also talk about the design community, which he has built through his books and courses, his design process, pitching to publishers and more. You can find out more about his projects at his website- Board Game Design Course. Links to my games: | |||
| 22 Jul 2020 | Episode 7: Making and Marketing a Mail-in Mystery with Lisa and Anna | 00:54:41 | |
Lisa Levina and Anna Lysova join me to talk about Scarlet Envelope: a series of mail-in mystery games. They went from an initial idea for a game to 25 times over their funding goal in just 4 months! Though it’s their first Kickstarter, they both have a background in marketing and they really go in depth on their approach to making and marketing the game. Links to my games: | |||
| 07 Aug 2020 | Episode 8: Lore, Gore and More with John De Campos | 00:46:51 | |
John de Campos of Terrible games joins us to talk about his game Token Terrors Battlegrounds. John is co-designer and illustrator of the project and walks us through the process of making miniatures, lore, mechanics and kickstarting the game. Token Terrors has been a passion project of John and the team behind Terrible Games for the past 3 years and is now on Kickstarter! Links to my games: | |||
| 18 Aug 2020 | Episode 9: Dining with Dracula | 00:27:53 | |
Giuliano Draguleanu, from 2Fat2Fly Games, joins us to talk about Dining with Dracula. We talked about how they approach making games and the twists they've added to the worker placement genre in Dining with Dracula. Links to my games: | |||
| 31 Aug 2020 | Episode 10: Festivals, Contests and Game Design with Vassil Lozanov | 00:53:17 | |
Vassil Lozanov is the designer of Among Thieves, as well as one of the organizers of Sofia Board Game Weekend. We talk about the history of the festival, design groups, hosting and judging prototype contests and more! Links to my games: | |||
| 06 Sep 2020 | Episode 11: Treasure Island with Marc Paquien | 00:49:12 | |
Marc Paquien, designer of Treasure Island and Yamatai, joins us to talk about his game design process. He tells us how he went from thinking about designing a board game to actually doing it. He also talked about working with Bruno Cathala and the publisher Matagot. Links to my games: | |||
| 15 Sep 2020 | Episode 12: Deck of Wonders with Dennis Furia | 00:41:23 | |
First-time kickstarter creator Dennis Furia talks about his project Deck of Wonders. Deck of Wonders is a solo-first expandable card game with legacy elements. It captures the feel of games like Hearthstone and MTG, but in a solo/co-op format. Links to my games: | |||
| 22 Oct 2020 | Episode 13: Under Falling Skies with Tomáš Uhlíř | 00:38:02 | |
Tomáš Uhlíř tells us about Under Falling Skies - a game that started out as a 9-card print and play contest winner and went on to be picked up by Czech Games Edition. We also talk about his work as a developer on Sanctum and his views on game design. Links to my games: | |||
| 02 Nov 2020 | Episode 14: Bruno Cathala | 01:11:18 | |
Bruno Cathala joins us to give us his views on game design, with over 20 years of experience in making games. We talk about his processes on games like Kingdomino, 7 Wonders Duel, 5 Tribes and more. We also talk about his collaborations, where he finds inspiration and ideas. Links to my games: | |||
| 23 Nov 2020 | Episode 15: Spirit Island with R. Eric Reuss | 01:05:10 | |
We chat with R. Eric Reuss, designer of Spirit Island, about game design. He tells us about the process he went through in the making of Spirit Island and it's expansions, his new game- For Science! and all of the in's and out's of game design! Links to my games: | |||
| 18 Jan 2021 | Episode 16: Dexterity games with Aron West | 01:05:22 | |
Aron West, co-designer of Catacombs and CEO of Elzra Games, joins us to share his experience from over 10 years in the industry. We talk about dexterity games, publishing, Kickstarter, and more. We also talk about their upcoming Kickstarter project- Catacombs: Monster Pit Links to my games: | |||
| 15 Feb 2021 | Episode 17: Eduardo Baraf and Pencil First Games | 00:59:53 | |
Eduardo Baraf from Pencil First Games joins us to share his experience as a seasoned game maker. He is a game designer, publisher, reviewer and much more! He has experience in both tabletop and digital games and gives a very unique perspective on "game-making". Links to my games: | |||
| 23 Feb 2021 | Episode 18: Targi with Andy Steiger | 01:09:26 | |
We talk to Andreas Steiger, designer of Targi and Targi: The Expansion. Andy shares the story of how he created this fantastic game, his ideas for future projects, advice for new designers and much more! Links to my games: | |||
| 02 Apr 2021 | Bonus Episode: Questeros with Wes Woodbury | 00:27:42 | |
Wes comes on the Player Lair Podcast to tell us about his new project - Questeros. Wes runs FunDaNental Games, hosts a podcast and a YouTube channel about games. Links to my games: | |||
| 06 Apr 2021 | Episode 19: Bruno Faidutti | 00:48:00 | |
Bruno Faidutti joins us to talk game design! Bruno has worked on games including Citadels, Mission: Red Planet, Raptor, Queen's Necklace and many more! Links to my games: | |||
| 19 May 2021 | Episode 20: Making Artwork with The Mico | 00:53:17 | |
Mihajlo Dimitrievski shares his experience making artwork for board games, comic books, animated movies and more! He's worked on games like The North Sea Trilogy, The West Kingdom Trilogy, Endless Winter and many more! Check out his work on Facebook and Instagram! Links to my games: | |||
| 13 Jul 2021 | Episode 21: Micro Games with Ben Downton | 00:57:25 | |
Ben is the creator of Micro Dojo and Prometheus Game Labs. We talked about his process running his first successful Kickstarter project and what he learned in the past year of making Micro Dojo. Links to my games: | |||
| 28 Jul 2021 | Episode 22: Renegade Legion with Budgie Smuggler Games | 00:58:24 | |
Matt and Josh from Budgie Smuggler Games tell us about their upcoming project Renegade Legion: Centurion. We talked about acquiring intellectual property, working in a team, war games and much more! Twitter: https://twitter.com/GamesBudgie Links to my games: | |||
| 22 Sep 2021 | Episode 23: Circadians: Chaos Order with Sam and Zach | 01:37:23 | |
Zachary Smith and Sam Macdonald tell us about their upcoming game - Circadians: Chaos Order. We talk about game design, development, player interaction, and making a game feel balanced for both new and experienced players. Links to my games: | |||
| 26 Oct 2021 | Episode 24: Megapulse with Nicolas Fournier | 01:05:18 | |
We talk to Nicolas Fournier about game design, loss aversion, player interaction, racing and his debut board game - Megapulse. Links to my games: | |||
| 25 Dec 2021 | Episode 25: Sandy Petersen | 01:01:42 | |
Sandy Petersen has been creating RPGs, video games, and board games for over 40 years! He is now the founder of Petersen Games, and in addition to the Cthulhu Wars game line, has designed the Orcs Must Die board game, Glorantha: The Gods War, and upcoming projects. Links to my games: | |||