Using a spreadsheet to calculate probabilities in dice rolls:
http://www.felsirworld.net/dice-simulation-with-google-docs/
HT The Game Crafter (@TheGameCrafter)
Rob Daviau (@robdaviaugamer) joins the Game Design Round Table podcast to discuss persistence in board games, launching a game company, the design process and more:
http://thegamedesignroundtable.com/2012/11/20/episode-2-memory-innovation-and-being-an-indie/
A day in the life of a professional board game designer: Matt Hyra of Cryptozoic Entertainment:
http://www.cryptozoic.com/blogs/office-board-game-fun-matt-hyra
Ways of introducing asymmetry in games, by Lewis Pulsipher (@lewpuls):
http://pulsiphergamedesign.blogspot.com/2012/11/looking-at-game-design-in-terms-of-ways.html
Running a small game publishing company: Christopher Badell of “Sentinels of the Multiverse” publisher Greater Than Games (@SentinelsOTM) visits the Ludology podcast:
http://ludology.libsyn.com/ludology-episode-44-all-for-one-and-one-for-all
“If you test with only gamers, don’t expect it to ever go to mass market – expect it to be beloved by gamers, and that’s where you’re going to sell it. So you have to figure out ahead of time who the market is that you’re aiming for, and that’s where you test it.”
Dominic Crapuchettes (@DCrapuchettes) discusses the business side of his company, North Star Games (@NorthStarGames). He touches on market testing, distribution, marketing, partnerships and more:
http://meepletown.com/2012/11/game-designer-publisher-interview-dominic-crapuchettes-part-1/
City Hall designer Michael R. Keller (@vhgames) discusses gut-wrenching decisions, low downtime, juggling multiple projects, market mechanics, humility and more:
“It is valuable to have several games in development simultaneously to avoid getting into a design rut. If one game presents a persistent problem, you can set it aside for a while until inspiration strikes.”
“The first time you think your game is done, you’re wrong. The next hundred times you think that, you’re still wrong.”
“Don’t ever dismiss a playtester’s feedback. You may know your game better than the player, but the player knows what it feels like to play your game better than you do.”
http://bellwethergames.com/featureddesigners/198-michael-keller-interview.html
Jeremy Anderson of Game Night Productions visits the Game Gab podcast to give a broad overview of the development process, with lots of pointers for working methods, prototyping, playtesting and more:
http://podcasts.pulpgamer.com/myriadgames/135639/game-gab-game-development-with-jeremy-anderson/
How to solve the problem in cooperative games where one player takes over for the other players? Richard Garfield discusses three new games with different solutions:
http://www.threedonkeys.com/blog/archives/778
SEE ALSO:
http://hyperbolegames.com/2012/10/29/the-dominant-player-problem/
What special considerations are required to design a political game? Jason Matthews, the codesigner of games like Twilight Struggle, 1960 and Founding Fathers, joins the Ludology podcast:
http://ludology.libsyn.com/ludology-episode-43-twilight-snuggle
Different options for keeping track of quantities in games:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/884312/physical-ways-in-games-of-showing-quantities
Some recommendations for rules layout software:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/884318/rules-layout-software
