Game Design Unboxed: Inspiration to Publication

In episode 148 of Game Design Unboxed, we talk with Jason Wong, the designer of PocketParks, a set-collecting card game featuring all 63 US National Parks, with gameplay inspired by Chinese Mahjong. Jason has visited all 63 US National Parks (he has a water bottle full of stickers to prove it), and featured his own photography from those trips in the game. We talk about how noticing the similarities and differences in the parks in...

In episode 147 of Game Design Unboxed, we talk with the designer of Lava Run, Louie Loops, whom listeners may also recognize as the professional crocheter and content creator behind the YouTube channel “Louie’s Loops” and Club Crochet.

Louie shares how childhood game-making and a creative challenge called “New Game” sparked his interest in design, and how he eventually merged his love of crochet with ...

In episode 146 of Game Design Unboxed, we talk with Ionah Nguyen, a Seattle-based board game designer and founder of the board game studio Brainy Hearty.

Ionah is also the co-founder and CEO of Everjoy Global, a company dedicated to bringing Vietnamese tabletop games to international publishers and distributors by creating opportunities for Vietnamese designers to gain visibility and connections in the industry.

In this episode, ...

In episode 144 of Game Design Unboxed, we talk with freelance game designer and co-founder of Postmark Games, Matthew Dunstan. Matthew shares how his curiosity for understanding what happens behind the scenes led him from being a sports referee and umpire in Australia to moving to the UK, where a growing design community, weekly meetups, and a game design contest helped launch his full-time design career. Together, we discus...

In episode 142 of Game Design Unboxed, we talk with freelance game designer Rosco Schock about his first published game, Diplomacy: The Golden Blade, released by Renegade Game Studios. The conversation focuses on the challenge of translating the "feel" of a classic, beloved strategy game into a streamlined and more approachable card game experience.

We also discuss the path from prototype to publication, finding the right publishe...

In episode 141 of Game Design Unboxed, we talk with librarian and game designer, Lewis Graye, whose game design journey began after relocating to Syracuse, becoming part of the local tabletop scene, and participating in a game design contest at a wedding.

They share the story of Lewis’ first published design, Inkwell, and its unexpected path to publication, which began as a playtest mechanic that DVC Games expanded into a fu...

In episode 140 of Game Design Unboxed, we talk with Andrew Stiles, game designer and co-host of the podcast Tabletop Submarine, about how discovering GDU early in his design journey helped him better understand the tabletop space, and how a life reset during COVID (and a challenge to get a game signed in 6-months by his wife) sparked a career pivot into game design. We talk about his first game, Wine Cellar, and how the inspiratio...

In episode 139 of Game Design Unboxed, we chat with Jade Shames and Ben Bronstein, co-founders of Pillbox Games and co-designers of this episode’s spotlight game, Side Effects. They talk about how a mental illness–inspired card game idea (later titled Side Effects) sparked their collaboration and company, the power of bold visuals, why skeletons make perfect models, the balance between realism and accessibility, adjust...

In episode 136 of Game Design Unboxed, we chat with freelance game designer (and Danielle’s co-designer on Tricky Kids), Steven Ungaro, who shares his “zero-to-three-games-in-a-year-hero” design journey. They discuss how discovering hobby games led him down the research rabbit hole many aspiring designers fall into, and how resources like the long-running Ludology podcast have evolved over the years. Because it ...

In episode 135 of Game Design Unboxed, we chat with freelance game designer Kristen Mott, whose game design journey began with creating games for her kids to play at home to supplement homeschooling. We talk about how kids are great built-in playtesters, how her children’s interests were her thematic inspiration for designs, what kids learn through play, and the wild thematic evolution of Stable Times from a game about starf...

In episode 133 of Game Design Unboxed, we chat with game designer and Creative Director Paul Salomon about his innovative worker placement and tile-laying game, Honey Buzz. The conversation covers the creative path that led him from math, music, and juggling into tabletop game design, the balance between aesthetics and mechanics, designing with math in mind, and why a strong elevator pitch that clearly defines your ga...

In episode 132 of Game Design Unboxed: Inspiration to Publication, Amanda Rivera returns from behind-the-scenes to behind-the-mic as a guest host to chat with Danielle about GDU's sixth season. They talk about how thematic season 6 was, recall insights about arguably one of the most common questions in game design (to pitch or self-publish), share how designers make games accessible and approachable, comment on ...

In episode 131 of Game Design Unboxed, we chat with game designer Matt Leacock about his “infamous” game Pandemic.

Matt explains how his path into game design was shaped by watching his artsy uncle create games as a hobby and by growing up surrounded by "bad" games from the 1970s that he couldn’t help but try to improve. We discuss how overly competitive family game nights pushed him toward coope...

In episode 130 of Game Design Unboxed, we chat with game designer Joe Hout about his fairytale-themed trick-taking game, 3 Chapters, accessibility in gaming, and his design journey.

Joe shares how his path into game design began by tweaking games he loved and then took off after completing a passion-project game he self-published via Kickstarter. We break apart 3 Chapters and how the creation of the game was a culmination of favor...