We are joined by Jamey Stegmaier to discuss seeking excellence in board game design. We discuss setting expectations, blind playtesting, how our views on excellence have changed, and figuring out what games to publish.

Jamey Stegmaier – @jameystegmaier / stonemaiergames.com

Kim Brebach – @secretbasegames / secretbasegames.com

Aaron Lim – @ehronlime / theactionpointspodcast.com

Sye Robertson – @syelon / syelon.com

Episode link below or on iTunes, and feel free to send us any feedback at mail@theactionpointspodcast.com (for now). You can also follow us on Twitter as @victorypointers.

Victory Pointers Episode 007 – Seeking Excellence with Jamey Stegmaier

What we talked about

What makes a game exceptional? 2:20

Meeting audience expectations 8:25

Changing views of excellence across Stonemaier games 11:12

Blind playtesting 13:40

Play testers as promoters 28:00

Our changing views on excellence and uniqueness 30:00

The game ‘experience’ 34:30

Studying the craft of game design 37:40

Outside inspiration 42:28

Top 3 resources for improving your game design craft 46:45

How important is the meld between theme and mechanics in game design for the promise of excellence? 56:00

Importance of art in the promise of excellence 58:33

What does Stonemaier games look for in other peoples designs it considers
publishing? 1:04:55

Retheming 1:06:12

How is kickstarter mixing things up in game design and publishing? 1:09:00

What is the publisher’s role in publishing exceptional games? 1:10:20

Links to what we talked about

• Check out Jamey’s blog here
• Jamey’s book “A Crowdfunder’s Strategy Guide” can be found here
• Jamey’s blog post “An Open Letter to Game Designers”
• Ignacy Trzewiczek’s blog post “I challenge you! Honest publisher manifesto!”

Games we mentioned

• Scythe on Kickstarter
• Scythe art by Jakub Rozalski
• Viticulture
• Euphoria
• Between Two Cities
• MONSTROUS
• Robots and Rockets
• Gloomhaven
• Consentacle
• Bycatch
• …and then we held hands
• Patchwork

Game Design Resources

• Ludology
• The Game Design Round Table
• Stuff You Missed in History Class
• History of Pirates Podcast
• Art and Graphic Design for Tabletop Games on Facebook
• Cardboard Edison
• Gamasutra
• 99% Invisible
• The Psychology of Video Games
• MailChimp
• Print and Play Productions
• Board Game Geek Design Forum – Brief crash course on game design
• Perfect Information Podcast
• Tabletop Game Designers Australia

Other Facebook Groups:

• Card & Board Game Designers Guild
• Kickstarter Best Practices
• Tabletop Games Kickstarter Advice
• Tabletop Game Publisher’s Guild
• Writing for Tabletop Games

Check out our interviews with Malaysian board game designers in our previous episode

EDIT: If you’re in Australia, there are some Australia-specific resources here as well.

Music: Something Small (Instrumental) by Minden is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License. Based on a work at http://needledrop.co