We are joined by Allen Chang and Alistair Kearney from Rule & Make to discuss collaborating on designs, focusing on the core of games, Kickstarting a publishing company, communicating with backers, taking backer suggestions, ideal player counts and building relationships.

Rule & Make – @ruleandmake / ruleandmake.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 010 – Kickstarting Publishing with Allen Chang and Alistair Kearney

What we talked about

2:37 – Collaborating on making games in Rule & Make

4:55 – Craziest things Alistair has said yes or no to when designing with Allen

9:00 – Major changes late in design for Rise to Power and Burger Up

14:10 – Reassessing the core of a game

16:14 – What makes a “Rule & Make game”

19:10 – Focusing on core mechanics in a game

20:43 – Kickstarting a publishing company

25:05 – Designing games vs publishing games

28:53 – Lifestyle games and competition

36:00 – Communication with backers post-Kickstarter, maintaining a record through regular updates

42:48 – Taking on backer suggestions and getting backer involvement

49:07 – Balancing backer suggestions with the core of the game

56:34 – Ideal player counts

1:02:35 – Looking beyond Australia with publishing and finding designers

1:05:56 – Building relationships with publishers and designers

1:10:06 – Choosing to be a designer or a publisher

Links to what we talked about

• GAMA – The Game Manufacturers Association
• Australian Toy Hobby and Licensing Fair
• Grail Games
• Previous interview with Allen and Alistair on the Action Points Podcast
• Games Laboratory Incubator
• Czech Games Edition
• Portal Games

Games we mentioned

• Entropy
• Rise to Power
• Ninja Dojo Fight
• Burger Up
• Robots & Rockets
• Elevenses
• One Zero One
• Munchkin
• Android: Netrunner
• Dominion
• Android
• Android: Infiltration
• Steam Works
• After the Flood
• Too Many Cinderellas

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