Designer Notes

AUGUST 10, 2021

The game, a historical 4X set in classical antiquity, released on July 1, 2021, and is available for purchase here. The big change that always gets mentioned when going from Civ 4 to Civ 5 is one-unit-per-tile (1UPT), which is interesting as 1UPT is purely a mechanical – as opposed to thematic – change.

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Brand Game Development

JULY 22, 2019

Perfect board game pacing is one of the most underrated aspects of board game design. Somewhere between overwhelm and ennui, there lies a middle ground where a game is perfectly paced. A great board game feels challenging and interesting throughout. At the beginning of the game, a player’s objective is simple.

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Designer Notes

MARCH 31, 2023

Welcome to My Elephant in the Room: An Old World Design Postmortem. Here are the games that I’ve worked on. Spoiler alert: Civilization 3 and 4 are going to come up a lot in the presentation… I also do a podcast where I interview game designers about why they make games, so check it out if you have time for 4-hour interviews.

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Tile Point and Click AI Mechanics 98

Brand Game Development

JULY 15, 2019

One of the hallmarks of good board game design is being able to create hard choices. Sounds easy enough to do, but it’s actually really tough from the designer’s perspective! Let’s talk about how you can create hard choices in your board game. Particularly when hard choices come from simple mechanics.

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Designer Notes

AUGUST 31, 2021

The following is an excerpt from the Designer Notes for Old World. The game, a historical 4X set in classical antiquity, released on July 1, 2021, and is available for purchase here. The first Civilization game was like a game design thunderbolt, sent from the heavens and marking everything it touched.

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Tile Terrain Game Design Game Designer 40

Brand Game Development

NOVEMBER 20, 2017

Board game development is a very individual process. Every single developer has different methods for creating their games. This article is the third of a 19-part suite on board game design and development. Need help on your board game? I studied Game Design at UAT in Tempe, AZ and graduated with honors in 2009.

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Mechanics Games Game Design Game Designer 130

Keith Burgun

JANUARY 4, 2023

At different parts of the bridge there were investment tiles, so on a basic level the premise was kind of, “do I move to a relatively unsafe investment tile, or do I BUMP?” ” A lot of the basic MOVE/BUMP dynamics were inherited from my 2019 card game, Dragon Bridge. Spellstorm At Its Heart. “Spellstorm 2.0”

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Mechanics Game Design Game Designer Playtesting 52