Howdy folks!
As part of an effort to get regular content onto the website, we'll be doing regular interviews with local gamers, designers and game shop owners. Our first series will be with members of the Game Artisans of Canada, a homegrown Alberta group of boardgame designers. They are officially joining us this year at FallCon to showcase a lineup of their best prototypes. All of these games are fairly late in development, there are no raw designs, and some of these games have already been submitted to publishers! Now you have an opportunity to play the game and offer your comments on the game play…before it even goes public!
To drum up a little interest in the games and designers, we decided to give them an opportunity to address our FallCon readers through this interview series. There is a chance at the end of these interviews to ask the designers questions of your own; I encourage all of you to take advantage. The designers will be checking in on these interviews and will be responding to your questions and comments. You can also head over to our forums and chat it up there.
The first Interview is with Matt Tolman. When he's not designing games, his other job is operating a construction company. Without further ado, here's the interview!
What are your current favorite three games?
#1 - Le Havre - I love economic games, and this game gives real strategic freedom to the players.
#2 - Princes of Florence - So clean, so elegant, It's perfect.
#3 - Die Goldene Stadt - Simple to learn, good player interaction.
How long have you been playing games? What is your earliest recollection of playing a game?
I've always loved games, I got Axis and Allies when I was about 8 and remember long games with my brother spanning several days.
Have we heard about any of your games yet? What is the status of them?
You might have seen Undermining in the schedule, there's a tournament on Saturday. It's been in development for over a year, and is pretty much finished now. I'm hoping a publisher will pick it up soon.
How long have you been designing or tinkering with designing boardgames?
About a year and a half.
What was the first boardgame you designed? Whatever happened to the design?
It's called King's Favor. It was about settling the outlying regions of a kingdom that was overpopulated. Each player represented an heir to the throne trying to impress the King with their settlement and win his favor and the crown. The game turned out to be boring as toast, but I still have plans to use the economic model I designed for the economy.
Where do you start the design process?
I used to start at theme, but Undermining started as the following thought: digging holes is fun. Undermining has been relatively easy to design and most people who have tried it have thought it was fun. As a result, most of my designs in the future will probably start with a mechanic that I think is fun.
What is the creative spark that gets you excited about one of your designs?
My main motivation is simply to fill holes I see in the board game industry. Like, for example, there's not really a western themed game I feel captures what I love about classic western movies, so that was my aim when I started designing "Wanted!".
What are your favorite game mechanics?
Hmmm, where to start. I love anything that pits me against other players in an elegant fashion. The auction mechanic in RA comes to mind, I also really enjoy pick up and deliver mechanics which heavily influenced Undermining.
What themes (if any) are your favorites?
I know it's been done to death, but I really like classic fantasy themes. But really, I can swallow almost any theme if the game play is compelling enough.
Can you let us in on any designs you are currently working on?
Undermining: Currently being evaluated by a publisher, and I'll be showing it at FallCon.
Boomtown (name will change): This one I'm really excited about, players will be taking turns simultaneously, drafting resources to try and build the best town on the frontier. It features live auctions. I hope to have a few copies for people to try at FallCon. Oh, and it supports up to 10 players.
Smash!: Finished card game. I developed this one with fellow Game Artisans of Canada member Gavan Brown. It's a real time game for two players kind of like speed, except absolutely insane. You can bet I'll have copies for people to try at FallCon.
Thanks Matt! Good luck with your designs and we're all looking forward to seeing you at FallCon.
Peace, Brent (aka Thunder)
Tweet
