Q&A met Michael Schacht, auteur van o.a. Zooloretto

[MichaelSchacht]

12) Rober, i do play frequently online (for the others: also with Rober). Besides the fun it makes for myself (i like digital games) the mayor aspect is the support of the onlinegames on my own website. I see it as a kind of responsibility that the people visiting my site to play my game can play with me as well. And it doesn‘t have to be a disadvantage for them as my winning-statistics are not that good as you can see below

Patrician--2 player (40%)--3 player (25%)--4 player (20%)--5 player (0%) ---total (37%)
Hansa----2 player (44%)--3 player (37%)--4 player (19%)----------------total (35%)
China------------------3 player (49%)--4 player (35%)--5 player (43%)--total (44%)

On other websites i play rarley as the time i can spent is - of course - limited. Especially when a new release is happening like actually Shanghaien at yucata.de i play a few games for personal interest.

[MichaelSchacht]

13) Dok33, i‘m not superstitious as in school i was quite focussed on science stuff. So, i wasn‘t adfraid of question number thirteen. But i don‘t like horror themed games - a little thrill is ok but i also don‘t like horror books and movies.

Concerning Kardinal & König we can play it online if you like (would be a pleasure). Just let me know. Or if there is interest also by others i can open up a few more games for us.

14) Mostly, I would recommend Cartagena by Leo Colovini as it is a game you can play with everyone and even the gamers are not "too bored" (secondly: Verflixxt as it is suitable for even more people). Besides the rules are fastly to teach, a turn soesn‘t take long although you have different options and the game length is moderate.
(i assume these are not the favourite titles of the attendees )

15) If we are not talking about "career", why not? Game designing is a really nice hobby if you are persistent and have no problem with criticism and publishers declining your loved ideas. Or if you design "just" for yourself and your friends. If you want to make a living of it is quite hard as the print-runs are usually not big. Wolfgang Kramer once said, that he needs 100.000 sold games a year. So, usually more professional games designers still have a main job aside.
Jobbing in the game industry can be interesting as well. But developer jobs are quite rare and there are already some good free-lancers around.

16) I wouldn‘t like to publish my own games. That would make two jobs at the same time which usually doesn‘t work perfectly. I prefer concentrating on one thing. If you look at my website, newsblog, newsletter, onlinegames a.s.o. you see there is already a lot of additional time spent ...

17) Perhaps i like most the very first phase when the idea is fresh and you enthusiasticly "puzzle" all the mechanics as a kind of vision of the game just in your head. Unfortunately this one is the shortest . The second phase is the hardest when you try to realize all these different parts, step by step. Replacing things that don‘t work. Preparing then the first prototype is ok again. Balancing as the last phase is kind of a routine that you learn as a designer over the years. Usually it is then not too complicated but a little bit "boring".

A nearly complete game in one go is only possible with smaller games, sometimes. My game ideas are usually not that mathematical influenced. But balancing is of course also about mathematic and statistics, usually i have a mix also with real testing and simulation. In the game ideas itself mathematics is not that important for me.

18) The question is very well asked, so that there are already some of my answers implemented. Sure, it is about the socializing, get to know others, learning skills, fun, being competitive and winning. Everyone has his own mixture of these (or other aspects). Playing is such a basic thing and powerful motor in childhood. So, the question is: why should we throw it away when we get older (just because it is "childish"). You will loose a great thing to do but also a part of you emotionality. You‘ll loose social competence. You will have worse solution in creative work.

[Erwin]

1a) Mondo is a fast game where you kind of puzzle a landscape on your own world board.
That happens for all at the same time, picking fastly landscape tiles from the same stock in the middle.
Tiles are two-sided with different landscape combinations (desert, wood, grassland, water). The time is limited to 7 minutes in the beginners game. After that you have to stop building. Of course you try to fill the board completly in time, with less faults. You get points for each animal displayed on a placed tile, and complete landscapes. For the most active volcanoes you get minus points.
The advanced and the professional game brings additional exercises like a specific combination of animals or the most lakes . Furthermore the time limit is lower. In a solo variant you prevent reaching a limit of minus points.

There are several country editions in progress. At the moment just the publisher knows all in details but i think there will be a dutch and a french version.

Yesterday I played my first game of Mondo. This showed that even group stress can be great fun! I really enjoyed this simultaneous tile and puzzle game. You have to check several layers of scoring, try to find the proper tiles and check those pesky volcanoes on the other boards, while the timer is running.

19) Was this game inspired by the tile collection segment of Galaxy Trucker?

[BaSL]

Welcome to Bordspelmania, Michael, and thanks for your time! Looking back, you've designed the games that made up half of my collection when I just started playing: Kardinaal&König, Isis&Osiris, Hansa, Kontor.

20) Do you have a specific theme you love? Do you try to create games around that theme?

21) Do you have favorite artist for your designs?

22) You're a very 'visible' gamedesigner - both online and on conventions etc. If you had to choose, would you rather be active online or at conventions?

[MichaelSchacht]

19) I like and design fast games since a long time and some of them like Sokken zoeken belong to my most successful releases. I think there is no year passing where i am not trying to design a game in that category. As most of these games are easy ones, you naturally come to likewise solutions. In the development the aim was not to create Mondo as another Galaxy Trucker, nevertheless there are aspects which are comparable. I tried to find some more "parents, brothers and sisters" from me or other designers: Affenraffen, Architecton, Carcassonne, Sunda to Sahul, ...

[MichaelSchacht]

20) Usually i try to find a good fitting theme even if it is personally not my kind of tea. But indeed there are some themes i personally like, f. e. industialization. That finally lead to the game Industria / Industry where the the fitted perfectly. Last year i finally had the chance to finalize a game about the Ruhr district in Germany. That project called Ruhrgebiet. was just for myself (and my game groups).

21) Sometimes i made the artwork myself but i am always happy if someone professional does it much better. I always liked the work of Franz Vohwinkel but there are a lot of good artists around. Last year i was impressed by the work of the french artist Julien Delval. Again: i‘m not of the opinion that there is the one who will be the best artist for all kind of games. The style should match best for a good result.

22) If i had to choose between being online and being on conventions it would be close. But i think i would prefer online as i have a really big interest in the internet. But on the other side it is always iportant for me to meet the people. Really hard decision - hopefully i have not really to decide

[MichaelSchacht]

Finally, i want thank you all for the interest, the warm words and the interesting discussion.

All the best
Michael

[Dierik]

Finally, i want thank you all for the interest, the warm words and the interesting discussion.

All the best
Michael

Michael, we want to thank you very much for answering all the questions. We hope to see you back!

[BaSL]

Thanks for your time and for coming to BSM!