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Bruno Faidutti schreef:10. How many games are you developing at the moment? Do you focus on one idea at a time, and do you jump back and forth between ideas?
I usually jump back and fort a lot, but I've decided to slow down and spend less time designing games, so I've only two designs I'm working on at the moment, and two relatively light ones.
You decided to slow down?! Noooo.
29. Can you tell us a little bit about the two games you are working on right now?
29. Can you tell us a little bit about the two games you are working on right now?
Well, now there are three...
One is a nasty and light race game in the vein of Ave Caesar or The Flying Carpet, designed together with Brazilian authors André Zatz and Serhio Halaban. this one is finalized and is now looking for a publisher, though we may still make some minor adjustments. It has elephants trying not to trample holy cows.
The second one is a tile game with secret goals designed together with Tyler Sigman, the author of Crows, but it's really at the very first stages of development and I've no idea where it will end.
Then there's a very simple bluffing card game, so far called the Cheshire Cat, and this one I'm trying to design all by myself.
Bruno Faidutti schreef:... It has elephants trying not to trample holy cows ...
Where can I preorder?
30. I noticed that a lot of information on your new releases (like Lost Temple) is available online (the rules, the board, the cards ...).
Are you worried at all that people will construct their own copies, and not go out and buy your games?
30. I noticed that a lot of information on your new releases (like Lost Temple) is available online (the rules, the board, the cards ...).
Are you worried at all that people will construct their own copies, and not go out and buy your games?
Such decisions are made by the publisher, so if they publish the rules, it means that they think it helps the sales rather than the reverse - and I think they're probably right. Printing and cutting cartes and boards is lots of work, and the result never looks as nice as the real game.
33. Are you going to visit Spiel in Essen? If so, how does your Spiel look like? Are you promoting your games most of the time or is there some time left to play games?
34. At Spiel you can see more and more "Asian-style" games. A rather different kind of game with a different artwork. What is your opinion about these games?
Welcome to Bordspelmania, Bruno.
We appreciate it that you spent some time with us here.
35. Do you go to Spiel in Essen as a game designer, a gamer or a game collectioner? Which 'role' do you like most?
36. Do you know any Belgian or Dutch game designers and their games?
37. The gamefair Spel (in Broechem, Belgium) attracted more than 2700 visitors last year. Other fairs in the Low Countries are growing. Do you think about visiting Spel or other fairs in the Netherlands or Belgium?
38. Do you have a large gamescollection at home?
39. Does your family often play your games or do they prefer other games?
40. Being a game designer wouldn't be something for me. With so many games on the market, how difficult is it to create something original? How long does it take you to develop a game?
31. Who is the best artist you have worked with, and who would you like to work with? Joker. I know too many artists and I don't want to make one jealous.
32. When will you think boardgaming will be mainstream, and what needs to happen before that day will come? I think it is. There's no reason to be ashamed of game like Clue, Risk, Taboo, Jenga or Jungle Speed. I'd love to design a party game like Taboo, but it's something really difficult.
So, the problem is not that boardgames are not mainstream, the problem is that the market is too much divided, and that some gamers prefer to play excessively complex games - see Agricola, for example - whose main aim sometimes seem to be show-of - see, my games are so much more complex than yours and therefore so much more clever. As a historical fact, complexity doesn't always mean cleverness. And, yes, Agricola is a good game, but Jungle Speed is also.
33. Are you going to visit Spiel in Essen? If so, how does your Spiel look like? Are you promoting your games most of the time or is there some time left to play games?
I'm not going to Essen because the dates don't fit with my school holidays - I'm a teacher. Also, it's less necessary for me than it was ten years ago, when fairs were the main way of keeping in contact with gamers and with publishers. Now, in part due to the internet, in part because I'm already known by them, I can afford a to skip it. It is, however, a shame this year, with several new games presented on the fair - Lost Temple, Dwarf King and Dragon's Gold, but I hope they'll do well without me.
34. At Spiel you can see more and more "Asian-style" games. A rather different kind of game with a different artwork. What is your opinion about these games?
I'm often surprised by the ideas of Japanese and Coreal authors. I don't think their style is so different, but it's true that they have not been in the same gaming petri box as us for years, and as a result thay sometimes have fress ides - sometimes convincing, sometimes not. String Railway or Gosu are, in very different styles, great games. I also played Hattari, which is definitely very original and very Japanese, and wasn't that convinced.
35. Do you go to Spiel in Essen as a game designer, a gamer or a game collectioner? Which 'role' do you like most?
As I just said, I don't go . When I came, it was as a game designer and gamer. I'm not a collector, even when I own lots of games, and at the moment I'm trying to get rid of thousands of games I will never play again.
36. Do you know any Belgian or Dutch game designers and their games? Surprisingly, I don,'t know any Ductch game designer, but I know several belgians. Philippe Keyaerts is a good frend and an old regular at my ludopathic gathering.
37. The gamefair Spel (in Broechem, Belgium) attracted more than 2700 visitors last year. Other fairs in the Low Countries are growing. Do you think about visiting Spel or other fairs in the Netherlands or Belgium? I usually visit two or three game fairs every year, usually when I'm invited and don't have to deal with hotels and the like, and when it fits with my holydays. So, find someone to invite me, and then I'll see if the dates fit. It's true that Machiaveli selles extremely well in the Low Countries, so I owe this to the Dutch players.
38. Do you have a large gamescollection at home? Far too large. I have something like five or the thousand accumulated game, half of them I've never played, dispersed between my house in Avignon and my flat in Paris. It takes too much room and I must find a way to get rid of it and keep only the few hundred games I really want to have and I occasionally play.
39. Does your family often play your games or do they prefer other games? My family plays very little.
40. Being a game designer wouldn't be something for me. With so many games on the market, how difficult is it to create something original? How long does it take you to develop a game? I never try to create somthing original. I try to design a game I would like to play. Sometimes it's original, sometimes it isn't. As for development time, it can be counted in days, or in years, so there's no rule.
Hi Bruno.
46. Judging from your dragon hunting contest there are many, many games featuring dragons (and you know many). Do you know some (good) games featuring unicorns? Have you used or tried to use unicorns in any of your games?
41. You're a teacher, but what/who do you teach? Primaire? Secondaire?
I studied mostly history, but I happened for some (bad) reasons to pass the exam to become a teacher in economics and sociology, dso I teach economics and sociology to students between 15 and 18.
42. Do your students know you're a game designer? What do they think? Do they play in class? They might make a good test group... They know about it because they found it out on the internet, but I try to keep teaching and gaming separate. Educational games, "serious games", and all that stuff are a real craze in the teaching business now, but I think it's a big error. The study of games, of game theory, of game history, can be very interesting. Using games as a techging tool is a very bad idea - it is usually very inefficient, because lots of time and intellectual energy is spent with the game systems and not with the knowledge or skill that has to be taught. It also has a very bad influence on some students, because it make them thing that it's possible to learn without actual work, and that work is not fun because it's not a game. I think it's not possible to learn anything without actual work, and I also think learning can be fun in itself.
Also, the main point in gaming is the complete separation with the actual world. If you play in order to learn something, youre not really playing.
I thinh it's very significant that, as someone who plays a lot and esign games, I am very hostile to the use of games as a teaching tool, when most teacher who didn't play a single game in the last twenty years think it is a great idea.
43. How hard was it to 'sell' your first game design(s)? I think I already answered this question before.
44. Being an established name in gaming, are publishers less critical about your new submissions? Or do designs get turned down as well? Being an established game designer certainly helps me break through the first defense line of publishers - They read my emails and have a look at the rules or game description I send them. This is less due to my name than to the fact that they know that my game rules will be complete, clear and consistent, which is not always the case with first-time designers. On the other hand, once this first defense line has been passed, when game prototypes are tested, I don't think games by well known designers have a better treatment than games by beginners. Some of my prototypes - including a few ones I really like, like Caravanserai or Space PIrates - have been turned down by dozens of publishers...
45. With the reprint of Dragon's Gold, will more of your older games become available on the Dutch/Belgian market? There's nothing in the pipe at the moment, but if Dragon's Gold sells well, may be White Goblin will want to do Castle, Fist of Dragonstones or some other game !
46. Judging from your dragon hunting contest there are many, many games featuring dragons (and you know many). Do you know some (good) games featuring unicorns? Have you used or tried to use unicorns in any of your games? I think it's a bit like with my teaching work - I tried to keep my historical reasearch and my game designer job as separate as possible, and never seriously tried to design a game about unicorn hunting.
47. As a teacher myself I find it interesting that you try to keep games and students separate. On a related note, do you think it would be interesting to let students design their own games, in some seperate course or something (so not during your regular lessons)?
48. What I like to do as a hobby activity is trying to come up with games for the Decktet; a weird stock of cards. This means I start with the components and try to come up with some rules that fit the components. Now my question is; have you ever designed a game in which you started with the components? If so, which game(s)? If not, why not? Do you think it's too restrictive?
47. As a teacher myself I find it interesting that you try to keep games and students separate. On a related note, do you think it would be interesting to let students design their own games, in some seperate course or something (so not during your regular lessons)?
May be in some other topics, mostly in science, but in the domains I am teaching - history, sociology and economics - I don't think designing games can be ery useful. On the other hand, a chapter about the history of games, or the history of gaming, in the history programes could be very interesting - but it doesn't have to be taught through a game/
48. What I like to do as a hobby activity is trying to come up with games for the Decktet; a weird stock of cards. This means I start with the components and try to come up with some rules that fit the components. Now my question is; have you ever designed a game in which you started with the components? If so, which game(s)? If not, why not? Do you think it's too restrictive?
That's what Richard Borg, James Ernest, Richard Garfield, Mike Selinker and I did with Stonehenge. We first designed together a set of components that we tought versatile enough to allow for many games to be designed, and then we each designed our own game with it. I must say that I'm not very satisfied with the result, which feels a bit too abstract.
49. What do you think is the hardest part of designing a game?
For me, the hardest parts are the very beginning, coming up with original idea, and the very last, final tests and and fine tuning. The very beginning, because there's little else to do than just wait, hoping the idea will come up, like a writer waiting for inspiration in front a blank page. The end, because I usually want to do something else, try to work on another game, or just read a book, rather than play again and again the same game with minor variations.
50. When did you start designing games?
When I was a young student, and playing D&D and Cosmic Encounter.
51. Do you know some games from other designers that you feel like they could have been designed by yourself, because of style similarities?
I know many - usually very good games, but probably because I don't really notice the bad ones I could have designed ! Some examples are Cosmic Encounter, which is probably my all time favorite game, Witch's Brew, Wiraqocha, Ruise and Bruise... There are many others, but these are the ones I'm thinking of just now.
52. Can you name an original mechanism you encountered in some game that blew you away? If so, which one and why? The character selection rule in Verräter - and I used it almost immediately in Citadels.
I guess you survived a week with 52 questions. Thanks for finding time for your responses. They made a nice read. Especially the part where you explain why you do not use games as a teacher was interesting for me as a teacher (using games in some lessons).
Good luck in the future.
