Nerdlab | Nerd like a Boss

025 – Synergies and Combos in Everdell with James Wilson

July 7, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Interview / 0 comments

In Episode 25 of the Nerdlab podcast, I chatted with James Wilson, the designer of Everdell. We talked about his journey and how he developed Everdell. In our discussion, we have put a special focus on the design of synergies and combos. What are synergies? How do they differ from combos? What is the best […]

024 – Gambit and Designing RPGs for Kids with Chevas Balloun

June 2, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Interview, Podcast / 3 comments

In Episode 24 of the Nerdlab podcast, I chatted with Chevas Balloun the designer of Gambit. Gambit is a Tabletop RPG without Pen and Paper and a lot of visualization that started when Chevas drew a dungeon-like Maze for his 5-year-old son and realized that he could play through the maze as a kind of […]

023 – Resources and Restrictions

May 16, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Podcast / 0 comments

In Episode 23 of the Nerdlab podcast, we will tackle a challenge many game designers have to face when they create a game. Today I am going to take a look at resource mechanics. At their heart, resources are a way of restricting a player to do whatever they want. The main challenge for me […]

022 – The one thing you need to know as a Game Designer

April 30, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Interview, Podcast / 3 comments

Get the companion PDF File for this episode in order to transform this incredible advice into actionable items for your own journey. In Episode 22 of the Nerdlab podcast, you will be listening to 14 of the greatest game designers of all times. All of them have answered one question:What is the one thing you […]

021 – Level up – Character Progression in Card Games

April 12, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Podcast / 3 comments

In Episode 21 of the Nerdlab podcast, we will talk about level ups and progression systems in card games. We will talk about character progression by upgrading cards or adding new cards to a deck. We will talk about roguelikes, deck builders, deck construction games and adventure card games. All of these games have progression […]

020 – Designing Adventure Card Games with Mike Selinker

April 2, 2019 / by Marvin / Interview, Podcast / 4 comments

For Episode 20 of the Nerdlab, I have had the honor to interview Mike Selinker. A legend in the Game Design industry. He is the brain behind many of the games that inspired me to start my quest as a game designer. Just to mention a few: Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Apocrypha Betrayal at House […]

019 – Artificial Intelligence in Board Games – Part 2

March 26, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Game Review, Podcast / 0 comments

In episode 19 of the Nerdlab we will follow up on last weeks episode. So if you didn’t listen to episode 18 I strongly recommend listening to this episode first. Because I discussed a lot of basics about Artificial Intelligence. We talked about some design principles and different levels of AI in board games. Today […]

018 – Artificial Intelligence in Board Games – Part 1

March 15, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Podcast / 1 comment

In Episode 18 of the Nerdlab we will talk about AI which stands for artificial intelligence. AI is a form of intelligent agent that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving a goal. While this is also a huge topic in computer science, we will only focus on AI […]

017 – Ending Games using Fatigue & Exhaustion Mechanics

March 3, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Podcast / 0 comments

In Episode 17 of the Nerdlab we will talk about the topic “How to finish a game” and will especially deal with the situation when a game takes much longer than expected. To avoid this situation in our games, we will also look at some fatigue and exhaustion mechanics that can be used as secondary […]

016 – Preparing for Playtesting and Scattershot Testing

February 22, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Podcast / 0 comments

In episode 16 of the Nerdlab, I am talking about how I approach an upcoming playtesting weekend. In particular, I am talking about Scattershot Testing, a method I use to test as many different mechanics as possible in a single playtesting session: Instead of hunting for the answers to the core problems of my game I want […]

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