January | 2019 | Nerdlab

012 – Co-Op Mechanics Part 2 – Fighting the Alpha Player Problem, Creating Team Decisions and Adding Tension

January 25, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Podcast / 4 comments

Hello fellow adventurers, In today’s episode, we are discussing co-op game mechanics that can be used to: Fight the alpha player problem Foster team decision situations Add tension to the game What are the main goals of co-op mechanics: One problem in co-op games is the so-called quarterbacking. What it means is that one player makes […]

011 – Co-Op Mechanics to Encourage Teamplay in Card and Board Games

January 18, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Podcast / 1 comment

Hello fellow adventurers, In today’s episode, we are discussing at least 8 mechanics that can be used to encourage team play in cooperative games What is a Cooperative Card Game? A co-op game is by nature a game in which players work together as a team, usually against some kind of AI. In most co-op games […]

Keyforge – A Game Design Review of the Unique Deck Idea

January 16, 2019 / by Marvin / Article, Game Review / 0 comments

Hello fellow adventurers, today we are going to review Keyforge the Unique Deck Game (UDG) by Richard Garfield and Fantasy Flight Games. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about the core concept of unique card games and some of Keyforge’s new and exciting mechanics. If you prefer to listen to my review, I have also recorded […]

010 – Faction Design & Color Identity in Card Games

January 11, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Podcast / 4 comments

Hello fellow adventurers, In today’s podcast episode we’re dealing with a topic that made me ponder and sometimes even despair during the last week. It’s about dividing game elements into logically connected groups. In other words. How can I divide my cards into different factions or colors? I was wondering if my game even needs […]

009 – Keyforge – A Game Developer’s Review of the Unique Deck Game (UDG) Concept

January 4, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Game Review, Podcast / 1 comment

Hello fellow adventurers, and welcome in 2019. Let’s start this year by talking about the Unique Deck Game (UDG) Keyforge from Richard Garfield and Fantasy Flight Games. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about the core concept of unique deck games and some of the mechanics of Keyforge in particular. Therefore, I decided […]