Game Design | Nerdlab

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 […]

015 – Aeons End & The Early Design Phase with Kevin Riley

February 14, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Interview, Podcast / 0 comments

In episode 15 of the Nerdlab, I have the honor to interview Kevin Riley designer of Aeons End, one of my favorite games. Kevin shares with us some incredible design principles that I’m definitely going to apply to my game design as well. And To be honest, I think every card game designer should follow these principles. […]

014 – Cardpocalypse and Legacy Elements in CCGs with Angelo Nikolaou

February 8, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Podcast / 3 comments

In episode 14 of the Nerdlab, I’m very proud to talk with Angelo Nikolaou about the game Cardpocalypse and the specific design process of a single player CCG. We also discussed a lot about legacy elements in games and why we think they make a game more interesting through personalization. Angelo has a lot of practical advice […]

013 – Turn Order and Initiative in Cooperative Card and Board Games

February 1, 2019 / by Marvin / Game Design, Podcast / 0 comments

Hello fellow adventurers, In today’s episode, we are discussing Turn Order and Initiative in Cooperative Card and Board Games. My goal for this episode is to identify the different aspects of various turn order mechanics in order to enrich our game designer mindset. Hopefully, this will help all of us to create the best possible turn […]

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 / 2 comments

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 […]

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 […]

008 – Goal Setting for Game Developers

December 28, 2018 / by Marvin / Game Design, Podcast / 2 comments

Hello fellow adventurers, The new year is approaching fast. We are going to use this weeks episode to talk a little bit about goal setting and why it is especially important for game developers. Topics: Goal Setting / Life Planning Why is goal setting is so important for game designers? How to set goals as […]

007 – Health Mechanics in Board and Card Games – Part 2

December 20, 2018 / by Marvin / Game Design, Podcast / 0 comments

Hello fellow adventurers, In Episode 7 of the Nerdlab, we will focus on health tracking in card games. This is the second part of a 2 part series on health mechanics. In the last episode, we analyzed the different aspects of health systems and formulated some questions you could ask yourself in order to find […]

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