Welcome!
Welcome to Ludology, an analytical discussion of the hows and whys of the world of board games. Rather than news and reviews, Ludology explores a variety of topics about games from a wider lens, as well as discuss game history, game design and game players.
We post a new Ludology episode every other week. In these episodes, hosts Erica Bouyouris and Sen-Foong Lim deep-dive into a single topic within game design, often with a well-regarded guest from the game industry. We generally focus on tabletop game design (mainly board games and RPGs), but we often pull in experts from all forms of games, from video games to escape rooms to slot machines.
On weeks where there is no flagship Ludology episode, we will alternate between two smaller mini-sodes. Erica and Sen are happy to announce that Sarah Shipp of Shippboard Games and Stephanie Campbell of TTRPGKids will be joining us for the next year, providing additional content between our longer episodes.
Sarah's segment, Thinking Beyond Mechanisms, is a monthly feature that dives deeper into the other aspects of games beyond the dice and cards we're all familiar with.
Stephanie's segment, TTRPGKids, explores how parents and teachers can use role playing games with children in the home and in the classroom.
We hope you enjoy the additional content!
Our History
We aim for most Ludology episodes to be timeless, so you are welcome to explore our entire catalog. Most of it should age quite well. The podcast was started in 2011 by Geoff Engelstein and Ryan Sturm, with Mike Fitzgerald taking over for Ryan in 2015. Gil and Scott joined the show in 2017 when Mike stepped aside, and Emma joined in 2019 when Geoff ended his tenure as host. Emma left in 2021, and Erica and Sen joined us. Since then, Scott stepped down in 2022 and Gil will be hanging up his mic in 2023, leaving Erica and Sen to carry on this amazing legacy.
Erica and Sen are working to bring new voices to Ludology and have some great things to announce as gaming expands to include even more people!
Contact Us
Have your own thoughts about our topics? We encourage you to visit us at our guild on Boardgamegeek to get involved in a continuing discussion.
You can also email us at hello@ludology.net.
Ludology is part of The Dice Tower Network, the premier board game media network.
If you have questions that you'd like answered on Ludology, let us know by filling out this Google Form; you can also leave an audio question that we can use on the show, if you wish!
Burning Questions for Ludology
Support the Show
Ludology is made possible through the support and donations of listeners like you.
We currently have 3 "First Listen" series that will go out to Patrons well in advance of the audio being released to the wider audience.
- The Memories that Made Us (monthly) - memories about gaming experiences that helped shape the people that bring modern games to life
- Tales from the Designer Toolbox (monthly) - tips and tricks from industry pros learned from both success and failure
- Ludology Live - recordings from conventions around the world
Patrons will also get extra consideration for any giveaways that we might have!
You can also make a one-time or monthly donation here. The link will take you to Erica's account. People who donate in this way will not have access to the Patreon page - sorry!
Sep 18, 2022
Erica, Gil, and Sen discuss some of the tools and processes they
use at the various phases of designing a game from their varying
perspectives of an in-house designer, a publisher, and freelance
designer/developer.
SHOW NOTES:
00:08:31 DDS is an acronym for Detailed Design Specification
00:11:38 LucidChart browser-based flowcharting and more www.lucidchart.com
00:18:43 Canva free online graphic design tool www.canva.com
00:19:13 Tabletop Simulator is a virtual tabletop (VTT) run on Steam www.tabletopsimulator.com
00:19:14 Tabletopia is a browser-based VTT www.tabletopia.com
00:21:26 Also known as an MVP - a “Minimum Viable Prototype”
00:21:45 Filemaker Pro is a relational database www.claris.com
00:21:57 Nandeck is cardmaking software www.nandeck.com
00:22:05 Component Studio is a full game design suite that is hooked up to the Game Crafter https://component.studio/
00:26:06 Adobe Creative Suite is the industry standard for the industry in terms of graphic design www.adobe.com
00:27:54 Photopea is an online Photoshop equivalent for raster images www.photopea.com
00:28:29 GIMP is an open source Photoshop equivalent www.gimp.org
00:29:15 Inkscape is a free equivalent of Illustrator for vector images www.inkscape.org
00:29:57 The Affinity Suite is a one-time payment suite of graphic design and illustrative tools https://affinity.serif.com
00:36:46 Fiskars Rotary Cutter is Sen’s weapon of choice www.fiskars.com/en-us/crafting-and-sewing/products/rotary-cutters-mats-and-rulers
00:37:13 Arc punches, square punches and corner punches, oh my! This is an example of a 1” arch punch: www.amazon.ca/General-Tools-Instruments-1271M-1-Inch/dp/B00004T7WH
00:41:36 Midjourney and Dall-e are prompt-based AI Art generators www.midjourney.com / https://openai.com/blog/dall-e/
00:44:58 Some great sources for icons etc. www.flaticon.com https://thenounproject.com https://game-icons.net
00:45:32 Face generating software ThisPersonDoesNotExist https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/
00:48:46 Functional Fixedness is the psychological phenomena when a person cannot see any other use for an item because their initial understanding of how it’s used is the only way they think it can be used
00:49:10 Sunk Cost Fallacy occurs when a person will not make a change, even one that is likely to be highly beneficial, due to the perceived amount of time, money, effort, etc.they have already invested in the current strategy
00:55:58 You can record your screen right from Windows https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/record-the-screen-d70508e8-25a3-4b97-b78a-a467b5372e21 and MacOS https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT208721