The Roll [sic] of Randomness

Today we talk about how randomness affects our enjoyment of games. It’s slanted towards game design, but also has some crunchy publisher/indie creator perspectives as well. Topics:

  • Low-randomness games
  • High-randomness games
  • Is randomness in games good or bad?
  • How does it affect your target audience?
  • Harnessing the power of randomness

Audio/Podcast:

Target Markets

Today we talk about designing and publishing games for a particular market. Here are some of the topics/questions we cover:

  • What’s a target market?
  • Which markets are commonly considered in the board game industry?
  • Identifying the market that’s right for your game.
  • Should I use elements to my game to fit a particular group of consumers?
  • Do publishers have a specific market in mind when they are scouting games?
  • How do things like ease of play and length of play factor into a market segment?
  • Should I design a game for a specific market?
  • Should designers put their target market on their sell sheet?
  • Are there specific conventions where you’ll find publishers for specific markets?

Audio/Podcast: http://traffic.libsyn.com/theforbiddenlimb/BGBP056.mp3