We are joined by Matt Dunstan to discuss finding a community, collaborating on designs, how we come up with game ideas, working with publishers, and recognizing different philosophies of game design.

Matt Dunstan – @wisegoldfish / matthewdunstan.com

Kim Brebach – @secretbasegames / secretbasegames.com

Aaron Lim – @ehronlime / theactionpointspodcast.com

Sye Robertson – @syelon / syelon.com

What we talked about

1:50 – Starting game groups and Australian game design scene growth.

6:00 – Collaborating on game design

8:48 – On the spectrum of design and development

10:00 – How we come up with game ideas

17:10 – On missing rules documents in prototypes

26:17 – Setting design goals and agreeing on a vision for a game

31:10 – Will collaboration lead to more projects being finished?

35:39 – Working with publishers in developing games and finding the “best direction” for a game

41:43 – Level of polish in game prototypes at the pitching stage

44:26 – Building relationships with publishers

47:10 – Philosophies of game design

56:00 – The influence of who we play with and how we play

59:28 – Designing for a specific person

1:01:29 – Designing for the mass market

Links to what we talked about

• Cambridge Playtest Meetup at the Playtest UK Games Meetup Group
• Brett J. Gilbert’s blog at 55cards.com
• Slack
• Check out our interview with Jamey Stegmaier here
• Sierra Madre Games
• Oink Games
• Here’s an article on some of Matt Hall’s game design philosophy
• User personas in UX design
• The Game Design Roundtable
• Check out Disciple on the Global Game Jam site here

Games we mentioned

• Costa Rica
• Elysium
• Relic Runners
• Empire Engine
• Robots & Rockets
• Pergamon
• Last Will
• Colt Express
• The Game
• Petals Around the Rose
• World Without End
• Five Tribes
• Rights
• Sushi Go!
• Carcassonne
• Ticket to Ride

Music: Something Small (Instrumental) by Minden is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License. Based on a work at http://needledrop.co