#218 Geoff Engelstein and Isaac Shalev: Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design

Dirk Knemeyer – @DKnemeyer

Geoff Engelstein – @gengelstein

Isaac Shalev – @KindFortress

Episode Outline

– 00:41 An introduction to the book Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design

– 03:44 How Geoff and Isaac decided which mechanisms to include

– 05:33 The other books the authors drew inspiration from

– 07:45 Exploring the organization of the book

– 11:48 How game designers might use the book

– 15:27 Would the book work as a course curriculum?

– 17:48 The sorts of things the authors learned while writing the book

– 21:55 How did the collaborative process for Geoff and Isaac work?

– 25:08 What the authors’ next design books might be

– 31:01 Geoff discusses the Tabletop Network Conference and the New Voices scholarship

– 35:49 The importance of the diagrams in their book