Rob Daviau pioneered the legacy game genre, starting with Risk: Legacy. In addition, he’s worked with a variety of beloved titles: Star Wars, Axis & Allies, Pandemic, Betrayal at House on The Hill, just to name a few. In this episode, we go into detail about Legacy Game development and how to successfully work with beloved properties.

Matt and I both started our careers as Magic Pro Players. Since then he’s garnered more experience in digital trading card games than anyone I know. Matt has worked for Wizards of the Coast, Dire Wolf, and Blizzard on games including Magic Online, Hearthstone, and Eternal. Matt is currently working on his own auto-battler game called Story Book Brawl. I’m excited to sit down with one of my oldest friends in the industry and talk about game design.

Michael Gnade is the founder and lead designer at Rock Manor Games. He started his career in games with Indie Game Magazine, writing and reporting about the newest games from independent creators. Inspired by Ascension, Michael developed Brass Empire, which he created on Kickstarter. Michael Gnade put together one of the more comprehensive looks at Kickstarter metrics out there; if you’re interested, you can check that out here. Otherwise, grab your notebook; there’s some awesome advice on this one!

Scott Gaeta has been in the game industry for over 20 years. He’s the founder of Renegade Game Studios. Scott started as a comics and game store owner before shifting into game design, cutting his teeth on popular products such as the Star Wars, Star Trek, and Lord of the Rings CCGs. He’s worked as the Senior Vice President of Decipher and Senior Director at Upper Deck (that’s where we first met!). At Upper Deck, Scott worked on Yu-Gi-Oh!, DC Comics, World of Warcraft, Marvel Comics, Hello Kitty, and more. I was super excited to catch up and learn some lessons from the veteran of the industry.

Isaac Childres is the creator of Gloomhaven and Frosthaven. Gloomhaven is the #1 rated game on BoardGameGeek for three years, and Frosthaven, the highest funded game on Kickstarter. We’ll dig into what motivated Isaac to create these legendary games, and what he’s learned along the way.

Eric Lang is a legendary game designer who has created more games that I’ve personally enjoyed than almost anyone. Just to name a few, Eric designed: The Game of Thrones Card Game, Quarriors, and Blood Rage. He’s launched several highly successful Kickstarters and has a lifetime's worth of wisdom in game design. There are a lot of lessons here. Grab your notebooks.

Tom Lehmann is a former economist, programmer, and game publisher turned full-time game designer. He created Race for the Galaxy and has created expansions for games like Pandemic and St. Petersburg. Today, we discuss everything from economics, expansions, and game reward systems. There’s a lot of wisdom here, so grab a notebook!

Keith Baker is a renowned game designer and storyteller. He was the creator of the D&D setting Ebberon and Gloom. He has traveled the world creating and running Story based games. If you’re into role-playing games like D&D or any other story-driven games there’s a lot to learn here.