Gareth Graham on The Mechanics of Game Design

Joining me this week is Gareth Graham. Gareth is the founder of Frenzy Kitty Games, a designer, and writer of role-playing games. He is also a writer and video editor.

You can tell from this conversation that his passion lies in designing the mechanics of really fun, fast, and exciting role-playing games. I came into this not knowing much at all about role-playing games and learned so much from this very free-flowing and casual conversation with Gareth.

Please enjoy!

Full Episode

Guest Links

Show Notes

How did Gareth get into role-playing games? (01:51-03:20)
What drives Gareth to create these games? (04:15-05:40)
How many games have his company, Frenzy Kitty Games, released? (05:41-06:38)
Gareth talks about the benefit of forcing himself to constraints in terms of creating games. (07:03-08:10)
What’s the difference between role-playing games and board games? (08:14-09:50)
What are some of the most well-known role-playing games? (09:53-12:50)
Gareth explains what live-action role-playing is. (12:58-13:48)
The two main elements to creating a role-playing game. (14:02-15:11)
Reasons why Gareth gets excited about the mechanics of the games he creates. (15:12-17:02)
Gareth talks about the factors that influence his game design process. (17:10-18:37)
How much time does Gareth spend on building his skills? (18:38-20:40)
Who are Gareth’s mentors? (21:00-21:39)
What makes a good role-playing game in Gareth’s point of view? (22:13-23:35)
How does Gareth start designing a game and the mechanics around it? He talks about his game, Karma, as an example. (23:45-27:44)
What inspired Gareth to create the game Karma? (24:40-25:47)
Gareth talks about the intricacies of decision trees and game rules. (27:45-30:20)
Is there a difference between the options available to him as a designer if he decides to use dice vs cards? (30:21-31:39)
How does Gareth map out the games he creates? (31:40-34:10)
Gareth further explains the process of his game production. (34:23-35:20)
Who does the narrative writing in his games? (35:31-35:56)
Why structuring of the document of a game is super crucial. (35:58-37:15)
How he utilizes Google Doc for his writing. (37:15-38:00)
How playtesting works and how he gets feedback. (38:36-40:55)
At what point does he know when a game he created is done? (41:08-42:05)
How he manages multiple ideas he has for a game he is working on. (42:20-43:14)
How does he do blind testing for his work? (43:33-44:48)
Gareth talks about marketing for role-playing games. (45:04-48:26)
What does he think it will take for role-playing games to become more popular? (48:42-50:23)

Selected Links from the Episode

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