Ludology

Sen and Erica speak with Liqin Gu and Mitch Zhang from Longpack Manufacturing to delve into the ins and outs of how boardgames are made and why they're predominantly made in China.

*Special Note* This episode is being released out of order. We will resume our previously scheduled numbering system in two week! Sen and Erica talk to Heather O'Neill and Hunter Johnson, members of the Unpub Board of Directors, about the upcoming Unpub Festival 2026. Hunter and Heather discuss what people can expect, why they should attend, and a few of the special events that will be featured at the Festival which takes place in Maryland from March 12-15, 2026.

Sen speaks with Kristen Mott at Gen Con 2024 about her designs and publications leading into 2025. We talk homeschooling, scouting, co-design, and horses, of courses. Then we take a look into the crystal ball and make a predication that came true... sorta! Sen and Erica will be back with their regulars shows in February, so stay tuned!

Recorded live at Gen Con 2024, Sen interviews Sarah Dahlinger, a comparative anatomy fueled creature creator who's made some of your favourite monster art and sculpted the minis as well for companies such as Cephalophair Games, Monte Cook Games, and more. Sarah is also the author/artist behind Astra Fauna: Expeditions and hopes to bring her world of science and adventure to life on the tabletop.

Erica and Sen talk with Dr. Joe Macisco, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at Wright State University's Boonshoft School of Medicine. Joe has been working on designing serious games for use in the public health field. Joe discusses how and why games can improve pro-health and pro-social behavioural changes.

Sen and Erica welcome Sarah Shipp, guest host of Thinking Beyond Mechanisms, to talk about some of the ways in which theme can be measured and how that affects game design.

Sen and special guest host Doug Levandowski (Kids on Bikes) talk with Noxweiler Ignatius Berf (or "Nox" for short) about his work on the storytelling game, Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees, based on the comic series of the same name. They discuss the game and it's mechanisms, how it stays true to the comic overall, and how it diverges at times.

Erica and Sen welcome Jordan Goddard of Indy Game Lab to talk about his company's newest product - family games that are packaged inside of Christmas ornaments. Currently on Kickstarter, Jordan discusses why he chose to create games that might only come out once a year.

This episode, Sen welcomes Pete, Felix, and Daniel from Zed9 Mystery Club (www.zed9jubensha.com) in Richmond, BC to talk all about Jubensha (a.k.a. Murder Script Games). Originally developed in Chinese-speaking countries, Jubensha have been making their way to wherever the Chinese diaspora has settled and now English speakers can partake in these immersive murder mystery role playing experiences as well! The Zed9 team explains what these games are, how they're designed, hosted, and played.

Erica and Sen welcome designers of the award-winning Endeavor: Deep Sea, Carl de Visser and Jarratt Gray, along with their publishers, Helaina and Josh Cappel (Burnt Island) and Marc Specter (Grand Gamers Guild) to talk about the past, present, and future of the game. What has changed over the years and what does the future hold for this excellent exploration system?

Sen and Erica welcome Sarah Shipp as she hosts her Thinking Beyond Mechanism series. In this episode, she discusses the permissions that games and their rules give us to break social conventions within the construct of the so-called "Magic Circle".

It's the return of Erica! Sen got to goof off most of the summer without her, but now she's back and she has a great topic to start off Q3-Q4 of 2025 - Familiarity. Erica and Sen discuss how designers and publishers may want to think about familiarity when producing games. While the saying usually goes something like "familiarity breeds contempt," Erica and Sen argue that a little familiarity goes a long way to increase a game's approachability. *Audio note* Sen's mic was acting up during recording; please excuse the subtle phasing you may hear.

Sen is back after a short hiatus, this time speaking with fellow podcaster, Kristin Vermilya, about her endeavour to document the 50+ year history of role playing games in her forthcoming audio documentary series, Out of the Dungeon. For more information on Kristin's work, check out: https://www.kristinvermilya.com/dungeon We look forward to Erica's return in 2 weeks for a whole new season of Ludology!

Sen and Erica welcome Sarah Shipp as the host of the Thinking About Mechanisms segment. This episode, Sarah talks about social distance as one of the main differentiators between video games and tabletop games.

Once again, Sen catches a wild game designer at Origins 2024! This time, he captures Josh Derksen of Lynnvander Games and gets the chance to talk about Josh's work. In particular, Sen is interested in the campaign modes that Josh has devised for several miniature battle systems. What started out as a fan mod (Heroes of the Aturi Cluster for X-Wing) has lead Josh to design campaign modes for Star Trek Dominion and BattleTech Alpha Strike alongside the other projects Lynnvander has their hands in.

Sen met with new designer but veteran writer Nathan Long (several Warhammer novels, the screenplay for Guyver: Dark Hero, and the scripts for the Wastelands and Bardstale video games) at Origins 2024. Sen had the opportunity to play Nathan's game, Shanghai Noir prior to this so he wanted to discuss how to build narrative in games.

Sen speaks to David Gordon at Origins 2024 before all of his games hit shelves in 2025. From Monkey Palace to Floristry, we chat about David's entry into game design and what the future holds for this international man of mystery. Did any of it come true one year later?

In this episode of Pros and Cons (where we talk to game industry professionals at conventions), we go back to AnimeNorth 2024 where Sen chats with TTRPG designer and writer, Daniel Kwan about anime, wuxia, martial arts, combat and his project that JUST FUNDED on Kickstarter in 2025 - Wandering Blades!

While Erica is on vacation, Sen takes the opportunity to speak with Daniel Newman about how his love of trick-taking games lead to the inception of the Indie Games Night Market. If you're interested in selling your games at this year's IGNM at PaxU 25, please check apply at www.newmillindustries.com/ignm

Erica and Sen welcome Sarah Shipp, guest host of the Thinking Beyond Mechanisms segment, to give her take on how we can combat anti-intellectualism using games with intentional design. Sarah has started to provide transcripts for her segment on her blog, available at https://shippboardgames.blogspot.com