The podcast

New episodes every other Tuesday

  1. Shaping Game Feel

    We begin defining how we want our game to feel. From physical engagement to the atmosphere we create, and the emotions we want players to experience, we explore the three levels of feelings in game design.

  2. It’s Time to Build

    In this season opener, we reveal the board game we've chosen to build. We hone our design skills in a quickfire challenge inspired by the word “tender” and share our roadmap for the year ahead. We’re officially ready to bring our board game to life!

  3. A Misplay Carol

    We’re visited by three ghosts and take a spirited journey through our podcast past, present, and future. We reflect on what we’d do differently if we could start from scratch, celebrate what’s going well, and share lessons learned as we look ahead...

  4. Two Roads

    The team is zeroing in on a game direction! We dive into each game, Depths and Animal Kingdom, and share key takeaways from their playtests. Next time, we’ll face the challenge of making the final decision.

  5. Panic Mode

    Try not to let the clickbait title fool you—we’re definitely not in panic mode. Nope. Not even close. Couldn’t be further from panicking. Not us. Never ever. Instead, we’re diving into Tuckman’s Group Theory and breaking down how our team is...

  6. Theme Does Matter

    We pitch fresh themes for Succession, reimagining the game’s world and setting to create new dynamics and depth. From the political landscapes to gang wars to dating games, we’re on a mission to find a theme to build mechanics that match.

  7. Pitch Perfect

    We recap each board game pitch from our team and put them to the test in a round of Hit or Miss. Join us to find out which ideas scored big and which ones are still in the prototype phase.

  8. See What Sticks

    We realized we need way more game ideas, so we hit the reset button! The team is hard at work crafting pitches that we’ll dive into on the next show. Mark walks us through a pitch example for Climb On, a climbing game where players race to the top.

  9. I’m Still Not a Game Designer

    We dive into Nightmare Smashers, a game where bluffing is the key to victory. Jason, who still hesitates to call himself a game designer, walks us through the game he helped create, along with contributions from the Misplay team. We’re also testing...

  10. The Notes

    “The Notes” because it’s a more concise alternative to “Mark Katz’s Easy-to-Remember Seven-Step Design Protocol”. We talk about and apply the easy to remember steps to Jason’s version of Nightmare Smashers.