The Tabletop Takeaway: A Board Game Design Podcast
Join game designers Ananda Guneratne, Charlie McCarron, and Trevor Muller-Hegel as they analyze published games from a game developer's perspective. Each month, they pick a new game mechanic and three games to play in that genre. Each episode is 20 minutes of pure game design nerdiness!
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 27 minutes
- Episodes
- 103
- Years Active
- 2023 - 2025
23. Paperback
Do victory point cards need to be useless? How can you reward players for helping each other to spell words? Ananda, Charlie, and Trevor take a look at Paperback.
00:21:08 |
Wed 10 Apr 2024
22. Clank!
What are the benefits of having a card market? How does forcing players to play all their cards change the dynamics of a deckbuilding game? Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie discuss Clank!
00:21:36 |
Wed 03 Apr 2024
21. Dominion
What are the advantages and disadvantages of untargeted attacks? How do you teach new players lessons that might be counterintuitive? Is it more fun to gain something good or eliminate something bad?…
00:24:02 |
Wed 27 Mar 2024
20. Social Deduction
What can you do to make games less stressful for the evil team? How do you structure interesting puzzles when information is not trustworthy? Learn about social deduction with Ananda, Charlie, and Tr…
00:30:58 |
Wed 20 Mar 2024
19. A Fake Artist Goes to New York
What happens when the traitor is left in the dark? Can you have a social deduction game without conversation? Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda discuss A Fake Artist Goes to New York.
00:17:14 |
Wed 13 Mar 2024
18. Blood on the Clocktower
Why should you balance information and doubt in social deduction games? How do you encourage people to talk to each other? Is dying actually good for the good team? Join Ananda, Charlie, and Trevor f…
00:23:27 |
Wed 06 Mar 2024
17. One Night Ultimate Werewolf
Do players need to know what team they are on? What is the purpose of minion roles? What are the benefits of super-short games? Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie talk about One Night Ultimate Werewolf.
00:18:25 |
Wed 28 Feb 2024
16. Cooperative Games
How do you encourage interactions when it is the players versus the game? What makes an AI opponent compelling? Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda wrap up the cooperative game genre.
00:15:18 |
Wed 21 Feb 2024
15. Marvel Champions
How do you represent the duality between a superhero and their alter ego? Can you have different types of resources that can still be used interchangeably? What should you do when a player is elimina…
00:20:54 |
Wed 14 Feb 2024
14. Spirit Island
Why should you foreshadow random events? How do you encourage players to stay on-theme for their characters? Do games need strict turns and timing? Join Ananda, Charlie, and Trevor as they talk about…
00:28:45 |
Wed 07 Feb 2024
13. The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
How much communication do players need in a coop game? What happens when somebody loses the game for everybody? What makes for a good twist on a familiar mechanic? Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda discuss…
00:16:56 |
Wed 31 Jan 2024
12. Tactical Combat
In this special episode, Ananda, Charlie, and Trevor discuss the tactical combat genre.
00:27:22 |
Wed 24 Jan 2024
11. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
How do you make progression fun when players are getting weaker over time? Does AI for tactical combat need to be complicated? Can you have too much content? Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie analyze Gloom…
00:27:20 |
Wed 17 Jan 2024
10. Mage Wars
How granular does a representation of space actually need to be? Can you really give players access to their entire deck without overwhelming them? Where does simultaneous gameplay best fit into a ga…
00:24:33 |
Wed 10 Jan 2024
9. Chess
What are the advantages of only allowing players to move one piece per turn? Are one-hit kills broken? Should you design a variant? Charlie, Trevor, and Ananda discuss the classic game of strategy: C…
00:21:39 |
Wed 03 Jan 2024
8. Logical Induction
In this extra-fun episode, Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie discuss logical induction games and their design.
00:21:02 |
Wed 27 Dec 2023
7. Turing Machine
How do you avoid unintentional information leaks due to player choices? How can you avoid making people feel dumb in games about being clever? What should happen when a player makes the wrong guess? …
00:19:56 |
Wed 20 Dec 2023
6. Visitor in Blackwood Grove
Do induction games always need unambiguous secret rules, or can fuzzy rules work? Can asymmetric roles work with induction? Check out the Visitor in Blackwood Grove with Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie.
00:18:05 |
Wed 13 Dec 2023
5. Zendo
What is the difference between induction and deduction? How do you make logic-heavy games friendly and approachable? Ananda, Charlie, and Trevor get started on the logical induction genre with Zendo,…
00:12:24 |
Wed 06 Dec 2023
4. Tile Placement
Bonus Episode! Trevor, Ananda, and Charlie talk about tile placement games in general. How will they use this mechanic in future games they're designing?
00:14:46 |
Wed 29 Nov 2023
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