The Ludology site is about providing an analytical discussion of the how's and why's of the world of board games. Rather than news and tgreviews, Ludology explores a variety of topics about games from a wider lens, as well as discuss game history, game design and game players.
Dice Tower Network Podcast: Ludology
Ludology Episodes
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Emma and Gil welcome Kathryn Hymes and Hakan Seyalıoğlu to the show to discuss the impact of language on play, and how to design games that revolve around the building, modification, and demise of a language.
SHOW NOTES
2m52s: Here's the Kickstarter for Thorny's new game Xenolanguage.
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Geoff discusses the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning, and its impact in board games and beyond.
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Emma, Gil, and Scott discuss the idea of complexity in a board game. We explore 6 types of complexity, and discuss their effects on the games we play and design.
SHOW NOTES
0m51s: Pete Seeger was an American folk singer, known for songs like "If I Had a Hammer," "Turn, Turn, Turn," and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"
2m04s: Our list of complexities:
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Scott goes over the history of Which Witch, a game that's been adapted into many other games, including The Real Ghostbusters Game and the Scooby-doo! Haunted House 3D Board Game.
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Emma and Gil welcome Karen Twelves, whose straddling of the worlds of gaming and improv led her to write the book Improv for Gamers. What can gaming and improv learn from each other?
Content warning: this episode contains brief references to non-consensual touching and racism.
SHOW NOTES
01m16s: AD&D is Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, the form of D&D most prominent in the 80s and 90s.
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Geoff compares the design process of the video game Diabolo to… the invention of calculus? Yes, there are surprising similarities, and seeing how the two dovetail leads to a stronger appreciation of both game design and mathematics.
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Emma and Gil welcome Sen-Foong Lim back to the show to discuss the differences—and similarities—between board games and roleplaying games. We go through the perspectives of playing them, designing them, and examining the culture of play between both.
Sen originally appeared on Ludology 134: There's No "I" in Team with frequent co-designer Jay Cormier.
SHOW NOTES
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In the spirit of Halloween, Scott takes us through the spooky history of the Ouija board: its origins, the legal battles behind the curtain, and how a scientific phenomenon makes it all work.
Bibliography of a Board Game
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-strange-and-mysterious-history-of-the-ouija-board-5860627/
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Today, we are continuing our series of exploring the design decisions behind our own games! Emma and Scott sit down with Gil to talk about his game High Rise; about how it started life as an auction game, and the twisty route it took to publication.
SHOW NOTES
1m23s - Gil discussed the Wag auction in his Networks design diary on BGG.
2m45s - Gil's game Battle Merchants.
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Having previously discussed relatively new advances in AI that allows computers to beat humans at games like Chess and Go, Geoff moves on to games in which AI will have a much harder time being competitive. What is it about these games that makes it so difficult to make a good automated opponent?
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