Humble Supplicants,

Seekers of knowledge, I bring to you a conversation with one of our game design titans — Greg Costikyan. Greg is a designer of war games, board games, computer games and roleplaying games. His roleplaying games credits include Bug-Eyed Monsters, Toon, Paranoia, Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, The Price of Freedom and Violence: The Roleplaying Game of Egregious and Repulsive Bloodshed.

We talk about his start in games as an eager, earnest 14-year-old playtester who evolved into a developer at game designer at SPI and West End Games.

A few things that we touch on with Greg during the interview:

• Poverty is a motivator for young game designers.

• System must be tailored to setting.

• Defining games is fascism.

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Or if you'd prefer a non-Substack donation link.

You can find Greg's clear-eyed 2002 essay here.

Fiends,

There was no guarantee that we achieve this momentous step. And yet, through sheer grit and determination, we have arrived at the first episode of our third volume. In this episode we talk about podcast money, why we make games and then dive deep into Gregor Hutton's 2008 masterpiece, 3:16: Carnage Amongst the Stars.

To learn more, see some cool images, comment, and potentially optionally support our endeavors, visit our now-free Substack!

Ad Astra!

-Luke

Tyros,

As by now you have detected, when we make promises we move our heavens and earths to deliver on those promises. This episode is one such example. We promised to divulge to you the secrets of selling 5,000 copies of your game and in this very recording, Christopher divulges his mystical secrets! Not only do we learn that Christopher is indeed a werewolf, but we gain his formula for successfully birthing a game into this burning and damned world of ours.

If you have not been following this saga closely, Interceptor, the game Luke developed publicly on our Substack, is near completion. We'll launch it this summer, likely in June.

This is the last episode of this Volume. But we're not throwing in the proverbial towel just yet! If you're enjoying listening to us, please do rate and review this podcast on whatever platform you partake. And join us next month for more insights, more stories, and more alchemy.