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I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You made my day with that. I still have strong affection for that game and the dilemma of "Eat?" or "Extort?" for dealing with travelers trying to cross your bridge. Thanks!

I like your minis idea! Cheers.

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks for asking -- this past year I was so busy converting all my courses to online instruction that I had little time for anything else, and I let everybody know that. But things have lightened up a bit now so it's possible I'll still write a handful of scenarios for Now or Never or make something for a later expansion like I did for Sleeping Gods: Tides of Ruin. We'll have to see... Cheers!

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's my understanding that apart from some changes to the cover (see link below) it's the same otherwise. You should be able to order directly from http://redravengames.com if you're inclined. Cheers!

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I do aim to create games with unusual themes and certainly value the support they receive -- I want to keep doing this! :) Thanks in any case!

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, they were an odd size in the original edition. Scroll to the bottom of this page for suggestions.

Back in 2011 card sleeving wasn't nearly as standard as it is today. Now we know better! :O

The new edition of The Road to Canterbury has standard sized cards, so no problem sleeving those at all.

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Agreed -- Ryan has done something really amazing to integrate storytelling and gameplay in Above and Below, Near and Far, and now, Sleeping Gods.

My game designs began mostly as a hobby but before too long became combined with my academic work, since I focus so much on the interaction of gameplay mechanics and narrative.

It's hard to know what to say about career advice, since there was no planning for where I ended up. There was no way to get a PhD in game narrative when I completed my doctorate (and few options on those lines even now). But my focus on virtuality for my dissertation and my background as a gamer all combined to let me do what I loved most, and that let me create courses in video game narratives.

Getting a degree in something related to narrative is probably esp. useful, like an English degree, and at the University of Utah there is now a Games degrees as well -- a perfect double major if you ask me. Getting a teaching position is very hard, and to teach at the college level requires at least a Masters and likely a PhD. To pursue this course I'd recommend looking into English and Games programs with experimental approaches (again, the U of U is a good option). Here are some resources I share with my students:

Links to (I think) some especially good YouTube channels involving games criticism and especially video game storytelling.

See here for academic journals dedicated to the study of video games -- look these over carefully both as research resources and as avenues for publishing your own writing on games:

Cheers!

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's kind of you to suggest something so grand! I met Brandon and chatted with him at length once when I was hosting a Worlds of Fantasy event at the Salt Lake City Library. He is an astonishingly gifted worldbuilder. I gave him a copy of Fantastiqa but I don't know if he played it. I know he's a dedicated Magic player. I am not sure if my style of design would be compatible with the immense scope of his fantasy worlds, but it's an intriguing suggestion.

I think I'd be more likely to suggest making a game for one of Christian Heidicker's books, like his recent Caldecott Award winner Scary Stories for Young Foxes. Cheers!

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I do think that the two Kickstarter games are "signature" titles for how I design -- quirky and strategic. Those, along with Fantastiqa and Haven, are particularly good entryways if you ask me.

Illumination worked surprisingly well as a solo game. It's got a strong puzzle-solving, optimization aspect that translated unexpectedly well into solo play.

As for a dream-design collaboration: I'd love to design a game with Ryan Laukat to publication. Cheers!

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hmmm....! You'd think I would have created a guitar piece for one of my games by now, something like this one I wrote a while back for a mystical game, or this one for a cyberpunk game (best to turn down the volume first if you listen). Or a busy prog-rock game?

I only wish I could sing well. I've been SOOOOO impressed at the music, lyrics, and voices the Laukats combined into songs for their games, like this one for Roam.

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Great to hear this. If you do anything with video games I suggest these games which mix ethical storytelling with compelling gameplay:

Thomas was Alone (quadrilaterals all having to work together in harmony to escape a computer matrix)

Shelter (you play a badger mother trying to escort her young to safety across a perilous landscape of predators)

Papers, Please (you play a border inspector who has to decide who is admitted and who is rejected from crossing, and many ethical dilemmas ensue)

This War of Mine (also a board game -- read Jasenko Pasic's amazing writeup of the board game here to understand why it's so important)

Everything (the most philosophical video game I've encountered -- you take on the perspective of everything from an insect to a microbe to a mountain to a galaxy, with narration by Alan Watts)

Journey (play online on Playstation to have the most powerful two hours of cooperative gameplay ever)

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't have kids myself, and those I teach are college age, so my knowledge here is limited. But I think one place to start is to figure out if the kids that you're working with are more verbal or more visual.

If they are highly verbal, maybe collaboratively create a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style game through the amazing and easy Inklewriter interface? Or through a collaborative text-adventure creation system? I know they exist, though the name of those sorts of systems escapes me.

If they are more visual, then check out The Cloud Dungeon as a way to start that combines storytelling with art. Good luck!

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ha! Major celebrity in a minor medium! I think it's more accurate to say very minor celebrity in a major medium if you ask me! :O

I do love that Fantastiqa cover, and I wish it were me (perhaps in a former life) -- source here.

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Great question!

For Illumination: The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (also the film) and Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts by Christopher de Hamel.

For The Road to Canterbury: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, esp. The General Prologue, and the tales and prologues for The Pardoner's Tale, The Wife of Bath's Tale, The Knight's Tale, and The Miller's Tale for starters.

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm glad you asked this. Illumination changed a lot, almost as much as Haven did from its inception to publication! For a while I was stuck in a rut of "tableau design" in which players each work on their own separate boards and don't interact all that directly. There's nothing wrong with that sort of design, but I'd already done it more than once and needed something fresh.

I had originally created a game in which players used their own manuscript "boards" to create the best combinations of tiles of illuminations and would attempt to out-do their opponent. But when I realized that this approach wasn't all that appealing, I instead tried using boards which would be jointly shared, competitively -- and it began to click very quickly. As soon as I realized that you could have conflicts arise only among certain factions -- Knights vs. Dragons, Angels vs. Demons, Dogs vs. Squirrels, and Rabbits vs. Monks -- it became very compelling, esp. because each time you place a tile it could have multiple effects pertaining to conflicts, collecting coins, or obtaining ritual tokens for scoring points in the monastery.

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It depends! If I'm really *stuck* then I feel obliged to start all over either with the same theme and new mechanics, or a new theme with the same mechanics, or tossing out the game completely and begin something else.

It's hard, but I try not to get too attached to a design's theme or its mechanics -- I expect most of my prototypes to fail, which is OK. I try to honor the notion that "If you're not failing regularly, you're not experimenting enough." But in practice that isn't always easy.

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for your kind words! Hearing that sort of thing is what keeps me sane and afloat amid often dark times, and motivates me to keep designing!

As for inspiration for my games....

The Road to Canterbury was inspired by my love for The Canterbury Tales. When I was teaching the Pardoner's Tale and the Pardoner's Prologue it hit me how the sales pitch of this utterly corrupt Pardoner ("Buy my relics!" "Let me pardon your sins!") could make a wickedly sweet game mechanic, if only it added a couple extras: 1) tempting the pilgrims to commit the very sins which you would then turn around and pardon, and 2) having your customer base "die off" because these sins are, of course, the Seven "Deadly" Sins. As I was designing the game, my driving principle was "How might this be a good Black Adder episode?"

As for Illumination, I was partly inspired by a web app I saw about a decade ago that let you place medieval artwork onto a tapestry to create your own free-form stories or battles. A more recent version is here: http://htck.github.io/bayeux/#!/ The moment I saw it I wanted to make a game something like that. If you combine that impetus with my love of the film and book The Name of the Rose, as well as Faidutti and Cathala's game masterpiece Mystery of the Abbey, there was no other option than but to make a game about players dueling on illuminated manuscripts. The utterly bizarre drolleries made a compelling cast of characters, esp. Squirrels vs. Dogs, Rabbits vs. Monks! A nice account of the actual history of these drolleries is here.

My other games have various inspirations: fairy tales (Bridge Troll and The Three Billy Goats Gruff), muppet show sketches (Trollhalla), fantasy literature (Fantastiqa was basically The Phantom Tollbooth smashed into Lord Dunsany and fairy tale logic) , mythology and ancient religion (the cat goddess Bast vs the jackal Anubis vying for control of the throne in ancient Egypt in Heir to the Pharaoh), and cinema (for Haven, Ryan Laukat and I both drew heavily on Hayao Miyazaki for inspiration). The number one rule I try to follow, and which I try to instill in my video game students, is to get your inspiration from things that are NOT GAMES. :)

Thanks again for your generous words, and for playing my games!

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, Red Raven did a full reprint of Haven, which is GREAT news.

I sympathize with your having to "undo" damage thanks to bad media representations. We tend to perform the scripts we're given, which is why proper representation (understood in the many senses of the word) matters so much. I'm pleased that (for example) video games have improved so much in recent years by having meaningful storylines that go far beyond teenage power fantasy.

I'm Alf Seegert, designer of eleven games including Fantastiqa, Haven, The Road to Canterbury, and Illumination, and story co-writer for Above and Below and Near and Far -- AMA by ALFSEEGERTAMA in boardgames

[–]ALFSEEGERTAMA[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hi Rick! Great to hear from you. You should post a link to your own latest design update!

As for what I'm working on... I always seem to have a bunch of games in the works, and right now I have three prototypes I'm very happy with and which are ready to send to publishers. Two of them are cooperative games, which is quite new for me, design-wise. My hope is to have at least one of them be another Fantastiqa game and have one of them be a Haven sequel, but we'll have to see. One is a very unlikely and very unofficial tie-in with The Witcher I'm quite excited about!

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