Category Archives: Interviews

Posted on

An Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East Discourse of Game Questions, Historical Background, and Items of Overall Interest

by

By Francesco Guerrieri (with Responses by Chris Vorderbrugge, Mark McLaughlin, & Fred Schachter: ACME’s Design/Development Team)

Introduction by Fred Schachter (ACME Game Developer): Deb of the GMT Office forwarded a letter to Chris, Mark, and myself from Francesco Guerrieri of Rome, Italy, whom, as you’ll read, is a fan of the Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East game GMT Games – Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East.

That initial exchange of correspondence grew to the point where we realized it could make for an interesting InsideGMT article, particularly for those who play, or will play, ACME. So here it is commencing with Francesco’s letter which started it all.  I edited the ensuing correspondence to provide readers a sense of the fun back and forth Chris, Mark, and I enjoyed with Francesco.

Posted on

Interview with Jim Krohn, Designer of Space Empires: All Good Things

by

A couple of months ago, I sat down to a web call with Space Empires designer Jim Krohn to talk about his game series and the final expansion for it that is currently on the P500, All Good Things. Despite a name that might indicate a touch of bittersweet, Jim is not sorry to bring this game arc to a close; he’s more excited about “completing the system” and finishing up a project that started in the ‘90s. He acknowledges that some fans may be a little more sorry to see the content well dry up, but says “this will have all of the rest of my best material. I have more material that I could use, but honestly, it’s just not as good.” Before getting to the specifics of that “best material”, here’s a quick recap of the Space Empires: 4X system. It is a hex ‘n counter space wargame, featuring space exploration, empire expansion, resource exploitation, and, of course, extermination of your opponent. These are the four “X’s” from the title. The base game comes with the map, tons of ship counters, a massive tech tree, and lots of fun things to discover. The Close Ecounters expansion packs in more counters and variable player powers, among other things, while Replicators added a new type of playable empire that can also be used as a foe in solo and cooperative games.

Posted on

Podcast: Harold on Games Interview with Mark Miklos

by

Below is a great interview from Harold Buchanan of the Harold on Games podcast with BoAR series designer Mark Miklos. In this interview, they discuss the upcoming BoAR Series game White Plains, the new American Revolution Tri-Pack including Monmouth, Germantown, Newtown and Oriskany, and lots more! Enjoy! -Rachel

Posted on

ConSim Game Jam Podcast Series Announcement

by

Hi folks,

David Alexander and Peter Evans here with an announcement for a new podcast series that may be interesting to followers of GMT Games, covering the first ever “ConSim Game Jam” sponsored by GMT that took place last October.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Consim Game Jam, this 72-hour event challenged teams to create a board game from scratch using only the components found in one of the published games from GMT’s COIN series.

In this podcast series we interviewed the founders of the ConSim Jam (“young guns” Fred Serval and Joe Dewhurst); the Judges of the event (the venerable Volko Runhke, Morgan Gouyon-Rety, and Jason Carr); and the three teams whose games secured themselves a podium finish, including the designers behind current P500-listed designs In the Shadows and Vijayangara (the other placing design on Boudicea’s revolt may join them soon as well, albeit in another form).

These interviews covered what the Jam was like from a variety of perspectives; as well as a wide range of board game related topics, including design and development, building a narrative, the COIN system, how to know when a design is viable, and many more besides!

We had a wonderful time chatting with folks to create this, and hope you enjoy listening to these interviews as much as we had in putting them together!

Finally – this podcast series also inaugurates the launch of our new Podcast: The Spicy Fish Board Games Podcast. We would love to hear your feedback as well as suggestions. If you like what you hear, or would like to hear more from us or request content please contact us at spicyfishpodcast@gmail.com.

We hope to see you at the gaming table!

Dave & Peter

Posted on

Interview with Developer Alan Ray

by

Ludography

DEVELOPER

Great Battles of History:

Great Battles of Alexander Expanded Deluxe (P500 -2015)

Hoplite (2014)

Chariots of Fire (2010)

SPQR Deluxe (2008)

Chandragupta (2008)

Barbarian (2008)

RAN (2007)

Samurai 2nd Edition (2007)

Gergovia (2007)

C3I Simple GBoH Battle Manual (2006)

Mamluk (2006)

War Galley 2nd Edition (2006)

Caesar Conquest of Gaul 2nd Edition (2006)

Devil’s Horsemen (2004)

Alesia (2004)

Great Battles of Alexander Deluxe 4th Edition (2003)

Tyrant (2003)

Attila (2002)

Caesar in Alexandria (2001)

Simple GBoH (2000)

Cataphract (1999)

Ancient World:

Carthage (2005)

Rise of the Roman Republic (2003)

Non-Series Games:

Genesis (P500-2015)

 

Tell me a little about yourself?

I was born and raised in the Detroit Metropolitan area.  I have lived here all my life and went to college at Oakland University where I graduated in 1974.  Most of my career was spent either working for General Motors and then   its Information Technology (IT) subsidiary EDS in 1985 in both technical and leadership roles.

  1. Ross Perot!

Yes, I met him in 1985 during the transition period in 1985. He was a very dynamic guy, unlike many of the GM executives.  I had worked for GM for almost 14 years when he came along and it was an entirely different experience.  I continued as a Program Manager when HP bought EDS in 2008 and retired from there in 2012.

Posted on

Interview with Developer Mike Bertucelli

by

Mike Bertucelli has been with me and Liberty or Death every step of the way.  I feel lucky that he is interested in the game enough to develop it.  He is also a great guy to work with: larger than life both literally and physically and with a big heart.  He brings a lot to the table as the COIN series Developer.  He treats me with kid gloves as I am a first time Designer.  He diplomatically dealt with my crazy ideas like quadrupling the size of certain counters.

Talking with Mike on Skype is also good fun as the ambience is set by the chiming of his two grandbabies playing in his living room.  He impresses me as a guy that loves his family and loves spending time with them and gets great energy from it.

————

Ludography

Navajo Wars – Developer

A Distant Plain – Developer

Fire in the Lake – Developer

Fields of Despair – Developer – P500

Gallic War – Developer – P500

Comancheria – Developer – P500

Liberty or Death – Developer –  P500

———-

So Mike, how did you get your start working with GMT?

My first game was Navajo Wars.  Joel (Toppen) and I become good friends over Ventrillo (a VOIP system GMT uses for group communications) when he was first becoming a Developer.  I was play testing some of his stuff.  He asked me to look at Navajo Wars and I thought there was something really cool and different there.  He decided to submit it to GMT.  They liked it but it needed a lot of work.  We jumped on it together.  I ended up as the Developer and we did a lot of designing.  He had done Andean Abyss for Volko (Ruhnke) and I was one of the play testers on it.  The first time it had seen daylight, Volko showed it to Joel and I.  That’s how I met Volko – just the right place at the right time.  Then 2 years ago at Consimworld Expo in Tempe Joel was super busy with the many different projects Joel works on and Volko had an early prototype of A Distant Plain and I played it.  Volko asked if I wanted to be the Developer as Joel was too busy and the rest is history.

Mike points at a Resource marker in a prototype of A Distant Plain while Gene Billingsley and Jordan Kehrer look on.

Mike points at a Resource marker in a prototype of A Distant Plain while Gene Billingsley and Jordan Kehrer look on.

Gallic War and Liberty or Death are the two COIN series games I am working on.  Comancheria is new to P500 and Kurt came to me in December for Fields of Despair.

Posted on

Interview with Developer Ralph Shelton

by

Ludography

Operation Dauntless – Developer – P500

Pax Romana 2nd Edition – Developer – P500

Infidel – Developer

Blood & Roses – Developer

Red Winter – Rules Proofreader/Editor

Desert Falcons (GDW) – Playtester

Pax Romana 1st Edition – Playtester

Prussia’s Glory II – Playtester

Ralph, tell me a little about yourself?

I’m a data base architect for a consulting company.  It pays the bills and gives me the option to game.  I grew up in New Mexico and that’s where I met my wife Robin.  We moved to Seattle 15 years ago.

Ralph Shelton and wife Robin.

Ralph Shelton and wife Robin.

I’ve been gaming since I was around 12 so, back in 1980 or 1981.  I used to play a lot of Starfleet Battles with my buddies.  We played that and a lot of multi player games.

Posted on

Interview with Developer Fred Manzo

by

One of the highlights of my trip to WBC this year was meeting Fred Manzo.  Fred introduced himself to me on my first day in the GMT demo area.  He was sitting with the maps and promotional material for the two games he is developing (both designed by Hermann Luttmann), Hammerin’ Sickles– Longstreet Attacks at Gettysburg and At Any Cost: Metz 1870 from the Franco-Prussian War.

Hermann, himself, came by a day later.  In the meantime Fred was a great neighbor, stepping into a play-test when we needed a fourth for GMT’s upcoming Liberty or Death COIN game and grabbing me a bottle of water when I was busy teaching the game.  He told me about how he met Hermann Luttmann and the two began their working relationship.

It seems a few years ago Fred was at ConsimWorld Expo in Tempe Arizona when his friend, Dr. Harvey Mossman, introduced him to Hermann saying “Hermann is from long Island too!”  It turns out they live only 30 minutes apart. Fred and Harvey then invite Hermann to their Wednesday Night gaming group and the rest is history.

Fred Manzo

Fred Manzo