Tom Vasel, founder of the Dice Tower, discusses some of the many things he’s learned after playing an astronomical number of games. We talk themes, mechanics, Kickstarter, publishing, trends, and tons of other stuff.
Tom has played and reviewed thousands upon thousands of games which has led to some interesting insight on what makes a great game.
5 comments on “Lessons Learned from Playing 5000+ Games with Tom Vasel”
Comments are closed.
I specially liked this episode on Tom’s view and experience on Kickstarter! Always enjoy listening to this podcast 🙂
Thanks for listening!
Gabe,
Given how busy Tom is these days, I’m impressed that you got his to chat for an hour. He’s a wealth of information and he’s remained, from I’ve seen, quite humble, which no doubt comes from his education and having served as a pastor. The advice he gave is spot-on…with the barrier to entry on KS so low, anybody who wants to create a game can do so…however, I think the folks who examine games today do so with a much more critical eye even than those who did so a few short years ago.
The amount of work, from design to development, illustration to graphic art, publishing to production, shipping to distribution, and finally point-to-point sales to warehousing, there’s a ton of things one needs to know…or at least become familiar with in the exercise of getting a game to the table.
Again, great interview! I’m glad to be part of this amazing community and moreover, it’s wonderful to have folks like yourself who make sense of it all.
Cheers,
Joe
Very well put Joseph. You certainly deserve that “III”.
I also appreciate Tom’s humility and agree with you regarding the KS critical eye. Do you feel that this is due to a more experienced hobby gaming community or have we become so accostumed to all of the extra goodies and the somewhat overwhelming selection of games that we have become somewhat spoiled? This question is open to anyone.
Thanks Gabe, another great job. Can’t wait to hear your 500th episode! Better get cracking!
I think we’re just experiencing the normal outcome of competition. The more competition, the better a product has to be to stand out. Plus, a number of major companies are using KS, and they have the means and resources to create incredible projects which has created a new normal that requires great art, great stretch goals, great etc.
500?! At the rate I’m going, that will take about a decade. I hope you guys will put up with me for that long, haha.