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Notes on Play

John Drexler

A game development log where I share the hardest game design problems, and share thoughts on the games I'm playing. My name is John Rudolph Drexler and you can find my games at catacombian.com

Sito del podcast

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Episodi

39 episodi

  1. 38: How I sold 322 copies of Colossi in a day 7:30
  2. 37: Stealing is a superpower 8:32
  3. 36: Designing simple games is hard 8:21
  4. 35: Valve's Mechanical Matrix 6:54
  5. 34: Codenames is hard 9:35
  6. 33: The best grand unified theory of games 10:00
  7. 32: I deleted 35% of my game, and it got way better 9:49
  8. 31: The opposite of doom scrolling 12:01
  9. 30: Canticle's hardest design problem 9:40
  10. 29: Form factor is everything 13:02
  11. 28: I accidentally made a whole game in 3 weeks 11:18
  12. 27: The trouble with abundance 12:52
  13. 26: How board game distribution actually works 12:29
  14. 25: I made my dream game, but something was wrong 14:42
  15. 24: Where do good ideas come from? 8:59
  16. 23: Is Catacombian a designer, a publisher, or both? 14:28
  17. 22: Steel vs. Soft 11:02
  18. 21: Why are there so many medieval games? 11:36
  19. 20: Player experience is the guiding light 10:52
  20. 19: The best game idea I've ever had 10:12
  21. 18: Every prototype I made in 2025 14:30
  22. 17: Why my basketball board game failed 11:51
  23. 16: How to learn a game 8:48
  24. 15: Paying attention to "desire paths" 10:14
  25. 14: Games are not stories 9:44
  26. 13: Less is more in simulation games 10:39
  27. 12: Problem-centered design 10:43
  28. 11: Distribution is harder than making things 9:45
  29. 10: A board game with hundreds of players 7:58
  30. 9: Managing the player's cognitive load 11:23
  31. 8: AI is horrible at game design 9:52
  32. 7: Escape the mind palace 10:37
  33. 6: Letting players decide the victory condition 9:42
  34. 5: Suspension of disbelief is a skill 8:43
  35. 4: High energy, low ego 13:25
  36. 3: The prototyping machine 8:11
  37. 2: Kill your darlings 9:39
  38. 1: What happens when you can't test a game 9:55
  39. 0: Intro 0:58