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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

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Episodes

39 episodes

  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