Victory Pointers 015 - Designing and Publishing with David Harding and Phil Walker-Harding

We are joined by guests Phil Walker-Harding and David Harding (in a rare back-to-back appearance) to chat about their different paths taken in designing and publishing games, getting your foot in the door with publishers, game design competitions, theme in games, and second editions of games.

Phil Walker-Harding - @AdventurelandG

David Harding - @grailgames / Grail Games

Kim Brebach – @secretbasegames / Good Games Publishing

Aaron Lim - @ehronlime / theactionpointspodcast.com

Sye Robertson - @syelon / syelon.com

Feel free to send us any feedback or questions for the show at mail@theactionpointspodcast.com (for now). You can also follow us on Twitter as @victorypointers.

What we talked about

2:58 - How did you start designing?

14:30 - How did crowdfunding platforms impact your experience designing and publishing games?

17:38 - Getting your name out there at the start

19:27 - Setting a design goal based on a publisher's catalogue/style

21:00 - Breaking in and pitching to publishers

26:20 - Advice for budding designers wanting to get published - getting your name out  there and submitting to design competitions

32:22 - The Grail Games approach to Kickstarter, and going beyond crowdfunding

40:37 - Factoring in production costs in designing games

42:26 - Changing themes/settings for games, collaboration between publishers and designers

53:45 - Seeing games being published after a long time

55:15 - Second editions of games

1:02:25 - The 2016 Spiel des Jahres nomination for Imhotep and the impact of a nomination

1:10:15 - What's it like working with Reiner Knizia?

1:14:55 - The best game(s) Phil thinks he's designed so far

Links to what we talked about

• Our previous interview with Phil on the Action Points Podcast
• Spiel des Jahres 2016 Nominees

Games we mentioned

• Elevenses
• Sushi Go!
• The Mad Magazine Game
• Test Match
• Park and Shop
• Cacao
• Imhotep
• Archaeology, Archaeology: The Card Game and Archaeology: The New Expedition
• Pirates of the Spanish Main: Shuffling the Deck
• Automania
• Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization and