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All Episodes

Design Doc — 117 episodes

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Title
1

No Wrong Way to Eat a Pear

E
2

How to Do Two Things at Once

E
3

Queuing for Canoeing
4

Trapped in the Liminal Zone
5

Fatigue

E
6

The Path to a Question
7

Who Designs the Game?
8

A Year of Movies

E
9

Epiphanies
10

Resolutions New and Old

E
11

Convention Dids and Didn’ts
12

Short Break Announcement
13

Making Game Hacks That Stay Small
14

You Can’t End the Game Until You Know What It Means
15

Design Doc 101

E
16

Bonus: Ernest Cline's Stinker (Part 2—the Movie!)

E
17

Bonus: Ernest Cline's Stinker (Part 1)

E
18

The Realest Place on Earth
19

Game Design Grab Bag
20

Roleplaying in the Park
21

Creative Disagreements
22

The Game Takes Shape
23

The Rules Tell a Story
24

Epilogues in Games
25

Balancing the Pendulum
26

Now You're the Bad Guy
27

Don’t Stop Making Art! (Feat. Joshua A.C. Newman)

E
28

It’s My Playtest and I’ll Cry If I Want To
29

Pacing
30

Insights and Secrets
31

Rewards and Prizes
32

The Art of Perfect Art

E
33

What Makes a Good Playtest?

E
34

When Mechanics Don't Match
35

Going Places! (or, Navigation Mechanics in Games)
36

A Moment of Rest
37

Finding Community Again
38

Levels of Doneness
39

Judging a Book by Its Cover
40

The Ideas You'll Be Buried With
41

Designing a Spooky Game (Part 4): Finally, the Playtest
42

The Pizza or the Basket? (Amusement Park Horror w/ Alanna Shaffer)

E
43

Designing a Spooky Game (Part 3): Mr. Bones' Wild Ride
44

Designing a Spooky Game (Part 2): The Setting
45

Designing a Spooky Game (Part 1): The Brainstorm
46

The Founder Olympics

E
47

Our Best Design Doc Ideas

E
48

The Taste Talent Gap

E
49

Adapting a Text
50

Working around a Job

E
51

Obsessions

E
52

Better Never Than Late?

E
53

Designing Alone, but Not Lonely
54

Design Session: What Makes a Good Solo RPG?
55

Will We Ever Finish Questlandia 2?

E
56

The Liminal Spaces of Six Flags

E
57

"People Were Shorter Back Then" (Guest ep w/ historical interpreter Enzo!)
58

Old Sturbridge Village
59

Founder Energy

E
60

Fish People
61

Focusing on Focus

E
62

We're Writing a Novel
63

Packed With Care (Part 2)

E
64

Packed With Care (Part 1)

E
65

Actually selling our games

E
66

What to do when you're sick of your game
67

FLETs (Fiddly Little End Things)

E
68

Dispatch from an on-time timeline

E
69

Imperfect Inspiration

E
70

Bad lo-fi game ideas to study or relax to

E
71

Underdressed and over-diced
72

Kudos Conundrum

E
73

Rekindling the Flame

E
74

A Cat in the Lap and Other Good Things

E
75

Numbers Hide Everything
76

The Episode Before the Kickstarter
77

Resist the Urge to Fill Negative Space

E
78

The Work of Games Is Not Just Making Games

E
79

Shootin the shoot

E
80

How to Compare Roleplaying Games
81

Deluxe Edition

E
82

Everything Old Is New Again

E
83

Scopeful Optimism

E
84

Designing a Game Design Workday

E
85

The Games You Want to Make, The Life You Want to Live

E
86

Burnout

E
87

The Ski Bike
88

Breaking up with Character Creation

E
89

When to Add Ghosts to Your Game
90

When No One Is the GM, Everyone Is

E
91

The UltraLux Bait-and-Switch

E
92

Your Kickstarter Questions (Mostly) Answered

E
93

Okay, Let's Redesign Noirlandia
94

We Still Don't Know Who the Junk Poets Are
95

Finding the Game's Emotional Core
96

Playtesting Progress Part 2: The Spinning Mountain
97

Playtesting Progress Part 1: Knotty Business

E
98

Make-Believe History

E
99

Whoops, It's a Dystopia

E
100

It's Trans Awareness Week (Mini Bonus Ep)
101

Games Are Political

E
102

Retreat Forward

E
103

Making Things in Hard Times

E
104

Social Dynamics at the Table

E
105

You Can Kill a King, but You Can't Make a Marinara
106

Romancing the Wall
107

The Worst Ideas We've Had so Far
108

Deadline Motivated

E
109

Mosslickers
110

The Symbol Reader
111

Collaboration
112

The First Playtest
113

Preparing the Playtest
114

Plumb Bobs
115

Worldbuilding
116

Metaplot
117

Welcome To Questlandia!