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Animus – The Draft Building Game:
Animus Website
Animus on Facebook
Animus on Tabletop Simulator (Version not fully up to date)

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Hello fellow adventurers and welcome to the Nerdlab – Where we transform our gaming passion into incredible game designs and learn how to nerd like a boss. 

My name is Marvin and I am an ambitious game designer on my quest to develop a co-operative fantasy card game.

For this podcast, my vision is to take you with me on this exciting journey. Together we will explore the secrets of different game mechanics and reach the next level as a game designer.

In today’s episode, I have the chance to talk to Ed Rodriguez, a great game designer with whom I think I have a lot in common. We both seem to be into strategy card games a lot. Especially drafting as a mechanism is something we both love. We are also both part of the same social media groups. We use Tabletop Simulator to digitize our ideas. But our most important commonality, at least for today’s show is that we both set very clear goals at the beginning of our design journey. Especially with regards to limitations and constraints. However, there are also some major differences between us. First of all, his tabletop simulator implementations look a thousand times more professional than mine and secondly, he somehow manages to keep the limitations he sets himself. And this is exactly what we want to discuss today: How to design a game with very strict limitations. 

Topics we talked about during our interview:

  • What is Animus the Draft Building Game and how was its design process?
  • When do you set constraints during your design process?
  • Why do you set constraints as a game designer?
  • What is the advantage of strict limitations for a game design project?
  • Do you adjust your constraints during the design process?
  • What are Examples of typical Game Design Constraints?
  • How does the Process of Setting Constraints look like?