People Behind the Meeples - Episode 301: Alex Aboud

Welcome to People Behind the Meeples, a series of interviews with indie game designers.  Here you'll find out more than you ever wanted to know about the people who make the best games that you may or may not have heard of before.  If you'd like to be featured, head over to http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html and fill out the questionnaire! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples. Support me on Patreon!

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Name:	Alex Aboud
Location:	Dragori Games - US
Day Job:	Game Designer and Publisher
Designing:	Five to ten years.
Webpage:	dragorigames.com
Find my games at:	Our live campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dragorigames/tanares-rpg

Today's Interview is with:

Alex Aboud
Interviewed on: 9/21/2021

This week we get two interviews! Today we get to meet Alex Aboud, the designer of the successfully Kickstarted Tanares Adventures and the currently crowdfunding (and nearing $2 million raised) Tanares RPG! Tanares RPG is only on Kickstarter for a few more hours, so be sure to check it out right away if you want to get in on the action. And if you want to learn more about Alex, read on!

People Behind the Meeples - Episode 300: Nero (Ondrej Sova)

Welcome to People Behind the Meeples, a series of interviews with indie game designers.  Here you'll find out more than you ever wanted to know about the people who make the best games that you may or may not have heard of before.  If you'd like to be featured, head over to http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html and fill out the questionnaire! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples. Support me on Patreon!

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Name:	Nero (Ondrej Sova)
Email:	nero@nerogames.sk
Location:	Slovakia
Day Job:	web developer
Designing:	Over ten years!
Webpage:	nerogames.sk
BGG:	Nero Games
Facebook:	fb.com/nerogames.sk
Instagram:	@nerogames.sk
Other:
Find my games at:	BGG

Today's Interview is with:

Nero
Interviewed on: 7/24/2021

This week marks a major milestone, it's my 300th People Behind the Meeples interview, almost exactly 5 years after the first one (a lot has changed since then, so maybe I should share an update)! Take a look back at some of the amazing designers I've featured since I started this series in 2016. This week we get to meet designer Ondrej Sova, better known in gaming circles as Nero. Nero has designed several games that have been published, including Kombo Klash by HubGames, and has plenty more designs that he's working on. To learn more about Nero and his projects, read on!

People Behind the Meeples - Episode 299: Fabricio Leotti

Welcome to People Behind the Meeples, a series of interviews with indie game designers.  Here you'll find out more than you ever wanted to know about the people who make the best games that you may or may not have heard of before.  If you'd like to be featured, head over to http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html and fill out the questionnaire! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples. Support me on Patreon!

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Name:	Fabricio Leotti
Location:	Sweden
Day Job:	I am Site Reliability Engineer, which is a way to call a programmer that helps automate and maintain a system.
Designing:	Over ten years!
Webpage:	dicecoalition.games/hyperwars
BGG:	Hyperwars
Facebook:	Dice Coalition Games
Twitter:	@coalition_dice
YouTube:	Dice Coalition Games
Instagram:	@dicecoalitiongames
Other:	IGA
Find my games at:	Soon on Kickstarter =)

Today's Interview is with:

Fabricio Leotti
Interviewed on: 7/29/2021

This week we talk to Fabricio Leotti, the designer of Hyperwars, coming to Kickstarter next week. Fabricio has a number of projects in the works, with Hyperwars ready for publication as soon as the Kickstarter succeeds! So read on to learn more about Fabricio, Hyperwars, and his other projects.

Protospiel Chicago 2021 Recap

Support me on Patreon!

This past weekend I attended Protospiel Chicago, my first in-person playtesting event (aside from a couple of small, local game nights where I've playtested a few things) since the one-day Protospiel Madison Mini back in February 2020!  It felt really great to be back at a table playing prototypes with friends I hadn't seen in two years, even if we had to wear masks.  This year I brought six games to playtest, all of which didn't exist at the last full Protospiel I attended.  I was a bit nervous since only Rolling Seas had a lot of play (and the Current Events expansion I was testing was still new).  None of the games had been playtested more than once or twice with anyone other than myself, and Polyhedral Prix had never been played with anyone.  But the event was a great success!  

My games were a hit with people asking to play them so much that on Saturday I barely got to play anyone else's games.  Sunday I made a point to make the rounds and try out others' games, but I did end the event with two more plays of my games.  I came home with some great feedback to ponder, a few tweaks to make, some rules to clarify, and an idea for a new game bouncing around in my head.  Plus I made a few new friends over the weekend, met a few online friends in person, and got to see a bunch of older friends.  So I call that a success!  

In all, I played 8 games by 7 different designers, plus I had 6 of my games played: Rolling Seas w/ Current Events expansion, Duct Tape Roll, Go Make A Hike, Polyhedral Potions, Polyhedral Perils, and Polyhedral Prix.  I played other designers' games for about 6.5 hours and had my games played for a bit over 7 hours (plus rules and feedback on both sides).  So I used a bit more time than I gave this year, but people wanted to play my games!

Read on for a full recap of each game I played (or taught), including some thoughts on how my own games went.  As usual, I'll include the designer, who I played with, and also three ratings, from 1-5.  

People Behind the Meeples - Episode 298: Delve Bros - Willem, Eli, and Zac Delventhal

Welcome to People Behind the Meeples, a series of interviews with indie game designers.  Here you'll find out more than you ever wanted to know about the people who make the best games that you may or may not have heard of before.  If you'd like to be featured, head over to http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html and fill out the questionnaire! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples. Support me on Patreon!

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Name:	Delve Bros - Willem, Eli, and Zac Delventhal
Email:	will.delventhal@gmail.com
Location:	Georgia, USA
Day Job:	Eli is currently full time on Taelmoor, Willem runs a school for video game developers, and Zac works in software engineering and blockchain development.
Designing:	Six months to a year.
Webpage:	Taelmoor on Delve Bros
BGG:	Taelmoor
Facebook:	Taelmoor on Facebook
Twitter:	@taelmoor
YouTube:	Delve Bros
Instagram:	@taelmoor.boardgame
Find my games at:	https://www.delvebros.com/play-taelmoor

Today's Interview is with:

Willem Delventhal
Interviewed on: 7/20/2021

For the second week in a row the interview is with a family game design team! The Delve Bros are three brothers: Willem, Eli, and Zac Delventhal. It's truly a family operation though, since their whole families are involved in their games! The brothers cut their teeth in video game development, but just ran a successful Kickstarter for their first board game: Taelmoor. Taelmoor combines their love of board games with their love of video games by creating a unique scan-and-play feature where scanning QR codes on game pieces takes you to digital content to immerse you in the world of the game. Read on to learn more about Delve Bros and their projects!

People Behind the Meeples - Episode 297: Wrenegade Studios - Paul, Dan & Alex

Welcome to People Behind the Meeples, a series of interviews with indie game designers.  Here you'll find out more than you ever wanted to know about the people who make the best games that you may or may not have heard of before.  If you'd like to be featured, head over to http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html and fill out the questionnaire! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples. Support me on Patreon!

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Name:	Wrenegade Studios - Paul, Dan & Alex
Email:	wrenegadestudios@gmail.com
Location:	UK
Day Job:	Data analyst.
Designing:	Six months to a year.
Webpage:	Wrenegadestudios.com
Blog:	Wrenegade Studios Blog
BGG:	wrenegade_studios
Facebook:	Wrenegade Studios
Twitter:	@wrenegadestudio
YouTube:	Wrenegade Studios
Instagram:	@wrenegadestudios
Other:	Our discord: https://discord.gg/nAcXF6uuvS
Find my games at:	Our website will have all the information when ready but join us on social medias to keep up to date with the latest news.

Today's Interview is with:

Wrenegade Studios -
Paul, Dan & Alex
Interviewed on: 7/16/2021

This week's interview is with Paul from Wrenegade Studios. He's answering for the entire team, which is three brothers and cousins: Paul, Dan, and Alex. They've been playing games together for decades and have recently started making games together! Read on to learn more about Paul and the Wrenegade Studios team!