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.
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| Name: | Patricia Curtis |
|---|---|
| Location: | Nottingham UK |
| Day Job: | Retired and tabletop games. |
| Designing: | Less than six months. |
| Webpage: | luckyredfish.com/ |
| Blog: | luckyredfish.com/ |
| BGG: | Infromthecold |
| Facebook: | Patricia Curtis |
| Twitter: | @luckyredfish |
| YouTube: | Patricia Curtis |
| Find my games at: | https://skyfight.io/ |
Patricia Curtis
Interviewed on: 1/11/2019
Today we get to learn about Patricia Curtis, a newer board game designer that has 35 years of experience designing video games. She hopes to bring that experience to the tabletop and I'm looking forward to what she designs. Read on to learn more about Patricia!
Some Basics
Tell me a bit about yourself.
How long have you been designing tabletop games?
Less than six months.
Why did you start designing tabletop games?
Fed up with the video games industry so retired early and decided to channel my design efforts into tabletop games.
What game or games are you currently working on?
Doomsday
Have you designed any games that have been published?
Yes I have an extensive back catalog of video games. https://luckyredfish.com/previous-works/
What is your day job?
Retired and tabletop games.
Your Gaming Tastes
My readers would like to know more about you as a gamer.
Where do you prefer to play games?
At home or friends homes
Who do you normally game with?
I have various groups of friends that meet weekly for game nights!
If you were to invite a few friends together for game night tonight, what games would you play?
Jesus, hard question, this week we have played The Great Western Trail + rails to the north, Tzolkin+Tribes, Vasco da Gama, Azul, Euphoria and Feast for Odin!
And what snacks would you eat?
We break for food and my partner normally cooks!
Do you like to have music playing while you play games? If so, what kind?
Old 50s records, Sinatra, Jonny Ray, Bassy etc...
What’s your favorite FLGS?
Don't visit game stores, only purchase online.
What is your current favorite game? Least favorite that you still enjoy? Worst game you ever played?
Best The Great Western Trail + rails to the north
Least Caylus
Family games
What is your favorite game mechanic? How about your least favorite?
obvs my fav is worker placement, my least is roll to move.
What’s your favorite game that you just can’t ever seem to get to the table?
Pret-a-porter and Kanban
What styles of games do you play?
I like to play
Board Games, Card Games, Video Games
Do you design different styles of games than what you play?
I like to design
Board Games, Card Games, Video Games
OK, here's a pretty polarizing game. Do you like and play Cards Against Humanity?
No
You as a Designer
OK, now the bit that sets you apart from the typical gamer. Let's find out about you as a game designer.
When you design games, do you come up with a theme first and build the mechanics around that? Or do you come up with mechanics and then add a theme? Or something else?
Both, I have a mechanic in my head but I can’t get a theme to work with it at the moment, and Doomsday, I have the theme and the idea, and after many false starts I have finally found a way to make it work.
Have you ever entered or won a game design competition?
Yes, I entered the Samsung Mobile game design competition and came second!
Do you have a current favorite game designer or idol?
Uwe Rosenberg
Where or when or how do you get your inspiration or come up with your best ideas?
Everywhere, my mind is alway on!
How do you go about playtesting your games?
Get groups of friends to play while I observe!
Do you like to work alone or as part of a team? Co-designers, artists, etc.?
Would love to work with others but I find mostly I am alone!
What do you feel is your biggest challenge as a game designer?
Being alone, as there is no-one to bounce ideas off.
If you could design a game within any IP, what would it be?
Law and Order SVU!
What do you wish someone had told you a long time ago about designing games?
Having been designing games for over 35 years, I think I would have been the person telling people, to never give up, and believe in yourself.
What advice would you like to share about designing games?
Some of your best games will fail and some of the games you don't like will win, you can’t make everyone happy and not everyone will like everything you create.
Would you like to tell my readers what games you're working on and how far along they are?
Published games, I have:
https://luckyredfish.com/previous-works/
Games that will soon be published are:
At some point in the next couple of years I will send Doomsday off to the publishers.
Currently looking for a publisher I have:
Doomsday!
Games that are in the early stages of development and beta testing are:
Doomsday
And games that are still in the very early idea phase are:
Don't want to say!
Are you a member of any Facebook or other design groups? (Game Maker’s Lab, Card and Board Game Developers Guild, etc.)
nope
And the oddly personal, but harmless stuff…
OK, enough of the game stuff, let's find out what really makes you tick! These are the questions that I’m sure are on everyone’s minds!
Star Trek or Star Wars? Coke or Pepsi? VHS or Betamax?
Star Trek, Coke and Betamax.
What hobbies do you have besides tabletop games?
DJing and Traveling!
What is something you learned in the last week?
Your friends make mistakes when choosing domain names against best advice!
Favorite type of music? Books? Movies?
Music: 50s and Tech House, Books:The Internet, Movies: history, true stories!
What was the last book you read?
The Internet
Do you play any musical instruments?
Yes, I DJ!
Tell us something about yourself that you think might surprise people.
I am Trans, https://luckyredfish.com/who-am-i/
Tell us about something crazy that you once did.
Sat at the traffic lights and did a massive burn out. only to find a there was a cop 2 cars back behind me.
Biggest accident that turned out awesome?
Long story but needless to say I ended up in Vietnam where I met my soulmate!
Who is your idol?
Elon Musk
What would you do if you had a time machine?
Prevent 9/11
Are you an extrovert or introvert?
extrovert sometimes, introvert the rest of the time!
If you could be any superhero, which one would you be?
Fungal sponge woman, cleaning the world’s bad spots!
Have any pets?
No
When the next asteroid hits Earth, causing the Yellowstone caldera to explode, California to fall into the ocean, the sea levels to rise, and the next ice age to set in, what current games or other pastimes do you think (or hope) will survive into the next era of human civilization? What do you hope is underneath that asteroid to be wiped out of the human consciousness forever?
Tabletop gaming, we would need something to keep us busy during the ice age. And I hope that greed in politics get wiped out!
If you’d like to send a shout out to anyone, anyone at all, here’s your chance (I can’t guarantee they’ll read this though):
Thy Mai Tran my soulmate!
Thanks for answering all my crazy questions!
Thank you for reading this People Behind the Meeples indie game designer interview! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples and if you'd like to be featured yourself, you can fill out the questionnaire here: http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html
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