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: | Mason Crawford |
|---|---|
| Email: | Mason@Blackoutgames.us |
| Location: | South Dakota, USA |
| Day Job: | Just game design, at the moment. |
| Designing: | Two to five years. |
| Webpage: | Blackoutgames.us |
| BGG: | Mason Crawford |
| Facebook: | Mason Crawford |
| Find my games at: | On our website, Blackoutgames.us |
Mason Crawford
Interviewed on: 1/12/2019
Today's interview is with Mason Crawford, of Blackout Games. He has several published designs to his credit, including a number of RPGs. Lockwood's Asylum was successfully Kickstarted in 2017 and delivered last year and Mason has other board game projects that will be hitting Kickstarter soon. So read on to learn more about Mason and the other projects he's working on.
Some Basics
Tell me a bit about yourself.
How long have you been designing tabletop games?
Two to five years.
Why did you start designing tabletop games?
I played a lot of RPGs growing up, usually as the GM, so going from creating my own campaign worlds to my own games was just sort of the next step.
What game or games are you currently working on?
I'm currently working on a monster training RPG. I've always loved the Pokemon and Monster Hunter video games, so putting my spin on the genre and creating a world that revolves around using these monsters like prize fighters in televised tournaments has proved to be really interesting.
Have you designed any games that have been published?
Yes! Lockwood's Asylum, the Madhouse RPG, the 2nd edition of Through the Breach, and a whole lot of work on Malifaux 2E and 3E.
What is your day job?
Just game design, at the moment.
Your Gaming Tastes
My readers would like to know more about you as a gamer.
Where do you prefer to play games?
At the moment, either at home or at a friend's house.
Who do you normally game with?
My girlfriend and a few close friends.
If you were to invite a few friends together for game night tonight, what games would you play?
At the moment, we're working our way through a Kingdom Death campaign, but we've also been playing Nemesis and some Warhammer 40K.
And what snacks would you eat?
It varies, so let's say... Mike and Ikes.
Do you like to have music playing while you play games? If so, what kind?
Sometimes we'll put on some thematic music in the background; sci-fi background music for nemesis, Final Fantasy boss music for DnD fights, etc.
What’s your favorite FLGS?
Probably Giga-Bytes down in Marietta, GA.
What is your current favorite game? Least favorite that you still enjoy? Worst game you ever played?
Current favorite would be... probably Robo Rally. Least favorite that I still enjoy, I'd say Super Dungeon Explore, due to Kickstarter woes. Worst game... probably Monopoly, Sorry, Candyland, or any of those old-school games.
What is your favorite game mechanic? How about your least favorite?
I don't really have a favorite mechanic, or rather, it changes a bunch. Currently, probably the way that monsters are spawned in Deep Madness. Least favorite... probably lightweight social games like Werewolf.
What’s your favorite game that you just can’t ever seem to get to the table?
Chaos in the Old World can be a bit of a hard sell when people aren't looking to cut each others' throats for a few hours.
What styles of games do you play?
I like to play
Board Games, Card Games, Miniatures Games, RPG Games, Video Games
Do you design different styles of games than what you play?
I like to design
Board Games, Card Games, Miniatures Games, RPG 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?
I think I do both at around the same time? Usually I'll see a neat mechanic and have an idea for a theme that would fit it and go from there. It's rare that I sit down and say "I'm going to make an X game" or "I need a theme to make X make sense."
Have you ever entered or won a game design competition?
I've entered a few recently, but they haven't yet hit the judging point, so fingers crossed!
Do you have a current favorite game designer or idol?
Not really.
Where or when or how do you get your inspiration or come up with your best ideas?
I do a lot of good work while driving. South Dakota is pretty flat, so road trips usually amount to "drive straight for X hours," which gives you time to think about stuff and mull it over.
How do you go about playtesting your games?
Give the game to playtesters, listen to their feedback, and adjust accordingly. That doesn't always mean do what playtesters suggest, however; in my experience, playtesters are great at finding problems and bad at fixing them. You often have to look at a perceived problem and decide if that's what's actually causing the issue. Complaints about Thing A and Thing B not being good enough might just mean that Thing C is too good and is overshadowing the other options, even if the playtesters think it's fine.
Do you like to work alone or as part of a team? Co-designers, artists, etc.?
I prefer to design alone and then bounce ideas off other designers whenever I want some outside opinions. One designer can really put their mark on a game, but once you start adding other people into the mix, I think the really great personal touches get watered down or removed entirely, leaving you with something generic. I'd prefer to make interesting and quirky sleeper hits that stand out as original than something boring that will sell decently well and then get pushed to the back of the game shelf and forgotten.
What do you feel is your biggest challenge as a game designer?
Design costs. Decent art is expensive. @__@
If you could design a game within any IP, what would it be?
At the moment, I'd love to work on a Bloodborne RPG or a Silent Hill board game.
What do you wish someone had told you a long time ago about designing games?
I wish that someone would have shoved me into the industry a decade earlier. It was always a hobby and an interest, but I never really thought that I could do it myself until I was in my 30s.
What advice would you like to share about designing games?
If you want to make a game, just sit down and do it. Write some rules out on index cards, draw a board on construction paper, and order some blank dice from Amazon. Half of the work is just starting it. As the flip side to that point, don't be afraid to push a game that's not working onto the back burner. Every game designer I know (myself included) has abandoned more games than they've seen to completion, because not every idea is going to work out. Hold onto your files, though, because you'll often come up with ideas that you can cannibalize for use in future games later on down the road. When you hit the playtesting phase, try to test with people who aren't your friends and family, because more often than not, they're not going to give you the hard feedback that you need.
Would you like to tell my readers what games you're working on and how far along they are?
Published games, I have:
Lockwood's Asylum, a survival horror deck-building game where players build not only their decks, but also the decks of their opponents. It's super fun and really presses the boundary of deck-building games.
Madhouse, which is the Lockwood's Asylum RPG we created as a stretch goal during the Lockwood's Asylum Kickstarter. It's a survival horror RPG where the players take on the roles of patients who have been committed to the Lakeshore Asylum, which is dark and monster-infested. We promised 50 pages and ended up with 130-some, so we clearly had fun writing it!
Plus, I did a bunch of work on Wyrd Miniatures' Through the Breach and Malifaux games, as well as designing the units for their The Other Side game.
Games that will soon be published are:
At the moment, our projects are all slated for crowdfunding.
This is what I have currently crowdfunding:
Nothing at the moment!
Currently looking for a publisher I have:
My company is a publisher!
I'm planning to crowdfund:
We're planning to crowdfund our monster training RPG, once that gets a bit further along in development.
Games that I'm playtesting are:
In addition to our monster-training RPG, I've also got a dragon-fleeing, loot-gathering board game that I've been kicking around for a year or two. It's undergone lots of revisions and has been steadily moving toward a finished state. It's sort of the "second project" that I go back to when I want a break from working on other stuff, which is great, as it gives me time to look at previously implemented changes with a fresh eye.
Games that are in the early stages of development and beta testing are:
I have some rough plans for a social deduction game, but I've been trying to get a bit more mechanics into it than your typical Werewolf game. I'm not a huge fan of the social deduction genre, so it's been interesting trying to design a game of that type while still making it something that I'm personally interested in. We'll see if it pans out!
Are you a member of any Facebook or other design groups? (Game Maker’s Lab, Card and Board Game Developers Guild, etc.)
Card and Board Game Designers Skill Exchange
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 Wars, as it feels like a more lived-in world, though my opinion has fallen quite a bit since the first trilogy. I just can't buy the Star Trek utopian society, and the Klingon makeup change remains weird for me.
Coke has Sprite, which is my soda of choice (caffeine-free!).
VHS, just because I'm too young for Betamax. :P
What hobbies do you have besides tabletop games?
Video games! I like painting miniatures and run a few online PBP games, plus the standard watch movies/listen to music stuff that most people do.
What is something you learned in the last week?
My dog understands at least half of the economic system (in that he keeps trying to give us rawhide chews in exchange for... something?)
Favorite type of music? Books? Movies?
I like alt rock, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books, and horror movies.
What was the last book you read?
Servants of the Machine God, a 40K book.
Do you play any musical instruments?
I am painfully tone-deaf. ;__;
Tell us something about yourself that you think might surprise people.
Most of my professional background is in customer service, specifically hotel work.
Tell us about something crazy that you once did.
Car jousting in the winter. Two cars, windows rolled down, drive past each other while the passengers hang out the window and try to lob snowballs over the roof of their car and at the driver of the other car.
Biggest accident that turned out awesome?
Nothing comes to mind!
Who is your idol?
I don't really have idols. Clearly, my ego is just too large. :P
What would you do if you had a time machine?
Lottery numbers.
Are you an extrovert or introvert?
Introvert
If you could be any superhero, which one would you be?
SuperHERO? Uh, let's see... well, Superman, I guess? Dude's basically indestructible and all-powerful, so...
Have any pets?
One dog, and a cat that also lives with me.
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?
I think that we're probably well and dead by that point. Hopefully they'll have a few RPGs to help them pass the time until extinction.
Just a Bit More
Thanks for answering all my crazy questions! Is there anything else you'd like to tell my readers?
I hope that you'll check out our games and find one that you like!
EXTRA ---
I like peacocks!
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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