The Game Designers - Full Movie

Zoom Out Media proudly presents THE GAME DESIGNERS!

SYNOPSIS:
The Game Designers is a feature-length documentary film about board game designers. Join us as we follow professional and fledgling board game designers as they strive to bring their heartfelt creations to life. The challenges are great, but their resolve is even greater as they toil night and day to turn their dreams into a reality. Will the designers find success and get their games out into the world? Or will their creations become too complicated and convoluted to complete? Only time–and a whole lot of persistence–-will tell what happens!

ABOUT THE FILM:
The Game Designers highlights the work and stories of five board game designers. Industry luminaries Antoine Bauza and Matt Leacock share their origin stories and also give a look into their latest projects; up-and-coming designers Kelly North Adams and Chris Faulkenberry work on publishing and Kickstarting their sophomore efforts; and first-time designer Doug Schepers tries his hand at developing his first title. The film also features additional designers and others in the industry who illuminate the stories of the featured set.

FULL CAST:
Antoine Bauza - 7 Wonders, Hanabi, Takenoko
Matt Leacock - Pandemic, Forbidden Island, Era
Kelly North Adams - Veggie Garden, Chibi Quest, Swipe Right
Chris Faulkenberry - Battle for Biternia
Doug Schepers - Spells
Tom Vasel - The Dice Tower
Glenn Frank Drover - Railways of the World, Age of Empires 3
Sandy Petersen - Cthulhu Wars, Planet Apocalypse, Glorantha
Mike Selinker - Pathfinder, Magic: The Gathering, Axis & Allies
Chris O'Neal - Boss Monster, Call to Adventure
Jason Matthews - Twilight Struggle, Making of a President
Ryan Laukat - Sleeping Gods, Near and Far, Above and Below
John Moller - Unpub Convention
Eric M. Lang - Blood Rage, Rising Sun, Arcadia Quest
Rob Daviau - Pandemic: Season 1, Risk Legacy, Heroscape
Jason Tagmire - Seven7s, Twin Stars, Chain Mail
Rob Couch - Building the Game podcast
Jason Slingerland - Building the Game podcast
Ludovic Maublanc - Cyclades, Conan, Mr. Jack
Corentin Lebrat - Draftosaurus, Chateau Adventure
Reiner Knizia - Tigris & Euphrates, Ra, Lost Cities
Wolfgang Kramer - El Grande, The Princes of Florence, Tikal
Friedemann Friese - Power Grid, Friday, Fabled Fruit
Mac Gerdts - Concordia, Imperial, Navegador
Liz Spain - Widow’s Walk, Pathfinder
Sen-Foong Lim - Belfort, Akrotiri, Junk Art
Tom Lehmann - Race for the Galaxy, Roll for the Galaxy
Martin Wallace - Brass, Railways of the World
Zee Garcia - The Dice Tower
Uwe Rosenberg - Agricola, Caverna, Patchwork
John Zinser - AEG Games
Vlaada Chavtil - Through the Ages, Mage Knight

CREW:
Writer/Director - Eric Rayl
Executive Producer - Scott Alden
Associate Producers - Scott Gaeta, Ning Pan, Hans Scharler, Gian Andrea Cappuzzo

ADDITIONAL INTERVIEWS:
Brittanie Boe, Bruno Cathala, Bruno Faidutti, Bryan Pope, Corey Konieczka, Daniel Solis, Dominique Metzler, Elisa Teague, Emerson Matsuuchi, W Eric Martin, Graham Russell, Isaac Childres, Jacob Fryxelius, Jamey Stegmaier, Jason Alan Kotarski, Jeff Johnston, Matt Wolfe, Maureen Hiron, Richard Breese, Richard Launius, Stefania Niccolini, Seiji Kanai, Ted Alspach, Thiago Aranha, Travis Chance, Vital Lacerda, Zev Shlasinger

PRODUCTION:
Production of The Game Designers began in January 2016 and was completely finished in January 2020. Throughout these 4 years I traveled to many different locations and filmed a number of the top board game designers in the world. I traveled to the following locations and conventions for the production of this film: GenCon, Origins, Essen Spiel, Lucca Game Fair, Cannes Game Fair, Cmon Expo, Unpub, DragonCon, Orlando, Sunnyvale, Valence (France), Atlanta, Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill.

KICKSTARTER:

PRODUCTION DIARY:

IMDB:

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[ZoomOutMedia]

Hey everyone, thanks for checking out The Game Designers. If you enjoyed the movie, please be sure to subscribe as there will be additional content from The Game Designers coming out each week for the next several weeks (plus more goodies after that)!

[sungbopark]

I'm a board game player from Korea. This is a very good documentary. However, the Korean board game community is not aware of the existence of this video, probably because there are no Korean subtitles. If you don't mind, I would like to add Korean subtitles to this video and introduce this video to the Korean community. Could you please change the settings so that I can add subtitles?

[Talliesyn]

Thanks for the documentary, it's kind of reassuring to see those oldschool designers face the same hardships and overcome it time and again to succed. I wouldn't call myself an aspiring designer. Never intend to do this as a full time job. But I hope to get my game pitched at some point.

[smilingbadger]

I was a play tester for Chad Jensen a designer for GMT games (GOD rest his soul.) He was brilliant and his designs won many awards. His rule books were very well written and the games were well thought out. Many of his designs took many years to develope and it showed in their quality. He even made a counter in Combat Commander with my name on it. I am now the American battle field promotion leader. Miss you buddy.

[Tysto]

I would have liked to hear from each of the aspiring designers about the core mechanic of their game. That’s where their passion would shine. I watched this whole thing & have no idea how any of these games work.

[Tysto]

Reiner Knizia seems like a different species from the aspiring designers. He exudes strategic & tactical thoughtfulness. I didn’t notice until the end that he was the designer of Tigris & Euphrates.

[rodneydunn]

I always knew that designing a game is an incredibly difficult and painful process. This documentary further supported that I will play them when they are done and enjoy them. Designing or playtesting broken prototypes is not for me. Thank goodness there are people so committed to bringing these ideas to life!

[pudicio]

As an aspiring game designer this documentary is pure gold

[pennyhardaway]

Antoine Bauza seems to be a very nice and approachable guy. You can see his passion for the game design and for the people working with him!

[RealTDragon]

Grateful you’re out there documenting this history

[danieldouglasclemens]

The documentary was well done and captures the reasons, energy, enthusiasm, disappointment and sometimes even tears. Only you as a designer working relentlessly behind the curtains remember those sleepless nights and tearing out your hair in trying to find the correct mechanisms and balancing. Your game becomes a part of you, as you nurture it, scold it, hate it and love it to its very core. Game development is like the most intense drama and clumsy first steps slowly turning into a beautiful dance full of grace and joy.

Only a fraction of gamers get to see beyond the fancy Kickstarter campaign curtains. With huge competition around it becomes an amazing achievement, when you finally do reach your funding goal! All the best to any and all game designers out there!

As a stone age video gamer of jrpgs like Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger & Co, the design of "Battle for Biternia" strikes a chord with me. Although I never played MOBA digitally and probably never will due to other interests and obligations, I would love to give Battle for Biternia a shot. Sadly shipping costs to Germany are at an all-time high and so I currently refrain from buying it. Maybe at Essen Spiel I could buy a copy or else at some later point in time. As it stands now, shipping costs are as much as the base game itself, if you also order the expansion (which I would).

[KeithAndersch]

Glad to help kickstart this doc. And equally glad that it's available for all to watch now.

[AcidHoundArchives]

This was so cool to watch, so many different perspectives showcasing different challenges in game design was so interesting. The editing and music timing and choice was amazing and props to all the designers in this. The vulnerability and openness from these designers needs to be recognized. Absolute respect to everybody involved with this project. 48:02 👏🏻🤘🏼

[danacoleman]

i LOVE the dude with the shoelaces hanging from his face 😂😂😂

[KeepersofFun]

An absolute must-see, especially for board game enthusiasts.

[vancass]

“Anonymity” can redirect your “friends” criticism by placing these criticisms and suggestions into a “box” that is than drawn to truly have productive suggestions offered

[Nathan-P-Moomaw]

As a hobbyist game designer, my favorite part of this documentary was seeing all these professional designers spending so much time simply cutting paper by hand! It's so tedious and feels so slow while you're doing it, but now I'll feel better knowing that it's the process even folks like Bauza and Leacock still use. I'm also really curious about the bit in the credits that lists additional interviews with like 30 more awesome game designers... Is that content available?!

[manolios]

very good!
and you gotta love the scenes from a forgotten Era, when we were all together, around tables, going to conventions, and do not afraid to breath freely.

[david_hodarispiele]

Awesome documentary! Thank you for another view of the industry and especially from the US. Designers like me need something like this community over here in germany as well. The convention for game testers seems incredibly awesome!

[jadam]

Really wish that all the b-roll game shots also included the name of the game. Some of them looked interesting and I would love to know which games they are.