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This year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco featured something new this year. For the first time ever, tabletop games took center stage during Board Game Design Day. Headliners included Rob Daviau and Matt Leacock, the team behind Pandemic: Legacy, as well as Eric Lang, this year’s Diana Jones award winning designer.
Now, those talks are available for free online thanks to the GDC Vault.
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The Board Game Design Day was intended to be a “one-day deep dive into the art and science,” and it absolutely delivered on that promise.
Over the course of two different talks, Daviau lifted the curtain on the process of making a Legacy-style board game. Riot Games’ Chris Cantrell was on hand to tell the entire story of Mechs vs. Minions, the first tabletop game ever published by League of Legends developer Riot Games.
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Other notable talks included one from the team behind Secret Hitler and another from Tim Fowers, the man behind Burgle Bros. My personal favorite, titled “The State & Future of Board Game Design” included panelists Daviau, Lang and Geoffrey Engelstein. Moderated by Shut Up & Sit Down’s Paul Dean, it covered a myriad of topics including virtual reality and diversity.
From what we saw, all the talks at GDC’s inaugural Board Game Design Day were well attended. No word yet on if there will be another one next year.
