Category: Blog

I wrote an academic paper about my work with the board game MindShadows, and... since I was to present it and show it, it was high time to release it as a printable. So the week before going to Italy to present the paper I put the high gear in, assembled all the materials and told myself that "Look, it doesn't have to be perfect, but it needs to get out there!" So here it is: Link to printable.  It is by no means perfect. I hope to carve out some time to make a boxed version, but for now, it is at least playable.

I missed teaching. This surprised me, but facts are facts. I accepted a faculty position at Södertörn University in Sweden, at the Media technology department. If one lives in Stockholm, as I do, and want to teach game design, it is the place to be, so here we go :). I'll only be full-time for the first year, then I will be able to work part time so that I can continue my own game-making and continue to learn to paint.  

The working name for the board game I am designing is Mind Shadows. In the current design, which is the 10th iteration, players together find ways to overcome Shadows - real-world problems or concepts. You start by giving each other super-powers that represent your strengths in the real world. When playing you monitor each other’s wellbeing, finding ways make to each other happy, and lending each other support when low. The shadow will fight that all the way, but by playing creatively you can reduce its negative emotion and significance - and win the game. [caption id="attachment_85" align="alignnone" width="380"] My friend Patricia Erlandsson took this snapshot of her board when we played in December.[/caption] You play with supportive cards, while the shadow uses destructive ones. You can author new support…

I grew up playing games, but it wasn't until in 1995 I got obsessed by them. Back then, I wrote stories, and saw that games didn't only tell stories, they made players co-creators in another way than other media.  I wanted to get under the hood of the games, to really understand them, and then (and perhaps it is still so), the only way to do so was to learn to read and write code. So I set about to do so. Five years later, in 2000, I was working as a game programmer in Stockholm at Liquid Media. We were making mystery games and other games that were heavy on the story telling aspects. I dug up some some readings from my university years on story logics, and what had seemed,…