Intertextual Cardboard Experience Ryan Vodnik

Artist of a million different things (with many of those most recent projects being board games), Alisha Giroux joins the podcast to discuss art, board games, some neat stories about how some collaborations came to be, AI, and a whole bunch of other great insights.

Check out Alisha’s work in these links below:
Store
Portfolio
Linkpop for Instagram and other pages
BoardGameGeek

Art 101
Alisha’s background in graphic design and how that’s been a base for which the ever-present passion for art has grown.

Games and Collaboration and Redwall and Creative Advice (17:02)
The third “and” in Redwall ties to the other elements extremely heavily, and it’s a special story about how Alisha was able to work with legendary artist, Gary Chalk. Additionally, Alisha shares how some of the cats in Cat Blues: The Big Gig were created. This is a really special and inspiring portion that makes you think about all of the stories that show the love, circumstances, and unique ways in which things happen are behind the art that we consume.

AI AIn’t It (1:01:42)
A little over a year ago, Alisha gave a presentation titled “The Creative Fingerprint” at CreativeMornings Ottawa. This talk goes over what’s being done with AI in art, and this section of the episode goes over what’s changed since then.

Projects (1:12:45)
A look into some of the aforementioned different mediums where Alisha is creating.

Wrap-up Questions (1:17:06)
A “current hyper-fixation” and what to look out for from Alisha.

----------------------------------------------------------
Contact, follow, and support information:
vodthepod@gmail.com
Twitter
Instagram
General feedback form - (your thoughts are appreciated!)
Buy Me a Coffee

A just me episode where I (start to) discuss "balance" in board games, other mediums, and life in general. A lot of the purpose of the episode is to introduce future topics while bringing up some of the things I've been up to that made me think about those topics. There wound up being some interesting connections in here too, and I'm looking forward to many future guests/topics mentioned here. The episode then thinks about ways in which board games use expansions/new versions/etc. to follow up an initial entry. And then there's a brief ramble about Hades II.
There's another giveaway! Fill out the General Feedback Form in the contact information below if you're interested in the first official VOLPG, or "Vod Offloading Lightly Played Games."

----------------------------------------------------------
Contact, follow, and support information:
vodthepod@gmail.com
Twitter
Instagram
General feedback form - (your thoughts are appreciated!)
Buy Me a Coffee

The end of a trilogy. Brett J. Gilbert joins me to cap off a wonderful set of episodes. As one of founders of the Cambridge design group that both Trevor Benjamin and David Thompson from the last two episodes are a part of, it was such a great time going back to the beginning. The oddly constructed chronology of this episode kind of does the same, so join the end of this current “Collabstraction” journey.

Brett's board game website.

Beginning of the End (0:00)
A little bit of introductory talk. A little bit of trilogy talk.

Cambridge. Collaboration. Curator. (14:55)
Brett discusses how the group came to be and how it’s changed throughout the years. There’s some other collaboration talk and one question that showed up in the other two episodes.

Restrictions and Distillations (49:43)
The ethos of Brett’s designs was clear from the beginning of the episode, but we discuss it a little bit further here with the specifically small project, “Good Little Games,” and in other capacities as well.

Beginning at the End (1:03:36)
For some reason I forwent asking about Brett’s gaming background early in the episode, but it worked out well here. There’s some additional talk about abstraction and complexity in this section.

Wrap-up Questions (1:20:59)
----------------------------------------------------------
Contact, follow, and support information:
vodthepod@gmail.com
Twitter
Instagram
General feedback form - (your thoughts are appreciated!)
Buy Me a Coffee

In the rare sequel that’s just as good as its predecessor, David Thompson joins the show for “Collabstraction 2: The Collabstractioning.” We talk about some similar ideas in the topics of collaboration and abstraction, but we also discuss the ideas of sequels/iterations/expansions. It was really interesting getting to hear the slight differences in the overall approach to design and the fact that David has designed in the solo and historical spaces a little more, and, obviously, it was just a blast.
Collab-introduction
From growing up in “board game adjacent” spaces of RPGs and skirmish games to how David’s background in different types of systems led to early designs to David’s response to a couple of the questions that the “Grim Reaper” received in the previous episode, there are many stories and laughs in this part.
“His Favorite Color is Chrome” [1:01:53]
Hearing David talk about chrome and “chrome budget” (I love that phrase/had never heard it before) brought about the title of that ridiculous 2001 Trace Adkins song. I was going to link it, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. So if you seek it out, that’s on you. Anyway, David discusses why certain choices are made for certain games and talks about the Valiant Defense series of games, which are wonderfully interesting solo war games.
Following-up [1:13:30]
As this is a part two, I have some questions and thoughts that almost come out as questions about some of the aforementioned sequels/iterations/expansions. Naturally, David answers them wonderfully.
Wrapping-up [1:24:43]
A text on David’s mind and the many things to look out for from him soon!

David on BoardGameGeek & Twitter
----------------------------------------------------------
Contact, follow, and support information:
vodthepod@gmail.com
Twitter
Instagram
General feedback form - (your thoughts are appreciated!)
Buy Me a Coffee

A wonderful collaborative discussion here with a designer that only designs in collaborations, Trevor Benjamin. Designer of one of my favorite games of all time in Mandala, everything that has Trevor in the design credits is guaranteed to be a fantastic game. Speaking of fantastic, I think this episode is quite fantastic too, so thank you for tuning in.

Trevor on BGG and Twitter.

Introductory Questions [Time stamps coming! - weird technical hang-up - should be set by 4/9]
What got Trevor into board games and how that has inspired his designs The conversation goes on about Go and other abstract games, cooperative games, and intuitive/simple designs (I’m not sure if those words capture that part the best, so check it out to hear how this brief description almost matches that discussion).

Cambridge - “Family” [56:30]
What really sticks out in this section is how close Trevor is to his co-designers. Through discussing how these partnerships came to be and have turned into lifelong friendships, it makes sense why the games created between Trevor and Brett/David/Roger/Matthew click so well.

Collab-specific Questions [1:16:00]
What title best fits Trevor in his design partnerships.
A question brought to you by “Indeed” (not sponsored)

Wrap-up Questions [1:32:38]
Trevor discusses a masterpiece of modern television and games to look out for from him this year.

----------------------------------------------------------
Contact, follow, and support information:
vodthepod@gmail.com
Twitter
Instagram
General feedback form - (your thoughts are appreciated!)
Buy Me a Coffee

The first ever "Vodcast." So while a warning that this one is just me is potentially apt, it's a huge step up from the "Yearly Reflection" episode. Part of the reason this exists is due to the fact that now is my turbo-busy season. Another reason it exists is because there are some good thoughts in here that I want to keep continuing in this Vodcast format, whether that's due to being too backed up to have scheduled interviews or not, and elsewhere. The show discusses this in more detail. Future episodes will have less administrative stuff too, but there is a lot of gratitude being expressed in the early part of this episode, so thank you for being a part of my board gaming journey.

Apocalands/Duel Intro (22:12)

Radlands Intro (30:42)

----------------------------------------------------------
Contact, follow, and support information:
vodthepod@gmail.com
Twitter
Instagram
General feedback form - (your thoughts are appreciated!)
Buy Me a Coffee