For years now, I’ve been a frequent guest on various video game podcasts, especially Three Moves Ahead and The Game Design Roundtable. I’ve always enjoy the format and have now decided to start one of my own. Thus, I’d like to announce the Designer Notes podcast, in which I sit down with noted game designers to discuss why we make games.

The folks at Idle Thumbs offered to host the podcast, which greatly helped getting this new endeavor started. My first guest is Rob Pardo, formerly the Chief Creative Officer at Blizzard. We had such a long discussion that I had to break it into two parts, and the first half ranges from his first gaming memories through StarCraft, Brood War, and Warcraft 3. I’ll be posting the second half in early December. Future guests include Frank Lantz, Henrik Fåhraeus, Jon Shafer, Daniel Cook, Brad Muir, Brian Reynolds, Chelsea Howe, and Daniel Benmergui.

EDIT: The second half is now available.

I was on Dirk Knemeyer’s Game Design Round Table podcast twice last month and spent some time talking about how my current game, Offworld Trading Company, is progressing. On Episode 93, we discussed dynamic campaigns in strategy games and were joined by Firaxis designer Ananda Gupta, who shared his experience working on the (dynamic) campaign for the new XCOM. On Episode 94, we were joined by Civ 5 designer Jon Shafer to discuss the current state of Offworld and their impressions of the game.

As a reminder, Offworld can be purchased now on Steam at offworldgame.com.

I’ve been on a few podcasts recently that deserve mentioning:

• Three Moves Ahead on Building vs Battling (with Rob Daviau)
• The Game Design Roundtable on Development Streaming (with Brad Muir)
• The Game Design Roundtable on Pathfinder (with Ryan Dancey)
• The Game Design Roundtable on Transparency

You may have also heard that my new company, Mohawk Games, has announced its first game, Offworld Trading Company. I go into more detail on our company blog, and I did some interviews on the game with Ars Technica and Rock Paper Shotgun. You can pre-order now at offworldgame.com, which will get you access to our playable prototype this fall!

Last week, I was on a couple podcast that I frequently haunt. I joined Troy Goodfellow and Bruce Geryk on Three Moves Ahead to discuss the excellent recent iOS wargame Drive on Moscow. (Listen for my reference to noted game designer “Bruce” Reynolds.) I also discussed conflict in games on The Game Design Round Table with Jon Shafer and Dirk Knemeyer, which meant lots of talk about Diplomacy as well as why two-sided games are fundamentally different from multi-sided ones.

This week, I joined Dirk Knemeyer and Jon Shafer on The Game Design Round Table to discuss my new company, Mohawk Games, and new economic RTS project, code-named Mars. We talk about the challenges of making a game about economics, the ramifications of real-time versus turn-based design, and the new landscape for independent studios, including Kickstarter and Early Access.

http://thegamedesignroundtable.com/2013/11/11/episode-53-mohawks-martians-with-soren-johnson/

Last week, I joined Rob Zacny and Troy Goodfellow on Three Moves Ahead to discuss the state of RTS games, how much broader the genre could be, my new independent studio Mohawk Games, and my new economic real-time strategy game (currently code-named Mars).

https://www.idlethumbs.net/3ma/episodes/state-of-the-rts

I haven’t been posting my podcast appearance recently, so I’d like to quickly mention the shows I’ve been on this year. Going forward, I should also be appearing more frequently now that I know my future and no longer have to worry about what my employer would like me to say or not to say.

• Three Moves Ahead on the Best of 2012 (with Rob Zacny, Jon Shafer, and David Heron)
• Three Moves Ahead on Asynch Board Games (with Julian Murdoch, Michael Hermes, and Ryan Kuo)
• The Game Design Roundtable on 4X Games (with Jon Shafer and Dirk Knemeyer)
• The Game Design Roundtable on Progression Systems (with Jon Shafer and Dirk Knemeyer)