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Interview with the Game Designer, Roberto Pinheiro
10/10/21 0 comments
In this interview with the Game Designer, Roberto Pinheiro, you'll get to know the steps from the conception of the idea of a Board Game until reaching the final product!
Roberto Pinheiro
: Game Designer, Event Organizer and an excellent player, currently residing in Juazeiro do Note, Ceará, Brazil.
What Makes a Game Designer for Board Games?
Roberto:
He does the complete game creation arc in mechanical terms. He has the idea of the game, elaborates the mechanics, makes it playable through tests. In short, this is it. Of course, many Game Designers expand this scope and embrace more activities.Ad
“So, a Game Designer is almost like a board game wildcard. It can “just” make the game systems or go much further than that.”
- Roberto Pinheiro
Is there some kind of rite for creating board games?
Roberto:
I take three little jumps backwards in the ocean waves. Just kidding... It usually starts with a very abstract game idea. I write it down, and it matures little by little. It can be just a concept idea or an idea of mechanics or even a general flow of the game. All of this goes into a giant file that I use as a repository for these ideas. Eventually, when I'm interested in creating a new game, I take a look at this repository, choose the one I like the most at the moment, and start the process.How is the creative process?
Roberto:
This seems to vary a lot from author to author. There's always the discussion “mechanics” or “theme” first... I'm more into mechanics, thinking of different ways to use something that already exists or simply mixing them up differently. With the more central mechanics kind of defined, I start trying to put a theme in the game, so it serves to support future decisions. I think staying fully into the mechanics for too long is going to make the game very difficult to fit in the future when it's fully run. Not to mention that thinking about a suitable theme already provides some interesting decisions that facilitate the general development of the game.“Once I have the game in mind, I try to devise the least viable game flow so that I can play a piece of the game or even a full game.”
- Roberto Pinheiro
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“If you want to create games, you will have to be willing to play your own game over and over again”
- Roberto Pinheiro
Do you have a defined style?
Roberto:
I don't think so. Maybe the focus on mechanics? However, I try to create games of the most diverse styles and categories. I have games that take 2 hours and games that take 10 minutes. I have cooperative and competitive games. Furthermore, I have games set in medieval and futuristic times.“Some Game Designers have a favorite style, but most live off cycles.”
- Roberto Pinheiro
Agricola
) goes through cycles, once had a time of just creating simple Card Games, then went through Worker Placement and, more recently, created several games using polyominoes (those Tetris-style pieces). So, I would say the same happens to me because when some mechanic or concept works, I end up creating more than one game on that line. Until a new idea or concept comes along and the style changes with it.Do you research on the market's demands?
Roberto:
Rarely. The Game Designer's role is to create a good game, not necessarily the best-selling game. Of course, if you want to publish your game on your own, it's good to study it well and see what the public's trends are at the moment. After all, you will invest money to produce the game, and you will need to sell it. However, in case you are not going to publish your own game, this is a role for the Publisher. In this case, the Game Designer creates his game (or several games, preferably) and it is up to the Publisher to select the most suitable one. Among the selection criteria aremarket demands
,product line
and, of course,game quality
.What games have you released and which ones are on prototypes?
Roberto:
I published a game independently, that is, I did the entire process from the game design to the product. It's a small game called RegicidaAd







Cesar Cusin
Board Game and RPG collector/player (Master). PHD in Information Science. Master in Computer Science. College professor. Researcher in the area of Web Accessibility. Consultant in the area of Information and Technology Management. I support the Chiefs (NFL), Lakers (NBA) and I'm a Ferrarista (F1).
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