Interview
Alexandre Aboud
Designer Interview
Where are you located in the world?
São Paulo (Brazil)
How long have you been designing tabletop games?
6 years
What game(s) are you currently working on?
Arena the Contest
Have you designed any games that have been published?
No
What do you do for a living outside of game design?
I am a doctor (pediatrician)
What type of games do you prefer to play?
Miniature games
What is the name of your favorite game store?
I don’t have a specific favorite
What is (currently) your favorite game? Least favorite?
My favorite game is Descent. I love its mechanics and RPG feeling. I don’t have a specific least favorite game, but there are some games that I believe that wasn’t playtested enough.
Is your game design different than the type of games you enjoy playing? How?
Yes. We worked hard to make a game that you can have a great experience in competitive mode and cooperative mode (we took 5 years to design this game). Also, you can play it in three different levels of complexity, so it can be very appealing to casual players, but when you include the advanced rules and optional elements (such as artifacts and scrolls), it will challenge the hardcore gamers. The classic “try to do everything, don’t do anything good” will not apply to this game.
When you design games, do you come up with the theme first and build the mechanics around that or the mechanics first?
First I think about the mechanics. Then I select a good theme for it and make the necessary adaptations on mechanics to fit perfectly to the theme.
Do you have a favorite game designer or idol? Why?
Eric Lang. He made some genious solutions for classic problems in game design.
Do you like to work alone or as a team?
As a team. People can give lots of valuable ideas. But always must be an “owner” of each area. So this person will take the final decision in case of discordance.
What does your playtest process look like?
We made hundreds of playtests. The priority was to make sure people understand and enjoyed the game by looking at their reactions. Also, we tested some styles of artwork (using arts from the internet) to have an idea of what kind of art was the favorite for them. We made some tournaments, the last one about 40 players have played.
What do you feel is your biggest challenge as a game designer?
When designing Arena the Contest, we wanted a quality AAA, in both visual and mechanics. About art, we tried to make a realistic art about classic fantasy. Miniatures we made as detailed as possible and it wasn’t easy to brief and give the feedback (community are helping me a lot with this). And about mechanics, we have 3 important things: balance in heroes powers (as we believe that if a hero is better than another, it is not a true choice), diversity in heroes attacks (so it increases the replayability very much and players will really feel that are controlling different characters and the game is easy to learn it’s basics. So even a casual player attacking with the barbarian will be important when playing.
What do you wish someone had told you about game design?
Making a game is not about you. It’s about your audience. There is no way to please everyone, so you have to choose a niche and make a game as good as possible to them.
Do you have any advice you’d like to share with budding designers?
When people are playtesting your game, their reactions are more valuable than their “official feedback”. People (especially friends one) usually don’t talk about problems or say that they don’t like the game. So if you just listen to their words, you will have a distorted idea of their reception about the game. Pay attention in their behavior when playing and their actions on the game. If people are making obvious “wrong moves”, try to understand the reason why (it’s way more important than asking players if they learned the rules)
Anything else you’d like to tell our readers?
Arena the Contest will hit Kickstarter on March 27. I believe you will love its arts, miniatures and gameplay. We paid attention to all details so you will buy a game that you can play competitive and Cooperative (or solo) equally fun and detailed. You can even play an epic campaign with multiple paths and endings (for those who enjoy stories). Or have tense skirmish against your friends to test your strategies.
But what does it all mean? Find out how we review the games we play!
