People Behind The Meeples - Episode 163: Nicholas Hjelmberg

Welcome to People Behind the Meeples, a series of interviews with indie game designers.  Here you'll find out more than you ever wanted to know about the people who make the best games that you may or may not have heard of before.  If you'd like to be featured, head over to http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html and fill out the questionnaire! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples. Support me on Patreon!

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Name:	Nicholas Hjelmberg
Email:	nicholas.hjelmberg@gmail.com
Location:	Sweden
Day Job:	I work with quality assurance of IT systems at Systembolaget, the government-owned liquor retailer of Sweden.
Designing:	Two to five years.
Webpage:	http://novasuecia.se/
Blog:	http://novasuecia.se/blog.html
BGG:	nhjelmberg
Facebook:	Nova Suecia Games
Twitter:	@novasuecia
Other:	Indie Game Alliance, studio name Nova Suecia Games
Find my games at:	The Game Crafter for print on demand, Boardgamegeek and novasuecia.se for print & play documents.

Today's Interview is with:

Nicholas Hjelmberg
Interviewed on: 1/11/2019

This week we meet Nicholas Hjelmberg, a Sweedish designer that has a number of projects active right now. You can find some of his games on The Game Crafter and follow along with him on Facebook or his Nova Suecia Games website. Read on to learn more about Nicholas and his projects!

Some Basics
Tell me a bit about yourself.

How long have you been designing tabletop games?
Two to five years.

Why did you start designing tabletop games?
I've been a gamer for many years but I'm also a professional within the field of quality assurance. Once a colleague of mine (who also is a gamer) asked me whether I had tried to apply QA methodology to design a game and since I can't resist a challenge...

What game or games are you currently working on?
I'm working with a publisher to kickstart "Soviet Party", a package comprised of my micro games "Comrade", "Gulag" and "Politburo". The games are party games for 5-10 people, designed with Russian political jokes in mind to convey the paranoia and resignation of a totalitarian regime.

Have you designed any games that have been published?
Apokalypsis, a small game about manipulating and predicting omens to survive on a sinking island, was sold to a local game shop (https://www.sfbok.se/produkt/apokalypsis-42093). It's now sold out but I do consider a reprint.

What is your day job?
I work with quality assurance of IT systems at Systembolaget, the government-owned liquor retailer of Sweden.

Your Gaming Tastes
My readers would like to know more about you as a gamer.

Where do you prefer to play games?
At home, where I have access to both my kitchen (to prepare food and beverages) and to my game collection.

Who do you normally game with?
I don't have a regular game group but instead have a big network of gamers that I meet at meetups and other events.

If you were to invite a few friends together for game night tonight, what games would you play?
A perfect game night would start with a medium Knizia (perhaps Samurai or even better Tigris & Euphrates), then continue with a heavier economic game (a Wallace or a Splotter game), and finally end with a lighter game (a card game like Innovation or a party game like Avalon).

And what snacks would you eat?
If I have the opportunity, I always bring a basket of fresh bread or buns.

Do you like to have music playing while you play games? If so, what kind?
Possibly, if the music fits the theme of the game, but usually there is so much table talk that noone misses the music.

What's your favorite FLGS?
Since I often buy older classics, I have no favorite FLGS but rather buy games wherever I find them. However, Alphaspel (https://alphaspel.se/) has a gaming room which I often visit.

What is your current favorite game? Least favorite that you still enjoy? Worst game you ever played?
In my opinion, Tigris & Euphrates remains the best game ever designed. Catan is an old favorite that rarely hits the table nowadays but I still think it's a good game. Cards Against Humanity is one of few games I'd refuse to play again.

What is your favorite game mechanic? How about your least favorite?
Tile laying, particularly if the tiles are laid on a common board. Tigris & Euphrates has already been mentioned, Reef Encounter and The Great Zimbabwe are two other great representatives. Take that, when impossible to predict and defend against, doesn't belong in modern games in my opinion.

What's your favorite game that you just can't ever seem to get to the table?
Tigris & Euphrates. Call me old fashioned but I think many gamers today prefer games which I would label as "multi-player solitaires with instant kicks" - build your own engine and accumulate victory points for everything you do. Tigris & Euphrates on the other hand rewards long term planning, where you sometimes have to take small steps to set up a strong finish. This is nothing you understand in your first game and few gamers have the patience to continue playing and discover new layers.

What styles of games do you play?
I like to play Board Games, Card Games, RPG Games

Do you design different styles of games than what you play?
I like to design Board Games, Card Games, RPG Games

OK, here's a pretty polarizing game. Do you like and play Cards Against Humanity?
No

You as a Designer
OK, now the bit that sets you apart from the typical gamer. Let's find out about you as a game designer.

When you design games, do you come up with a theme first and build the mechanics around that? Or do you come up with mechanics and then add a theme? Or something else?
It often starts with a basic mechanic that I want to explore. Then I think about which theme that would make justice to that mechanic. After that, it's an iterative process, where the theme provides new ideas to the mechanics and vice versa. It happens that I have ideas about themes that I would like to turn into games but it's not until I get an idea for a new mechanic that I actually realize those ideas.

Have you ever entered or won a game design competition?
I've entered several competitions and reached the final in several of them, among them World Original Design Contest of Board Game (http://wodc.yokagames.com/) with the game Dyce, the Thundergryph Survival Design Contest (https://thundergryph.com/survival-design-contest-finalists/) with the game Apokalypsis and the TGC Killer Gamer's Remorse Challenge (https://www.thegamecrafter.com/contests/killer-gamer-s-remorse-challenge) with the game Mingle and Murder.

Do you have a current favorite game designer or idol?
Reiner Knizia, particularly when it comes to his games around the turn of the century. The way he takes a well-known mechanic and turns it into a unique game experience is unprecedented.

Where or when or how do you get your inspiration or come up with your best ideas?
New ideas may erupt anywhere and anytime when I least expect them (but never when I want to). Once I have an idea, it grows most easily when I exercise (jogging, cycling etc.), during which I think about possible ways to implement. If the idea survives the "designing in the mind", I put it on paper and start drafting various options and scenarios.

How do you go about playtesting your games?
First I playtest them myself over and over by simulating and documenting the game flow in a spreadsheet. I also consider early rule writing as a good test, since it's a measure of how simple and intuitive the game is. When I don't think I can improve the game anymore - but no sooner than that! - I present it to fellow designers. If the game passes their critical eyes as well, I test it with people I know and prepare print & play documents for blind tests. I used to send physical copies to testers as well but recently I have started using Tabletopia instead.

Do you like to work alone or as part of a team? Co-designers, artists, etc.?
I would like to design as part of a team one day but so far I've only worked on my own.

What do you feel is your biggest challenge as a game designer?
Testing. It's ironic that I work with quality assurance and yet have such challenges in finding enough time and people for testing.

If you could design a game within any IP, what would it be?
Generally I prefer not to be restricted by an IP but a game based on my favourite book The Name of the Rose could be interesting. (I know there is one already but a game closer to the actual story.)

What do you wish someone had told you a long time ago about designing games?
They did tell me but I should have listened better: When you feel that your game is ready, do another iteration, and another, and another...

What advice would you like to share about designing games?
Do a lot of iterations but don't forget what your game wants to be. If you start deviating from it, your game may lose its soul and become just similar to every other game out there.

Would you like to tell my readers what games you're working on and how far along they are?
Published games, I have: Apokalypsis.
Currently looking for a publisher I have: Mingle & Murder (a murder mystery game)
Cosmoclasm (a trick-based area control game)
Find the Bug (a game aimed at teaching IT)
Iconoclasm (an abstract conflict game with shifting support)
I'm planning to crowdfund: Soviet Party (Comrade, Gulag, Politburo).
Games I feel are in the final development and tweaking stage are: Dyce (a trading game with AI buyers and sellers)
Warring States (a trick-based area control game)
Lucca (a tile-laying game both horizontally and vertically, building towers)
Games that I'm playtesting are: Peoples - Civilizations (a simplified civilization game)
Suecia (a trading game with shared infrastructure and player-driven supply and demand)
Games that are in the early stages of development and beta testing are: Find the Bug - Agile and Find the Bug - Project (additional games in the Find the Bug series)
And games that are still in the very early idea phase are: I'd like to design an Arthurian game where the players goals develop due to game events but haven't come up with the right mechanics yet.

Are you a member of any Facebook or other design groups? (Game Maker's Lab, Card and Board Game Developers Guild, etc.)
IGA Developer's Lounge, Card & Board Game Designers Guild, Speldesignerträffar (Swedish group).

And the oddly personal, but harmless stuff…
OK, enough of the game stuff, let's find out what really makes you tick! These are the questions that I'm sure are on everyone's minds!

Star Trek or Star Wars? Coke or Pepsi? VHS or Betamax?
Star Wars, one coherent saga is better than many loose episodes. None, I've reached the age where I need to look at healthy options. None, content is more important than format.

What hobbies do you have besides tabletop games?
Baking and cooking, which fits well before game evenings. Cycling and jogging, which fits well after game evenings...

What is something you learned in the last week?
How easy it is to set up a game in Tabletopia.

Favorite type of music? Books? Movies?
Classical music, synth music of the 80s. Classical books and books with historical themes often appeal to me. Same goes for movies.

What was the last book you read?
I recently reread the Foundation Trilogy.

Do you play any musical instruments?
No, and I could probably get paid not to play any.

Tell us something about yourself that you think might surprise people.
My wife doesn't enjoy games at all.

Tell us about something crazy that you once did.
Wearing an Arsenal shirt during a night out in Manchester perhaps. I had just received it for my birthday. Nothing happened, though.

Biggest accident that turned out awesome?
Unfortunately, my accidents rarely turn out awesome.

Who is your idol?
I've had my success stories in many areas but I'm still waiting for a game design breakthrough and until then my idol remains Reiner Knizia.

What would you do if you had a time machine?
Probably spend more time in the past and in the future than in the present.

Are you an extrovert or introvert?
Introvert.

If you could be any superhero, which one would you be?
I was more into Donald Duck comics than Marvel comics as a kid so none.

Have any pets?
No.

When the next asteroid hits Earth, causing the Yellowstone caldera to explode, California to fall into the ocean, the sea levels to rise, and the next ice age to set in, what current games or other pastimes do you think (or hope) will survive into the next era of human civilization? What do you hope is underneath that asteroid to be wiped out of the human consciousness forever?
A chess set, to inspire the next generation to design games. There are many mistakes that should be erased but perhaps it's better to learn from them (if the next generation is able to do so).

If you'd like to send a shout out to anyone, anyone at all, here's your chance (I can't guarantee they'll read this though):
If you ever visit Stockholm, Sweden, you're welcome to a game night!

Thanks for answering all my crazy questions!

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Thank you for reading this People Behind the Meeples indie game designer interview! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples and if you'd like to be featured yourself, you can fill out the questionnaire here: http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html

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[Three Hexes] The Mystery World At Beta Omega 8

Campaign: Probes sent to the system Beta Omega 8 discovered that the body orbiting the star was actually a Dyson Sphere, whose interior is a haphazard set of different terrains and features, but apparently uninhabited! An Imperial Science expedition has been dispatched to this system to explore the sphere and learn more about it and those that built it. Opportunities for wealth beyond measure have electrified the members of fleet, who are engaged in plots of political intrigue and a "gold-rush" approach to gaining the secrets of the sphere.

Homebase (Hex 0) (0102): ESS Scott - The medium class capital scout ship is docked to a large access hatch to the insides of the Dyson Sphere, manned by six guild companies and many independents. Captain-General Maximo wishes to gain control of the exploration fleet by finding valuable technology and is eager to gain any advantage over the guilds. Baron Nascimento believes a great evil lives within the sphere, based on his mage-astrologer-psychic and resists Maximo at every turn, secretly hiring independents to sabotage expeditions within. 

Three Hexes
(Hex scale is 24 miles)

Location 1 (0302): Base Camp 003 - The camp is the site of a mysterious massacre of an entire company from the Steel Guild, who are now offering great rewards for independents to recover the dead and find out the cause of the loss. The site is in a great forest area, populated with silent robots tending the flora and fauna. A glowing ball of light was observed over the site before the massacre, according to recordings, but the only clue to its source is a strange small ruin at the center of the forest and surrounded by quiescent armored mechanical figures.

Location 2 (0200): The City - This area is so nicknamed for the collection of hundreds of impenetrable buildings found in this area. Robots and flying drones move about from building to building, somehow entering within them to perform unknown tasks or tending to parks and fountains of strangely colored liquids and plant-life. Psi-talented explorers who have entered The City have vivid nightmares of evil beings contained within the buildings. 

Location 3 (0004): The Farm - Strange large mushrooms are growing here whose gills shed huge spores that seem to contain some sort of living creature. Huge tentacled robots collect the spores and take them to a central building that admits only the robots inside. The robots resist efforts to take the spores or enter the building, but the Verdant Guild is willing to pay a high price for the recovery of a spore or information on what is inside the building. 

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"Three Hexes" are simple campaign starters to show that you don't need to do a lot to have interesting settings for people to play in. Feel free to use these in your game, campaign or as ways to spur on your own creativity and imagination!

I've purposefully left a lot of detail out because these are supposed to spur on your imagination! The scale is what I would use in my own world, but if something else suits you better, then go for it. I may have the features moved about on the hexes for clarity, if they don't suit you, move them!

Three Hexes by Michael "Chgowiz" Shorten (chgowiz@gmail.com) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Butt Fantasia By Mohit Jaswal, Short Film Review

Butt Fantasia is a parody film where all of the actors except one are filmed as bare-assed characters. This is not saying they are running around in the nude—it's just their backsides.

I screened Butt Fantasiaas part of the 2019 Slamdance Film Festival (link). As part of their Narrative Short category.

Mohit Jaswal was involved in every level of the production of Butt Fantasia and said, "Its a labor of love for stupid cinema." As such, we are treated to a collection of parody scenes.

The introduction is to the conductor, who with the help of a magical hat contemplates what his butt has gone through (that is the tag for the movie). He starts by conducting some music from Fantasia. Other scenes include Godzilla destroying Tokyo and a firing squad (the blindfolded butt was quite the costume). The scenes are pulled together by the conductor who finishes the film by singing a song of liking butts.

This isn't a short film for all people. It is not risqué, so don't expect to see more than what is promised (and they are not all blemish free). There is a mild shock value to the film and the special effects match with visible wires in the scenes and cardboard box building.

With a subtle sigh of relief, I can say I didn't recognize any of the actors. They gave crack performances and who knows, they may be called back to reprise their roles in a sequel exploring other scenes.

Butt Fantasia is a short fun film for an off centered audience. It is the type of short I would slip into a set that I'm showing to friends to throw them off—a palate cleanser before moving on to a more serious serving.

Butt Fantasia is currently on the film festival circuit.

If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

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