Gaming Library is proud to be the first to bring to the Philippines, Eric Lang, one of the world’s top board game designers. Lang is a popular board game designer, with a career that spans more than 17 years, and more than 30 board game and card game titles. Among his most popular games are those based on licenses such as A Game of Thrones, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Marvel and DC Comics among others.
He continues to design games that have immersive themes, with licenses from strong intellectual properties. The Godfather: The Boardgame is set for release in 2017, while Bloodborne, a card game based off the popular video game, is being released later in 2016. He also has original themed games like The Others: 7 Sins, where the seven deadly sins try to corrupt and take over the world, and only an organization called F.A.I.T.H. can stop them. Or light games such as Dolores, where you are competing shipwreck divers trying to get the most sunken treasure.
I got to sit down for a one-on-one interview with one of the world's top board game designers who is in Manila as a guest of Gaming Library for the 15th Philippine Toys, Hobbies and Collectibles Convention aka ToyCon PH that's happening from June 10 to June 12 at the SMX Convention Center. Learn about his game design process, how he got into the business and more in the interview below.
Question: Can you share how you got into board game designing? How did you realize that this is what you wanted?
Eric Lang: I’ve been a gamer my whole life since I was 8 years old. But there were two instances — one, was when I first played Dungeons and Dragons. That made me a lifestyle gamer forever and it changed my perception on what gaming could be and became most of my lifestyle. When Magic: The Gathering came out in 1993, that’s how I knew I wanted to make games for a living because I saw how they designed games. I realized it involved discipline and a profession that took a lot of work. Since then, I was designing trading card games by myself and then I dedicated my entire life to putting myself in the position to be able to do it.
What is your process in designing a tabletop game?
It’s different from every game but I boil it down to five steps. There’s conception, execution, playtesting iteration, development and production. Conception is coming up with the basic idea; turning that into a prototype that everybody can play which is execution; then playtest iteration which is a loop – I will playtest it with players and get feedback from it and do that over and over until it’s sculpted into the final game it’s supposed to be; then development – take that game that already works and is already fun, do all the math and make sure everything is balanced in all different angles; then hand it to the publisher and go through production where we make it ready for printing.
How long does it usually take?
It’s so different. Some games in three weeks, other games I’ve taken 3 years. It’s so huge in disparity; it’s hard to come up with an average. A small box game usually takes me about a year or so from the very beginning until it goes to the printer. The bigger box games like Blood Rage usually about a year and a half.
Does it take most of your time?
Well, designing games take most of my time but I’m always designing multiple games at once so there will be periods in that year that I’m not working on that game at all. I just put it on the shelves for a couple of months to reflect on it but it’s all part of the process so I’m still mentally working on it.
Among your tabletop games, which one is your most and least favorite?
It’s hard for me to say what’s my favorite because usually, my favorite is always the new game I’m currently working on but there are games that I play more than others. The games that I play more than others are the simple and faster ones. So right now, I’m playing Dice Masters and Duelist which is my digital trading card.
Do you get tired of it?
Oh, absolutely. I get sick of my games all the time especially right after I’ve been developing it for a year. And then I put them away and never touch them again until about a year or so later after it’s been published. Then I rediscover them and realize, it’s a cool and fun game.
What is a typical day like for you?
I’m actually pretty 9 to 5. I wake up early in the morning, I do e-mails from the day before, I do tons of Skype meetings since I work with 3 to 4 publishers. So I schedule my day usually around meetings – meeting with one development team to work over issues in one game, a production team or an art team, a producer. I do playtesting two days a week where I have people over to my house and I prepare prototypes for that. Those are my normal days and 1/3 of the year, I’m traveling to go to conventions or to publishers to work on the final products which are the wildest days for me.
What do you think would you be doing if you were not designing games right now?
I’d probably be homeless. *laughs* I’d probably be a musician or a writer. In my other life, if I’m a guitarist or a drummer in a rock band, I’d probably be very poor because I don’t like commercial music very much so I don’t think I’ll make a lot of money out it. I also went to school for English and I love writing so I’d probably be a writer of some kind, also probably very poor.
Do you have any realizations and learnings in the past 17 years of game design?
Oh, countless of them! I don’t know if this is just traditional wisdom as you age but the longer I do this, the more I realize that I still have a lot to learn. When I started, after one year, I thought I knew everything. I thought I learned all the lessons but it’s totally not true. I feel like the game design as a discipline is very young and we collectively have so much to learn and we barely scratched the surface. I mean, music has been around for hundreds of years and we still come up with fresh things, so for games, we can do that forever. So basically, I learned that I don’t know anything. *laughs*
If you can play a tabletop game with anyone famous, dead or alive, who would it be and what game would you play?
I’d love to pick one of the greatest military minds of all time, Sun Tzu, and I’d like to play a mindless 'Snakes and Ladders' or 'Candyland' type of game with him just because the conversation about inevitability with one of the greatest military minds would be fascinating. I’d love to see how he would dissect the game like that.
Is there any board game in the market right now you wished you designed yourself?
Codenames! Without question. The designer is a friend of mine and I playtested his prototype in April last year. He's a designer that normally makes complicated games. So when I first saw it, I said, oh this is cool. And then when I played it, I almost asked him if there's a way we could co-design it but it was already done. I really wish I did it!
Any advice to board game enthusiasts who would want to enter the designing part of it?
I have many pieces of advice but my new one for this year is, the market is getting crowded very fast and there are many good games coming out. So whatever game you choose to work on, assume that it’s going to be the last game you’ll ever publish. Don’t work on anything less than your absolute best idea because you’re probably never going to get another chance and you should never make a game just for money just because you think you’re going to get published. Your check will cash once but your game will live forever so your reputation is way more important. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, make your best game right now.
Follow Eric Lang on Twitter to get exclusive updates on his upcoming games. You may purchase some of his games at the Gaming Library website.
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If you want to learn more about Eric Lang and game design, here's a complete list of his public events at ToyCon:
- June 10, 3pm-5pm: Autograph Signing
- June 11, 10am-12nn: Autograph Signing and Awarding of Blood Rage Tournament
- June 11, 2pm-4pm: Talk on Game Design
- June 12, 3pm-4pm: Judging and Awarding of Game of Thrones Tournament
