Guest Post: How Persistency Pays Off (an interview with Alan Moon (Ticket to Ride))
Designer, author, and friend of the company Joe Slack is hosting a Board Game Design Virtual Summit (February 21-27).
The Summit has a pretty stacked lineup of guests including Leslie Scott (Jenga), Gabe Barret (BGDL), and Flatout Games Collab (Cascadia). I asked Joe to share some behind the scenes content with our audience.
What follows is a partial interview with Ticket to Ride designer Alan Moon, along with some context from Joe.
How Persistence Can Pay Off When Designing Your Game: An Interview with Alan Moon (Designer of Ticket to Ride)
Hey there! It’s Joe Slack here. Jasper and I have been chatting a bit lately about the upcoming Board Game Design Virtual Summit and he asked if I could give a sneak peek at the event and share an early preview of one of the amazing interviews.
With 12 experienced guests, talking about everything from game design to publishing to crowdfunding to marketing and everything in between, there were a lot of great options.
However, I felt that my interview with Alan Moon, the designer of Spiel des Jahres winner Ticket to Ride, would perhaps resonate the most with other game designers. Alan, like most game designers, didn’t find overnight success with his games. In fact, he experienced quite the opposite.
Alan struggled to get attention on his early designs. He worked for a time at game publisher Avalon Hill. He tried his hand at self-publishing. He nearly gave up several times. It took him years before he found the success he is enjoying today.
You might be experiencing many of the same challenges. You may have asked yourself if it is all worth it or if you should give up on game design entirely.
That’s why I wanted to share the first part of my interview with Alan, where he talks about the obstacles he had to overcome, expectations around having the next big hit, and how perseverance got him through those difficult early days and led him to where he is today.
Click below to hear Alan’s thoughts on these important topics:
In the clip from the full interview, Alan and I talk about his experiences working for others in the industry, launching his own game company, meeting with publishers, and his eventual success with Ticket to Ride.
He also talks about the 4 games he considers to be the biggest evergreen hits and why it’s important to understand the actual odds of ever creating a huge hit like one of these modern classics. Sure, hard work can pay off, but nobody can predict which games are going to become a hit. If we all knew what it took for a game to become a bestseller then every new game released would take off!
A lot of it comes down to luck, timing, and the right match between a designer and the publisher.
As Thomas Jefferson said, "I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."
It’s best to just keep concentrating on making your games the best they can be. Focus on the process. Get better as a game designer and your games will improve with every new idea you have.
Thanks again, Jasper, for inviting me to write this guest post and share Alan’s inspirational story!
Check out the Board Game Design Virtual Summit to hear the rest of my discussion with Alan Moon, along with interviews with many other amazing people from the board game industry!
The Board Game Design Virtual Summit is coming up soon from February 21-27, with new 12 incredible interviews, 3 live Q&A panels with insightful guests, an open Discord channel for networking and playtesting throughout the event and a whole lot more. Guests include Bruno Cathala (Kingdomino), Leslie Scott (Jenga), Flatout Games Collab (Cascadia), Gabe Barrett (Board Game Design Lab), Alan Moon (Ticket to Ride), and many other experts from across the board game industry. You can get your ticket for free or purchase a paid pass to get access to everything for life, along with some great bonuses.
