We are excited that Max Siedman, from Resonym, will be back in Designer Alley this year. Max has loved board games since he was young, when he was first introduced to Euro games like Catan and Puerto Rico. Max grew up in Cambridge, MA, and often browsed the shelves at The Game People Play (and was sad because $40 was a lot of money for a board game). Their childhood dream was to become an inventor... and they have! Max co-designs games for Resonym with Mary Flanagan. I also spend a lot of time managing Resonym crowdfunding campaigns.
THREE RANDOM FACTS ABOUT MAX:
Max has never lost a match of KeyForge.
Over the pandemic they’ve taken up baking, and now has a constant supply of sweets: lemon sourdough scones, lime cornmeal sugar cookies, big soft ginger cookies.
Max love the winter and staying inside with his wife and cats. He’s not very fun at parties.
THREE BOARD GAME DESIGN QUESTIONS:
Have you ever let go of a design or idea? Explain what it was and why you let go or why you have not.
I'm a sucker for innovation, and I always try to make our designs do something entirely new (mechanics, components, or even theme). This means that I spend tons of time learning why certain mechanics don't exist in published games. As such, plenty of our prototypes end up being shelved. We have one with the working title "Scheherazade" that has a very interesting mechanic where you try to hide information in stories. It's a very novel concept, and it works mechanically, but we just can't get it to be fun. It's interesting, but not fun. Some day we might get struck by inspiration on how to make it fun, but for now it's shelved.
What pushes you to the end of a design, what motivates you to finish?
Having a finished game out in the world is amazing, and I'm always energized to demo the game for players or to hear stories of players enjoying it. But I really want to advance the state of the art of board games. Someday I hope to invent a new staple mechanic, like deckbuilding or worker placement.
Who are some of your favorite designers and their games?
Elizabeth Hargrave is a brilliant designer, and I love Wingspan! I really enjoy the focused nature of Phil Walker-Harding's games, like Sushi Go and Gizmos. I'm constantly impressed by Vlaada Chvatil's breadth of design ability, to make games as different as Galaxy Trucker, Space Alert, and Codenames
THREE QUESTIONS JUST FOR FUN:
What does a perfect gaming session look like for you?
No cumbersome scheduling! My friends are all available at the same time, and they each bring exciting novel games to teach me—Euro engine builders for sure, but some clever party games too, and so co-ops.
If you could meet one person (whether they are alive or not), who would it be and why?
Water sliding with Napoleon
Besides Granite Game Summit (or its companion events) what is your favorite convention and why?
Other than Granite Game Summit, my favorite convention is Boston FIG! I love that, unlike many conventions, lots of the BFIG attendees don't play many games and are just looking for something fun to do—like the silent majority of people who play board games, but who I don't often get to demo for!
MAX WILL BE SHOWING OFF HIS GAME PHANTOM INK IN DESIGNER ALLEY AT #G2S2022
Phantom Ink is a 15-minute, party game about renowned mediums competing to prove who has the best connection with the World Beyond. To do this, mediums must correctly identify a secret object that the Spirits are trying to communicate to them. Players form two teams, each with 1 Spirit and up to 3 Mediums, both competing to identify the same Secret Object. During gameplay, Mediums pass question cards, like “What color is it?” or “If it was a musical instrument, what would it be?” to their Spirit. Spirits know the Secret Object, and answer the questions in order to provide Clues to help their Mediums guess the Secret Object. There’s a catch: the other team doesn’t see what question you asked, but they do see the answer. Mediums call “Silencio” when they know the Clue their Spirit is writing, to make it hard for the other team to learn anything from the Clue. If the other team sees the Clue “Y”, that doesn’t help much. But you know the question was “What color is it?” so the Clue must be “Yellow”!
You can also check out more of their games at Resonym.com
