Watch “Alan Emrich on Game Design,” a how-to-play guide for Totaler Krieg! Player's Guide from Robert Vollman on BoardGameVideo.
Description provided by Robert Vollman on YouTube:
Caught up with famed game designer Alan Emrich at the 2000 World Boardgaming Championships in Baltimore, Maryland on August 2nd, 2000.
First, Alan Emrich pitches the Totaler Krieg Player's Guide, including the cover design, its size (90 pages), the extra counters, errata cards, strategy articles written by regulars on ConsimWorld.
Then we get into a discussion for independent game designers. His key advice? Don't quit your day job, not even for computer games. Too many people working cheap or for free, but it makes an excellent hobby. You have to have an angle or a hook to get the publisher to take the risk.
Gamers will sell to other gamers, popular subject never hurt, but go where your passion is. Personally he's working on a World War 2 Spy Card Game for GMT, and Ikusa for Decision Games, the Pacific version of Totaler Krieg (no idea when it'll be ready).
He finished with some advice for new Totaler Krieg gamers. Keep your head down and watch the sequence of play. Don't worry about bad die rolls, the game is full of swings and roundabouts, you are never out of it.
The interview ends with a bonus chat with Christopher Cummins, Totaler Krieg's publisher, with one quick tip on how to get started
