The second episode of the new podcast Dirk Knemeyer and I have partnered up for is now live. Here’s the description from our official website:
Risk: Legacy designer and newly-minted indie game design company owner Rob Daviau joins Dirk and Jon to talk about a wide-range of topics including memory and persistence in games, innovation, and starting your own game company. Spelunky, Stone Age, Lords of Waterdeep, Civilization and other games are discussed.
– Jon
Jon Shafer on Design 
Great episode! I love the design talk, even though I’m not into board games.
Regarding the suggestion that state should carry over between sessions in computer games, I must say I’m in the camp that rather hates that idea — I really prefer a blank slate with each new game, knowing that the only thing that has changed is my (hopefully) improved skill. When something changes, like the capital building in Age of Empires 3, I always get the feeling that I’m not getting the best experience at any given point because my persistent state is somehow inadequate.
One question: was Dirk involved with Civilization 3, perhaps as lead designer? I thought there were some allusions to that in the first podcast but it wasn’t made explicit.
Thanks Chris!
I can see it both ways with persistence. The concept of the game remembering things between sessions sounds appealing, but I think I’d end up in the same camp as you in the long run. I really like what Risk: Legacy did though, and perhaps that’s just because it wasn’t very heavy-handed about what it carried over. There’s more of a slow evolution… almost like you’re playing on REALLY long game.
Dirk was not in fact involved with any of the Civ games, nor has he worked on digital games at all. He’s only just jumped into tabletop game design about a year ago – a relative babe!
– Jon