Jon and Dirk hand out awards for the mechanics and games they played in 2013 that stood out – for better and worse.
Now a yearly tradition! I should note that these are indeed our games of 2013. Hell, most weren’t actually even released during 2013. However, Dirk and I tried to pick games and mechanics that stood out to us as having an important role in game design in 2014 and beyond.
This is why both of us chose David Dunham’s venerable King of Dragon Pass as ‘Most Innovative’. The title may now be entering its fifteenth year, but the way it models interesting and realistic characters in a truly living world is incredibly… fresh. The lessons KoDP offers us have long sat dormant, but I’m confident they’ll soon be given due attention and praise. A large chunk of the diplomacy in At the Gates is directly inspired by this little gem.
Anyways, I won’t focus too much on KoDP. We also talk about many other interesting games, so make sure you give ye olde episode a listen!
– Jon
Jon Shafer on Design 
I tried to convince you to play KODP when we were making Civ5.
“the way it models interesting and realistic characters in a truly living world is incredibly… fresh.”
This interests me a lot. Can you recommend a technical article that describes how it does this? Specially for someone who never played the game?