#274 Damon Stone Talks Liberation Haiti

Damon Stone joins Dirk and David to discuss his game Liberation Haiti, a historical-themed deckbuilder and a Zenobia Award finalist. First, Damon talks about his experience in game design and development, including how he got started working with Fantasy Flight. Next, Damon talks at length about the historical setting for Liberation Haiti and explains how he mapped different mechanics to that theme. Other topics include how undefined time to prepare for a final confrontation can sometimes sink a game and how Damon chose to handle the random elements of a game that uses both cards and dice.

Episode Outline

1:11 Damon talks about his experience in game design and his start with Fantasy Flight Games

6:15 Discussing Damon’s Zenobia Award finalist, Liberation Haiti, and a overview of the game’s historical setting

16:35 How does Liberation Haiti fit into that historical setting? How do the game’s mechanics map to that theme?

30:28  In what ways does Liberation Haiti’s design try to handle the transition away from the preparation stage of the game?

36:55 How Damon reined in the random elements of the game–limiting choice through randomness instead of eliminating it

51:32 Historically speaking, when is the endpoint of Liberation Haiti set? And what’s the current state of the design?

58:27 Damon’s advice as an experienced game designer and developer

In this Episode

Damon Stone - zenobiaaward.org
David V. Heron - @davidvheron
Dirk Knemeyer - @DKnemeyer