176: Making board games is harder than making video games (guest: Tim Schafer, Double Fine)

176: Making board games is harder than making video games (guest: Tim Schafer, Double Fine)

From Going Analog Podcast by Going Analog

June 11, 2026 · 30 min · Episode 176

About this episode

Tim Schafer discusses the challenges of making board games compared to video games.

Legendary video game designer Tim Schafer of Double Fine (Psychonauts, Broken Age, and most recently, Kiln) has been one of our board game buddies for years now. So we took advantage of that relationship and put Tim on the show, filmed right in Double Fine's studio. As our guest, he gets to pick the topic, and he had several good ideas. We steered him toward our favorite, though: Why making board games is harder than making video games. He's been successful for one of those -- not so much in the other. So he'll be speaking from experience here. Chapters: Going Analog's Game Pick: Postcards. Tim's Game Pick: Cave Evil. Tim's topic: Why making board games is harder than making video games. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Going Analog

Guest: Tim Schafer

Topics covered

  • board games
  • video games
  • game design
  • Tim Schafer
  • Double Fine
  • game development

Keywords

  • board game design
  • video game design
  • Tim Schafer
  • Double Fine
  • game development
  • Psychonauts
  • Broken Age
  • Kiln

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Double Fine

Products: Postcards, Cave Evil

Books & works: Psychonauts, Broken Age, Kiln

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