BGB Podcast #275 – Building and Breaking Conventions

Any creative work is built on a lot of conventions – things that we take as granted, the unspoken rules that must be followed. We get a lot of really great games by following design conventions, but some times, in order to innovate we have to break them. Before we try to find the balance between convention and innovation, we talk about Darwin’s Journey, Aleph Null, and Rome in a Day.

If you don’t want to miss an episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts/Google Podcasts/Stitcher/Spotify, or add our RSS feed to your favourite app. Reviews and subscriptions really help us and would be greatly appreciated! To download the episode directly, click here.

If you’d like to discuss anything in the episode, please do so in the comments below, visit our BoardGameGeek guild, join our Discord, or Facebook Group! Any feedback is also always helpful. If you’d like to show your support for the show, we also have a Patreon with some fun rewards, and a merch store!

Timecodes:

02:00 – Darwin’s Journey
13:44 – Aleph Null
21:07 – Rome in a Day
30:09 – Innovation vs. Convention
33:14 – Root
36:02 – Teotihuacan: City of Gods
36:02 – Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun
36:17 – Tiletum
38:17 – Tower of Babel
42:04 – Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile
42:31 – Horseless Carriage
42:49 – Atiwa
44:04 – Inis
45:14 – The Castles of Burgundy

Thank you to Heart Society for generously letting us use What’s On Your Mind, Kid? from their album Wake the Queens.