People Behind The Meeples- Episode 245: Adam Sadiq

Welcome to People Behind the Meeples, a series of interviews with indie game designers.  Here you'll find out more than you ever wanted to know about the people who make the best games that you may or may not have heard of before.  If you'd like to be featured, head over to http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html and fill out the questionnaire! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples. Support me on Patreon!

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Name:	Adam Sadiq
Email:	diacriticalgames@gmail.com
Location:	Kansas City, KS
Day Job:	Going back to school Fall 2020 to get an MBA, but before that I worked in banking.
Designing:	Five to ten years.
Webpage:	www.diacriticalgames.com
BGG:	DiacriticalGames
Facebook:	That's a Wrap Board Game
Twitter:	@DiacriticalGame
Instagram:	@diacriticalgames
Find my games at:	BGG

Today's Interview is with:

Adam Sadiq
Interviewed on: 7/15/2020

This week we get to meet Adam Sadiq, a Kansas City area designer responsible for That's A Wrap, the game where you are a movie director competing to win the most Oskies. Read on to learn moreaboutAdam and the other projects he's working on.

Some Basics
Tell me a bit about yourself.

How long have you been designing tabletop games?
Five to ten years.

Why did you start designing tabletop games?
I just like making things, so when I was introduced to the world of game design, and had my first idea for a game, I decided to run with it just because I could.

What game or games are you currently working on?
Temporal Trouble - A 2-player asymmetric co-op with a time travel theme. One player is a Time Pilot searching for treasure and the other player is their Time Ship trying to fix itself in time to escape the dangerous past. Can also be played solo.

Sync - Family-weight logic-based game with a very low number of components. Has similarities to the Mind, Hanabi, and the classic game Set. Try to get "In Sync" with partners/opponents by finding cards that match characteristics.

Have you designed any games that have been published?
That's a Wrap! - A movie-making game where players compete to win the most Oskies. Kickstarted late 2019, and fulfilling in Fall 2020.

What is your day job?
Going back to school Fall 2020 to get an MBA, but before that I worked in banking

Your Gaming Tastes
My readers would like to know more about you as a gamer.

Where do you prefer to play games?
Home or someone's house, but getting a lot of mileage from Tabletop Simulator lately

Who do you normally game with?
Casually is usually my girlfriend or close friends, but I've really enjoyed networking with other designers through virtual playtest events recently

If you were to invite a few friends together for game night tonight, what games would you play?
Definitely depends on who I'm playing with, and how many people there are, but my standard favorites are Azul, Castles of Burgundy, Camel Up, and Coup. If it's just 2 people, I'll break out Baseball Highlights: 2045, or Star Wars: Rebellion if the other person agrees to it.

And what snacks would you eat?
Game nights are usually preceded by dinner so we don't snack during usually. Typically it'll be tacos, but I also love making homemade pizzas if I end up hosting.

Do you like to have music playing while you play games? If so, what kind?
Not particularly! My friends and I prefer to just chat over the game.

What's your favorite FLGS?
Spielbound in Omaha, Nebraska. Even though I moved away 4 years ago, it will never stop being my #1

What is your current favorite game? Least favorite that you still enjoy? Worst game you ever played?
Baseball Highlights: 2045 is my perfect game, I love it to death. Exploding Kittens is not my cup of tea, but I have family who enjoys it, so it's fun to enjoy with them. Worst is a random Kickstarter game I backed, it was supposed to be very simple but me and my friend couldn't even figure the rules out so that was frustrating. Don't want to namedrop though!

What is your favorite game mechanic? How about your least favorite?
I love bidding, it's a mechanic that speaks to me, but it's tough to execute correctly. Can't really say a mechanic I don't enjoy, although dice rolling implemented poorly can be painful (looking at you, Catan)

What's your favorite game that you just can't ever seem to get to the table?
Star Wars: Rebellion for obvious reasons

What styles of games do you play?
I like to play Board Games, Card Games, RPG Games, Video Games

Do you design different styles of games than what you play?
I like to design Board Games, Card Games

OK, here's a pretty polarizing game. Do you like and play Cards Against Humanity?
I would never choose it, but if someone was adamant about wanting to play, I'd play along

You as a Designer
OK, now the bit that sets you apart from the typical gamer. Let's find out about you as a game designer.

When you design games, do you come up with a theme first and build the mechanics around that? Or do you come up with mechanics and then add a theme? Or something else?
It depends! My first game, the theme ended up informing mechanics, but the two games I'm working on were the opposite - I wanted a 2P asymmetric co-op, and the time travel theme just made a lot of sense (Temporal Trouble) and I wanted a game that could be played easily on a blind date (Sync, it's a long story)

Have you ever entered or won a game design competition?
No, I've thought about it but never pulled the trigger.

Do you have a current favorite game designer or idol?
Oddly, I never pay attention to the designer of a given game, though I have met many wonderful designers at conventions.

Where or when or how do you get your inspiration or come up with your best ideas?
I wish I could control it but it's super random. Often when I'm doing something like driving or running, where I can zone out and have time to be in my own mind. But unfortunately, I can't write things down in either of those situations so the ideas don't always follow me home.

How do you go about playtesting your games?
I force my girlfriend or other friends to play. Lately I've been doing a ton of digital playtesting, which I think is honestly ideal because of how quick and easy it is to implement feedback and make dynamic changes.

Do you like to work alone or as part of a team? Co-designers, artists, etc.?
I wish I could be part of a team, design-wise, but honestly don't know where to look. Artists I absolutely must hire out, but at least I know that I'm terrible, so I don't micromanage my artists. I've found letting them do their own thing gets the best results.

What do you feel is your biggest challenge as a game designer?
Knowing when a game is "good enough" (it never is). I probably spend an inordinate amount of time at 99% trying to get to 100% even though it's not attainable, and agonize over things I wish I had designed into a game. Trying to get better, change what I can change and all that.

If you could design a game within any IP, what would it be?
Honestly not the biggest fan of IP! I'm obsessed with trying to be original, for better or for worse.

What do you wish someone had told you a long time ago about designing games?
"Get ready because once you start doing this it's hard to stop."

What advice would you like to share about designing games?
Be incredibly open to feedback, and always do your best to respond to criticisms you feel like you don't agree with. By having a coherent reason for why certain feedback doesn't apply, you are strengthening your understanding of your game, or you're realizing that maybe this idea actually holds some water and exposes a blind spot you didn't know you had.

Would you like to tell my readers what games you're working on and how far along they are?
Published games, I have: That's a Wrap! The Game of Filmmaking Frenzy
Currently looking for a publisher I have: Temporal Trouble & Sync
I'm planning to crowdfund: Temporal Trouble & Sync (could be persuaded to self-publish if I can't find a publisher for either)
Games that are in the early stages of development and beta testing are: President's Legacy - A riff on the classic card game that takes the idea and turns it into a quasi-civilization builder. One of my weirder ideas.
And games that are still in the very early idea phase are: Futuristic sports bidding game with robots, aliens, and humans Competitive somewhat asymmetric door-to-door sales game Sentinels of the Multiverse-esque game where players control minor holidays fighting corrupted major holidays

Are you a member of any Facebook or other design groups? (Game Maker's Lab, Card and Board Game Developers Guild, etc.)
Card and Board Game Designer's Guild Board Game Design Lab Community

And the oddly personal, but harmless stuff…
OK, enough of the game stuff, let's find out what really makes you tick! These are the questions that I'm sure are on everyone's minds!

Star Trek or Star Wars? Coke or Pepsi? VHS or Betamax?
Star Wars (never watched Trek) Don't drink soda I was born in 1994, grew up with VHS

What hobbies do you have besides tabletop games?
Travel, movies, cooking, running

What is something you learned in the last week?
I can run a 10K with a sub 10-minute pace, that was cool to accomplish

Favorite type of music? Books? Movies?
I love all kinds of music, but mostly indie rock, rap, and show tunes - I was a major musical kid and still am. Stephen King is my favorite author, but I've been reading a lot of presidential biographies over the past few years, trying to get through them all. I will literally watch any movie, I'm already at 130+ movies in 2020 that I haven't seen before (it's July); I typically watch dramas, but also love horror, and like I said, I'm really not that picky.

What was the last book you read?
Finished was The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, but I also recently finished Mornings on Horseback, which was an early biography of Teddy Roosevelt.

Do you play any musical instruments?
Trombone in elementary/middle school, tuba briefly in high school. I also sing which counts I think?

Tell us something about yourself that you think might surprise people.
My top two most listened to artists in 2019 were Taylor Swift and Kanye West.

Tell us about something crazy that you once did.
Saw Hamilton on Broadway, then immediately went to the airport to catch a 4 AM flight home.

Biggest accident that turned out awesome?
I got hit head on by a car crossing a crosswalk, and literally had no injuries. So not awesome but a whole lot more awesome than it could have been.

Who is your idol?
Stephen King, I just wish I was that creative.

What would you do if you had a time machine?
Age of Exploration, I would love to see the world when it was relatively untouched.

Are you an extrovert or introvert?
Extrovert who needs time off rarely

If you could be any superhero, which one would you be?
One that can move stuff with their mind, that seems like the best power

Have any pets?
Only vicariously through my parents and my girlfriend

When the next asteroid hits Earth, causing the Yellowstone caldera to explode, California to fall into the ocean, the sea levels to rise, and the next ice age to set in, what current games or other pastimes do you think (or hope) will survive into the next era of human civilization? What do you hope is underneath that asteroid to be wiped out of the human consciousness forever?
Let's keep them all! If Monopoly is erased, we run the risk of someone bringing it back even more powerful than before.

If you'd like to send a shout out to anyone, anyone at all, here's your chance (I can't guarantee they'll read this though):
If you're reading this, you know who you are.

Just a Bit More
Thanks for answering all my crazy questions! Is there anything else you'd like to tell my readers?

I'm currently in the middle of moving, it sucks

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Thank you for reading this People Behind the Meeples indie game designer interview! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples and if you'd like to be featured yourself, you can fill out the questionnaire here: http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html

Did you like this interview?  Please show your support: Support me on Patreon! Or click the heart at Board Game Links , like GJJ Games on Facebook , or follow on Twitter .  And be sure to check out my games on  Tabletop Generation.

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CHRONOMASTER

by HeroOfAvalon

With an exciting opening of spaceships attacking a planet, as a young boy named Milo watches only to be dragged away by his Grandma to escape underground before total destruction. Chronomaster (1995, DreamForge Intertainment) sure grabbed my attention.

Read more »

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Lost Secret Of The Rainforest - Abducted!

Written by Reiko

Adam's Journal #1: "We're finally here in Peru! I'm so excited to be able to help my dad with his project of setting up sustainable industries for the native peoples here. I wonder what kinds of animals I'll get to see while we're here? The rainforest is full of so much variety. I can't wait to get started!"

This guy's totally shady.

Adam and his father Noah have just landed in Peru, but of course we have to go through customs before we can start exploring. In the introduction, I forgot to mention that the shady surveyor's character has a couple of actual voiced lines, which is an interesting contrast to most of the other dialogue, which is only text. He says, "This place is a sewer" and, after bumping into our ride, "Watch the suit!" before brushing himself off and stalking away to the right.

When it's Adam's turn, I open the passport in his inventory and show it to the customs officer [10 points], who stamps it, waves Adam through, and then promptly puts his head down on his desk and appears to take a nap. Nobody else is waiting in the customs line, after all.

Our ride is waiting for us.

Nearby, there's a native holding a sign saying Noah and Adam Greene, so he's clearly waiting for us. I talk to him [1] and he introduces himself to us as Nicanor, from the Ecology Emergency Network, the organization that Noah is working with. He says there's a problem with the supplies, and takes out a list, while Noah goes over to check what's there. This leaves Adam at loose ends.

I look around and find two women supposedly selling fruit pops at a stand nearby, but they say they're on break and rudely shoo Adam away. I can't go into the town yet, either, because Noah will call Adam back, but there's really nothing else in the area to do. It takes me an embarrassingly long time to realize that there's an exit off the right side of the screen (where the shady surveyor disappeared earlier).

In the second area, a grungy dock, after Adam walks in, I overhear a conversation between the shady surveyor and another guy, Gonzales. The surveyor orders him to get "the stuff" loaded so they can get out of there. Then he disappears onto the ship moored at the dock. There's also an old guy fishing on another pier near where I entered, and two other guys having a hushed conversation behind some crates. I also see a run-down warehouse and a large pile of logs from the rainforest, along with a flatbed truck loaded with more logs. I can't seem to get close enough to talk to the guy fishing, even though he doesn't appear to be all that far away.

Right, "fresh off the boat" is exactly what we don't want to be.

If I walk into the area far enough, another guy appears from the same direction I came from, and accosts me, carrying a bird on his arm. He offers to sell me the bird if I give him the money I have. Adam asks how much, and the guy asks how much money he has. Adam wisely says, "I don't think I should tell you that." The guy just shrugs and says I should give him the money I have if I want to buy the bird.

I have the option to refuse, but I decide to go ahead with it, and give the man my money [5]. When the man hands over the bird, Adam immediately releases it, telling it to fly home. The man is aghast, but Adam reminds him that he sold the bird. The man shrugs and wanders off, and that seems to be the end of it. Probably I will encounter the bird at some point later, though, and it will be grateful that Adam freed it.

Who's "Mr. Slaughter"? No one I want to meet!

I then discover almost by accident that I can climb up on the crates and eavesdrop on the nearby conversation. One guy seems to be trying to recruit the other one for Cibola, the company that the shady surveyor mentioned. They mentioned someone they call "Senor Slaughter," which may well refer to the surveyor guy himself.

The nearby ship, which reads "Cibol" (Cibola) has an arm with a rope net that is periodically raised and lowered. I can make Adam walk over onto the net, which causes him to get caught in it when it's raised next. The guy loading the ship gets us out, but tells us to beat it, or we'll get sent to "Mr. Slaughter". Guess he's the one to watch out for.

Here's a way to stuff educational content onto the screen without lecturing.

I don't see anything else to do here, so I go back to the original screen. Noah calls Adam over and says he found something mailed to him. I open the package [5] and find some kind of handheld computer which Noah explains is an environmental scanner prototype. It's called an Ecorder, and Adam's supposed to test it out. Noah suggests there's something about the launch I should scan. As part of his explanation, he already scanned the nearby canoe, so I'm not sure what he means by "launch".

Picking up someone else's garbage. It won't be the last time.

I also notice another shady guy lurking by the now-abandoned fruit pop stall, but I can do nothing with him. So I return to the dock to see if there's anything I can scan there, and find a tourist taking pictures. Even though he doesn't answer when I try talking to him [1], I get a point for some reason. Then I notice that he's dropped something. I try to pick it up, but Adam says he doesn't want that garbage, and I should bag it instead. I use the recycle icon on it [5] to get rid of it.

I go into the ecorder to see what all it does. The previously-scanned item was Town Runoff, about the garbage from the town that ends up in the rivers. I also try playing the "test myself" game, which randomly shows pictures from the database along with two choices. I get most of them right even though I haven't seen any of them in the game yet, and I get a bunch of points [46] when I finish the game.

I go back and forth again, and realize I can use a plank walkway to get to the end of the little pier where the man is fishing. I talk to him [1], and he talks briefly about how he doesn't like the way the fish look, and how there used to be so many more fish in the river years ago, before all the people came.

The scanned result of the ship's leak.

Finally I realize "launch" means the ship moored at the dock. The ecorder lights up when I move it over a hole with liquid spewing out of it, and records the "River Traffic" item [10]. Looks like the ship has a fuel leak, which is also contributing to river pollution.

I knew that other guy was shady too.

When I return to see if Noah and Nicanor are ready to go to town yet, suddenly the shady guy that had been lurking nearby runs over, grabs Noah's suitcase, and runs off toward town. Uh-oh, he's a thief!

Noah decides he's going to have to go to the embassy to get a passport, so Nicanor takes him there, leaving Adam to watch the supplies. (How old is he again?) Adam is tired from the trip, so he gets into the nearby canoe and falls asleep.

Adam's not being a very good guard for the supplies...

Suddenly, things get weird. Two creatures that look like otters, who address each other as Orpheus and Morpheus, appear in the water. One chews through the rope holding the canoe, and while Adam sleeps, together they push the boat away from the dock, along the river, and into the rainforest. Apparently Adam sleeps all night, since the screen darkens and then brightens again. At one point, a monkey appears and peers at the canoe with the sleeping child, then wanders off again. Finally, Adam wakes up, and the animals begin to address him directly.

Animals seem to know that Adam will help them.

Morpheus says that the Forest Heart needs help from a human child, and he looked like a good one, so they picked him. Orpheus has a gift to give us, but he's shy and needs persuading, so Adam needs to do something to coax him out.

First I scan the screen and find the Understory, Littering, Forest Floor, Stilt Root, and River Otter items [5]. So I was right about the creatures being otters. Then I talk to Orpheus [1]. Adam apologizes for being loud, and Orpheus swims a bit closer. I talk to him again [1], and Adam reassures him that he won't hurt him or anything.

The amulet brought by the otter.

Then Orpheus swims right up to the side of the canoe and waits for me to take the necklace around his neck, which I do [5]. It's a beautifully carved amulet, which the otters inform me is Forest Heart's amulet, and Adam needs to journey to her village to find out more. The otters disappear into the water after pushing the canoe the rest of the way over to solid land.

Now what? Well, the Littering item was clearly because there's quite a lot of junk scattered around. I trash five items [5] and also find a sticky leaf to take [5].

That's all for that screen, so I move to the right and immediately encounter the monkey I saw earlier, who accuses me of cutting down trees. Adam assures him that he's by himself and hasn't done anything to the trees, and asks about those who have. The monkey calls them yellow hats and says they turned his home and food into smoke. Then he angrily stalks away. Apparently the logging operation that generated all those logs I saw earlier has done some significant damage to the forest.

As hostile as this sounds, I'm glad the monkey didn't do anything to Adam while he was sleeping.

New scanned items: Buttress, Cecropia Tree, Logging [3]. The tree that fills most of the screen is huge, with twisty roots. Nearby there's a recent campfire still leaking smoke, with a small stump and a chopped up log. The huge tree looks very climbable, but insects swarm Adam when I make an attempt. I use the sticky, sap-covered leaf on Adam [5], which causes him to rub the sap all over himself, commenting that it's stinky, so the bugs should leave him alone. Now I can have him climb the tree to another screen above.

Next time we'll find out what's up there and how that gets us closer to the Forest Heart. Adam seems very calm at having woken up in a different place than he went to sleep in, and at basically having been abducted by otters and left to his own devices deep in the rainforest with no supplies. Maybe he figures he can always get animals to help him if he needs something. It wouldn't be so easy for the rest of us.

Score: 121/1000
Scanned items: 10/82
Inventory: passport, Ecorder, Forest Heart amulet, leaf with sticky sap

Session Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There's a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!