Steve Jackson has been designing games for half a century with no end in sight. In 1992, he became the youngest game designer to be inducted into the Charles Roberts Awards Hall of Fame, which recognizes excellence in manual, tabletop games. His roleplaying game GURPS and his tabletop game Munchkin were named to the Origins Hall of Fame in 1999 and 2012, respectively. The Origins Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who’ve advanced tabletop gaming over a period of years.
Daily Dragon (DD): Steve joins us fresh from Worldcon. Welcome, Steve! What types of games do you create?
Steve Jackson (SJ): Pretty much anything for the tabletop – board games, card games, RPGs.
DD: When did you realize you wanted to design games, and were there any particular games that inspired you?
SJ: I was still in school when I figured it out. What I didn’t realize was that it could be a career rather than a hobby. That was a nice surprise.
DD: What does the term “game design” encompass? Story? Art?
SJ: Both of those things, plus play balance, clear explanation of the rules, and player support afterward.
DD: How did you get into the industry?
SJ: I answered a classified ad! LONG story . . .
DD: What was the first game you designed?
SJ: Ogre, a game about a gigantic robot tank. It will be 50 years old next year.
DD: When you set out to design a game, where do you start?
SJ: I always start with story. What is going on here, and what options would you have if you were really doing this thing?
DD: Of the games you’ve designed, which was the most challenging?
SJ: Probably the generic miniatures game that I never finished.
DD: Do you have a favorite game that you’ve designed?
SJ: “Of your children, which do you like best?”
DD: What goes into running a Kickstarter to fund a game, as you did with the Sixth Edition of Ogre? Was there anything you learned in the process that you wish you had known going into it?
SJ: There is a lot to know, and starting with a big one is NOT a good idea. I would recommend either doing little tiny ones first or hiring a pro or a team of pros. It can be complicated, and you can get a million dollars of support and then lose money anyway. Especially on shipping!
DD: Have you ever thought of designing a different type of game, and if so, what interests you?
SJ: Well, I’d love to help create a computer game, but I’m not a coder. It would have to be as part of a team.
DD: If you weren’t a designer, what would you be doing instead?
SJ: That’s an interesting question. There is a timeline in which I married my Republican college girlfriend, stayed in law school, and quite possibly became a great force for evil. There is a timeline in which I wrote science fiction and made movies out of the stories I like best. There is a timeline in which I became a paleontologist!
DD: Please tell us about Evil Stevie’s Pirate Game.
SJ: It’s a game played on the floor with LEGO pirate ships. You yell, “Arrrr!” a lot. In addition to the regular players, you need a six-year-old to play the sharks. Pirates who fall off their ships then have a reason to swim back QUICKLY.
DD: What are you playing now?
SJ: I play Terraforming Mars every chance I get, and I’m looking forward to the next playtest game of the Wizard Game (officially, Seven-Part Pact), which we will release next year.
DD: What’s next for you?
SJ: Next week I’m off to Montreal for a trade show— actually, that’s merely the official reason. It’s a chance to hang out with my good friend Sean Punch, the Line Editor for GURPS.
DD: For more information about Steve Jackson and his work, visit his website, https://www.sjgames.com
