The Jank Cast Interview Two: Corey Konieczka

Corey Konieczka from Fantasy Flight Games at the @Spot Cafe

Special thanks to Nate and the Chicago Boardgames Meetup Group for setting this whole shindig up!

Massive Apologies for the poor sound quality and the sound of people making delicious drinks and food.

Part One: Fantasy Flight & Corey Konieczka General
The Questions
How did you get the job?
What job were you doing before?
What was the interview like?
What was your first project there?
How many projects do you find yourself working on at once?
Whats the general timeline of a project?
How big was your team for the Battlestar Galactica Board Game?
What were your trouble spots and how did you get around them?
How important is art to designing a game?
When playtesting a game, do you test with an open market or an internal team?
Do you feel there is a value in testing to a general population who is not as interested in gaming?
Walk us through a day in the life of Corey Konieczka.
What does your day in the life look like two days away from deadline?
Whats with the Fantasy Flight Rule Book?
When working with a major franchise how much involvement is there?
Our own J.P. asks: Is there going to be a second expansion for Battlestar?
Lexx asks: When you are doing an expansion, how much do you have mechanics in mind?
When playtesting, how much money goes into components?
(I drop the recorder, sorry)
What city are you guys in and how do you become and intern?
Are the expansion runs smaller than the base game?
Whats your most challenging project to date?
Where do you start with a game based off a franchise?
As a game designer, how do you keep your enthusiasm up?
Do you know what you budget is for a game?
Do you typically create the mechanics of the game and the design?
How has gaming been affected by the general economic state?
Do you see the global market becoming more of a factor and does that affect how you design games?
How often do you get “no”?
How is it working on a team?
If you got the license for something that you weren’t familiar with, would you go home and watch it?
How do shake off bad game reviews?
What causes Fantasy Flight games to be heavy themed?
J.P.: Whats your favorite non-Fantasy Flight game?
Whats your favorite Fantasy Flight game?

Part Two: The Battlestar Galactica Pegasus Expansion & Middle Earth Quest
We start off by having Corey show up plastic figures for both the Pegasus Expansion and Middle Earth Quest.
Questions
J.P.: Is there a burn the hobbits mechanic?
Is there any influence from the fan film the Hunt for Gollum?
Have you heard when the Peter Jackson Movie is coming out?
What do you see following this up?
J.P.: Is there any possibility of there being more than 4 players?
How much is it?
How does the expansion affect the play time of the base game?
Lexx: Can you play all three together for an epic game?
How big is it and how much does it cost?
Is it the same number of players?
Will the final versions of the miniatures be metal or plastic?
Are they plastic due to the cost to manufacture?
Will the expansion improve the three player game?

It wouldn’t be a Jank Cast Episode if J.P.’s phone didn’t ring.

Corey’s Closing Thoughts
The Jank Cast is copyright 2009. Feel Free to use our content in any non-commercial way. All our music is by Streetlight Manifesto, Visit their website at Streetlightmanifesto.com. Send Feedback to feedback@jankcast.com Now go out and roll some dice.

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