Bangkok Pains: Distilling Bangkok Into a Board Game [S7.E61]

Greg interviews Tim Swainson and his team at creative agency
Invisible Ink about their Thai-centric board game, 'Bangkok
Pains.' The show begins with introductions from the creative team
at Invisible Ink, and Tim then gets into explaining the game. The
first rule of Bangkok Pains is that all players start in debt,
mirroring the plight of many Bangkokians, both natives and
foreigners. There are the standard board game pieces, in this
case, everything from an iconic plastic chair to a bottle of fish
sauce and a plate of Som Tum. 


Each player then picks a 'career card' to see their job and
salary (Greg manages to be a professional gamer with a monthly
salary of 30,000 baht, while other players score careers such as
influencer, DJ, and plastic surgeon) as well as a property card,
which determines where you'll live, and which track on the board
game you'll follow on your way to work (car or BTS). 


As the group plays, they discuss where the game idea came from,
how it was developed, and the endless rounds of testing that went
into finding the right balance of playability, benefits, and
penalties. How did they manage to distill all of Bangkok into a
board game? Listen in for details - or better yet, buy the game
yourself, get some drinks, and invite a few friends to play!


Listen in for an endless supply of Thai and Bangkok nuggets of
trivia and insight into how the game was developed. 


Don't forget that Patrons get the ad-free version of
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our website (www.bangkokpodcast.com) to find out probably more
info than you need to know.