Ahmad Salahuddin

I got to know Ahmad while trying out Hieroglyph Historian in the Micro May Campaign. And I observed this strong connection to his games with heritage and spirituality, which intrigued me. Curious about his approach and genuinely impressed by the game he created, I reached out to him in June.

So here’s my conversation with Ahmad to know his journey, inspirations, and words of wisdom!

What inspired you to start designing games?

I formally started designing games in early 2023 after quitting my job due to burnout. I was looking for something that had less screen time, more analog experience, and to be honest, something completely different than what I had done before.

One of my inspirations is in realising that I could create something that can positively impact others. I realised games can be a great opportunity for me to connect with my own growing kids (three boys) while creating a tangible legacy of sorts. It’s also immensely rewarding as a creative outlet as you solve design issues and watch people play your games.

Can you share the biggest challenge you faced while designing your first game, and how you overcame it?

My first official design in 2023 was Heist Pursuit, an 18-card solo print-and-play game for a Board Game Geek contest. My biggest challenge was trying to figure out everything at once. Learning and reading about good design principles, how to playtest and evaluate feedback, testing different tools and platforms, managing scope creep, and even card formatting and readability.

I made the decision to become a full-time board game designer back then but it took a while to transition mentally and routine-wise. While it was equal parts exciting and overwhelming, the design process was so enjoyable (and still is) that allowed me to get through the initial learning curve.

What's your design process when creating a new game?

I think the way I approach creating a new game has changed over time. Nowadays, I think a lot more about components and price points, the target audience, and the experience I want them to have. These all mix together to give a good direction about what potential kinds of mechanics would be suitable and what the end result might look like. The clearer the end goal, the easier it is to refine the game towards it and understand when you’re veering away from it.

I’m also a firm believer that a good theme helps to solve a lot of design issues, so I tend to spend a lot of time researching the theme. I think it’s easier to develop a mechanic if it’s thematically integrated into the game, and that thematic balancing generally trumps numerical balancing.

In terms of mechanics, I try to do something different each game or try to fuse different concepts that I like. For example, in my latest game called Hieroglyph Historian, I initially wanted to capture the experience of a solo word-building game that you play in the palm of your hand. The final game still retained some palm gameplay, but it focused more on the word-building aspect as you try and aim for a high score. Overall the game feels unique and distinctive mechanically while the Ancient Egyptian theme drawn by Shane, the game’s artist, really helps to pull players into the game world.

I noticed the integration of heritage and spirituality in your games. How do those elements resonate with you, and what role did they play in shaping the design?

I think Usolli is a really unique game, given its theme is about Islamic prayer. One of the design goals was to create a game that reflected part of my identity, and another goal was to create a faith-inspired game that is actually fun to play – most of these games tend to be superficial or too reliant on trivia.

As I mentioned, I believe a good theme helps the game a lot, so in this case the unique theme helped Usolli to stand out amongst other games. I designed the game so that you didn’t have to be an adherent and that all the necessary information was learnt as you played the game. Although this did increase the learning curve for players unfamiliar with the subject matter, the general feedback has been positive as they appreciate learning about a culture that wasn’t their own.

To be honest, throughout the game development I wasn’t sure how the game would be received given the subject matter. But now that the game has been out for several months, overall I’m very happy with its reception as the game was highlighted at Pax West in the US, TTOX in India, and has been favorably reviewed by a diverse range of reviewers.

It was a fun but tricky design challenge to create a game that faithfully demonstrated key aspects of Islamic prayer while being mechanically fun for players to interact with. I went through a lot of different mechanical iterations and even shelved it for a while before adding in the movement system that is in the game now.

Are there any upcoming projects or games you're excited about?

I have a huge soft spot for the Lost Ruins of Arnak. It was one of my earliest heavier-weight hobby board games purchases and until today remains one of my favourite games. The theme and art plays a big part, and I’m really glad to see that it’s still doing very well with a new big box edition that’s coming out.

What advice would you give to aspiring game designers, especially those interested in print-and-play games?

You should consider how much effort players need to invest into creating your print-and-play games. If you have 1-2 pages worth of cards (of 9 cards each) then that’s pretty easy to prepare, but if you have a lot of pages, tokens and other components that need prep work, you might find it difficult to find a lot of interest.

Alternatively, roll-and-write games are a great format to consider since they generally don’t involve any cutting and you’re just printing a few A4 pages and can start playing with just a pencil and some dice.

I personally love 18-cards as a constraint. This is beneficial for the print-and-play format but it’s also a great design constraint to speed up your iteration cycle.

What tips would you give to game designers preparing to launch their first crowdfunding campaign?

There are 3 areas that I think can make or break a campaign: planning, self-care, and finances.

For planning, you should plan ahead as much as possible. For example, your marketing should be done at least 6 months prior to launch, you may want a content calendar during the campaign, and you should have a draft timeline from pre-campaign to the end of fulfilment.

For self-care, know that there’s a ton of work pre-campaign, during the campaign, and post-campaign. You need to make sure to take breaks and look after yourself, as you are most likely the single biggest factor to your campaign’s success or failure. The amount of work can be overwhelming, especially if you’re running a campaign on top of your normal day job and juggling family duties too.

Finally, the finances. Costs will almost always go up, so you need to ensure you’re calculating your margins properly, especially if you’re thinking about going to retail. Though getting into retail is very tough for first-timers (but that’s another story). Just like any project, as much as you plan, there will be unexpected costs so make sure to add some buffer into your calculations.

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Tasliman

Tasliman is a board game developer based in Bangladesh, with the dream of exploring the world of games and introducing it to anyone new to it. He is the founder of Kraftz, a brand that develops board games commercially, as well as with reputed entities like BRAC and The Gates Foundation.