40 February 2019
DESIGNER DUOS
THE ESCAPE ARTISTS
INKA BRAND & MARKUS BRANDGAMES: A CASTLE FOR ALL SEASONS, VILLAGE, RAJAS OF THE GANGES, LA BOCA, GUATAMELA CAFÉ
AND ABOUT A DOZEN FLAVOURS OF EXIT: THE GAMETHE DEPARTED
DANIELE TASCINI & SIMONE LUCIANIGAMES: TZOLK’IN: THE MAYAN CALENDAR, THE VOYAGES
OF MARCO POLO, COUNCIL OF 4, SHEEPLANDHow they met: Inka and
Markus met at a wedding of
mutual friends. “One week
later we had our rst date – a
games evening, of course,” says
Inka.” e rst game we played
together was Die Guten und die
Bösen Geister.”How they met: Although their
personalities suggest polar
opposites, Tascini and Luciani
have been friends for many years.How they got started: Like
many designers, Tascini had
a passion for game design
since he was very young, butprotoypes, write the rules and
correspond with publishers
during the day,” says Inka Brand.
“But Markus always does all of the
mathematical calculations!
“Of course, it’s a big plus that we
live together. ere is no border
between our normal family life
and the game designer life. We
often discuss our ideas while we
have dinner or doing some other
normal stu . Whenever someone
has a cool puzzle idea, we write it
down and put it in a box.”What they like: “We love
interactions between the players
at the table and we love if a
game evokes strong emotions.
“Our favourite Exit game
is Dead Man on the Orient
Express. We put a little moreendless discussions, not just games-
related but also politics, economics
and society. We spend a lot of time
together and the resulting games
become a distillation of our ideas.
is is probably why the result has
been so good.”
Despite their initial award-
winning success with games like
Tzolk’in: e Mayan Calendar
(2012) and e Voyages of Marco
Polo (2015), the two have since
parted ways professionally.
“In the end both of us felt t ired,”
says Tascini. “Simone decided toHow they got started: “A few
months after dating we visited the
annual Settlers of Catan weekend
hosted by Kosmos in Germany,
where we met Wolfgang Lüdtke,”
says Inka Brand. “We signed up for
his workshop and played game
prototypes for three straight
days. We were totally ashed by
the great ideas in these colourful
boxes. We decided we wanted to
try designing our own prototype
too. We drove home after two
nearly sleepless nights and began
designing our rst game.”How they work: Of the two of
them, Inka is the only full-time
game designer; Markus keeps his
day job as an insurance salesman.
“Because Markus goes to
work, I always tinker with theit was Luciani who provided the
professional connections.
“Simone was a student of Leo
Colovini, who learned from the
great Alex Randolph. I learned
a lot from him, including the
principle of classic game design,”
says Tascini. “Simone was already
a part of the game design world,
and at a certain point I decided to
start making games with him.”How they work: “Generally I
come up with a mechanism idea,
which is the core concept of the
entire game,” says Tascini. “ en
we both contribute on improving
the basic idea and add structure
around it.
“Simone and I are totally di erent,
with very di erent personalities and
ideas. Working together leads tostorytelling into it as you solve a
murder case.
“ e secret to our success is
that we complement one another
perfectly; two people think about
the same idea, quickly get direct
feedback and promptly test it
out. ere’s
nothing
better
than that.”keep working inside Cranio
Creations while I decided to work
as a solo game designer. It was
the right moment to split up but
that doesn’t mean we will never
design a game together again.”What they like: ”We both enjoy and
design German style games, which
means everything starts from the
mechanics,” says Tascini. “Having a
co-designer is always good because
ideas from di erent people come
together to ght and grow. e
nal result is always better.”A N D A B O U T A D O Z E N F L A V O U R S O F E X I T : T H E G A M EHow they got started:
months after dating we visited the
annual
hosted by Kosmos in Germany,
where we met Wolfgang Lu
says Inka Brand. “We signed up fortry designing our own prototype
too. We drove home after two
nearly sleepless nights and began