Interviewing Tristan Hall, Board Game Designer and Publisher
Image: Hall or Nothing Productions
“I finally got around to answering your questions - you'll have to double check them for spelling & consistency though as it's past midnight here and my brain is boggled!”
Tristan Hall has been burning the midnight oil lately; the symptoms of a man caught in the whirlwind of an ongoing successful Kickstarter campaign for 1815, Scum of the Earth the latest entry to the popular card-based series of tactical games in the historic epic battle system from his publishing imprint Hall or Nothing Productions. He was already a well-known designer in the solo board game community prior to the pandemic, now he is busier than ever with several upcoming projects all featuring an emphasis on solitaire play. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to sit down with Tristan do discuss his creative process, the importance of horror movies, and the future for solo board gaming.
This interview was conducted over email by Fredrik Schulz.
*
Tristan thank you so much for taking the time to join me at the game table, especially given the rather strenuous circumstances we find ourselves in. How are you holding up?
Very well thanks, all things considered. We moved across the road from my parents just before the lockdown kicked in so we’ve been able to at least wave at them every day, which has been nice. And whilst lockdown sucks bigtime, we do have the coolest hobby in the world to keep us going.
For those who are unfamiliar tell us a bit about your background.
My day job is now finally my dream job and my full time job: I’m a game designer and publisher, and co-director of Hall or Nothing Productions with my wife and business partner Francesca. Back in 2015, my first contracted game – Gloom of Kilforth – was languishing on a publisher’s shelf. Quite a number of play-testers and gamers’ who liked my fan-made designs for other games wanted to see it brought to market via this newish platform (at the time) called Kickstarter. It became clear that the publisher was in no hurry to move forward, so I asked them for the rights back to see if I could launch it myself and they kindly agreed. The experience changed my life, led to follow up games, and has become my full time job. For the first time I’ve finally started working for myself, and it has been brilliant.
A little bird told me you began your career as a game designer creating content for the Lord of the Rings living card game from publisher Fantasy Flight Games. What motivated you to take the plunge and pursue this path of game creation?
Pure fun and geekery! I used to read about other game designers who said they’d been designing games since they were children, and I contemplated this sort of depth of experience. Then I remembered creating detailed solo rules for games like HeroQuest and Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs when I was a kid. I think all of us geeks have it in us to tinker with other games, even if it’s introducing home rules in Monopoly. I’d already made characters and scenarios for Arkham Horror and Dungeons and Dragons and other games, but by the time I got around to designing fan-made scenarios for Lord of the Rings they were being downloaded tens of thousands of times and I began to suspect people might be interested in games that I’d designed myself, which just spurred me to keep on going.
1565, St. Elmo’s Pay. Photo: Fredrik Schulz
Although several of your game designs, including 1565, St. Elmo’s Pay and Shadows of Kilforth, can be played competitively they feel so incredibly tuned for solitaire play. Are you a solo gamer at heart?
Definitely a solo gamer, yes. I wrote an article about the rise of solo gaming for UK Games Expo a few years back. Pre-lockdown, weekly game night wasn’t nearly enough for me, and I had to be playing solo games in between sessions with mates and/or family. It’s also a fantastic way to learn games before introducing them to a group. I love how over the years solo gaming has gone from having this stigma attached of ‘just get some friends instead!’ to now being an essential element of every great thematic game out there. It’s only fair that my games have strong solo modes too: it’s a huge part of my play-testing them.
As a publisher Hall or Nothing Productions have become synonymous with producing games that feature truly exceptional artwork and illustrations. Was this aesthetic focus something that you strived for at the outset or did it evolve over time?
I was spoilt by my favourite games, which all have exceptional artwork, like Lord of the Rings and Arkham Horror mentioned above, and I was always determined that our games would stand comfortably next to them on any gaming shelf or shop shelf. In that respect I’ve been blessed to work with incredibly talented artists from around the world, who have the ability to take ideas from my head and transform them into magical, beautiful, and occasionally horrifying images. Developing the aesthetics for our games is one of my favourite elements of the job.
The world of Kilforth is one of literal and figurative darkness, a far cry from the tropes commonly associated with high fantasy. What influenced you to create this rather grim narrative?
Shadows of Kilforth. Photo: Fredrik Schulz
Possibly a steady diet of horror movies growing up. But also being innately drawn to the darker elements of fantasy. The Ringwraiths in Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings movie were terrifying to me as a child; I had recurring nightmares about them. My brother and my older friends put me onto the monsters in movies like The Thing, Alien, and Hellraiser and they were all burned indelibly into my mind. I often dreamt of demonic faces as a kid. I suppose I like to exorcise that by channeling something of this darkness into my games. It also gave me reason to believe that players facing off against the Ancients in Kilforth would have no compunction about wanting to kill these things with fire.
I once read an interview with designer and artist Ryan Laukat where he describes how he first creates a world and then constructs the game on a foundation of mechanisms that allows the players to explore it. I am curious to hear how you approach game design in terms of theme versus mechanisms?
I’m a big fan of Ran Laukat’s - he has the enviable ability to design and illustrate great games in his own unique style. I absolutely believe that the best thematic games are built on theme first and mechanisms second. In my mind it’s very much the story I want to tell or the experience I want people to share that comes first. Then I feed the ideas to our team of artists and they make it even cooler than it was in my head. I’ll maybe write some stories or flavour about the world and/or its peoples. And finally I start to think about what mechanisms would best serve telling the story of my game, and what cool things players would want to do in that environment. Because I love beautiful art and narrative tales that usually means lots of cards and flavour text too.
Even though interest for solo playable game designs has soared the past year I do wish that this paradigm shift of sorts had transpired under more joyous circumstances. Going forward into a post-covid world do you think this solitaire trend will continue to evolve, or are we going to see a veritable explosion of games centred around social, face-to-face interaction?
1565, St. Elmo’s Pay. Photo: Fredrik Schulz
They haven’t been joyous circumstances, but at least those positive changes are happening. To answer your question, I think both situations will happen. The solitaire gaming scene will absolutely continue to evolve, in the same way that many companies have discovered through the lockdown how effective their staff can be at working from home, every other Kickstarter launched now has solo rules as people are quickly cottoning onto the growth of the scene. We deliberated about the timing of launching our fully solo game Veilwraith last year and I wrote an essay on the Kickstarter page about why I thought launching a creative project during lockdown was a positive thing, and how to try to be responsible by removing the Fear Of Missing Out from the campaign, fully conscious of trying to ease any perceived pressure people might feel under trying times, but Veilwraith went on to quickly become our most successful non-Kilforth game. I think people now more than ever have a huge appetite for new and creative solo games. But I don’t doubt that when we finally get to hang out around the table with our mates again that those social deduction type games are going to be a smash hit once more too. The market is big enough to easily accommodate both trends.
As a way to cap off this interview, tell us what people should keep an eye out for in the near future from yourself and Hall or Nothing Productions?
In 2021 we have already launched and funded the third game in our Historic Epic Battle System trilogy: 1815, Scum of the Earth – The Battle of Waterloo Card Game (live on Kickstarter right now!), and in the summer we will also be launching the third game in our Kilforth series Call of Kilforth: A Fantasy Quest Game. Our latest published game Veilwraith: A Veil Odyssey Game is about to land with backers in May, and late pledges are available via our website. Keep an eye out for Veilwraith, Tabletop Gaming Magazine already gave the preview copy a Must Play Award. And then, if we have time at the end of the year we may yet get to visit the dark terrors of my first proper horror game Sublime Dark, which makes the Ancients in Kilforth look like cuddly kittens. Subscribe to our www.hallornothingproductions.co.uk website to be notified of our launches and progress.
1815, Scum of the Earth. Image: Hall or Nothing Productions
*
A huge thanks to Tristan Hall for taking the time from his commitments to participate in this interview. If you are curious about his designs you can read my solo reviews of both Shadows of Kilforth as well as 1565, St. Elmo’s Pay.
