Interview: Ian Moss

Check out our newest interview with designer Ian Moss! He talks about the games and designers that inspire him, the origins of the game Wonderland’s War and his favorite sidekick to play games with!

Tell us a little about yourself and your company:

My name is Ian Moss. I am a freelance Game Designer and I also livestream with Jon Gilmour on the Infectious Play Publishing multiple times each week. Infectious Play has co-published a few games like News@11 (with Floodgate Games) and Kids on Bikes (with Hunter Entertainment and Renegade Game Studios) and now hosts the Infectious Play Live series of livestreams.

What started you into game design?

I began when working at a factory where Jon (Gilmour) also worked. I started going to his monthly game days and he talked about the process of designing games. I was interested but didn’t know where to start until he needed someone to do some graphic design on cards for a Print and Play he was going to give away for free to his family and friends. I offered to help and when I started seeing the process of making games I was flooded with ideas of my own. Jon mentioned a twice monthly group that brought their games to playtest at our local game store and I threw together a really awful prototype and went to my first Prototype Night. Immediately, I was hooked and I started going every two weeks (then they began weekly and I started going weekly).

Who are some of your game designer inspirations?

I learned so much from Jon when I first started out. I’ve played most of his designs and seeing how games like Dead of Winter or Dinosaur Island started heavily affected how I make games.I’ve always looked at designers like Antoine Bauza and Bruno Cathala as the idols for how to make designs with interesting or unique themes and make them accessible. Everyone starts off with some sort of ‘Gateway Game’ and I think they do a phenomenal job of making games with deep strategy (Like Tokaido or Five Tribes) and keep the rules simple enough that I can teach them to someone who is new to games.I’d also say Eric Lang, who is the ‘Rockstar’ designer type that I want to be one day.  

What are the current games we could play of yours?

If you want to go chronologically, you would start with News@11 (Floodgate Games). News@11 is a game where up to 11 newscasters create absurd news stories that continue to come back throughout the morning, afternoon, and evening news. It plays out like a Whose Line Is It Anyway? segment in the best ways.From there you would have to pick up a game by Jon Gilmour and Brian Lewis called Dinosaur Island. Once you’ve done that, you have everything you need to play Dinosaur Island: Totally Liquid expansion with up to 5 players. Having the game Jon and Brian made to build off of was great and we really came together to bring a lot of new ideas and mechanics into the expansion. I also got to do Dino Math, which is the only type of math that I like.

If you happen to enjoy games with just one other person, you could take everything I loved about Dinosaur Island and play Duelosaur Island with a friend. Duelosaur Island takes the ideas behind Dinosaur Island and turns them into a game with I Split, You Choose and Multi-Use Card mechanics that has been specially tuned for 2 players. It was my first solo design and it was the reason they asked if I wanted to help make the Totally Liquid expansion!If you are lucky enough to go to conventions where Skybound Games has a booth, you could demo Wonderland’s War! Though that one is currently not out yet, so more on that later.

What was the first game you remember playing as a kid?

Probably Uno? I don’t remember a ton of board games as a kid. My mom would always play Sequence and I learned that when I was old enough. Probably the first game I pursued was Magic the Gathering after being taught by my friend. I had a deck full of almost every card I owned and it was green and it didn’t work but I loved it.

What is your ideal game night? Games, group size, snacks, etc:

My ideal game night is probably just my partner and I playing 2 player and Legacy games. I really enjoyed our plays of Near and Far, as we made our way through the various maps and finding out how our stories would end. We currently have both Clank: Legacy Acquisitions, Inc. and Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth going and we have an unspoken agreement to focus on the story and legacy elements of games like that over winning.Snacks are usually pretzels or puffcorn or maybe vegetables with ranch dip. Something lighter, so we don’t forget to eat meals lol. 

What inspired you to design the Wonderlands War game?

My first inspiration was James Hudson (Druid City Games/Skybound Games) emailing about working with Ben and Tim Eisner on an Alice in Wonderland game with art by Manny Trembley. I had known that Ben and Tim had previously had a Wonderland themed game that got re-themed (maybe you have heard of Tidal Blades?), and I think James wanted to try to get a dream team together on the project. We brainstormed and we landed on a game where there was a war for Wonderland. It seemed odd, but everything in Wonderland is odd, so the game needs to match that energy. After our initial playtests, I was inspired by our team and how passionate everyone was about the game. It has taken many forms, and been many different games, but I think everyone knew we would find the Wonderland at the other end of the rabbit hole.

What would you compare Wonderlands War to? How does it play?

So Wonderland’s War is a Bag Building game with Drafting and Area Control. There are many games that you could compare it to, but James usually says it’s like Quacks of Quedlinburg and Blood Rage had a strange, strange child.The bag building does feel like Quacks, where you have many strategies of how you want to build out your bag for success. The push your luck of Quacks plays out a bit different in Wonderland, as you Battle in different Regions and you can choose which Regions to place more Supporters in (setting up your luck in each Region). The Wonderlandians and Battles give the feel of Blood Rage, where you are making this Faction your own with your Upgrades and Forge Track. The abilities of the Wonderlandians and their Artifacts make each game unique and help give a very Thematic feel to Wonderland’s War.

Where can I get a copy of the game?

The game is currently on Kickstarter, and instead of the normal stretch goals, there are Narrative Reveals. That means that each day you have a segment of story written by Manny (and Ben Kepner of Skybound, who is a great writer) that explains the WHY of Wonderland going to war. Along with the narrative, each day we unlock something that will be in every copy of the game. So far we have unlocked fan favorite Wonderlandians like the Tweedles, March Hare, Knave of Hearts, and Duchess along with some of their most powerful Artifacts (which are chips that get added to your bag). We also revealed that Cheshire is a 5th player Faction, but not yet what his abilities are…so stay tuned for that.

Check out the Kickstarter campaign for Wonderland’s War here: Wonderland’s War Campaign

Any extra information you’d love to share?

As a person with my own Sidekick, it’s great that you all game together so often! My daughter always wants to play the HABA games I’ve picked her up from conventions (and she also wants to play any games we play, but I don’t want her to kick my butt at them just yet).

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