Landon: Does making multiple games in the same universe make you go 'I wish I had done that with the first game!' Such as the colored bars in Microcosm that help readily identify a planet type. But hopefully the rules and card text is clear enough and if players do that, as long as they're playing by the same rules, it'll be pretty fair - they'll just spend more turns picking up their discards. That's an instance where something's fundamentally different than you might expect. I'm more worried that players will be discarding cards rather than simply revealing them, because in Eminent Domain you discard cards played to boost. I suppose Colonize icons work differently, but I guess to me that's not an issue. It's possible my view of it is more flexible than some people's, but the bottom line is that a Research icon boosts a Research action, and the Research action gets you Technology. Seth: In my mind, the symbols mean the same thing in Microcosm as they do in Eminent Domain. Landon: Did you find using the same symbols to be an advantage or difficulty? For instance, did the symbols increase the learning curve since they meant something else in a previous game? Too bad in a way, because the short, simple games usually don't need as much playtesting as longer, more complex games with more moving parts. It's much easier to get the game played a large number of times in a shorter period if the game is short and simple than if it's long and complex. Seth: It's much easier to get a short, simple game to the table with playtesters - it represents much less of an investment on their part. Landon: How does design and testing for a short game differ from longer games such as Eminent Domain and Belfort? But with the popularity of the microgame I figured I'd give it a shot, see if I could come up with a microgame I would like better than some of the other similar games out there.

I haven't been fond of many of them myself - not that they're bad per se, I just prefer a meatier, deeper game experience. Michael was very fond of the whole idea of microgames and they had become very popular. Landon: Was Microcosm meant to be a microgame from the outset? It also allows you to fix cash flow issues that could otherwise hold you back, opening the floodgates for a company like TMG to produce more games more quickly than we'd otherwise be able to do.

Kickstarter allows you to make a more personal connection with your backers, which people appreciate. Maybe it's true that we've used it from the beginning of Kickstarter, but not from the beginning of TMG. Seth: People sometimes think TMG has used Kickstarter from the beginning.

What are some of the advantages to using Kickstarter for a release method? Landon: Several companies, like Tasty Minstrel Games, have started to use Kickstarter as part of their business model for regular releases. Many players suggested I re-theme to the Eminent Domain universe and in the end it made sense to do so. I started with a classic civ theme, but the mechanisms felt so familiar to Eminent Domain, and the existing branding and art was a real factor as well. Seth: Actually, I originally intended to AVOID the Eminent Domain universe. Is the decision to stick with the Eminent Domain universe a business or personal choice? Landon: When developing games, sometimes developing the world or setting can eat up design time as well. Seth Jaffee, answered a few questions about the design process behind Microcosm and how Tasty Minstrel Games gets the most out of their Kickstarters using a tactic he likes to call the 'Quickstarter.' It uses a lot of the same icon and boosting ideas that came from the original game, but packs it into a short and sweet ten-minute, two-player game.

Eminent domain microcosm