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| From Dávid Turczi's profile, in BoardGameGeek |
“While fighting was in progress at the Radio Building, the first Soviet tanks made their appearance in Budapest at about 2 a.m. on 24 October, and were soon in action. However, no official announcement was made of the Soviet intervention until 9 a.m.”
Report of the Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary, UN General Assembly , 1957
To mention just a few of his creations, and following no particular criteria, you may have heard of Petrichor, Trickerion, Venice, Rome & Roll, Dice Settlers, Kitchen Rush, Rush. M.D.. If you often play solo, as I do, or if you enjoy to game solo while learning a game, it is very likely that you have already faced one of his solo modes, designed for an even greater diversity of games.
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| Courtesy of Ludocreations |
If you dig a little more, you may find [redacted], from 2014, a game I have not heard before doing some research for this series. It may seem a long way back, but that was just seven years ago! Those were the beginnings, featuring the same designer trio as in Days of Ire: Budapest 1956: Katalin Nimmerfroh, Dávid Turczi, and Mihály Vincze.
In all, an impressive amount of work in just about half a dozen years, bringing many hours of entertainment, joy, and hard thinking, for so many.
My first contact with Dávid Turczi came in the form of a Facebook exchange: he was preparing to move and was selling a copy of Days of Ire! By that time, I knew a little more about Dávid than about Days of Ire, and because my wish list was already long enough, I passed on the occasion. Or so I thought, as my interest on this game kept growing, and something remained lurking beneath the surface! And last November I ended up ordering it. At the same time, the main idea and concept for a series of posts was starting to take shape.
Then, a thought crossed my mind: “Wouldn’t it be great to get some designer insights on the motivations and on the approach to this depiction of a very special period in Hungarian History, the history of his own country?”. After all, Days of Ire, as well as Nights of Fire, are two of a kind within his portfolio.
Would this be possible? Not personally knowing Dávid, I have formed the impression, from watching interviews, playthroughs, and casual messages in Facebook groups, that he remains a very accessible person, always keen to share his opinions in a passionate way. Furthermore, there were some hints of a soft stop for Days of Ire and for Nights of Fire, and a genuine desire to make these more well known.
So, why not try to arrange an interview? Worst case scenario: a no-reply. Second worst case: a plain no. Not much to lose! Upon a preliminary contact, I ended up sending my questions between Christmas and New Year’s Day (!), in line with an overall framework used for previous interviews: some organised and broken-down written questions for written answers, as writing is my media of choice. Well, in fact, there were not just “some” questions, but a bunch of them … maybe too many, I thought, requiring a fair amount of time from a busy designer for a small audience blog…
One single follow-up check and a short wait later, it all came together! By mid-January, the questions were answered, not without an apology for having taken so long to reply, while dealing with a lot of work and additional interview requests!
So, let us meet Dávid Turczi, in his own words and smileys!
Dávid, please present yourself in short, well, as short or as long as you please, and focusing or not on the boardgame-related side.
Hi, I'm David Turczi, I'm roughly 33 years old, I was born in Hungary where I lived for 25 years, then after a ~7-year stint in the UK I now live in the Netherlands. I used to be a software engineer (the boring, business kind) but I quit 3 years ago, going full time design/development. My favourite music genre is 70s progressive rock, I always play yellow in board games, but most of my T-shirts are black. Spinach is the best vegetable side.
Have you always been a board gamer? Could you share an early recollection?
I started in University, around 12-13 years ago. Some people were playing Bang! for fun, which then developed into all-nighter Munchkin sessions. It all took a turn for the serious when I got Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game as a gift (since my love for the show was well known). My First Essen Spiel was in 2012, where I bought 14 games, increasing my collection over four-fold.
Physical boardgames, digital or both?
I started physical, then went digital, then went back to physical, and I haven't left since.
How did the transition from gamer to game designer, and to publishable game designer, occur?
The third expansion for BSG [Battle Star Galactica] came out too slow. So, I had to design my own expansion. And playtest it to perfection.
Then one day one member of my gaming group, Mihaly Vincze came home from a holiday saying "I designed a game!" I just couldn't help myself, I had to help him. Joined by my partner at the time Kate, the three of us spent months (years?) polishing the game. We pitched it unsuccessfully to a few others at Essen 2012, but in 2013 I met the man behind LudiCreations - a then just starting out Finnish publisher - and he signed the game. We learnt everything on the job, and the game came out.
Suddenly, we were the "first internationally published Hungarian designers" so a Hungarian company that was about to launch approached us for "advice". That's how I met Viktor Peter and Richard Amann of Mindclash, I showed them a time travelling game (called Paradox Factory at the time), and then we went on a multi-year journey that ended with Anachrony getting published and making me famous overnight 😊
First I got lucky, and then I worked for it 😊
Any lessons, thoughts, or stumbles, along the way you may want to share?
Be polite, adapt to others, but be shameless to show off what you're good at.
Nobody cares what you can do if they don't know about it...
As a well-known designer, do you feel the pressure to “deliver”, and eventually to “compromise”, or do you feel you have now more freedom to pursue your own ideas?
I have a lot more freedom now. I don't have to come up with a game, spend months polishing it, set up 10 meetings, and then get rejected 11 times before somebody somewhere wants what I have (but needs me to work months more for it first).
I just evaluate my idea (or as others would call it - take a shower), and then decide which publisher I want to call. I set up a meeting, I explain the idea, and if they like it, then I spend a few weeks creating a proof of concept, and then show that to them in a second, pitch meeting. Then I take onboard all their ideas, criticism, etc, but if the original idea was good, at this point they'll sign it probably, and from then on, it's all our problem.
This means my bad ideas get shot down faster, my good ideas get improved sooner. And fame brings access to volunteers, which means I can get more done, with more hands. Sure, I need to compromise, and not "build my precious baby" each time, but that's just good common sense, cause designer eccentricities tend to make the game (even heavy euros I tend to work on these days) hard to publish.
Is there a typical day, as a full-time designer?
Alarm goes off at 8.25, read news, crawl to the bathroom, sit in front of my laptop by 9.30.
If it's a meeting day, then probably be on google meets from 10 to sleep time (with a few breaks for lunch, my girlfriend arriving home, dinner, cat petting, etc).
If it's a prototyping day then pop on some scifi series I've seen a hundred times and chop away at it with the printer, the scissors, and the cardboard.
If it's a playtest day, then welcome playtesters between 10 am and noon, and then play games with them until six in the evening, in the company of some good takeaway food 😊
And then cycle through this, 5 to 7 days a week 😊
Which one fits you best, concerning game design and the development process: obsessively organised, organised, organised chaos, or plainly chaotic?
Organised chaos. I have a to-do list with priorities, I have a slack for each publisher, I have organized dropbox folders, and I have a google calendar strictly filled with not-to-miss meetings. But what happens in-between is magic, madness, and the will of the universe.
And now some quick questions about games you enjoy playing.
An “oldie” that sticks to your memory or that you even play now and then.
I don't play anything "that old" 😊 But games that are past the "hype of the new", I'd say Glory to Rome is still the best, other notable mentions to Caylus, Among the Stars, Eminent Domain.
An history themed game of your liking.
Sekigahara.
Imperial Struggle.
1960: The making of the President.
A solo game/mode that you enjoy, designed by someone else.
I never play solo.
The very last game you played.
Excluding playtests, it was Dawn of Peacemakers from Sami Laakso, a reverse-wargame wrapped in a lightish coop game. My last "crunchy euro" was Kanban EV, from Vital Lacerda.
A game that you are looking forward to playing soon.
I'm due to play the new version of Martin Wallace's Tinner's Trail, and I'm curious 😊
There is more to come from Dávid, as we turn the conversation into the design of Days of Ire, in the next episode.
List of episodes
Ep. 1 - Serious stuff
Ep. 2 - Meet Dávid Turczi
Ep. 3 - Designer insights
Ep. 4 - At the table
Ep. 5 - I joined the revolution!
Ep. 6 - The fate of the revolution
Ep. 7 - Budapest 1956, and beyond
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