Acknowledgements

No one designs games alone, and no one publishes them alone either. The people listed here gave me their time, their patience, and their honesty when I needed all three.

Kevin Zucker taught me how to think about operational design. He answered questions I did not yet know how to ask well, and he kept answering them long after most people would have stopped. Everything in this book about the relationship between logistics and gameplay traces back to conversations with Kevin.

Hermann Luttmann sat down at a convention and played one of my terrible early designs. He was kind about it. He did not have to be. That kind of generosity from an established designer to someone just starting out matters more than any review or award, and I have tried to pay it forward when new designers bring their work to me.

Matt Ward developed more of my published titles than I can list here without turning this into a credits page. A designer can have all the ideas in the world, but without a developer willing to grind through the details, those ideas stay on paper. Matt did the grinding.

Dean Essig gave me the opportunity to design Rostov ‘41 for the Standard Combat Series at Multi-Man Publishing. That project opened doors I could not have opened on my own. His series rules concept changed how I thought about game design, and his influence runs through most of the chapters in this book.

Ivan Caceres created the initial art for my games and helped establish the visual identity of Conflict Simulations LLC when I was still figuring out what that meant.

Ilya Kudriashov has contributed work across multiple titles and brought a level of craft that made my games look better than they had any right to.

Ryan Heilman formatted most of my rulebooks and has been a steady, reliable presence behind the scenes on more projects than either of us probably remembers.

Trevor Henderson worked on my early manuals when the whole operation was held together with enthusiasm and not much else.

The team at Superior POD printed my games and put up with my learning curve as a self-publisher.

I am forgetting people. I know I am. My memory is terrible and there have been plenty of others who were kind and helpful to me when I did not deserve it. If you are one of them, I owe you a drink and an apology for the oversight. Thank you.