Taiki Shinzawa Interview (English Version)

Taiki Shinzawa is one of the most prolific trick-taking designers out there, but he does so much more, including: puzzles, abstract games, and murder mysteries. Today we chat with him about his inspirations, his favorite games, and what to look forward to next!
Taiki Shinzawa Twitter: / shzwtk
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Games Discussed Today (in alphabetical order:
American Bookshop: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2...
Big Top: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3...
Console Romano: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1...
Pala: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3...
Tricks & Deserts: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1...

[@Naru-Maki]

What an interesting and engaging episode I loved everything covered in today's upload. Thank you 🎉

[@redreg777]

Great interview! Fantastic choice of questions. I'd love to hear the answers other designers give :D

[@topazhk]

A really great barrier-breaking interview for us non-Japanese speakers. Thanks for all the work on translating this. It was a very absorbing interview and I like the idea of reading rulebooks and predicting rules and that being “wrong” is a possible source of inspiration, as well as him finding out later that a particular game may have been the source of a particular design decision. He had internalised the rule already and thus it is a good step away from simple copying. Thanks once again!

[@TheBoardGameDojo]

Thanks so much for watching and for the kind words! Yeah I was super interested when he said that and we ended up chatting about it a bit off-the-record after the interview! Really cool guy!

[@jamesbrazeal3847]

Love Jeffrey D Alers, would be blown away by that combo

[@TheBoardGameDojo]

Couldn't agree more!

[@GustavoSouzaLopes]

Nice interview! I would do the same as you with Tricks & Deserts. Here in Brazil things are crazy when talking about those Japanese games! At least we have American Book Shop, but the aesthetics is very different, it is called "Corta" ("Cut" in Portuguese, a reference to when you "cut" the trick by playing a card that sums over the threshold) and the cards are more Uno-esque

[@TheBoardGameDojo]

Ohhh wow I'm going to need to look that one up! Also glad to know I'm not the only one who thinks like that ;)

[@Naru-Maki]

Fyi it doesn't make you a bad host if you try to get your hands on a copy of a game you want before you share it. Japanese games tend to be scarce and fans jump fast on everything and anything just to collect and often not even to play so knowing as a host you take the time to get a copy because you love something, you're supporting the publisher and you want to enjoy it I think is 100% fair. This says a lot about a game hearing this and it gives us (your listeners) also the thought that you may possibly cover the game on a future episode 😉 I say go for it!
That was a very funny part of today's episode hahaha lots of giggles there