Welcome to People Behind the Meeples, a series of interviews with indie game designers. Here you'll find out more than you ever wanted to know about the people who make the best games that you may or may not have heard of before. If you'd like to be featured, head over to http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html and fill out the questionnaire! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples. Support me on Patreon!
| Name: | Jesse Fernandez |
|---|---|
| Location: | Ohio, United States |
| Designing: | Over ten years! |
| BGG: | Stormyknight1976 |
| Facebook: | Dymino Monsters/Horn Gull Kingdom |
| Instagram: | @Dymino.Monsters |
| Other: | Stormyknight1976 Dymino Monsters on BGDF |
Jesse Fernandez
Interviewed on: 1/28/2019
Jesse Fernandez is a designer from Ohio who has been working on his game Dymino Monsters for over 15 years! If you follow his social media pages you can follow along with it's development over the years. To learn more about Jesse and his projects, read on!
Some Basics
Tell me a bit about yourself.
How long have you been designing tabletop games?
Over ten years!
Why did you start designing tabletop games?
To keep myself occupied and to see how far I can push myself into being creative and passionate about designing and drawing.
What game or games are you currently working on?
Dymino Monsters. It's my second version to my first game called Typhoon Fighters that was in production in 1997. Dymino Monsters was started in April of 2004.
Have you designed any games that have been published?
No. Not yet. Just taking my time and I am letting my games do the talking for me.
Your Gaming Tastes
My readers would like to know more about you as a gamer.
Where do you prefer to play games?
It doesn't matter to me.
Who do you normally game with?
My group of nephews.
If you were to invite a few friends together for game night tonight, what games would you play?
Revolution.
And what snacks would you eat?
Chips and pizza
Do you like to have music playing while you play games? If so, what kind?
Depends on the game. Classical for Homebrew Pathfinder Games,
What's your favorite FLGS?
Checkmate & Hobbies Game Store
What is your current favorite game? Least favorite that you still enjoy? Worst game you ever played?
I don't normally play big box company games, so I work on my own. So there are no worst games that I have played yet.
What is your favorite game mechanic? How about your least favorite?
Right now, it's for my game Dymino Monsters. I use domino tiles for attack and defense. I don't have a least favorite game mechanic.
What's your favorite game that you just can't ever seem to get to the table?
I haven't played Wolf and Cub game in a great while.
What styles of games do you play?
I like to play Board Games, Card Games, Miniatures Games, RPG Games, Video Games, Other Games?
Do you design different styles of games than what you play?
I like to design Board Games, Card Games, Miniatures Games, RPG Games, Other Games?
OK, here's a pretty polarizing game. Do you like and play Cards Against Humanity?
I have only played it once.
You as a Designer
OK, now the bit that sets you apart from the typical gamer. Let's find out about you as a game designer.
When you design games, do you come up with a theme first and build the mechanics around that? Or do you come up with mechanics and then add a theme? Or something else?
It depends on what I have in mind. Sometimes it a mixture of both when designing. But to narrow it down it's theme. I don't follow the guidelines of big box company game designs.
Have you ever entered or won a game design competition?
No.
Do you have a current favorite game designer or idol?
I don't idolize game designers. How ever I do enjoy the creativity that game designers do produce to show their creativity to their audience.
Where or when or how do you get your inspiration or come up with your best ideas?
For me, I don't think of my games as a best design. For inspiration, it's everywhere and anything I pick up to make a game from the get go.
How do you go about playtesting your games?
Solo or with my group of nephews.
Do you like to work alone or as part of a team? Co-designers, artists, etc.?
Depends. I know it's vague. I have co-designed with my group 6 games with variants of those games as a group.
What do you feel is your biggest challenge as a game designer?
For one of my games I designed it was the card drawing for pick up and or the theme. So at this time , I put it on the shelf as it were until I get back to it. But it was a different mechanic to design that I normally haven't designed before and it has stumped me for the moment. I wanted to try something new. But other design mechanics, there isn't any big challenges.
If you could design a game within any IP, what would it be?
That's a great question. Hmm, I wouldn't really know. Probably Pathfinder or some company that felt with rpg campaign booklets.
What do you wish someone had told you a long time ago about designing games?
I have no response for this question.
What advice would you like to share about designing games?
Be creative. Be patient. Take your time. Don't rush to get your game designs out to the public. Ask for help if needed. Do not give up. If you have an idea for a large project, do it. If you have an idea for a small project, do it. Research by reading the video game guide books. It has helped me in the beginning to structure how to write up the content for board and card design layouts. Read the table of contents of video game guide books.
Would you like to tell my readers what games you're working on and how far along they are?
Games I feel are in the final development and tweaking stage are: Dymino Monsters
Games that I'm playtesting are: Dymino Monsters , Quiet Terror
Games that are in the early stages of development and beta testing are: Dymino Monsters
And games that are still in the very early idea phase are: Quiet Terror is still in alpha version since 1999.
Are you a member of any Facebook or other design groups? (Game Maker's Lab, Card and Board Game Developers Guild, etc.)
Facebook, BGDF , BGG , Instagram
And the oddly personal, but harmless stuff…
OK, enough of the game stuff, let's find out what really makes you tick! These are the questions that I'm sure are on everyone's minds!
Star Trek or Star Wars? Coke or Pepsi? VHS or Betamax?
Star Trek. Coke. VHS.
What hobbies do you have besides tabletop games?
Writer, drawing, cook, story teller, paranormal investigator, acting / live action role play, comedian. I used to write poems and songs.
What is something you learned in the last week?
Nothing new.
Favorite type of music? Books? Movies?
MUSIC: Christian music, Classical, jazz, space opera, Celtic music, heavy metal, classic oldies. BOOKS: Mystery, sci-fi, suspense. MOVIES: Science Fiction, action, adventure, horror, mystery, suspense and thriller
What was the last book you read?
Airframe from Michael Crichton.
Do you play any musical instruments?
Tambourine, bongo, congos, guitar (not professional) , drums (not professional but I can keep a rhythm), shakers, harmonica (not professional on harmonica).
Tell us something about yourself that you think might surprise people.
I was a security officer who worked at 2 cemetery locations for three years 1998-2000
Tell us about something crazy that you once did.
It's nothing crazy but I embarrass my nephews with our Louie the Lion puppet with ventriloquism at grocery stores, fast food drive thru's etc.
Biggest accident that turned out awesome?
I crashed into a parked car with my friends bike years ago where the bike wasn't even safe to ride down a large hill. After hitting the car, I walked the bike while still sitting on the seat , rolled off the engine hood of the car as the bike left me and I landed on to the street in front of the parked car. My friend saw this as he rode behind me down the hill and a car was behind him as the driver saw this to. The crash was so loud 2 people came out of their houses to see what had happened. I got up from the street, asked my friend where my glasses were and I went to retrieve it, grabbed my left shoulder blade and I was so embarrassed that I hid behind the car I crashed into. My friend went to go get his brother at the park we were riding to. I got up, saying ow a whole bunch of times and saw the 5 scratch marks on my shoulder. The brothers came back and I was tweaking the handle bars on the bike and we rode off. I was yelling "Let's do that again!!!"
Who is your idol?
I admire Robin Williams.
What would you do if you had a time machine?
Nothing
Are you an extrovert or introvert?
INFJ
If you could be any superhero, which one would you be?
Spiderman
Have any pets?
No
When the next asteroid hits Earth, causing the Yellowstone caldera to explode, California to fall into the ocean, the sea levels to rise, and the next ice age to set in, what current games or other pastimes do you think (or hope) will survive into the next era of human civilization? What do you hope is underneath that asteroid to be wiped out of the human consciousness forever?
Violence
Thanks for answering all my crazy questions!
Thank you for reading this People Behind the Meeples indie game designer interview! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples and if you'd like to be featured yourself, you can fill out the questionnaire here: http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html
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