May 30, 1999 - Interview
Ray Freeman on TIGERS IN THE MIST
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Forward: Game Designer, Ray Freeman, has given it his all as of late to see his original DTP amateur game design, TIGERS IN THE MIST, professionally-published by GMT Games. Many summarily dismissed this endevour, citing among the many Bulge games on the market today, the recently published BITTER WOODS by TAHGC, shortly before the Hasbro acquisition. After a lengthy one-man PR Campaign to get the word out about his design, GMT Games has given Ray his due by committing to the publication of TIGERS IN THE MIST, expected this July. ConsimWorld.COM wishes to recognize the tremendous effort put forth by Ray Freeman in promoting his design, and this interview will give you more background behind the Man and his Design.

Ray Freeman, Game Designer

CosiWorld: Ray, tell us a little about your gaming background and what led you to become a game designer.

Freeman: I'm 49, married, and the father of a nine year old girl. I have enjoyed boardgames since I was a kid. I got my first chess set for my eighth birthday and played a fair amount of it, RISK, STRATEGO, and BROADSIDE in elementary school and junior high. My first cardboard counter game was Avalon Hill's CHANCELLORSVILLE, purchased in 1961. I played a lot of wargames my junior and senior years of high school and freshman year in college. I stopped playing wargames between 1973 and 1977 in order to play competitive chess, but got back into the hobby in 1978, playing WAR AT SEA, THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN and RAIL BARON. After moving to Boston in 1985, I joined the North Shore Game Club founded by Alan Moon and became very good at VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC and RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN as there were top notch opponents in those games at the club. Attended my first Origins in 1987. We moved to the SF Bay Area in 1991. I have regularly attended Pacificon and Avaloncon.

My first real "design" was a June 1941 scenario for PANZERBLITZ. It was never published by the General, but I am hoping it will appear in the Boardgamer soon. I've written some other articles for the General and the Boardgamer, and co-authored a published PBM system for PANZER LEADER. I'm also working on articles for the Wargamers Guide to War at Sea and GMTs C3i magazine.

TIGERS IN THE MIST (hereafter, TITM) was my first serious attempt to design a game from scratch. I mainly got into it for the enjoyment of doing the design, and I happened to have a fair amount of free time during that period of my life.

CosiWorld: Stepping into the shoes of "a consim enthusiast", what turns you on or off about consim games in general - or simply put, what characteristics do you look for in a game that will win you over?

Freeman: I've always had an active interest in military history, mostly American Civil War (I'm a Southerner) and World War II. Those wars have interested me most, but I've read quite a bit on other eras as well. My dad was in the Air Force in both WWII and Korea, so I guess I was of that era where wargaming and history seemed very interesting to my generation. Wargames represented an opportunity to "recreate" the battles and campaigns I had read about and which had fired my imagination.

I'm mainly attracted to low to mid complexity games that have relatively clean rules systems. I loath games which are loaded down with tons of exceptions, special cases, and pure chrome. The kind of games I prefer have relatively easy to learn and retain mechanics of play, but offer a wealth of decision making opportunities emphasizing qualities like conceptualization, visualization, projection and calculation. All of these qualities are present in chess which is my favorite boardgame. These qualities are also present in many of my favorite wargames such as VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC (my fave), RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN, A HOUSE DIVIDED, BREAKOUT: NORMANDY, and of course TITM. BREAKOUT is the most complicated game in which I've really gotten interested.

CosiWorld: I know you worked on TITM for a long time, can you give us some history of its evolution and how your design philosophy is reflected in the design?

Freeman: I started out to design TITM purely for my own enjoyment. I had no intention of trying to get it published. I think I chose the Battle of the Bulge as the subject for the game because I had recently read Charles MacDonalds "A Time for Trumpets" which fired my imagination with its excellent imagery of the battle.

The basic system for TITM evolved back in 1988-89. At that time the state of the art in AH impulse games was THUNDER AT CASSINO. I actually started out to do a Bulge game based in part on the STORM OVER ARNHEM system, but after playing through a few variations on this theme it just didn't seem to be very Bulge-like, so I gave up on the idea.

After doing some additional reading on the battle, I elected to try a point to point movement system in lieu of the area movement with which I had begun. This seemed to make a lot of sense as the Bulge was characterized by disconnected skirmishes over key crossroads due to channeling and highly compartmentalized terrain of the Ardennes.The PTP map used in the DTP version of TITM was drafted in 1989. The OB was more or less finalized a year or two later, but the rules remained little more than a rough outline until early 1994.

Once the game really jelled in the spring of 1994 I began to feel that the system was pretty neat and perhaps I should share it with other gamers. I worked hard on polishing the rules and adjusting play balance so I could take a prototype to Origins in San Jose, CA that summer.

In terms of TITM reflecting my design philosophy, the game is very low complexity, and over the past 3 years most adjustments I have made to the game have resulted in less complexity and more streamlining of the system. I really believe that every game has a certain essence or core central to itself. Stripping away unnecessary embellishments in order to make that core more accessible to the players is what I have tried to do with the TITM system.

CosiWorld: What has the internet medium meant to you as a designer in helping develop and promote this title?

Freeman: Realistically, prior to the net, DTP efforts were very difficult to market. You might could sell some copies at the big conventions, but retail outlets were pretty much the only medium for sales, with the possible exception of orders through ads in magazines. Through the internet, there are many venues for the dissemination of gaming information...discussion groups and web pages being the primary outlets. The internet has really gotten the hobby reconnected in a way where gamers anywhere there is electricity and a phone line can tap into information and find opponents. It's really amazing the changes in the hobby this has enabled. I'll never lack for suitable opponents again which I could not say in many places (all cities) I have lived. And I can find out much more about a game through the net than I ever could reading the box or asking someone in a store or a local gaming club.

PBEM is a great way to play if you can't find opponents in your area or if you only have small chunks of time available for gaming. It's much more interactive than PBM and places less constraints on systems that require a lot of player interaction. For designers, it's obviously easier to find decent playtesters and get feedback on problems quickly. For game collectors or those trying to acquire an out of print game, the opportunities to find what you are looking for are much expanded thanks to the net. I also think the net has and will continue to raise the level of play in many games as well. Five years ago there were maybe four or five players who had realistic chances to win the VITP tournament at Avaloncon. I'd say that number has nearly tripled as of March 1999.

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Copyright © 1999-2002. ConsimWorld.COM. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited. Web Masters are encouraged to link directly to this page, this URL is not subject to change. For general site information: kranz@consimworld.com

Headline News | Archives | New Products
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Copyright © 1999-2002. ConsimWorld.COM. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited. Web Masters are encouraged to link directly to this page, this URL is not subject to change. For general site information: kranz@consimworld.com

Headline News | Archives | New Products
Game Ratings | Clubs | Events | Discussion Board

Copyright © 1999, 2000 ConsimWorld.COM. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited. Web Masters are encouraged to link directly to this page, this URL is not subject to change. For general site information: kranz@consimworld.com