I had a chance to interview Jon Simantov, designer of Liberation and Vamp on the Batwalk, among other games.
What’s your earliest memory of playing a card game?
My earliest memory is probably playing War with my older sister. I’m not sure how old I was but it was definitely exciting. Eventually she taught me how to play Spit, and I was hooked.
What’s the first dedicated-deck card game you fell in love with?
Android: Netrunner is truly the card game I love the most. The theme, the asymmetry, the bluffing and mind games. I love a game where most of the game play happens between the players rather than between the cards. I’ve been keeping up with it a bit here and there since it was discontinued (shoutout to Null Signal Games), and it’s still great.
What was the first card game you ever designed, and what did it teach you about the design process?
Actually, the first card game I designed was Liberation! I used to work in video games (for over a decade), and I missed the creativity of that kind of work, so when I saw Button Shy’s game design contest way back when, I decided to give it a try.
Tell us a little about the design journeys for Liberation and Vamp on the Batwalk.
For Liberation, I started with the premise that everyone uses to describe the game: Star Wars Rebellion in 18 cards. I love Rebellion but could never get it to the table, and I thought of making a map out of 4 cards and using the other 14 for the planets (originally it was 14 connected planets, rather than 14 connected cities on a few planets). As a lover of Netrunner, I wanted to make something very asymmetric, so I came up with separate missions and goals for each side.
My first few playtests showed me that there was definitely something there, so I refined it a bit and submitted it to Button Shy! When they offered to publish it, they wanted to change it from planets to cities so it wouldn’t be too similar to their other game Universal Rule, which was fine by me—I was just excited my first game would get made!
For Vamp on the Batwalk, the game started when I noticed that the cards in a different game (not trick-taking) had numbers on the front and the colors on the back, and I had some friends get together and play a really simple trick-taking game with the cards facing out to see how it felt. The original version was a little more complicated, as you could earn garlic tokens that would allow you to look at your own cards.
I was brainstorming themes and came up with a vampire fashion show where you can’t see how you look (hence the backwards cards). My wife Amy suggested making the suits different styles of vampires, and I reached out to my friend Mike Rankin, who I had worked with back in my video game days, to see if he could sketch a few characters for the prototype. Mike also came up with “Vamp” as part of the title, which was just fantastic. I had a few copies printed via Print & Play and showed it around at BGGcon and a couple other places, but that was before the recent trick-taking renaissance, so publishers weren’t very interested.
I saw on BGG that Cody Thompson was starting a publishing company and soliciting game submissions, so I sent a printable PDF of the game, and he loved it. He took his time developing the game, simplifying it and adding some great moments of drama with the rock-paper-scissors and stealing-the-show mechanisms. I had also asked Cody if he could pay Mike a bit for the prototype artwork he had done, and he did one better, hiring Mike to make the art for the full game. Mike did such a fantastic job that I hired him again to do the art for my self-published game Draught Trick last year, and he again was wonderful.
What surprised you the most about working with game publishers?
I was surprised at how long it takes for games to come out, from submission and signing to release. Especially with Vamp, there was so much development work that happened that it took years for it to release. (I’m very grateful for that time, though, since it made the game so much better!)
If there was one thing you wish you’d known sooner about game design, what is it?
Playtest, playtest, playtest. I’m currently working on a solo expansion for Liberation which is easy to playtest since it doesn’t require any other players, but otherwise if you have friends that are willing to playtest your half-baked game ideas, treat them like gold. And don’t be afraid to playtest something broken, you never know what good things can come out of it.
What other advice do you have for card-game designers?
A lot of people ask, what comes first, mechanisms or theme? In most of the games I’ve designed, they more or less emerged at the same time. One little kernel of mechanism can point you in the direction of a theme, which can point you back towards more mechanism, etc. I don’t think it always works that way, but it feels great when that happens.
Where can readers learn more about you and your games?
Liberation is published by Button Shy Games. Vamp on the Batwalk is published by Jellyfish Games. Draught Trick is self-published, and was available at a few indie game markets in 2024. You can sign up to be notified when it will be generally available here. And here’s my Bluesky profile.
Photo credit: © 2021 Jelly Fish Game Studios.
