The Tao of Gaming

You can see Matt Leacock's talk to Google (about Pandemic) on YouTube.

There are several good ideas listed there, particularly 'flow' and 'embodying the players.' (I've heard the ideas before, but never really had a good terminology). He also discusses how he dealt with the known issues of cooperative games.

(The fact that Google puts their technical talks online? Glorious).

Also, by sticking around through the Q&A, it sounds like Matt's dice game has been picked up and will be out later this year.

[H/T -- Aldie].

[Full Disclosure — I've met Matt.]