Interview with Jim Callahan
Designer of the Aces at Dawn game
Today we interview Jim Callahan, designer of the World War I miniature airplane wargame Aces at Dawn. Jim has also developed the
game
For the Masses, also by
Majestic Twelve Games.
Aces at Dawn is designed so that it can be played with any scale of miniature airplane. I am sure that if you get a chance to play it, you will
not be dissapointed in how easy it is to learn or play.
You can find Aces at Dawn available for downlad at
Majestic Twelve Games. You can also find it in printed format ( I believe I saw both a black and white version
and a color version at
LULU.com,
or Amazon.com.
What do you do for a living? What is your profession?
I work in the Information Technology industry as a Technical Analyst but I’d much rather design and play games all day long (well, who wouldn’t?)
How did you get started/interested in wargames/miniature wargaming? (What age? Who introduced you to it? Did you have a local group/gamestore?)
I was probably 10 years old when I was first shown the blue box d&d set by my cousin (who’s now a doctor and doesn’t game at all as far as I can tell)
We designed a 10-level dungeon. We only had one sheet of graph paper so we had to fit it all on that sheet. We tried to muddle through combat, but the concepts were a little difficult for my little brain to handle so I ended up just listening to him and pretty much doing what I was told. Funny thing about that was that I didn’t really know what a dungeon was at the time, and I thought the map was showing the rooms from the side, they were all about 5 squares “tall” and 5-8 squares “across”. We managed to walk through the place and get to the dragon at the end and slay him in just one afternoon!
I’ve since re-evaluated what a Dragon is and what it means to fight one!
I played D&D for years after that and dabbled a bit in Marvel Super Heroes in high school. I wish Heroclix had been invented about 20 years ago! Once I hit High School and realized that there were girls in the world, and, more importantly, that they didn’t want anything to do with me on account of my awe-inspiring good looks and personality (that’s a bit of sarcasm there) We hit the D&D pretty heavily. Played with a chessex mat and well-painted minis at Ed’s house. (I never did learn his last name, god rest his soul) Even went to GenCon in my eighteenth year, all by myself, the first trip away from home by myself. (Well, I took my girlfriend, see, I did have a life outside gaming)
At any rate, the next couple of years found me in love, married, and with a baby. I was also disenchanted with gaming in general. I took a semi-hiatus from gaming in general for about 10 years.
Then, a local gaming convention started up and I began helping with the planning for that. Once I saw the sorts of changes that occurred in the industry, I was hooked on minis!
What was the first wargame that you played/owned? How about your first miniatures game?
When I say I took a semi-hiatus from gaming, what I meant was I only played a few times each year. We got deeply into Johnny Reb and I thoroughly enjoyed that game. I played a little Magic: the Gathering, even bought a box of Ice Age Boosters. That’s when I realized that I didn’t really have the brains or the capital to play MtG seriously. I traded all my magic cards for a copy of The Sims and $50 to the neighbor kid and I feel like I took him to the cleaners even today.
Were you a fan of board games before switching to miniature gaming? If so, what games did you play? What was/is your favorite?
No, not really, I did play the obvious board games, monopoly and others when I was a kid, but I wasn’t a real steady boardgamer. My tastes went to the RPG. At least as a kid they did.
What got you interested in aviation games? (Had you always been a fan of aviation history, built models, or attend air shows?)
The Computer game Red Baron turned me on to WWI Aviation games. I never did like the WWII aviation era as much a WWI. I guess I always saw them as Knights in the Sky! I’d love to play in a WWI RPG and play out air-to-air combat with Aces at Dawn!
I read a bunch of stuff on the era and that changed my mind about the romance and chivalry, but I still really liked the idea that these guys were half-insane, half-rich flyboys, and at least pretended to have some kind of “code”.
Before developing this game, had you designed/developed other games before?
For the Masses was my first published game with my friend Noel Weer. http://www.mj12games.com/ftm
Before that we designed a sci-fi minis game, and began work on an RPG. I also half toyed with a car-combat game, cause I loved the Car Wars game.
Who knows what’s next!
What made you want to take on the project? What were your expectations when you started?
I had a great idea (I thought) for a card-based system where the maneuvers weren’t completely identified up front for you. I also wanted to get away from the gianormous charts and SFB-level detail I saw in Canvas Eagles and Blue Max. Now, don’t get me wrong, Blue Max was a fabulous game, I have nothing but admiration fro Phil and all the guys at GDW, especially since my wife Julie was their Art Director during their last year or so.
I just wanted a game that captured what I felt when I was flying the simulator. And I wanted it to be extensible like all the rest of the Majestic Twelve library. I wanted people to think to themselves..."What would have happened if they had figured out a way to make a DVII with a second seat and put a pair of Vickers out the back."
No specific model lines or scales, just great fun.Like all our great games!
What difficulties or challenges did you encounter during development?
I had the hardest time initially designing the movement system. I tried all sorts of ideas, and some worked better than others. I originally thought that the card deck itself would be the “fuel” but that ended up really “fiddly” so we settled on the three-card method.
What were some things that you learned during the development process?
Well, it wasn’t so much that I learned anything about the development process as much as it was that it confirmed my already-in-place understanding of the value of playtesting with people who both want to find the flaws in the system and who want to have fun.
I will definitely run through a more controlled playtesting cycle next time around.
Since the release of the game, what other projects have you worked on?
Like I said there’s been a bunch of stuff, but I’m most excited about the 15mm sci fi system we’re working on. I love the John Bear Ross minis and some of the stuff Ground Zero Games is doing is super cool.
What are your future plans? (games, add-ons, etc.)
With Aces at Dawn, I’d like to put out a campaign system that will hopefully track pilots more efficiently than just keeping track of kills. Other than that, I’d like to build two-three times as many planes as I have now, and I’d like to build up the market a lille as well. I want players to understand that we have a ton of great games at mj12 and that whatever you want to play, we either have a game already filling that void,or we’re working on one, or you could make suggestions and maybe that’s what’ll come next.
This kind of feeds into the next question a little, but I also really like meeting people who love our games. I love going to conventions to run the games and showing people that mj12 puts out games that we would play ourselves. I’ve been playing Starmada for 6 years and I’m still getting ideas for races and ship designs that I will never get to try out, just because there’s not enough time in the day to do it all.
Seriously, if you have questions about any of our games login to the forum and post them. We take very seriously the idea that the designer is not someone who works in a bubble and that the people who play our games are themselves great designers.
Do you attend any Game Conventions?
I go to as many Cons each year as I can. Then the winter is when I do my best writing work because I can’t get to many winter cons, but as soon as February comes along, I’ll be looking around for more cons to go to.
We’ve also got some ideas about how to bring our games to even more people so look forward to some awesome stuff next year as well!
Thanks for sharing with us Jim.
No, It was my pleasure!
Thanks for your responses Jim. See you at Rock-Con.
Johann