GDC 2025 Session Viewer

In this talk, Cody and Ira share best practices and pitfalls of their 10-year design and development process of Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread, including a successful crowdfunding campaign (~$1.4MM and ~10,500 backers). Arydia is an open world, campaign-based, co-operative, fantasy-themed role-playing board game. We strive to maximize Arydia's audience and differentiate it from other games on the market via increased traditional role playing opportunities and fully prepainted miniatures (with interchangeable heads!) included in every copy of the game. Cody, as designer, and Ira, as developer, discuss their roles on the project and the biggest challenges they faced (e.g. what to do when the first manufacturing plan far exceeds the desired budget). They conclude by sharing the "secret sauce" of their successful, multi-year collaboration, outlined in five clear points that any small team can replicate.

Takeaway

Attendees leave with deeper knowledge of the full design and development cycle of an open world, campaign-based board game. Cody and Ira distill their experiences into best practices to implement and pitfalls to avoid. They conclude by sharing the five elements of their successful collaboration, applicable to any small team.

Intended Audience

Anyone is welcome to attend this talk, and no prerequisite knowledge is required! Any game designer working on campaign-based, open world, role playing, and/or fantasy-themed games on small teams would particularly benefit. Any fans of Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread would also likely appreciate the anecdotes and history!