Thomas Liesching

Games I would take with me to a remote island:

Canasta-Blatt (to cover all card games)
Bluff (representative for many dice games)
Activity
Ein solches Ding
Dschamál (to play an endless amount of games with the game pieces)

How I get ideas for games:

Oftentimes through the material characteristics of certain items, e.g. at the building center or in my huge collection of "creative waste". Then, I try to focus the idea in the most innovative way.

Once I dreamed almost the complete design of a game. In general, the waking-up phase is my most innovative time during which the question marks in my design dead end roads are being solved.

I also enjoy finding a suitable game mechanism for a fascinating theme, like in "Niagara".

The classical way of deriving new mechanism ideas from already exisitng ones always works for me as well.

I like playing and I'm a game author, because:

...I like to communicate with other people, preferably with different generations. I enjoy the spontaneous communication surprises the most.

While developing new game ideas, I always try to imagine if the game is fun for the entire family, not only for the children or only for the adults.

For me it is both, work and enjoyment, to playtest games in kindergardens, schools or with families.

This was my first game:

Thinking of the first games that fascinated me, various dice puzzles come to my mind featuring 6 different fairytale images.

At the age of 7 I already learned how to play "Canasta" which remained our "family game" for a long time. I played "Monopoly" with my friends for hours, of course, and from the age of 15 on we enjoyed "Skat".

Games

• 2004 Niagara
• 2005 Dschamál
• 2006 Flussgeister am Niagara