arts
Hosted by Hannah Shaffer and Evan Rowland · arts · EN
Come along with Hannah and Evan in a living documentation of the game design process, from the first spark of an idea, to every disastrous surprise. It’s not an instruction manual, but a travel guide, with lots of unexpected stops along the way.
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Contact path
Verified email
Booking probability
35%
Guest openness
Selective
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Signup to Generate a PitchCome along with Hannah and Evan in a living documentation of the game design process, from the first spark of an idea, to every disastrous surprise. It’s not an instruction manual, but a travel guide, with lots of unexpected stops along the way.
Design Doc is hosted by Hannah Shaffer and Evan Rowland. The show has published 128 episodes to date.
Recent episodes include "Where the Rules Go" (21 October 2026, 54 minutes), "Imperfect Inspiration (Re-Air)" (23 September 2026, 57 minutes), and "The Tyranny of Dice" (9 September 2026, 56 minutes).
Design Doc publishes roughly every two weeks, with episodes averaging 47 minutes across 128 episodes.
Booking probability for Design Doc is 35%, and the host is rated Selective on guests. Design Doc requires a Pod Score of 80 or higher. Design Doc's contact route on record: verified email.
The strongest fits for Design Doc are IT Services & Software Development. Design Doc has an arts audience.
Hannah Shaffer and Evan Rowland hosts Design Doc, an arts podcast with 128 episodes published.
Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.
Episode #123
Game design isn’t just about making good rules—it’s about making them in the right place. In our latest dungeon-delving RPG, we’ve tried to keep the fighting simple and instead focus on the game’s main themes: envy...
Episode #121
It would seem like creative inspiration should come from favorite films, classic works of art, and the world’s best novels. But sometimes, it can be hard to draw inspiration from perfect, untouchable things. In this...
Design Doc
What do the sequences (3-4-5-6), (5-2-5-2), and (1-1-1-1) have in common? They’re all random dice rolls! Sometimes randomness seems random, but more often than you’d expect, it looks like an obvious pattern. When...
Episode #119
Hannah and Evan tackle the question of reprinting versus redesigning an older game, Noirlandia. It’s a game that still sells well after all these years, but there are many tempting improvements to make. Where’s the line...
Design Doc
Hannah sits down with rules editor and game designer Josh Yearsley (Root, Arcs) for a conversation about public playtesting. After more than a decade of editing rulebooks, Josh has developed a keen eye and intuition for...
Design Doc
We're taking a short break to focus on finishing a game. See you back soon! Links Turtlebun Discord: https://discord.gg/ajP36nzPb2 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/turtlebun Website:...
Design Doc
Evan and Hannah talk about two separate playtests—Evan’s playtest of the near-complete Escape from Wonderland, and Hannah’s playtest of the just-begun Seekers of the Thrice-Lost Crown. Both games went well, but...
Design Doc
Hannah and Evan sit down for a rapid design session for Escape from Wonderland. In 30 minutes, they design an entirely new snow-themed park zone, complete with a gun-wielding Santa. Turtlebun Links Discord:...
Design Doc
While Evan's away, Hannah reflects on the announcement that Hampshire College, an unconventional school founded in the 1970s, is closing its doors. It was flawed, idealistic, and not always what was promised. But it was...
Design Doc
We've always struggled to juggle multiple projects at a time. Right now, finishing the design on Escape from Wonderland is the top priority. But we don't want to set aside every other game and dream. What would it take...
Design Doc
How many generations does it take to get into a canoe-making class? In this episode we go on a quest to redesign a queue system for a local craft school and quickly find that you cannot make a perfect queue without...
Design Doc
A discussion about how to design a liminal zone in a TTRPG leaves us trapped in an in-between place. Episode mentions: r/backrooms House of Leaves (2000 - Horror novel by Mark Z. Danielewski) The Last Unicorn (1982...
Design Doc
In this episode, we talk fatigue. Is fatigue something to conquer, or is it a warning sign on the way to a physical and emotional crash? Evan is tired, but we’ve got strategies! After years of learning what the burnout...
Design Doc
Game design questions can be longer and more complex than their answers. In this episode, we initially set out to do a live-design session tackling an issue from our latest playtest, but discovered that describing the...
Design Doc
Who designs the game? Is it the players, who make decisions in real time at the table? The GM, who’s at the ready to suggest ideas or dole out consequences? Or the designers, who… well… make the game? In this episode...
Design Doc
Hannah watched 51 movies in 2025. Not all of them were helpful for game design, but there was inspiration to be found everywhere—in the form of left-behind robots, edgy existential planets, sci-fi noir, and Mother...
Design Doc
Sometimes a design problem can't be solved in any straightforward way. You need an epiphany! That can't be forced, but it can be encouraged. Hannah and Evan talk about the epiphanies that shaped their previous games and...
Design Doc
As the year draws to a close we talk about New Year's resolutions. Hannah makes them every year, Evan does not. Hannah shares her elaborate system for setting goals of masteries, experiences, and skills. And together...
Design Doc
Conventions are an opportunity for us to get our games in front of a bigger audience, and PAX Unplugged is our biggest show. The stakes feel high, and we have to balance our ambitious goals with practical preparations...
Design Doc
Just a quick announcement that we'll be skipping a release cycle for the Thanksgiving holiday. See you back in two weeks with a new episode! In the meantime you might consider: Joining the Turtlebun Discord...
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Dutch National Ballet
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