A dinner with Gavin Verhey - Magic Principal Game Designer
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First off, welcome to Melbourne.
Thanks to the local Wizards team for inviting me out. I'm looking forward to showing off the Caverns of Ixalan set at the pre-release event, and talking more about the Summer of Magic - which makes much more sense down here. I love that I get to spend some time in the warmer weather.
Let's get straight into the questions shall we?
What have been the favourite sets that you have designed?
Three favourite sets of mine are:
Commander Legends – It took around 6 years start to finish, and was my original concept, so I’m very proud of this one.
Mystery Booster – because I got to do whatever I wanted with the hand drawn playtest cards!
Doctor Who – Because it’s my favourite show and I got to work on it! Really a dream.
As Principal Game Designer, what aspects of a new set do you have control over?
It is the lore, the mechanics, the artwork?
My job is focused on the card mechanics: so, mana cost, rules text, power and toughness, and so on. That said, I certainly work closely with our Creative teams. I find things are at their best when we’re all working together! And also, with Universes Beyond, there’s a bit more of the lore and artwork on my end as well – if I decide we should make a card for Rose Tyler, then that means the creative team is going to execute on that. (Unless they object, for some reason, in which case we’ll talk about it.)
With sets such as The Lost Caverns of Ixalan and its Jurassic Park themed cards, are you given certain criteria of what you can and can't include (specifically around copyright).
We work really closely with our partners to make sure that what we're doing meets their vision. Different partners have different things that are important to them, so we talk and make sure we’re creating the best thing we can for both of us!
When designing new mechanics, how important is it to get the wording correct so that the mechanics are interpreted as designed?
Quite important! Magic is a pretty precise game, and all of our pieces from the past 30 years have to interact with one another. Fortunately, we have an incredible Rules and Editing team that looks at all the cards to make sure they’re at their best.
How much internal (and beta testing) goes on before a set is finalised? How long is the process of developing a new set to the time it is released?
Usually around 3 and a half years, but it depends on the set – especially for universes beyond, it can take even longer!
How much testing goes into the new mechanics and how they interact with existing mechanics and sets?
So much! We spend a huge amount of our focus playtesting our sets day in and day out, whilst keeping in mind Magic's whole history. It's difficult to quantify in an amount of time, but it's a primary focus of our day-to-day jobs.
How do you balance the introduction of new mechanics and rules to ensure Magic remains simple enough for newbies to get started whilst keeping existing players entertained?
This is quite tricky, and definitely an area we're always focused on. You need Magic sets to be novel and appealing enough to people who have been playing for ages, while also friendly to fresh faces to the game. Two big tools for this in our toolbelt are both rarity – simpler commons means the average opening a pack doesn't have a ton of overwhelming cards – and also when making Commander pre-cons, having a variety of different skill levels for them - so no matter who you are there's something for you. But this is something we work on, and think about a lot, from the micro individual card level basis, all the way to the macro Magic as a whole basis.
There have been less Planeswalkers in recent releases. Is that a design choice? What are the thoughts around that design?
Yes, it is an active choice! Starting with Wilds of Eldraine, one planeswalker is the norm – though not saying we can't deviate away from that if needed. You know, when planeswalkers started all the way back in Lorwyn they were new and special and people hadn't seen anything like them before. We've designed hundreds by this point, and they're quite hard to get right – and we were doing so many that a lot of them ended up looking similar, and they had lost a bit of their shine. We really were able to get one planeswalker per set to really shine at its best – so we figured why not pull back to one per set, and make it really something unique and special that we put our time into? That's not the only reason, and if you've been following the Magic story, you'll know there's also good reason for the reduction of planeswalkers around. But it's something we're trying out for now.
I haven’t seen all the cards, but is there one that features your signature newsie cap?
Do you have any say in the artwork?
Not exactly…but yes there is.
It was at this point in the evening that Gavin showed us an image on his phone of the Problematic Volcano card that he had hand drawn. Advising us that if we look really closely, we could see that he had drawn his cap on his head as was falling down the volcano.
It was wonderful to meet with Gavin. His enthusiasm for Magic: The Gathering is definitely infectious, and it is clear to see that, despite designing sets for more than ten years, he still loves the design process.
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