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What Makes Games Deep? A Conversation About Complexity, Luck, and Skill with Jon Perry

April 22, 2026 · 1 h 18 min

Show notes

Episode 262- Depth, Complexity, and Luck

Game designer Jon Perry returns to Decision Space to participate in a discussion about what makes games deep. Are heavy games deeper than light games? Can games with a high luck factor also reward skilled play? Why is there a heavy game bias on BGG?

Check out some of Jon's games: Air Land and Sea, Hot Streak, Spots, and more!

Brendan was inspired after this episode to write an article about game depth. Read it here: https://www.decisionspacepodcast.com/articles/going-deep-on-depth-in-games

Timestamps

2:15- game depth and complexity
41:15- high luck, high skill games

Preplanners

The next two weeks will be the annual countdown of our top 10 games of all time!

Music and Sound Credits

Thank you to Hembree for our intro and outro music from their song Reach Out. You can listen to the full song on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQuuRPfOyMw&list=TLGGFNH7VEDPgwgyNTA4MjAyMQ&t=3s

You can find more information about Hembree at https://www.hembreemusic.com/.

Thank you to Flash Floods for use of their song Palm of Your Hand as a sting from their album Halfway to Anywhere: https://open.spotify.com/album/2fE6LrqzNDKPYWyS5evh3K?si=CCjdAGmeSnOOEui6aV3_nA


Intermission Music:
music elevator ext part 1/3 by Jay_You -- https://freesound.org/s/467243/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Bell with Crows by MKzing -- https://freesound.org/s/474266/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

hammer v2.wav by blukotek -- https://freesound.org/s/337815/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Contact

Follow and reach us on social media on Bluesky @decisionspace.bsky.social.

If you prefer email, then hit us up at [email protected].

This information is all available along with episodes at our new website decisionspacepodcast.com.

Byeee!

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