Featured Designer: Rory Muldoon
Rory Muldoon is a multifaceted designer, specializing in game design and graphic design. He is based in Oxfordshire, England and releases games with Matthew Dunstan as Postmark Games.
Hi Rory, thanks for being on Toylike. We love to feature designers who are creating fun in new and innovative ways.
Tell us about your approach to game design and how it has been affected by your experience and background as a graphic designer. What inspires you (including outside of the game industry)?
Hey Tom, thanks for having me. As a kid I used to make video games using a bit of software called The Games Factory. Back then I didn't know much about graphic design but I was always interested in how stuff was presented. After getting a degree in games art & design I ended up working as a graphic designer at a branding agency. This shift of attention is what led me to thinking about games in more of a product-focussed way. I went freelance in 2017 and started making games again not long after. My process when designing games is to work on the visuals alongside working on the rules. The interface of board games is so important to how they play, and as much as possible I want the look and the mechanisms to inform each other.
In terms of inspiration, I love the early work of The Designers Republic. I guess it's a bit of a cliche, but their work on the first Wipeout titles really showed me that graphic design could have a prominent role in the way a game looks.
Postmark releases print-and-play games. What drew you to this format? Do you see yourself sticking with it? Why?
Matthew Dunstan and I set up Postmark Games in late 2021. Matt is a fantastic designer who was already at the top of his game but I was still finding my feet in the industry. I suppose the move to make print and play games was driven by a desire to have more control over not only the way a game looks, but also the way it gets to the player. I've always loved video games and board games, and print and plays feel like something in between the two. You can discover a print at home game online, and be playing it within a few minutes. That sort of immediacy permeates through everything Postmark does. Our games are all supported with on going content, and we generally make stuff that you can play straight off the printer (or even without printing at all). There's other things we'd like to do with Postmark, but print at home gaming is going to remain our focus.
What is on the horizon for you as a designer that you are most excited about?
We've been experimenting with playing card driven games and I'm really fired up by the idea of using a standard 52 card deck as both an impetus for mechanics and aesthetics. I also really get a kick out of working within the confines of a single A4 / Letter page, and as we get more creative with our game design, the puzzle of how to represent those mechanisms in a fixed space gets more and more interesting.
If you want to keep up with Rory's work, you can follow him on Bluesky (@rorymuldoon.bsky.social) or follow Postmark Games on Instagram (@postmark_games)