A chat with Eric Lang

 

31 Jan 2026. Eric Lang (Blood Rage, Rising Sun, Ankh, Chaos in the Old World) was in town. He has been staying in Malaysia on and off for many years, and is now planning to spend more time living in Kuala Lumpur. He wants to get to know the local designer community and the local boardgame community. Aaron arranged two meet-up sessions for game designers and other industry players to get to know Eric. I almost couldn't make it due to prior appointments, but luckily one of them was rescheduled and I made it to the session at BGC Space. 

This was an inspiring and insightful session. Eric shared some of his experiences being in the industry for so many years, and also his perspectives on the boardgame scene in Malaysia, Singapore and Asia. He had decided he wanted to become a game designer from very early on, and had been highly committed to make this work. Here are some of my takeaways from the session: 

1. Be clear about what you want to be. What kind of role do you want to play in the boardgame industry? Do you want to be doing this as your life career? Choose one clear role you want to be good at. What kind of games do you want to make? How does a day in your life look like in 5 years? Envision what you want to be in 5 years, and don't let limiting thoughts stop you from moving towards it. 
2. If you want to pitch to a publisher, look at the games they have been publishing for the past 3 years and pitch the right games to them. Know their standards and meet them before you pitch. 
3. Always hold yourself to high standards and to international standards. Surround yourself with people with that level of standard. 
4. Game designers who are gamers often overestimate the appetite of the general public for complexity in games. Machi Koro is too complex. 
5. If you want to make a mass market game, the back of the box should have 3 bullet points that describe and sell the game, but not teach the game. 
6. Monopoly Deal is a great gateway game to convert non-gamers, more so than Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne. 
7. If you run a boardgame cafe or boardgame store targeting non-gamers, make sure you have chess, Scrabble and Monopoly in your shop window. 
8. For an industry to grow, say the Malaysian boardgame market, you need multiple people who are good at different specific things. E.g. game designers, game retailers, game distributors, game reviewers, event organisers, marketeers, content creators. These people need to be very good at what they do. Don't try to do everything, because you will likely burn out. What Eric has observed in Malaysia is we local publishers are generalists who do the whole spectrum of stuff, which might not be healthy. 

One thing we discussed was bringing people into the hobby. This is something Malaysia needs to do. Boardgames is still too niche a hobby, and the market is tiny. But that also means the potential for growth is big. 

Eric is enthusiastic and energetic, and keen to help the Malaysian boardgame scene. It is great to be able to learn from him. I look forward to more opportunities to meet and learn from him when he settles down in KL.