A Chat with Jamey Stegmaier - Designer of Vantage Board Game

I recently reviewed Vantage, and loved it. If you want to read my how to play and full review, check that out here.

Here, we sit down with the designer of this game, Jamey Stegmaier, and ask him about the game.

Thanks for talking to us, Jamey. I am loving the game so far. There’s been a lot of buzz and positive chatter about Vantage already. From your perspective, what’s the global reaction been like? Anything that’s surprised or delighted you since launch?

I've been working on Vantage for 8 years in the hopes that it would someday be a game that brings a sense of joy and wonder to at least some tabletops around the world. So it's really been incredibly fulfilling to the game connecting with people through their stories, photos, and curiosity over the last few weeks.

That's great to hear. I have seen a lot of that myself on the Vantage Facebook group, which is a lot of fun to be a part of. After 8 years, a project this big inevitably changes along the way. Are you happy with where it landed? Did anything turn out even better than you hoped?

The luxury of that time is that I was able to include everything I could possibly imagine (and learn from other games and worlds) in Vantage, so I would say it far surpasses my original vision for the game, the concept for which was primarily about finding the other players.

It certainly has moved on from that! Roughly how many games would it take to see everything?

I know the whole point is that each game is unique and replayable, but for the curious completionist out there, is there a rough idea of how many playthroughs it would take to see all the locations, secrets, missions, and content?

I think if you play Vantage a few dozen times, you'll have seen all the different categories of things in the world. But within each category are often 6, 12, 24, or 30+ different types of cards (depending on the category). You can go wide in Vantage or you can go deep. And there are layers of discoveries and spoilers. Some things are incredibly difficult to find. I honestly don't know if anyone will ever see everything in Vantage, and I wouldn't say it's my goal for someone to try (that's why I didn't include a checklist of things in the game). It's about your journey and how you find the fun in the world.. My job was just to keep the discovery, exploration, and gameplay fresh over many dozens of plays.

Well, you achieved that! You said there wouldn't be expansions for Vantage, but honestly, it’s all I want after playing, just more. More cards, more missions, more mysteries! You’ve said you want to leave Vantage complete and self-contained, but is that truly final? Is there any chance we might see a follow-up adventure someday?

I appreciate your desire for more Vantage, and the good news is that there's still so much more for you to find in the game as it exists! :) Vantage really is complete. I already put everything into the game (plus, the interconnected nature of the cards and storybooks doesn't make expansions feasible). For those who feel similarly, you can think about it like this: Vantage is a game where all 15 expansions are already seamlessly included in core box.

As for a follow-up, most likely not. After spending 8 years on this game, I'm really just trying to enjoy the moment. In general, I try to design games I haven't designed before, so I don't have plans to make another open-world game.

That's an annoyingly good answer, as I just want more! Would you consider another open-world design in future? And what did working on an open-world board game teach you? Are there elements from this experience you’d like to carry forward? And what other genres or formats are calling your name next?

I learned that when a game has no limits, I sometimes need to set my own constraints. I also learned that it isn't fun to fail a skill test in an adventure game. There can be stakes in a game even when you always succeed (as is the case in Vantage). I really like the action system in Vantage, and I could see myself using it (or some version of it) in a future game.

I've been working on a few games on and off for a while: some sort of follow up to Red Rising, my contribution to the Smoking Bones series (a collaboration with Andrew Bosley) and a nature-themed game. Also, while Vantage gave me a playground to experiment with two of my favourite fictional genres, heists and time travel/time loop; I'm still hoping to design a game with those themes someday.

Exciting! Well, as always, I wait with bated breath to see what you do next. Thank you for your time, and for Vantage. It truly is a wonderful world, and I cannot wait to get back to it. It's set up on my table now. It has been for three weeks! And I don't see it coming down for a while!