Enduring Play Season 1 Episode 8: The Methodical Magic of Systems Design
Episode Summary
In today’s episode, we demystify another specialty within the game design discipline: systems design. Joe Magdalena is better known as “joemag” (lowercase j) to many of his followers, or “joemag3d” to the maker communities that follow his 3D printing hobby work. But during the day, joemag serves as a systems designer with experience on world-renowned titles like Hearthstone and Teamfight Tactics, designing unique game mechanics while wielding the powers of math and communication using a deep foundation in competitive analysis to strike a balance between exponential and logarithmic curves in a quest for fun and engagement. Our conversation covers the basics, like exploring the definitions of live operations, campaign design, and the differences between content and systems design, before getting into best practices like player perception of value, new player experiences, and progression design. As always, there’s plenty of context provided to folks for whom these will be introductory concepts.
For readers of Cheryl Platz’s new book The Game Development Strategy Guide, this episode is a particularly good complement for the topics covered in Chapter 2 The Living Business of Games, with discussion of business models and how they should – or should not – impact game design – in addition to Chapter 3, Putting the Dev in Game Development; Chapter 4, Game Designer’s Toolkit; and Chapter 7: Engaging Players Over Time.
Listen Now
Episode Transcript [PDF]
Featured in this Episode
Joe “joemag” Magdalena: Senior Systems Designer at Redux Games and Content Creator
Joe “joemag” Magdalena is a self-described enthusiastic game developer with over 18 years of experience in the video game industry. He specializes in prototyping and bootstrapping systems and small games, with a passion for building things fast and breaking things fast. In the gaming world, joemag is best known for his 14 years at Blizzard working on experiences like Hearthstone; he worked his way up from Senior QA Analyst to a role on the Hearthstone Live Content team and was responsible for delivering many popular Tavern Brawls to players. Joemag also spent 2 years working on systems design for the Marvel: World of Heroes project at Niantic before moving to Riot Games and doing systems design for the Monsters Attack and Remix Rumble sets on Teamfight Tactics. Joe is currently a Senior Designer at Redux Games.
Joemag considers himself a lifelong learner and is always trying to expand his skillset and stay on top of the latest technology. He has experience developing with Unity, Unreal and first-party game engines. He also enjoys creating things in Blender3D as well as toolsuites for 3D printing, and has amassed a significant following on multiple social media networks for his maker work.
Show Notes
Episode Links
| Joemag’s games | Hearthstone (official site) Teamfight Tactics (official site) |
| Joemag’s contributions to his games | joemag on the Hearthstone Fandom Page Blizzard Developer Insights with Joseph Magdalena Tavern Brawl Retrospective with Hearthstone Associate Game Designer Joe “joemag” Magdalena Leaves the Hearthstone Team Joe on a panel at the TFT Vegas Open (photo) |
| The art of rising strong after failure | Brene Brown – Rising Strong Design Beyond Devices (Cheryl’s first book; covers opti-pessimism) |
| Motivators of Play: Mastery | Sample chapter from The Game Development Strategy Guide |
| The Spectrum of Game Monetization | Illustration from The Game Development Strategy Guide |
| Joemag on social media | joemag on Bluesky joemag on LinkedIn |
| Joemag’s maker persona on social media | joemag3D on Instagram joemag3D on Tiktok joemag3D on YouTube |
| Joemag’s website | joemag.games |
Episode Outline
| Scene | Time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Podcast Start | 2:08 | Introductions |
| Narrative Cutscene | 3:46 | Blizzard and Hearthstone |
| Level 1 | 5:24 | Live operations for video games |
| Tutorial Level | 7:03 | Defining live-service games |
| Level 2 | 7:44 | Systems design vs Content design |
| Level 3 | 10:27 | The magic of tuning curves |
| Level 4 | 14:35 | The importance of inspiration |
| Level 5 | 15:58 | Failure as a learning tool |
| Host Commentary | 17:21 | Rising strong from failure |
| Level 6 | 19:08 | The unifying force of fun and friendship in game dev |
| Tutorial Level | 20:34 | Product Engagement and Monetization Glossary |
| Level 7 | 22:20 | Monetization and game design |
| Host Commentary | 24:08 | Spectrum of Video Game Monetization |
| Level 8 | 25:21 | Player perception of value |
| Level 9 | 26:40 | Transparency and humility in player communications |
| Host Commentary | 29:01 | Reviewing mastery and emergence |
| Level 10 | 29:51 | Emergent Gameplay |
| Host Commentary | 35:16 | Introducing live-service campaigns |
| Level 11 | 36:13 | The importance of new player experiences and transition traps |
| Host Commentary | 41:00 | The relationship between game engines and tools |
| Level 12 | 42:01 | Tools of the trade |
| Level 13 | 46:11 | Design communication strategies |
| Host Commentary | 48:43 | Goals as a design prerequisite |
| Level 14 | 49:26 | Designing and delivering game mechanics |
| Narrative Cutscene | 51:32 | Teamfight Tactics |
| Level 15 | 52:13 | Using audio as a gameplay system |
| Level 16 | 55:22 | Best Practices for progression systems design |
| Boss Level | 56:30 | Sustainable teams |
| Final Level | 57:27 | Links and follow up |
The Game Development Strategy Guide
Joseph “joemag” Magdalena is featured as Player 11 in Cheryl Platz’s new book, The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games that Thrive. Released on September 16, 2025, the book is available from booksellers worldwide.
Use code ENDURINGPLAYS1 at RosenfeldMedia.com to get 15% off your order – and all physical orders at Rosenfeld Media receive a free ebook. Podcast Season 1 discount offer expires November 30, 2025.
DISCOUNT CODE
ENDURINGPLAYS1
