Inside Brenda Romero's Philosophy — Build Until You Are Respected, Not Just Liked

Introduction — What does the maker of Train care about?

Brenda Romero is a game designer best known for the board game Train. This piece reads the person, not the work, through her own words. In short, her talk keeps returning to one point: do not cut corners, and decide every detail.

Why a puzzle site? Because she treats the way rules are assembled as meaning in itself. In Train, a plain task — packing cargo efficiently — confronts the player with a heavy question. It is a case where the mechanism is the argument.

Background — Moving between board games and digital games

Romero has worked on computer games such as Wizardry 6, and later made analog art pieces such as Train. A 2014 Game Developer article mentions that she was mentored by David Bradley on Wizardry 6 (Game Developer 2014).

Her speaking page lists GDC, TEDx Phoenix (November 2011) and several talks about Train (her speaking page). From that list, she reads as someone who has spoken in both digital and tabletop worlds.

Philosophy — It costs what it costs

In a Game Developer report on her October 2013 IndieCade talk, she says good game design "costs what it costs and it takes the time that it takes" (Game Developer 2013). It is a clear rebuttal of maximizing efficiency.

In the same article she says she obsessed over every decision and, when she did not know the answer to a problem, waited until she did. She adds, "Care more about being respected than liked" — the gist being that nobody excuses a bad game because its maker was nice.

In 2014 she is reported to have said, "No one ever grows up aspiring to work on a mediocre game" (Game Developer 2014). What stands out is that quality is argued as a matter of work, not of personality.

Obsessions — Controlling the player's experience down to the detail

In the 2014 article she is reported to have said, "The second my player comes into my environment I want it perfectly controlled, and I want them to have an amazing experience" (Game Developer 2014).

That stance seems to show in Train's physical build. Emily Short's 2009 post notes that parts such as broken glass and a typewriter marked with an SS emblem signal that this is not an ordinary game (Emily Short 2009). That is Short's observation, not Romero's own explanation.

Train — When the mechanism becomes the argument

Train is a board game in which players pack yellow pawns into boxcars as efficiently as they can. The Strong National Museum of Play's blog describes the structure: players later learn the trains are bound for concentration camps (Strong Museum of Play 2013). According to Emily Short, the destination is revealed through destination cards (Emily Short 2009).

Eric Thurm's 2019 article notes that the rules are deliberately incomplete, so players decide procedures themselves. Some cried at the end, some were angry at being tricked, and some resisted the narrative by hiding pawns under the train (Jewish Currents 2019). The piece says the game belongs to the series The Mechanic Is the Message, and that its subject is complicity.

Short also asks whether something whose chief gimmick is to make you not want to play is really a game. I could not find Romero's reply in the sources I read. I record only the fact that opinion was divided.

Failures — What a failed Kickstarter taught her

According to the 2014 article, she named a failed Kickstarter among the best things that ever happened to her: "I didn't lose my game developer card, and I got some much-needed humility" (Game Developer 2014).

A perfectionist describes a failure as something gained. That is as far as this article goes. Which project it was, and how it unfolded, is not in the sources I read, so I leave it out.

Dilemmas — The ideal versus shipping

The GDC Vault description of her 2014 talk "Jiro Dreams of Game Design" says that every passionate developer has at least one moment of wanting greatness, and frames the talk around an industry where shipping often forces compromise (GDC Vault 2014).

The 2014 article also reports her saying, "I often feel like a pawn on a board of kings and queens" (Game Developer 2014). The tension between a drive for quality and one's place inside an organization is confirmed in her own words.

Influences — A sushi master and a chef

According to the 2014 article, two big influences were chef Christopher Kostow's carefully plated asparagus and the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi (Game Developer 2014). The 2013 article also mentions Jiro Ono's perfectionism and the tradition of apprenticeship (Game Developer 2013).

The same article points out that game development lacks the systematic mentorship found in the culinary world. That her influences are craftspeople rather than other games is, one could say, what marks her out.

Kizuki's reading

What follows is my interpretation. Romero seems to hold "make it perfectly" and "give the mechanism meaning" as two sides of one stance. Train uses a simple action, packing cargo. Precisely for that reason, any slip in detail would turn the argument into mere bad taste.

I think this also holds for puzzle design: the smaller the mechanism, the more a single detail decides the whole meaning. She does not present this as puzzle-design theory herself. It is only my reading.

Closing — Where to start

As an entry point, read the 2013 and 2014 Game Developer articles first. They are short and carry the core of her thinking. Then move on to Emily Short's and Eric Thurm's writing about Train, where you can see how opinion split.

For related figures on this site, our pieces on Jonathan Blow and Alex Beachum are close in spirit.

Sources

Sources consulted:

・GDC 2014: Jiro Dreams of Game Design (her talk, session page)

・Game Developer, October 2013 (report on her IndieCade talk)

・Game Developer, March 2014 (report on her GDC talk)

・The Strong National Museum of Play blog, June 2013

・Emily Short, "Train", 2009-12-07

・Eric Thurm, "Just Playing Along", Jewish Currents, 2019-10-07

・Her speaking page