Million Dollar Script – Designer interview

Today we’ve got something special for you – an interview with Daniel Stamm, Hollywood movie director and writer, but also the designer of Million Dollar Script! Enjoy!

When did you come up with the idea for Million Dollar Script, a party card game about screenwriting? What convinced you to turn the idea into an actual game?

I’m making movies for a living. I went to film school, first for screenwriting, then for directing, and I was always fascinated with story structure. Professor Joseph Campbell wrote the book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, where he investigates what all successful stories have in common, what is the human story that we tell ourselves over and over again. It has its stages and I thought how great would it be if I could develop a kind of a machine that I could randomly input characters and it would spit out a rough story that I could then polish. The more I was looking into that, the more I thought this could be a game.

 Did the game change a lot during the development by Portal’s team? Did you like the first version more?

It did change a lot. I did not like the first version more, and if I did, I wouldn’t say it here on Portal’s channel 😉 The main thing that has changed was the Exec Persona cards. They didn’t exist at first and came from Ignacy saying he was uncomfortable playing himself as the Exec, the arbiter who decides which Pitch wins. So we invented these cards for Ignacy to hide behind and say “it’s not me! it’s this character!”. The game got also a lot shorter – from 90 minutes to 45. There was a different point system that we threw out, and additional cards that had no sense, looking back now.

 Are you a board game geek? What’s your favorite game?

I’m a board game geek because I’m German. Growing up in Germany you play games as part of the culture. The biggest game of my life is probably Dungeons & Dragons, which probably can be felt in Million Dollar Script, as it’s very role-playing inspired. I just got Pathfinder: Adventure Card Game, which I’ve played on the computer, but I thought it would be cool to have the physical version. Neuroshima Hex is one of my favorite games. And I just got Magical Kitties: Save the Day! as I’ve got a 4 years old daughter and it’s a roleplaying game for kids 5+.

During the whole process of turning your idea into an actual game, what surprised you the most? Or did it go just as you imagined?

What surprised me the most was that it took 6 years from inception to holding the game in my hand. Some of the biggest other surprises were whenever Ignacy e-mailed: First time I submitted the game to him, I’ve got a response saying “We love the game! We’ve got to publish it.” – so that was a surprise. Then the next day a follow-up email came saying “I talked to my marketing team, we’re not gonna publish the game – we can’t sell it cause it’s not our audience. Good luck with it”. Then I had a zoom call with him when he gave me his notes about my game so that I could work on it and go to another publisher, which was awesome. And then I came back to him 2 years later with a new version and again he said “We love it, we’re gonna publish it!”. Thankfully there was no follow-up this time.

Will you create more games? Or was it just a one-time thing?

I would love to create more games. I have a feeling that this one was maybe one when I could contribute something from the filmmaking side that not any other game designer could contribute, so I’m not sure if I’m gonna be able to do another game. I’m not very mathematical, so strategy games are probably out of the picture. If I do more games, I’ll probably stay in the story-telling corner of it all.

How’s your movie career going? What movie (or series) are you working on right now?

It’s going well, thanks for asking! I just shot a movie called “The Devil’s Light” for Lionsgate in Bulgaria, which hopefully will come out in early 2022. It tells a story of a young nun who is chasing a demon.

We hope you liked the interview! Would you like to play another game by Daniel? Or maybe you’ve got an idea about another movie industry star that should design a board game?