Hey all. Today I wanted to talk about the SKILL GRID for my upcoming RPG, and talk about how it interacts with playable characters. I also give an update on some of the games I’m playing. Enjoy! The FFX “Sphere Grid”, an inspiration for our Skill Grid Don’t forget: you can support my work by going to www.patreon.com/keithburgun and becoming a patron!   ..read more

Hello all and welcome to the first episode of the Bannet Bulletin! It’s still the Clockwork Game Design Podcast feed, but for awhile I’m going to do a series of shorter podcast episodes that talk about what is going on and what I’m thinking about with the RPG I’m making. This episode is an overview – what is this new game? What’s important? When can you actually play it? In future episodes, we’ll do deep dives into other aspects of the game. If you enjoy the episode, let me know – it will encourage me to take the time to make more! And as always, you can support this show and the creation of ..read more

Hey all! Today I have a new episode where I’m going to be talking about two things. First, I’m going to report on a bunch of RPGs that I’ve been playing or trying out, and give my takes. I say more about each game on the podcast, so make sure to check that out. Here are some quick bullet points, though! What I’ve been playing SCARLET NEXUS – Extremely polished, simple but fun combat. Kind of “adolescent anime” feeling story, a little silly and a little too fantastical in its basic universe for me, but seems well written. Overly smoothed out, like most modern big production videogames. Bad leve ..read more

Hi all! Today I have a nice podcast episode, all about RPGs and RPG design! I feel like I have a lot to say here, and I do dare say that I am slowly, slowly pursuing becoming some kind of crazy expert on the topic, so hopefully there’s some interesting stuff in here to think about. I’m also starting pre-pre-production on my very own RPG finally (!!), so a lot of this is very non-theoretical for me. I also talk a bit about Trails in the Sky: First Chapter which I’ve been playing a bunch on and off over the past month or so, as well as a bunch of other games. Finally, I answer a bunch of questi ..read more

Hi all! It’s been awhile since the last episode. This year I got married and went on my honeymoon, so things have been kind of crazy. But now, they’re sort of going back to normal. Over the last six months, I guess partially because I was doing a bit of traveling, but also partially because I got a Retroid handheld and a Steam Deck (both of which are phenomenal, game-changers for game-playing, for me at least), I’ve been on this crazy Final Fantasy kick. Growing up I had played (and beaten) I, IV, VI and VII, a couple times each, but I had really fallen off over the years, so I had a lot of c ..read more

Today Brett Lowey and I discuss DRAGON BRIDGE, my two player bumping card game. It’s a weird game for me, in a bunch of ways. For one thing, it was my first published tabletop game. But also, I produced it in a ridiculously short amount of time. That makes it even more… strange and interesting, how fun it is. Recently, Dragon Bridge has gotten a second chance at life via its superb BoardGameArena adaptation (by the way, it just went into Beta, so you can play it now yourself – let’s go!!!), and many of us in the KBGames community have been playing a bunch, and it has been a blast. It’s wild h ..read more

Today I bring you one of the world’s more renowned strategy videogame designers – the designer of Civilization IV, one of the most beloved in the series (probably my favorite one still), and the founder of Mohawk Games, who created Offworld Trading Company, and most recently, Old World. Old World has been out for awhile on EGS, and is coming to Steam this Thursday. I definitely recommend it – certainly for all Civ fans, but also for anyone who can appreciate watching a talented designer evolve a project. In this case, that project is the 4X project, one that I do have some strong critiques fo ..read more

Good ol’ CoolCop. Wow, things certainly have changed a lot since 2004, huh? Brett and I took a journey into the strange Reiner Knizia card game, Blue Moon. It’s… a challenging game, that’s for sure. Enjoy the episode ..read more

Hello everyone! Welcome to our third episode of STRATEGY CAN BE FUN. Today, Brett Lowey and I discuss the Cole Wehrle game, Pax Pamir. I think this is maybe the first game where Brett and I’s positions on the game have diverged somewhat, although perhaps we have also pulled each other’s opinions together somewhat as well. We talk about many aspects of the game’s design: the abstraction, the theme, the axes of victory, the closed economy, and many more. It’s looking like next up will be Reiner Knizia’s Blue Moon. Let us know if you have ideas for the show going forward. And also, please support ..read more

Hello all! Thanks so much for checking out the second episode of our new podcast, STRATEGY CAN BE FUN? It’s up sooner than expected — when you have a new show, I think it’s good to get a few episodes out quickly if you can. Today Brett Lowey and I are so excited to present you with a conversation about David Sirlin‘s latest tabletop game: Puzzle Strike II. For those who don’t know, I’m a massive fan of Sirlin’s work, and have been for over a decade. From his very cool card games like Yomi and Codex (my all-time favorite, possibly my favorite game ever, is the original Puzzle Strike), to his pr ..read more