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! Don’t forget: you can support my work by going to

Introducing: the Bannet Bulletin!

Mar 12th, 2024 28m 51s

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 abo

The RPG Report, and the worst things in RPGs

Nov 25th, 2023 1h 3m

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 t

RPG Questions, and Trails in the Sky FC

May 11th, 2023 52m 23s

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 int

Clockwork Game Design Podcast – Episode #94 – 2022 wrap-up

Jan 10th, 2023 28m 41s

Hey all! This is kind of a “bonus episode” of sorts, only 30 minutes long. Here’s some of the topics covered: A bit of navel gazing about my own theory and approach to games and how it has changed A short essay I wrote about “speaking the langu

Clockwork Game Design Podcast – The Final Fantasy Episode

Oct 19th, 2022 1h 11m

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

Strategy Can Be Fun on our own DRAGON BRIDGE

Jul 2nd, 2022 1h 3m

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

Strategy Can Be Fun – Soren Johnson on OLD WORLD

May 16th, 2022 1h 18m

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 Tra

Strategy Can Be Fun – Blue Moon

Feb 22nd, 2022 1h 3m

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!

Strategy Can Be Fun – Strategic Evaluation in Pax Pamir

Feb 5th, 2022 57m 26s

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, althou

Strategy Can Be Fun – Contextualized Choices in Puzzle Strike 2

Jan 21st, 2022 1h

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 an

Strategy Could Be Fun

Jan 12th, 2022 59m 24s

Surprise! New podcast! Introducing STRATEGY CAN BE FUN?, a new podcast with myself and Brett Lowey. Brett is a game designer and developer, creator behind BrainGoodGames, frequent guest on the Clockwork Game Design Podcast, and all-around aweso

Let’s talk about Magic: The Gathering, with two experts

Aug 13th, 2021 53m 3s

Hello all! I have a special episode for you today, wherein we have a great big discussion on MAGIC: THE GATHERING – something I haven’t really dived into too deeply before on the show. For most of my life I was very, very skeptical of these gam

Free-to-play, Gacha games and game design discourse with Dan Felder

Jul 27th, 2021 1h 27m

Hello everyone and welcome to the 91st episode of the CLOCKWORK GAME DESIGN PODCAST! Today’s guest is Dan Felder, a game designer who has worked at several studios, including EA, Blizzard, and Abrakam Games, where he worked on the popular CCG,

The Clockwork Game Design Podcast - Alexander King

May 5th, 2021 1h 18m

Alexander King, who teaches at the NYU Game Center and the Parsons School of Design, has been tweeting about math for game designers a bunch – you should definitely go check out his tweet thread on the topic here. It also got me interested to h

Talking RPGs with Dayan Radisic

Apr 5th, 2021 1h 8m

Today’s guest is Dayan Radisic, the lead developer at Stygian Software, the team behind the indie CRPG UnderRail. I’ve personally only played a handful of hours of the game so far, but it’s definitely the kind of game that’s in the “RPG Project

Skill Compensation, Randomness, and the lifespan of games with Brett Lowey

Mar 23rd, 2021 1h 11m

Hello again! This here is probably the most nitty gritty strategy game design podcast episode I’ve had on the show yet, which is made possible because I have a shared language and understanding with today’s guest. This guest, by the way, is non

Interview with Jaron Kong, creator of Quantum Protocol

Mar 10th, 2021 1h 5m

If you listened to my last episode all the way to the end, you might’ve heard Justin Ma mention a game that he’s been playing recently that he thought was cool. That game, which he recommended and I ended up playing, was Quantum Protocol. Quant

Conversation with Justin Ma

Mar 2nd, 2021 57m 59s

I spoke with Justin Ma, co-founder of Subset Games, who are well known for their hit indie games FTL and Into the Breach. Our conversation touched on a pretty wide range of topics, from their creative process at Subset games, to the state of th

RPGs and more, with Tanya X. Short

Jan 25th, 2021 47m 58s

Today’s guest is Tanya X. Short, the co-founder of Kitfox Games, and the designer behind Moon Hunters and most recently, Boyfriend Dungeon. Tanya is also a contributor over at Gamasutra, where she writes about a bunch of game development and ma

A Conversation with Raph Koster

Dec 12th, 2020 1h 4m

Hello all and welcome to another episode of the Clockwork Game Design Podcast! This is Raph’s second time on the podcast (the first time was Episode 37) but it’s always good to have him on the show. On this episode, Raph and I talk a lot about

Brett Lowey on win conditions and ideal design theory

Oct 25th, 2020 1h 5m

Hi! I come bearing the latest episode of the Clockwork Game Design Podcast! This one features Brett Lowey of Braingoodgames, who has been on the show before! He’s a great person to talk to for me, because we have just enough agreement and disag

Turn Based Tactics Combat Systems, and more on quarterbacking in co-op games

Sep 23rd, 2020 45m 57s

Hey everyone! Thanks for listening to this, the 82nd episode of the Clockwork Game Design Podcast. This episode doesn’t have a guest, it’s all me, and I’m talking about a bunch of stuff I’m thinking of with turn based tactics combat systems.

The Clockwork Game Design Podcast - Kyle Kushtel

Aug 18th, 2020 1h 2m

Kyle Kukshtel said he sees me as a bit like an “alternative universe version of” himself, because we’re both solo indie devs working on turn-based tactical wargames that do things differently. His game, Cantata, is looking really cool and diffe