Fantasy Strike is our new fighting game. We've just announced it and begun crowdfunding for it on Patreon. This podcast explains what Fantasy Strike is all about. We cover the high concept about making a fighting game more accessible from top t

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 17: Shipping Kickstarters On Time

Oct 17th, 2016 1h 16m

Kickstarters projects are notoriously late. I give advice on how to ship your Kickstarter project on time. I've shipped 5 out of 5 Kickstarters on time, so it's time to share the best practices of how you can do that too. Learn about how comple

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 16: Overwatch

Jul 22nd, 2016 1h 16m

We discuss Overwatch, Blizzard's first-person shooter. It far exceeded our expectations and we attempt to explain how it manages to do that. This isn't a "review," but rather us analyzing the design decisions involved, trying to define the secr

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 15: Heroes of the Storm

Mar 3rd, 2016 1h 18m

We discuss the design of Heroes of the Storm. It's a bold entry in the MOBA genre and impresses us greatly. We cover the many things is does differently than the rest of the genre that we view as improvements. No last hits, no deny, shared XP,

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 14: Codex

Feb 9th, 2016 1h 19m

We discuss the Codex card game, on Kickstarter at the time of this recording. Codex is a customizable (but not collectible) card game that has way different design goals than other CCGs. It's been in development ridiculously long, over 10 years

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 13: Starcraft 2

Jan 6th, 2016 1h 33m

We discuss the release of Starcraft 2's third expansion, Legacy of the Void. This is a look back at what we liked about Starcraft from the very start, what things Blizzard changed for the better over time, and what things we think they really s

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 12: Easy Special Moves

Sep 2nd, 2015 1h 23m

We discuss "easy special moves" in fighting games. We can pretty quickly say why they are a good or bad idea, but the bigger issue is trying to clarify what the term means to help others avoid muddled discussions on this topic. What is a game

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 11: Game Balancing Techniques

Jul 21st, 2015 51m 11s

We discuss techniques I use to balance games. The point more about HOW we talk about such things and the general approach rather than any specific example, but we cover many specific examples to illustrate the points. Includes examples from Str

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 10: Flash Duel

Apr 4th, 2015 49m 58s

We discuss the development of the revised printing of Flash Duel. Flash Duel is a simple and fast card game that in high level play ended up being bogged down by lengthy calculations. We talk about the design changes that address this as well a

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 9: Pandante

Mar 16th, 2015 1h 14m

We discuss the development of Pandante's expansion and 2nd edition. All three of us were involved in this development and playtesting. The core game has simplified and streamlined rules and we go through each one and explain why we made these c

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep8: Morality in Stories

Feb 27th, 2015 1h 1m

We discuss the drama created by stories that pose moral questions. Stories set outside the law make us think even more about these questions, so that could explain why so many popular stories have settings that take us outside of our familiar s

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep7: Sequels

Feb 2nd, 2015 1h 7m

We discuss sequels to movies and games. Sequel can mean a lot of different kinds of things, so we sort out the different kinds of sequels. This leads up to a discussion about how to handle sequels in highly replayable games.

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep6: Character Bans

Jan 10th, 2015 1h 9m

In this episode, we discuss the many problems with games where players ban each other's characters. We touch on League of Legends, DOTA2, and Heroes of the Storm, though this discussion is applicable to any form of in-game banning in any game.

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep5: Now Playing

Dec 23rd, 2014 55m 39s

We discuss the Street Fighter 5 trailer as well as the games we're playing now: Super Mario 3D World, Smash Bros. 4, Transistor, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Sirlin gives an award for worst menus in a game while Aphotix gushes about a

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep4: Tournament Rules

Dec 12th, 2014 1h 20m

In this episode, we discuss the kind of things that go wrong when creating rules for a tournament. The rules for high profile tournaments are sometimes surprisingly bad, yet even when we avoid the obvious problems, it's still very difficult to

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep3: Uneven Playfields

Nov 30th, 2014 1h 10m

In this episode, we discuss uneven playfields in competitive games. That's when a competitive game gives some players a material advantage, rather than being fair. Although fairness should be a basic premise of a competitive game, MOST competit

Sirlin on Game Design, Ep2: Cooperative Games

Nov 5th, 2014 1h 1m

Game design discussion about cooperative games, covering tabletop games and video games. MrGPhantome complains about his friends' gaming tastes in a guest segment.