Sirlin.Net - Game Design

David Sirlin

Sirlin designed video games such as Street Fighter HD Remix, Puzzle Fighter HD Remix, and Kongai. He's designed tabletop games such as Yomi, Puzzle Strike, Pandante, and Flash Duel. He discusses the craft of game design with his lead playtester.

  • 1 hour 7 minutes
    Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 18: Fantasy Strike

    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 to bottom than anything else we've seen, the specific game mechanics we chose to accomplish that, and the resulting dynamics of how it plays.

    Because it's unusual to crowdfund a game through Patreon, we also explain why we're doing that and what the advantages are.

    Hosts: David Sirlin, Richard "Leontes" Lopez, and Sean "MrGPhantome" Washington.

    16 November 2016, 12:15 am
  • 1 hour 16 minutes
    Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 17: Shipping Kickstarters On Time

    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 complete your board game should be before you take it to Kickstarter, about the "magic word," and about shipping shipping shipping!

    While most of the episode is about Kickstarters for board games, later in the episode we cover the extra challenges of doing a Kickstarter for a video game. And we reveal that we're going a different route with our Fantasy Strike video game, which is using Patreon for crowdfunding right now.

    Hosts: David Sirlin and Richard "Leontes" Lopez

    17 October 2016, 9:28 pm
  • 1 hour 16 minutes
    Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 16: Overwatch

    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 secret sauce of Overwatch's success.

    Hosts: David Sirlin and Matt "Aphotix" DeMasi

    22 July 2016, 8:26 pm
  • 1 hour 18 minutes
    Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 15: Heroes of the Storm

    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, talent system, 20 minute game length, map variety, and more. Sirlin then complains about a couple annoying things about controlling your character.

    Hosts: David Sirlin, Richard "Leontes" Lopez, and Matt "Aphotix" DeMasi

    3 March 2016, 11:23 pm
  • 1 hour 19 minutes
    Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 14: Codex

    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, and we discuss the various properties it has that makes it so special.

    Hosts: David Sirlin, Richard "Leontes" Lopez, and Matt "Aphotix" DeMasi

    Also, here a Codex article index. New articles posted there almost every day of Codex's kickstarter.

    Here's a link to the Codex kickstarter itself. 

    9 February 2016, 9:16 pm
  • 1 hour 33 minutes
    Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 13: Starcraft 2

    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 should also have changed too. Starcraft is a very difficult to play game, and we complain that while some of this difficulty is great and makes the game interesting, other sources of it seem totally out of place. Specifically, many aspects of the UI don't capture the player's intention and it just feels "wrong" rather than "strategic" in these cases. That said, we are still generally fans of the series!

    Hosts: David Sirlin, Richard "Leontes" Lopez, & Sean "MrGPhantome" Washington

    6 January 2016, 11:57 pm
  • 1 hour 23 minutes
    Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 12: Easy Special Moves

    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 with "easy special moves" actually trying to do? Moves being easy—in and of itself—tells you nothing about whether the techniques and combos in a game are easy to do or not. Examples from Guilty Gear, Soul Calibur 5, Smash Bros (including a plea for modders to make Sirlin a mod with simpler controls for Smash), Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter 4, Rising Thunder, and Fantasy Strike.

    Hosts: David Sirlin & Sean "MrGPhantome" Washington

    2 September 2015, 11:42 pm
  • 51 minutes 11 seconds
    Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 11: Game Balancing Techniques

    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 Street Fighter and Codex as well as an amusing anecdote from the history of mathematics.

    Hosts: David Sirlin and Matt "Aphotix" DeMasi

    21 July 2015, 10:16 pm
  • 49 minutes 58 seconds
    Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 10: Flash Duel

    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 as at least one tricky balance puzzle we faced.

    At the time of this post, Flash Duel is on kickstarter right now. Please support it if you can.

    Special guest garcia1000 discusses how to prepare for a tournament.

    Hosts: David Sirlin, Matt "Aphotix" DeMasi & Sean "MrGPhantome" Washington

    4 April 2015, 8:06 pm
  • 1 hour 14 minutes
    Sirlin on Game Design, Ep 9: Pandante

    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 changes. We also cover all the new (optional) content and what it adds to the game.

    At the time of this post, Pandante is on kickstarter right now. Please support it if you can.

    Special guest garcia1000 discusses "chat techs" and trolling rhetoric.

    Hosts: David Sirlin, Matt "Aphotix" DeMasi & Sean "MrGPhantome" Washington

    16 March 2015, 10:50 pm
  • 1 hour 1 minute
    Sirlin on Game Design, Ep8: Morality in Stories

    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 system of laws. We tie this into games with examples from The Walking Dead game and A Tale in the Desert.

    Hosts: David Sirlin & Sean "MrGPhantome" Washington

    27 February 2015, 2:47 am
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