After Terrene Odyssey was published, I started going to trade shows. At one I would met Brad Talton from Level 99 Games. We exchanged copies of Argent and Terrene Odyssey and eventually we became friends. After Terrene Odyssey came out I discovered the game was incredibly fun in a draft format. I had not designed…
Paragon Spotlight: Cataclysm
Welcome to the designer blog for Cataclysm! Be warned that this article has spoilers for the Rogue Sun comics, which I highly recommend you read, if you haven’t already! Cataclysm is a Rogue Sun villain who struck a dark bargain with powerful malevolent forces to be able to kill the previous Rogue Sun, Dylan’s father….
Paragon Spotlight: Pyre
Welcome to the designer blog for Pyre! Be warned that this article has spoilers for the Dead Lucky comics, which I highly recommend you read, if you haven’t already! Pyre can control the flames around him, and he can burn through his cards to turn the heat up on his enemies! By exhausting an extra…
Paragon Spotlight: the Dead Lucky
Welcome to the designer blog for The Dead Lucky! Be warned that this article has spoilers for the Dead Lucky comics, which I highly recommend you read, if you haven’t already! Bibiana Lopez-Yang is a war veteran suffering from PTSD, and at the start of your game with her, she doesn’t have access to her…
Paragon Spotlight: Inferno Girl Red
Welcome to the designer blog for Inferno Girl Red! Be warned that this article has spoilers for the Inferno Girl Red comics, which I highly recommend you read, if you haven’t already! Cássia’s story is one centered around the theme of confidence and believing in one’s self. To capture that, Inferno Girl Red is very…
Let’s Talk about the Team Up mode!
Hello everyone! I’m here today to talk about the Team-Up mode, which is a brand-new exciting way to play— with 4 players! Long-time readers of my old design blogs would recall that the game actually started off as a 4 player game for 2 teams of 2. This product allowed us to resurrect that original…
Paragon Spotlight: Rogue Sun
Welcome to the designer blog for Rogue Sun! Be warned that this article has spoilers for the Rogue Sun comics, which I highly recommend you read, if you haven’t already! Dylan Siegel inherited the powers of the Rogue Sun from his father, who lives on inside the suit and tries to steer Dylan down the…
Paragon Spotlight: Radiant Black
Welcome to the designer blog for Radiant Black! Be warned that this article has spoilers for the Radiant Black comics, which I highly recommend you read, if you haven’t already! — Brian McKay Despite Radiant Black’s abilities having fairly simple text boxes, he has some tough decisions to be made in regards to his playstyle….
Terrene Odyssey Retrospective
Terrene Odyssey is a game where you play as a part of adventures and fight against another party of adventures. In a nut shell, it’s a combat system similar to Final Fantasy games except head to head! This would be my first self published game. Starting Party Comp At the start of the game, players…
Re-Templating Old Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards
Let’s take a look at some old cards and give them a modern look! The hardest part about reading Yu-Gi-Oh! cards is the text box contains both game rules set, summoning text, and finally rules text. They aren’t always listed in that order on the card. Here’s a re-templating of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards in an attempt…
Alex JeBailey and Kenny Omega Join Pocket Paragon Paragons. Wait, what? 😮
Pocket Paragons will be at CEO Daytona 2023! What is CEO Gaming? It’s a large Fighting game tournament series. It features a high profile tournament for various fighting games and is taking place this weekend on June 23rd – 25th. It is one of the first super majors for the recently released Street Fighter 6 with…
Pocket Paragons coming to The Last Gameboard in 2024
Pocket Paragons has teamed up with The Last Gameboard! The Last Gameboard is a social gaming console that bring you tons of tabletop game experiences to your play group digitally. You can buy and own games individually or you can subscribe and have access to all games on the platform! It has a ton of stunning UI…
Pocket Paragons Fan Creations
We love seeing custom content for Pocket Paragons. Here are some from our Discord channel! Note: These are fan creations and not official Pocket Paragons cards. Minecraft Customs These Minecraft customs were made by Twilight Storm. He made them to play against his son. Hollow Knight Customs Created by parchmentEngineer. Bachelor Party Customs!?! Created by…
Pocket Paragons: Acquisitions Inc. Spotlight
I’ve been a long-time fan of Penny Arcade, and when I would attend Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) every year, getting to watch their Acquisitions Incorporated live gameplay sessions was always the highlight of my con. When Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade tweeted me out of the blue saying he loved Pocket Paragons, it was a…
Pocket Paragons: Space Lion Spotlight
Space Lion is a simultaneous action selection game, like Pocket Paragons, but on a much grander scale. Five players clashing over multiple battlefields at the same time, carefully managing your units so they won’t become expended at the wrong time. When we decided to do a crossover between Space Lion and Pocket Paragons, it was…
Changes to Space Lion
Hello gamers, we hope that you had a happy new year! In the last few months, we have been working hard to make Space Lion the best game it can be. We recently launched a playtest program and were overwhelmed by the amount of feedback we received. Our team carefully analyzed all of this feedback…
Space Lion Beta Playtesting Now Open
Space Lion Beta Playtesting Program Space Lion is near completion and we are looking for playtesters to push the game across the finish line! Play the game early on TTS with others and earn a FREE playtester exclusive Playmat! If you participate, we will add this playmat to your Pledge when the game ships! Earn this 14”…
Space Lion: System Design Choices
Armies in Space Lion are dramatically different but they are bound by a few key rules that make the framework of the game easy to understand Players always have cards numbered 0-6 and never more or fewer cards This makes it easy for players to understand the card advantage they may have over another player….
Space Lion: Concepting the Game
About 3 years ago, Space Lion was born out of the quick design of an 18-card game jam. It was really fun and it stuck with me long past that design retreat. A few months later, I asked myself what a fully developed version of this idea would look like. The Core Mechanic of the…
What is Space Lion?
There are alien armies on all fronts! Space Lion is a game about bluffing and unit placement on several battlefields shared by players. Play as one of five asymmetrical armies and destroy your enemy’s towers and then their base to win the game. Your left battlefield only involves your left-most players and the same is true for the…
Pocket Paragons: Burgundy Octopus vs. Blue Allure Crew Video Series
Check out the Hands on Deck characters in action! Which team will be victorious? Burgundy Octopus or Blue Allure? These Pirates were originally only intended for use in the Hands on Deck VR game, but we decided to produce a small print run to use as a promotional tool for the game. These promo cards…
Pocket Paragons: Blue Allure Crew Spotlight
In my previous article, I had discussed half the Pirate characters that I had designed for a crossover promotion with the Hands on Deck VR game. Today, we’ll be covering theBlue Allure Crew. This crew is represented by the Anglerfish and are all about luring your opponent into their doom. They prefer to exhaust the…
Pocket Paragons: Burgundy Octopus Crew Spotlight
Out of the blue one day, Chris Solis (of Solis Game Studio) came to me with a unique promotional idea for Pocket Paragons. A games company called Sunset Division wanted to include Pocket Paragons in their cross-platform VR board game simulator. They were going to include our base game (Origins), but also wanted some new,…
Announcing several Pocket Paragons Duel Sets: The Hands on Deck Bundle
Announcing several Pocket Paragons Duel Sets: Hands on Deck Bundle About this Duel Set: This bundle contains 3 Duel sets featuring 2 characters each for a total of 6 new characters. There are two Pirate factions: Burgundy Octopus crew and The Blue Allure crew. Each faction has a Captain, First Mate, and Sea Creature! Which…
Pocket Paragons: ARNF Duel Set Spotlight
A Robot Named Fight! is a Metroidvania-style action-platformer made by Matt Bitner. Due to the game’s success, Morningstar Game Studio decided to do a special physical collector’s edition of the game and include a bunch of extra items for its diehard fans. What wasn’t announced but secretly included with those games was a unique Pocket…
Announcing A New Pocket Paragons Duel Set: A Robot Named Fight!
A new Duel Set is available for Pocket Paragons featuring characters from the popular Metroidvania-style action-platformer by Matt Bitner, A Robot Named Fight! About this Duel Set This Duel Set features Fight!, our robot protagonist, and Tutorial Smith our guiding friend with a lot of secrets. Fight uses a special ‘Orb’ mechanic to gain new…
Pocket Paragons: Solo Mode Spotlight
What’s the Pocket Paragons Solo Mode all about? Check it out here as Chris Solis does on camera preview. The Pocket Paragons Solo Mode has an A.I card for all 30+ characters and a challenge more for each. That’s 60+ matchups possible in the solo mode! You can grab the Pocket Paragons Solo Mode here.
Temporal Odyssey 2: What’s New?
A few years ago I published Temporal Odyssey with Level 99 Games. Now with Solis Game Studio, we are reinventing Temporal Odyssey with streamlined gameplay, more content, and a campaign mode! Here is a quick look at just some of the features in Temporal Odyssey 2. AP and Stat Changes The amount of actions you…
Announcing Project Space Lion
Our next game is coming up! Currently tentatively titled Project: Space Lion. This is a tentative title. Space Lion is a competitive board game about winning a battle of attrition between 4 warring armies. It’s designed to capture the feel of a huge battle and being a commanding officer having to make difficult battlefield decisions. …
Pocket Paragons Blog: Pepper the Dog [April Fools 2021]
Hello Gamers, We are excited to announce a bonus Pocket Paragons character we are sending to every house in America! Pepper the Dog. Pepper is the dog of Pocket Paragon’s design, Brian McKay. Pepper is also the current Pocket Paragons world champion as a result, she got to become a character herself in the game!…
Top 10 Games Under 10 Minutes
Hey everyone! One of my goals with the design of Pocket Paragons was to create a game that was quick to play and even quicker to learn! Today’s Pocket Paragons design blog is gonna be a little different than the usual. Instead of a character breakdown, here are a few of my favorite other games…
Pocket Paragons Design Blog: Maypul, the Sylvan Watcher
Happy 2021 everyone! Let’s kick off the New Year with yet another Pocket Paragons design blog! Today’s blog is a quick sneak peek by Brian McKay featuring our current test build of Maypul, the Sylvan Watcher. Disclaimer: Maypul’s kit is still a work-in-progress and may feature changes and updates in the final product. Maypul is…
Pocket Paragons Design Blog: Absa, the Storm Architect (KS bonus character!)
In today’s Pocket Paragons design blog, let’s take a look at one of the bonus Kickstarter characters. Absa, the Storm Architect is my personal favorite character in Rivals of Aether, and while there are different ways to play her, I wanted to bring the feeling of playing a zoning character into Pocket Paragons. This was…
Pocket Paragons Design Blog: Zetterburn, the Fire’s Roar
In today’s Pocket Paragons design blog we’re turning up the heat with Zetterburn, the Fire’s Roar! Zetterburn is the face of Rivals of Aether, and a powerful rushdown character that sets his enemies ablaze and finishes them off with powerful claws. The Rivals of Aether characters are still undergoing a lot of playtesting and development,…
Pocket Paragons Design Blog: Rowan, the Sage
Another day, another Pocket Paragons design blog; this time we get to take a look at Rowan! He may at first seem like an unassuming little druid, but he also possesses tremendous inner strength. His abilities are incredibly weak, but if you let your guard down for just a moment, the force of nature within…
Pocket Paragons Design Blog: Gamound & GMD-100
In today’s Pocket Paragons design blog, we dive into Gamound and his stalwart GMD-100 mech which represents the Guard faction from the AEGIS universe. The Guard mechs in AEGIS are designed to wear out the opponent, and Gamound brings that style to Pocket Paragons! Character Strengths: Reusable Defend takes away the opponent’s options Extra…
Pocket Paragons Design Blog: Kairos, the Timebender
Hello fellow Paragons! I’m going to be sharing a few blogs that dive deep into some of my favorite characters in Pocket Paragons. In today’s Pocket Paragons design blog, we’re talking about the incredibly tricky Kairos, the Timebender. – Brian McKay Character Strengths: Has a strong damage game plan and a strong exhausting game plan…
Pocket Paragons Design Blog: Zowie, the Abandoned
We are really excited to bring you Pocket Paragons character previews! In this Pocket Paragons design blog, we wanted to talk about how each of these characters is truly different. Let’s start with one of the Print and Play characters, Zowie! – Chris Solis Zowie is one of the main characters of the Temporal Odyssey…
Pocket Paragons Design Blog: The Fifty Fifty
There’s a fairly common situation that comes up in games of Pocket Paragons, especially with newer players. You’re down to your last ability, plus your Rest, and your opponent is holding their weapon, ready to pounce. I’ve heard playtesters refer to this as “the coinflip” or “the 50-50”. A lot of them believe they died…
Paragons Design Blog: Cast of Characters
The characters in Pocket Paragons have changed a lot over the years, but I’m very happy with where they ended up. In this Pocket Paragons design blog, I wanted to go over a little of their history, the flavor behind their abilities, and some backstory about how they’re named. As a quick note, I’ve named…
Pocket Paragons Design Blog: Over the Years Pt. 2
In our last Pocket Paragons design blog, Rise of the Paragons was having some serious troubles with its endgame. The only mechanical solution that was testing well was having a combined health pool, but that didn’t work for its fantasy theme. We ended up going in a very different direction! Mech Paragons (2017) Early Mech…
Pocket Paragons Design Blog: Over the Years Pt. 1
Hey everyone! My name is Brian McKay, and I’m the designer of Pocket Paragons. I’ve been working on this game since 2012, and it’s gone through a huge number of overhauls and redesigns in the last 9 years. In this Pocket Paragons design blog, I wanted to show you the evolution of the game over…
Foxy Strategies in Frenemy Pastry Party
This edition of Frenemy Pastry Party adds the Fox as an animal friend. The Fox has a big impact on the game in a clever way. Fox’s effect is “If you have the least amount of cakes scored (ties do not count) you gain +3 points.” Since the Fox wants the least amount of cakes,…
Temporal Odyssey Story
I was hanging out with a friend at a fast food place playing Yu-Gi-Oh! once when I was in college. One of our cards got removed from play and something possessed us to concoct an insane story about where this character on the card went. It must have gone to a distant world and lived…
Pastry Party Free on Tabletop Simulator
Hello, I heard you are an ally of animals and a fan of cake. You’ve come to the right place, my friend. Frenemy Pastry Party is a great way to celebrate both with your friends and family. Want to try out the game right now? It’s available on Tabletop Simulator for free! Check out the TTS…
Beginning Solis Game Studio with Frenemy Pastry Party
In 2019, I was at the Essen Game Faire, one of the few chances we have to meet boardgame publishers from all over the world. While wandering the halls, I ran into John Brieger, who was extremely excited to show me a tiny game he’d found called Frenemy Pastry Party. He loves to pick out…