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The Clockwork Game Design Podcast

The Clockwork Game Design Podcast

A Game Design Podcast by Keith Burgun

The Clockwork Game Design Podcast

50 episodesEN-US

Show overview

The Clockwork Game Design Podcast has been publishing since 2019, and across the 6 years since has built a catalogue of 50 episodes. That works out to roughly 45 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a roughly quarterly cadence.

Episodes typically run an hour to ninety minutes — most land between 52 min and 1h 11m — and the run-time is fairly consistent across the catalogue. None of the episodes are flagged explicit by the publisher. It is catalogued as a EN-US-language Leisure show.

The catalogue appears to be on hiatus or wound down — the most recent episode landed 1.1 years ago, with no new episodes in over a year. The busiest year was 2020, with 13 episodes published.

Episodes
50
Running
2019–2025 · 6y
Median length
1h 3m
Cadence
Quarterly-ish

From the publisher

A show about games and game design by Keith Burgun.

Latest Episodes

View all 50 episodes

Gamefulness, and farewell to the Clockwork Game Design Podcast!

It has been an amazing ten years! Thank you to everyone who listened! This is a short episode where I just talk a little bit about where I’m at, and why I’m deciding to end the Clockwork Game Design Podcast. Thank you to all of the amazing guests – DOZENS of them – over the […]

Apr 11, 2025

“Progressive” games and neoliberal ideology with Austin Anderson

Hi all! Today I have a fascinating conversation with the brilliant Austin Anderson, who is I think the last of the guests that I’ll have on the show from the Alt-F4 conference (along with Dr. Rachel Kowert and Kathleen Morrissey). In this conversation we talk about a bunch of AAA games, such as Detroit Become […]

Nov 21, 2024

Final Fantasy, Consensual Play and more with Kathleen Morrissey

Hi everyone! I come to you with another great conversation, with another super cool person that I met at the Alt-F4: Rebooting Community After Gamergate conference: Kathleen Morrissey. Kathleen is working on a PhD in computational media over at Worchester Polytechnic Institute, she’s done all kinds of awesome academic stuff on the subjects of games, […]

Nov 1, 2024

Final Fantasy, dark patterns and more with Dr. Rachel Kowert

Hi all! today I have a wide ranging conversation with Dr. Rachel Kowert, a researcher who studies the effects of games and also discusses a wide range of other pop culture topics, through her youtube channel Psychgeist. She’s written and contributed to a lot of books (including a Psychgeist series, spoken at numerous events including […]

Oct 23, 2024

Interview with game marketing expert Ryan Rigney

Hi all! The Clockwork Game Design Podcast has re-taken-over its own podcast space from the Bannet Bulletin for a week, to share with you this exciting conversation I just had with my old pal Ryan Rigney. His first published game, Fast Fast Laser Laser, is actually a game that I did all of the artwork […]

Oct 8, 2024

Bannet Bulletin Ep. 3 – Introducing the Impulse Combat System (and more)

Above is an early screenshot of our combat system in the prototype for Through Broken Land, which is coming along smoothly. The incredible UI art was just freshly finished by our artist, Wizbane, and oh my god I love it! Anyway, today I’m talking about our Impulse System, which is the core of the FF13-inspired […]

Jul 9, 2024

Bannet Bulletin Ep. 2 – The Skill Grid, Characters, and a game update

Hey all. Today I wanted to talk about the SKILL GRID for my upcoming RPG Through Broken Land, 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 www.patreon.com/keithburgun and becoming a patron! […]

Mar 30, 2024

Introducing: the Bannet Bulletin!

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 […]

Mar 12, 2024

The RPG Report, and the worst things in RPGs

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 […]

Nov 25, 20231h 3m

RPG Questions, and Trails in the Sky FC

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 […]

May 11, 202352 min

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

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 language” and how building off of existing designs […]

Jan 10, 202328 min

Clockwork Game Design Podcast – The Final Fantasy Episode

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 […]

Oct 19, 20221h 11m

Strategy Can Be Fun on our own DRAGON BRIDGE

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, […]

Jul 2, 20221h 3m

Strategy Can Be Fun – Soren Johnson on OLD WORLD

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 […]

May 16, 20221h 18m

Strategy Can Be Fun – Blue Moon

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!

Feb 22, 20221h 3m

Strategy Can Be Fun – Strategic Evaluation in Pax Pamir

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 […]

Feb 5, 202257 min

Strategy Can Be Fun – Contextualized Choices in Puzzle Strike 2

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 […]

Jan 21, 20221h 0m

Ep 1Strategy Can Be Fun – Through The Ages, Playfulness and The Four Horsemen of Work

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 awesome guy. We’ve decided to come up with a new show that we do as a collaborate project, one […]

Jan 12, 202259 min

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

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 games – I still think, for good reason. But […]

Aug 13, 202153 min

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

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, Faeria. He also has written a bunch of game design articles on game balance, […]

Jul 27, 20211h 27m