Rempton Games

Have you ever wanted to design your own TCG set or expansion, but didn't know where to start? In this video I break down the steps used by Wizards of the Coast to design their TCG sets, from initial concept to finished set.

Transcript: What’s up, designers, and welcome back to Rempton Games. It’s been a while, but I’m finally back, and I’m really excited about today’s topic! Whether you are designing your own trading card game, or just a fan who wants to know more about how these games are made, today’s video is for you. Today, I’ll be going through the steps of how to design a TCG set – from initial concept to…

Video games should be for everyone, but millions of players struggle to play due to a lack of accessibility. In this video I go over why accessibility features are so important, and how you can make your own games more accessible!

What’s up designers, and welcome back to Rempton Games. I love video games, and if you’re watching this video you probably do too. Video games are such a rich, powerful medium of entertainment, and can accomplish amazing things that are impossible in any other medium. I believe that everyone should have the opportunity to explore the far reaches of Hyrule, steal hearts as a Phantom Thief, or even…

If you want to learn how to dominate your friends and family at RISK, you've come to the right place. I've collected the best tips and strategies to take your game to the next level!

Howdy Soldiers, Welcome Back to Rempton Games. My name is General E. Hostile, and today I’m going to teach you how to send your troops into foreign nations, spread your influence across the surface of the globe and eventually dominate the entire world. I am of course talking about the board game RISK. Before we begin, I want to make one thing clear – RISK is a game about World Domination, and in…

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet just released last month, and included the largest new batch of Pokemon in quite a while! Let's take a look at how these most recent games evolved the design, themes, and mechanics of Pokemon!

Transcript What’s up designers, and welcome back to Rempton Games. In today’s episode of Evolution of Pokemon design we take a look at the brand new Generation 9, better known as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. As always, we will be looking at the common design trends and motifs of the Pokemon in this generation, how the themes and mechanics of this generation influence these designs, and how Gen 9…

Why TCGs are Impossible to Balance

What’s up, designers, and welcome back to Rempton Games. If you’ve played trading card games for a while, you’ve probably seen an overpowered new card burst onto the scene and totally wreck the entire meta, to the point where it seems like everybody is using it. On the other hand, you’ve probably opened entire packs of cards and felt like every single one of them was worthless trash that nobody…

In this entry in the "Game Designer Spotlight" series, we take a look at the history and design philosophy of Masahiro Sakurai - creator of the Kirby and Super Smash Bros. franchises.

What’s up designers, and welcome back to Rempton Games. In today’s game designer spotlight we will be looking at the career and design philosophy of one of my favorite designers – Masahiro Sakurai. Best known as the creator of the Kirby and Super Smash Bros series, Sakurai has a very unique perspective on game design that has served him well over his 3 decades of game development. Without further…

Playtesting has begun for the next evolution of D&D. In this video I go over my thoughts and opinions on this playtest document, as well as my predictions for what else might change in the future of D&D.

It’s official – Wizards of the Coast has begun releasing playtest material for the next evolution of Dungeons and Dragons, which they are calling “One D&D”. This material gives us the first glimpses at their design philosophy and approach towards D&D, and by reading between the lines I think we can actually learn a lot more about what the next version of D&D might look like. Today I want to give…

Over the past few years trading cards have been breaking price records left and right, with rare cards selling for hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. But why are these pieces of printed cardboard selling for so much money?

In July 2021, Youtube Logan Paul spend nearly $5.3 million on an extremely rare Pikachu Illustrator Pokemon card. This is the most expensive Pokemon card ever sold, and among the most expensive trading cards in history. But what in the world could make a simple piece of printed cardboard worth such an insane amount of money? Let’s find out! At its core, the price of pretty much anything comes…

The Creature Creator in Spore allows players to create a nearly unlimited variety of custom creatures to use in the game. But how does it actually work?

What’s up designers, and welcome back to Rempton Games. Let’s talk about Spore – the 2008 life simulation strategy game made by Maxis Studios and designer Will Wright. In Spore, players can guide the evolution of a species of creatures from the cell stage to a galactic civilization, but the part of the game that stands out the most to me, and I think most players, is the creature creator. Spore’s…

The Ultimate Guide to Homebrew Spells in D&D 5e

What’s up designers, and welcome back to Rempton Games. In today’s video I want to take a look at homebrewing spells in D&D – how it’s done and what factors need to be taken into account, and share some simple example spells that I prepared earlier. I’ve broken this video into a few sections – first, we’ll talk about some basic information that applies to all homebrew spells. Next, we’ll talk…

If you want to learn how to beat your friends and family at Ticket To Ride, you've come to the right place. I've collected the best tips and strategies to take your game to the next level!

What’s up designers, and welcome back to Rempton Games. Today we will be taking a look at the best tips, tricks and strategies for one of the most popular gateway games around – Ticket To Ride. I’ve divided these tips into four main categories – Planning your Routes, Placing Trains, Controlling information, and alternative strategies. Without further ado, let’s get started. Planning Your…

Everybody loves powerful cards, but how do you know when something is TOO powerful? In this video I look at the 5 most common categories of broken cards to see why they are so powerful, and see how to learn from past design mistakes.

What’s up designers, and welcome back to Rempton Games. When designing a trading card game it’s important to be able to design fun, powerful cards – but equally important is knowing what types of cards NOT to design. In today’s TCG Design Academy we are going to be looking at some of the most broken cards, decks, and combos from various trading card games to see what makes them tick and why they…

Pokemon is the biggest media franchise on the entire planet, but this was far from guaranteed. The development of Pokemon Red and Green was full of challenges, and any one of them could have spelled failure for the entire project.

Did you know at one point Pokemon Red and Green were only going to include 30 different Pokemon? Or that one of the designers of Pikachu liked him so much that he intentionally made him hard to find, because he didn’t want anybody else to catch one? Or that in the middle of development all of the programmers quit at the same time, and all of the data was almost lost because nobody else in the…

Homebrewing a Symbiote Subclass for Dungeons and Dragons

Inspired by the Witcher series of novels, the game of Gwent has undergone lots of changes over the past several years. In this video I look at the history and evolution of this game, and give my thoughts on the design.

What’s up designers, and welcome back to Rempton Games. Today I want to take a look at Gwent, the fictional card game from the Witcher universe that was turned into a standalone TCG. I’m going to be talking about the inspiration behind the game, the various different versions of it, and giving my thoughts on the game design behind it. Remember to hit that like button if you want me to break down…

After making 8 videos about Pokemon design I decided to try it for myself! I took suggestions from Reddit (along with a few of my own ideas), and came up with 5 new designs. What Pokemon should I redesign next?

After making 8 videos about Pokemon design I decided to try it for myself! I took suggestions from Reddit (along with a few of my own ideas), and came up with 5 new designs. What Pokemon should I redesign next?

Welcome to a new series, where I will be looking at the design challenges behind Trading Card Games, and how to solve them. Today's episode looks at one of the most fundamental issues that can affect any TCG - the Queen's Problem.

Transcript: What’s up designers, and welcome back to Rempton Games. Today is the first in a new series on this channel – TCG Design academy. Trading card games are a genre that is near and dear to my heart, but they are also one of the most difficult types of tabletop games to design, right next to legacy games and tabletop RPGs. In this series I will be examining the design of these games,…