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…

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!…

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…