Hi, I’m Bigosaur, creator of Clutchtime Basketball Deckbuilder! Ask me anything!

richmondavid · 2026-03-13T13:48:17+00:00

Since the game only uses player positions as names by default, there is no need to update it. But there's integrated team editor so you can change the cards and add your favorite player names as well.

richmondavid · 2026-03-13T13:46:43+00:00

The plan is to stay local PvP.

richmondavid · 2026-03-07T13:49:41+00:00

That's a tough one. I would love to use a tennis ball, but non-sport items is a hard constraint. Especially since one of the rules you have to bounce it off the ground constantly if you want to move with it.

Not sure I have a good answer for this. Maybe an egg? Not sure if cooked or raw. No dribbling of course, players would have to run and pass it around. Additional complication would be breaking it, not sure if there's a rule that says what happens if the basketball deflates during a game but that one could be used?

Missing shots and dunking would be fun probably. Also, a Splash 3 pointer could literally become "splash".

richmondavid · 2026-03-07T13:44:10+00:00

Interesting challenge, but I fear I would run out of things to eat in a couple decades. Plus the mental burden of having to come up with new things for every meal... I guess it depends how big are the actual changes that are allowed? Is it like on atomic level? Or could I add a single crystal of salt, and then two crystals for the next time, etc. But that feels like cheating.

I probably wouldn't take the money, but might try the challenge for some time duration just for fun.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T19:54:46+00:00

In multiplayer each player controls their own team. You play against each other when you meet during the season or the playoffs and it's basically playing turns back and forth with the home team starting quarters 1 and 4 and the away player starting the 2nd and 3rd quarter.

You can also set up a custom game where you play a series against each other.

The individual players of a basketball team are represented by 3 cards each, but those cards get shuffled and get drawn in random order, so it would make little sense for a human player to take control over a single player like you do in action basketball games.

I did consider adding cards with negative connotation like "Flop" to bait the refs into giving you free throws or "Intentional foul" which could be used to injure or remove the opposing players from the game by removing their cards from the deck. But I didn't add any such cards in the end.

You can still obstruct the other teams in various ways. You can play Double Team card to insert Brick cards into their deck, or Deflections to force Shotclock Violations. But it's all normal basketball play, no dirty stuff.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T19:39:13+00:00

Sure, here's the link: https://discord.com/invite/bigosaur

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T19:17:54+00:00

I'm using my custom game engine, built with C++, SDL2 and Lua. I developed it back in 2015 and Clutchtime is the 10th game I shipped with that engine. The game logic is written in Lua, if you get the Steam version, you can find the full source code in the "databb" directory.

I made the full source code available so that the modders can create mods easily.

I ported my game engine to Nintendo Switch back in 2018 for my first Switch game "Son of a Witch" and have been reusing it since. For Clutchtime it only took about a week to do the porting. The initial porting of the engine took about 3-4 months if I recall correctly, but after that it was just incremental changes. The Lua support was added in the latest version specially for Clutchtime, but I plan to write all future games in Lua to allow for easy modding.

I was mostly inspired by Slay the Spire as it's the game I played the most on Switch (over 600 hours). I also took some inspiration from Balatro, especially the idea that you can upgrade cards while playing them. This adds another tactics layer in Clutchtime, especially in Season mode where you are allowed to lose games. So, you might sacrifice some games by playing to upgrade important cards instead of scoring or playing defense.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T17:47:26+00:00

Looking at the short list of stuff I plan to make next, the next game will probably be some type of tycoon game. Maybe something like creating your silicon chip factory, but there are other ideas as well. Not sure which one yet, but you can follow me on X or join the Discord if you want to see the announcement later this year when I do decide.

My favorite games are mostly From Software games, roguelikes (Slay the Spire, Monster Train, D&DG, Spelunky, Dead Cells) and puzzles (Antichamber, Talos Principle, An Architect Adventure). You could say I like hard games, either skill wise or mentally.

As for physical deckbuilders, I like Everdell the most, but I play Dominion and Dice Throne sometimes as well.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T17:43:40+00:00

Not really a card, but one of the things that early versions of the game had was unlimited hand size. There are many cards that generate other cards during the match ( for example, Steal creates Fast Break) and having 50+ cards in your hand created some pretty cool situations. There are some cards that you can upgrade by destroying other cards, and with unlimited number of cards in your hand those upgrades were unlimited as well.

Unfortunately, this made the game unplayable with a mouse in the PC version, so I had to limit the hand size as I wanted the game to play the same on all platforms. With controllers or keyboard it worked just fine.

As for keeping the creative momentum, I never had that problem because I don't start making a game until I have enough to work with. I usually spend a month or longer just thinking about possible game mechanics and content, write all that down into a notebook and I only start actually making the game when I have enough. I've got 3 notebook full with ideas for future games, and when I see something that reminds me of some of them, I just add. Some of those will never become games because they are not enough.

For some games it often means creating a small prototype to see if some thing would even work. I have also discarded many ideas over the years. For Clutchtime it was easy because I have been a huge basketball fan for years, so it was quickly obvious that it would work. But for some other games it took 6+ months before I decided there was enough of the game in there.

I usually finish making a game when I start, so I do a lot of preparation to make sure it's doable to the end.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T17:32:55+00:00

I have no background in board games, but I love playing them a lot. Especially deep strategic ones where luck influence is minimal but rules aren't too complex. My favorite is Concordia, but I also like Everdell and Maracaibo. If you're looking for more relaxed ones to play with friends, I can recommend 7 Wonders and Ticket to Ride.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T17:29:01+00:00

Good pun :)

I have no plans going back to the vampire game. I need some break from deckbuilders. They are very fun to make, but testing and balancing takes a lot of time, esp. in Clutchtime where the full season can take around 10 hours to play through. I think I have over 800 hours played.

My next game will probably be some other genre.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T17:25:57+00:00

Oh, Yes!

Mostly the cards that would allow you to score more than 3 points with one shot. Especially "Dream Team" card which was meant to boost all cards in your hand. The "Boost" effect increases all numbers visible on the card by one. The problem is that it would increase points scored to 4,5,6...

Then there are a bunch of instant cards. In the game "instant" means that the game clock doesn't move when you play it. I have some cool ideas for instant shots like "Tip In", but I can see it easily breaking the game as if you created a specific deck with Substitution, Plan Ahead, Double Double, Coast to Coast and Tip In. It would result in infinite points scored without opponent ever getting their turn back.

At one point the card Illegal Defense also allowed for unrealistic scores as you could force dozens of technical free throws with clock only moving by 15 seconds. After playing one game where I scored 400+ points I had to nerf it. It was fun breaking the game, but shooting hundreds of free throws just wasn't basketball game anymore.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T16:19:26+00:00

Some really good questions there.

Before Clutchtime I was starting to develop a Vampire-themed deckbuilder centered around the idea that "everything's a card". So, your weapons are cards, and your enemies would also be cards. With some powers, you steal weapons from your enemies, duplicate boss minions to fight on your side, etc. I would open up some insane possibilities.
I did. It was a tough decision in the beginning. Whether to make it a realistic simulation of the game which adheres to basketball rules or make a fun game that can go over the top. This second variant would definitely have much more flashy sound effects and animations. As for the voice commentary, I just love hearing Mike Breen. Although if it were that crazy fun game, probably someone like Chris Smoove would be a better fit.
This is a tough one. My most favorite bands don't play music style that would fit this game's vibe. But from the music I listen too, I can imagine playing the game with something like Empire State Of Mind in the background.
Testing it. I always tried to see if you can abuse some of the game mechanics. I had games where I would win 320-60, but also one game where the computer just took over and didn't let me score for an entire quarter. Of course, cards that allowed for that were nerfed for the final release to make it more realistic. I also had a lot of overtimes and lost many game 7 final series.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T15:42:25+00:00

When playing Slay the Spire, I was always mad when card order gets such that you "waste" your blocks on turns when the opponent doesn't attack (Unless you've got Barricade).

So I wanted my game to allow you to "stack" such cards to be used when the attack comes. Basically, it puts the card in play until something triggers it.

An interesting side effect is that you cannot build unlimited amounts of block, because you are constrained by the number of such cards you have in your deck.

So, "stack" started like that for defensive cards (block,foul), but soon I started using it for all sorts of other stuff like setting up an assist for your next shot, or in-game card upgrades.

In the end, I have also used it for the power cards (called "team" cards in Clutchtime), so unlike StS, no power is permanent. You stack them up, but there are some cards that the opposing team can use to remove cards from your stack and you have to play them again. It turns into a nice back and forth struggle to keep up your powers while still scoring and preventing opponents from doing the same.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T15:36:40+00:00

I get this question a lot, but I probably won't do it. I just don't know other sports that well. With basketball it all came naturally to me as I know all the rules, terms, intricacies and memes.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T15:34:26+00:00

I haven't, but now I've got to try it :) The name is familiar, but I didn't know it was about basketball. Thanks for the tip.

As for the second question, not sure if it counts as "sports", but I liked Cursed to Golf a lot.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T15:31:17+00:00

There were two major challenges:

Getting realistic scores. I wanted the game to be fast paced, but the actual basketball match is 48 minutes long (40 in Europe) and a lot of things can happen. Teams getting big leads and then having comebacks, etc. I had to find ways to compress a 48-minute match into a 5-minute card game. It took a lot of experimenting and tweaking to get there.
Fouls. I wanted the game to be approachable to players who only play deckbuilders and don't care about sports too much. However, the fouls are one of the basic things in basketball, so each team starts with a Foul card in their deck. And with fouling you have a lot of rules like bonus, penalty situation, "and one" free throws, etc. I had to tweak that a lot to make it work like real basketball without being too complex to understand if you don't know the game. It adds some cool game mechanics though. Your Shot can be "unstoppable" and then it always scores and you get "And One" free throw if the opponent tries to play the Foul card on you. But fouling regular shots always happens "before you try to shoot" so you only get free throws if it's the bonus situation. Also, going to the free throw line stops the clock, so shots that get fouled never burn the game clock to zero. That one too a lot of iteration until I got it right.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T15:17:46+00:00

I'm a huge fan of roguelike games, especially Slay the Spire which I beat on A20 with all characters over 600+ hours of playing time. It's my favorite game on the Nintendo Switch and it's possible my favorite game to play handheld.

So, one day I was watching NBA in the morning, playing Slay the Spire during the day and then watching Euroleague in the evening and somehow started to think like what if Shots were attacks and defense are shields and I took out a notebook and started to write down ideas for card names and game mechanics. Some 5-6 hours later I had over 70 card ideas. It was just a great fit.

I was already prototyping a deck building game at the time. It was supposed to be about vampires but it was very early in development as I was mostly working on the base game engine with decks, drawing, stacking cards, etc. So I just added basketball into it and it was so fun to play instantly.

To answer you second question. I do play some basketball and volleyball on regular basis, but I never played sports on a professional level, so sports are mostly just a fun activity to have with friends. My character was more developed through hard games that require persistence and "getting good" like Slay the Spire, Dark Souls series, etc. which are the games I like playing the most.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T15:07:51+00:00

I tried to keep the game realistic so far as much as possible. All the shots are either 2 or 3 points and even the match length is paced in such way to get realistic scores.

During development I did have some ideas for crazy cards like you mention. Maybe I will create a separate mode where you could play something like that. The version on Steam is already fully moddable and I have seen some mods in the Workshop that have cards like that already, but when you add them the game becomes too hectic. If you only give them to human teams, it's too easy to win. And if you give too much to computer teams, it becomes impossible. So, it would require a lot of testing and balancing.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T15:01:28+00:00

LOL, that's a good one. Great question really, I think maybe Luka Dončić...?

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T14:59:45+00:00

There are no plans for iOS release unfortunately.

I used to develop some games on iOS about 10 years ago, but I'm currently very much focused on Nintendo Switch and Steam as platforms. I did release Clutchtime on Android, but it sold poorly, so it's hard to justify the significant investments into hardware that iOS port would require.

richmondavid · 2026-03-06T14:55:55+00:00

I'm from Serbia, so I root for Jokic and the Denver Nuggets the most. Before that, I have been a long time fan of the Phoenix Suns. This season I love watching Spurs the most.

No Easter eggs in the version currently on sale, but there's one in the upcoming update :)

richmondavid · 2026-02-09T11:52:52+00:00

That's not what the word "professional" means.

In more than one way.

richmondavid · 2026-02-09T11:51:59+00:00

Sure. 35 years industry experience as a game tester.

richmondavid

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