Game Maker's Notebook
Game Maker's Notebook
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
Slay the Spire 2 and Building the Deckbuilder Genre with Mega Crit's Casey Yano
1 hour 36 minutes Posted Aug 24, 2026 at 5:00 am.
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Show notes

Karrie Shao chats with Mega Crit Games Co-Founder Casey Yano. Together they discuss developing the Slay the Spire series which helped kick off the deckbuilder genre; design pillars and an emphasis on clear information; how streamers picking it up lead to its meteoric rise; what they added to the formula in Slay the Spire II and how they implemented coop; how they parse feedback; and what happened when they upset a large portion of their Chinese audience.

This episode is supported by 

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Episode Host: Karrie Shao

Producers: Claudio Tapia and Josh Chu, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences

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