Hubris, Bluffing, and Large Numbers: Exploring Push Your Luck

My Roguelike Celebration 2026 talk recording is now live! This was kind of a weird one for me, I pitched a talk on push your luck games and then embarked on a large and still unannounced design project that pushed my brain and design thinking in all sorts of different ways. When I came back to the talk I felt like I wanted to take it in a different direction than my original intent, and honestly I think it's a lot better for it. The talk is about nominally push your luck, and I think through three games (Blackjack, Skull, Can't Stop) that I feel exemplify certain 'flavors' of push your luck. These flavors come down to how the player experiences uncertainty in those games. With that in mind I turn to how lots of other games exhibit those kinds of uncertainties in all sorts of different ways, and give rise to the feeling that push your luck is in a lot more places than is typically discussed. I hope it's helpful or enjoyable!

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