When I first heard about Pendulum from Design Day attendees, I was curious but hesitant about the “real time” element of the game. If you’re like me, when you hear “real time,” you think about frantic, hectic, stressful moments as the timer ticks down. A race against time. That’s not the case in Pendulum.
I think it’s more accurate to say that Pendulum is “a turnless worker-placement game featuring simultaneous play.” Players are weighing the cost/benefit analysis of placing workers on actions where they’ll remain longer (and get better benefits) versus actions where they’ll be available sooner (and get weaker benefits). That’s why I’ve compared to it to Tzolk’in, one of my favorite games.