I'm really into campaign games. I love playing something where one game has a consequence on the next session, even if they're very mild or mostly just perception. The continuity of a campaign makes each individual game the greater than the sum of it's parts.
As a result, I spend a lot of time thinking about them because I also do a lot of developing them. And something I've been thinking about a lot lately is the way that you score in these campaigns, the way that score is distributed throughout the course of playing it, and how this influences the experience. In this post I'm just going to discuss a few of these ideas in a typically harebrained manner as I attempt to make sense of these thoughts and distill them into something potentially useful. Review of last week. Outer Dark
I am incapable of designing a game that is respectful about consuming small amounts of space and still being interesting. I don't generally like games that use the very artificial-feeling "one page" restrictions, but that's not even what I really mean; I'm referring to the amount of physical space a game needs when played. Maybe it's because we just end up using whatever space is available, but it seems like every game I own ends up taking almost the entire kitchen table over when I play it, regardless of how much space it seems like it might require. I remember when I was initially writing Split Second thinking "this game should have a pretty small footprint!", but then with four range bands stacked vertically, that was certainly untrue.
So this is something else I'd like to explore; designing games that don't always use tons of space. Czech in on last week...
Outer Dark
Two for two, got a lot done on testing this week! I remember the first game wargame I played that really split the accuracy and damage of attacks into two separate categories was Warmachine. A lot of things about those early days of WM blew me away (I remember seeing a warjack get slammed in a demo game and instantly buying two starter boxes), but the most lasting thing has probably been the division of an attack's likelihood of hitting and it's actual effect once it does. As time passes and I experience more games, I've remained fond of this mechanic because it allows for clear differentiation of attacks. However, I've become less attached to the accuracy/damage paradigm as I come to accept new ways to abstract it, and also get more interested in shifting away from using attacks for "damage" in the strict sense and more towards "effects". In this article I want to ramble about how to make different weapons, or I guess abilities in the broadest sense, feel different. Being this consistent doesn't make for exciting updates. Goals for December 4 to 11:
Outer Dark
I did some other hobby stuff because of delays, so here;s some fun photos to spice up the poast: I've discussed that I think support for solitaire gamers is important. Part of this is that I'm a big solo gamer myself: I just don't like videogames all that much anymore because I'm sick of looking at screens all the time. I love physical games because they tend to be run off simple engines that are transparent, and don't come with a lot of the baggage of modern games like grinding, lootboxes, and microtransactions. Usually, when you guy a game, it's complete, and to play it you have to understand it, so it can only be so complex.
But I also like designing player-versus-player wargames. I've only written one "pure" solitaire game, Split Second. All my other solo projects are modules for player-versus-player games, which makes them harder to design. But when I write a game from the ground up and test the two in concert like I'm doing with Afterglow, this creates an interesting bit of tension where the one aspect of the design can potentially influence the other. BACK TO "WORK" THIS WEEK. I took a pretty serious 'vacation' from game development and didn't spend any time at all working on my own games. Instead, I focused on playing some other games I'd built up and even engaged with some of my other hobbies. I played video games and stuff. A lot of Gloomhaven. That kind of thing. It was a good break but I'm also looking forward to returning to my goals for the week, which should be fairly predictable still... Goals for Jan. 4 to Jan 11Outer Dark
I don't have any other projects on the go right now and I'm trying really hard to stay focused on these two until at least one is done. I think Outer Dark is getting there, and I might be finished with it very soon, after while I'll jump onto another project or just do a bunch of work on UV at once. It would be nice to finish three games this year, and it's very possible. Afterglow and Outer Dark can be published as a package, and Uncommon Valor can come after that. But, given the unpredictability of social schedules this year, who knows how feasible some of this will be. |
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