tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58469582839783408222024-02-07T21:44:56.158-08:00Orin Bishop Rambles About GamesOrin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.comBlogger175125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-22891501375957445312017-07-18T14:48:00.003-07:002017-07-20T14:29:27.867-07:00♫ Where have all the Orin gone? ♫Greetings, super-friends!<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
While I continue to share and produce random content in my spare time, over the past few years much of that has moved onto <a href="https://www.facebook.com/orinbishopgames"><span style="color: blue;">Facebook</span></a>, YouTube (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCec0KvKSMUQShvUhI4IUUUA"><span style="color: blue;">Obsidian Orphan</span></a>) and now <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/wireless-game-adapter/id1260123298" style="color: blue;">iTunes</a> (and <a href="https://wirelessgameadapter.podiant.co/" style="color: blue;">Podiant</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Ijysqz6kpecmjckechhr2ae24l4"><span style="color: blue;">Google Play</span></a>) with my <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/wireless-game-adapter/id1260123298" style="color: blue;">Wireless Game Adapter podcast</a> (check it out! Tell a friend!)<br />
<br />
If you're on Facebook,
please like <a href="https://www.facebook.com/orinbishopgames"><span style="color: blue;">my page</span></a> to keep up with my doings on the internet (such as this <a href="https://flicksxrayed.com/2017/06/20/jurassic-park-1993-season-02-episode-02/"><span style="color: blue;">guest spot</span></a> I did recently discussing Jurassic Park), and with game projects in the works (such as the upcoming Steampunk Rally Expansion!)<br />
<br />
I might well update this blog in future if I feel so inspired, but until then:<br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yOnG4BzRzPs" width="560"></iframe>Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-46330678783215044882015-12-21T10:13:00.002-08:002015-12-22T19:48:28.667-08:00Star Wars Episode VII Review: The New Hope AwakensAfter watching <i>Episode VII - The Force Awakens</i>, it was clearer to me than ever that the crucial missing element of the prequels was the fun interplay between the main heroes. Many aspects of the prequels are compelling as pulp adventure, but the flat direction and dialogue makes them feel sort of awkward and lifeless ("I love you because you're not like sand."). In <i>Episode VII</i> the characters bounce against each other in interesting ways, and are simply fun to watch.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, <i>Episode VII</i> made me appreciate Lucas' boldness a bit more. He may have gone overboard on fan-service now and then (like WAAY overboard), but he did try to make something fresh and new, whereas the plot of <i>Episode VII</i> is basically a carbon copy of <i>Episode IV - A New Hope</i>.<br />
<br />
Summary with <span style="color: red;">*spoilers*</span>:<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Arriving in a Star Destroyer, the Evil Empire, led by an
ominous masked Dark Jedi dressed in black, wreak havoc on the rebel defenders. But
before being captured a Rebel Leader manages to put the critical info they are
looking for in the care of a cute Droid who is sent away to wander a Desert
Planet. The Droid is captured by a junker but our Hero, who has lived on this
planet since childhood and knows its dangers, rescues it and brings it back to
their humble abode. Meanwhile the Rebel Leader is tortured by the dark Jedi.<br />
<br />
The Hero is forced to leave their flawed but familiar life when the Evil Empire
attacks their home, and joins with a wise old Mentor who tells them about the force. The
Hero is exposed to the weirdness of the wider galaxy at a space-port cantina
filled with bizarre aliens, and are spotted by a spy who alerts the Evil Empire.<br />
<br />
After the Evil Empire demonstrates the power of their Death Star by destroying
the home of the Rebel Leader, the heroes sneak aboard on a rescue mission. They
succeed, but the wise old Mentor is struck down by his once-ally, the Dark
Jedi.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Compelled to flee by the death of their mentor, the hero
escapes but must later confront the Dark Jedi on the surface of the Death Star.
By using the force, the Hero prevails and escapes the exploding death star,
with an assist by the Millennium Falcon. Back at the Rebel Base there is much
celebration, and Chewbacca’s contribution is largely ignored.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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<br />
[/end <span style="color: red;">spoilers</span>]<br />
<br />
Obviously I'm exaggerating the similarities for effect (though not all that much really). Things diverge here and there, and my hope is that J.J.'s intention was to bring everything back to square one, sort of wipe the slate clean, before romping off on new space adventures.<br />
<br />
Definitely there is a lot that's done right. Abrams captures the tone of the originals, and the action is fun and intentionally a bit sloppy since we aren't dealing with perfect Jedi monks (one of the best action beats in the prequels in my opinion is the clumsy struggle with Obi-Wan and Jango Fett slipping around in the rain). There were also lots of other little homages scattered throughout which frequently delighted me (though at times the references seemed to come every few seconds, which drew me out of the moment).<br />
<br />
Certainly the overwhelming similarities with A New Hope are intentional. Lucas himself had the idea that the prequels would <a href="http://www.starwarsringtheory.com/"><span style="color: blue;">"rhyme" with the originals</span></a>, yet this becomes a delicate balancing act. Reincorporation creates connectedness and familiarity, but also staleness and predictability. J.J. Abrams understands the value of mystique and the unexplained, and the best parts of <i>Episode VII</i> are the new and strange, and the hints at larger stories and mysteries. (Han Solo confronted by the Greedo equivalents, angry Irish man and space Yakuzah, was definitely my favorite moment, and captured everything I love about Star Wars.)<br />
<br />
I'm eager to see where Rian Johnson takes us next, and I sincerely hope that this first film is used as a launchpad to explore a broader Star Wars universe, rather than successive entries simply wallowing in fan service (*cough*<i>Star Trek Into Darkness</i>*cough*). Joss Whedon has repeatedly proven that fan expectation can be leveraged to subvert and surprise, rather than simply appease.<br />
<br />
I'm not ready to call him Jar Jar Abrams just yet. In some ways <i>Episode VII</i> is a great Star Wars movie. I'm just not sure it will ultimately be anyone's favorite Star Wars movie.<br />
<br />
Or maybe it will. <i>Star Trek Into Darkness</i> might be someone's favorite Star Trek movie if they haven't seen <i>Wrath of Khan</i>.Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-40738684349984531072015-09-22T00:39:00.000-07:002015-09-22T00:39:16.638-07:00The Good, The Board, and The UglyThe awesome folks at <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://goodboardugly.podbean.com/">The Good, The Board, and The Ugly</a></span> podcast were kind enough to request I join them on their <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://goodboardugly.podbean.com/e/the-good-the-board-and-the-jiggly-episode-38-interview-with-steampunk-rally-designer/">latest episode</a></span>. I had a blast talking about <i>Steampunk Rally</i> and a number of other games.Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-82990268713038099982015-09-09T18:00:00.001-07:002015-09-09T18:00:47.938-07:00New YouTube Channel: Obsidian OrphanLately I've been working on a few nerdy mashup songs, and I've created <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCec0KvKSMUQShvUhI4IUUUA/feed"><span style="color: blue;">a YouTube channel</span></a> to showcase them. I chose the name "Obsidian Orphan" because it's a cool anagram of my full name.<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">That's right, my middle name is Naad.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">My middle name is Dana.</span>Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-71959916053873018542015-09-09T14:19:00.000-07:002015-09-09T14:20:09.700-07:00Steampunk Rally: Dice Tower ReviewCopies of Steampunk Rally have been arriving at peoples' doorsteps and I'm very pleased at how well it's been received. Early Kickstarter hype always artificially inflates a games boardgamegeek rating, but I'm pleased that we actually got a nice bump when people started actually playing the game.<br />
<br />
After all these Steampunk Rally posts, I imagine you've either ordered the game already or tuned out in disgust, but if you're still on the fence you can check out this comprehensive review from the Dice Tower network. I'm a bit sad Tom Vasel himself didn't give his thoughts, but I'm pleased by what was put together here and very happy that people are having fun with the 8-player mode.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yQYUjzQ2hS0" width="560"></iframe>Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-75660742724501320502015-08-11T13:55:00.000-07:002015-08-11T13:55:04.120-07:00Steampunk Rally: Tutorial VideoCopies of Steampunk Rally are well on their way to backers and should start arriving this month!<br />Prepare your body, mind, and spirit with this how-to-play video:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FIYcKIFsNK8" width="560"></iframe>Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-24676390627983508902015-06-08T15:54:00.001-07:002015-06-08T15:54:15.297-07:00"Have you considered the cost of such a machine?"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/8506546688/h12D54CD5/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/8506546688/h12D54CD5/" /></a></div>
<br />Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-78868823131347015132015-06-06T16:27:00.000-07:002015-06-06T16:27:19.150-07:00Orin's Turnip Thyme Chicken Sausage TimeI'm not a huge potato guy. Honestly I prefer turnips and feel they are underrated. But then I also don't like <i><a href="http://orinbishop.blogspot.ca/2012/02/hundredth-post11one.html"><span style="color: blue;">Mario 3</span></a></i> so what do I know?<br /><br />-For this one, you're going to slice a purple top turnip into relatively thin slices, like the width of about four bar coasters. Not like the thick cork ones, why would you assume I meant those? Chop up an onion and start frying the turnip and the onion together at medium heat with a dab of butter so nothing sticks.<br /><br />-Add a healthy amount of paprika and about a teaspoon of sugar, and mix in some spices to taste. I used a bit of salt, pepper, garlic, savory, basil, thyme and mustard powder. I'll probably play around with these, the sugar's important though because it nicely balances the strong turnip flavor. I also added a bit of hot pepper, but this is optional.<br /><br />-Stir semi-regularly. When the turnip is soft and the onions are clear, add some chicken sausage to the pan. I had little ones, but if you have a larger sausage then cut it into bite-size chunks. Or at least don't take it out in public.<br /><br />-Stir once more and enjoy your smug superiority over potato people (and/or people who prefer potatoes).<br /><br />Takes about an hour depending on how soft you like your turnips. Yields about 3 servings.<br /><br />Did you ever try adding an egg to the boiling water when making cheap cup ramen? It is not related to this recipe but it is a superior method of consuming cheap cup ramen.Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-2560002247671823612015-04-06T12:52:00.000-07:002015-04-06T18:24:56.397-07:00Orin's Orange Pepper Rosé Rice Pasta Recipe<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
My girlfriend seems to function better
when she avoids eating gluten, so we've been playing around with<span style="font-family: inherit;"> some
re</span>cipes that avoid wheat, and I concocted one yesterday that we both
agreed was worth sharing. The meatballs (Swedish) a<span style="font-family: inherit;">nd <em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">rosé</span></span></em>
sauce I u</span>sed was store bought. (Also this would work fine with
regular pasta I'm sure, but that might result in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1AoOJtkmHM"><span style="color: blue;">horrific and NSFW consequences</span></a>.)</div>
<ol>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
</ol>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
-Bake about three handfuls of
meatballs. (A "handful" is a scientific term for a "thwack.")</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
-Boils some brown rice pasta. (Ours
didn't expand much, so you should probably put in more than you
think you need, and it takes a fair bit of boiling.) Drain pasta
when it's desirably droopy, drizzle with olive oil (to keep it from
sticking) and a pinch of salt and mix.</div>
<ol start="0">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
</ol>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
-In a p<span style="font-family: inherit;">an <em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">sauté</span></span></em><span style="color: black;">
</span>half a </span>copped union, a bit of green onion, and a
bell pepper (an orange one will look nice). Onions should be
translucent but not burnt.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
-Add to pan m<span style="font-family: inherit;">eatballs, <em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: normal;">rosé</span></span></em>
sauce, a dash</span> of pepper to taste, a dash of powdered ginger, and a
very hot pepper. (The hot pepper I used was from the deli and stuffed
with feta cheese, the both of us agreed that it was virtually
inedible on its own, so I removed the also extremely hot feta and
sprinkled it on the dish.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
-Stir intermittently for a few minutes over medium to high heat,
then remove hot pepper. Serve over pasta (make sure both are still
warm).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Takes about a half hour to prepare. Yields approximately 3 servings
depending on hunger level.</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I would have liked to include a picture
as the dish was quite attractive as well as being delicious, but we
gobbled it down immediately before the idea of posting it came up. Also since the hot pepper was only simmered for a bit and then removed, the dish isn't very spicy at all (and probablly wouldn't be described as "spicy" by someone who didn't see the hot pepper go in), but along with the ginger it gives a little kick.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Also if you stick the green union bases in water and leave them near sunlight, they will regrow and you can have LIMITLESS ONIONS! Bye-bye costly onion bills, hello sensible onion bills!</div>
Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-40002734005998714972015-02-09T14:10:00.001-08:002015-02-09T14:10:42.498-08:00Le GouffreOne of my uber-talented artists on <i>Steampunk Rally</i>, David Forest, has just released a <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://legouffre.com/">jaw-dropping animated short</a></span> two years in the making. Give it a watch!<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/118471437?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&badge=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe>Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-4970421177818919362015-01-15T16:20:00.002-08:002015-01-15T16:21:14.836-08:00Heart of Crown Review: Goofus and Gallant<i><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/131904/heart-crown">Heart of Crown</a></i> sports one of those euphonious names that only seem to result from sketchy Japanese-to-English translations (I just watched an episode of an anime that included the line "please stop the mystic power generator," spoken with great earnestness of course). It belongs to the "deck building" family of games which began with <i><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36218/dominion"><span style="color: blue;">Dominion</span></a></i> in 2008. The core idea of deck building, acquiring cards throughout play to beef up the awesomeness and combo-potential of your deck, has been taken in a lot of different directions since that unarguably seminal game: <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/123499/city-iron"><span style="color: blue;">steampunk economics</span></a>, a global warming <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/41933/arctic-scavengers"><span style="color: blue;">post-apocalypse</span></a>, epic <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/147020/star-realms"><span style="color: blue;">space battles</span></a>, the <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/79828/few-acres-snow"><span style="color: blue;">struggle for Canada</span></a>, and <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/129437/legendary-marvel-deck-building-game"><span style="color: blue;">superhero punching</span></a> (or <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/146652/legendary-encounters-alien-deck-building-game"><span style="color: blue;">Alien punching</span></a>, if you prefer). <i>Heart of Crown</i> may at first glance appear regressive since it hews more closely to the original <i>Dominion</i> than any other subsequent effort in terms of both theme and general mechanics. However, labeling it a <i>Dominion</i> knock-off would be a great disservice once you realize that it addresses each of <i>Dominion</i>'s failings in a highly direct and effective manner, elegantly bending those flaws into powerful assets ...like Batman.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Actions</b><br />
A minor annoyance in <i>Dominion</i> is remembering how many actions you have left to play. Several cards give you additional actions, and then of course those cards require an action to play, so the math gets... yeach. It's not gamebreaking or anything, but it means a lot of counting on your fingers, which can be detrimental to managing a hand of cards (and Marduk help you if you lose count and have to retrace your steps).<br />
<br />
<i>Heart of Crown</i> neatly solves this by simply putting an arrow on the right edge of cards that don't require an action, and a second arrow on the bottom edge of cards that grant an additional action, and require that each card (after the first) must be played with a arrow pointing to it. It's extremely intuitive, involves no counting, and also makes it easy for opponents to check your "math," and it allows the designers to easily balance the various card powers by simply giving them different numbers of arrows without requiring reams of extra text and rules exceptions for what does and doesn't require an action to play. (The arrow icon could be slightly clearer though, it blends in a bit until you know what you're looking for.)<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Chaff</b><br />
<i>Dominion</i> utilized a clever system of adding purchased "Victory Point" cards to your deck, creating a catch-up dynamic wherein the players with the most points by necessity also have the most cludged-up decks, and forcing the players to make tough choices between improving their deck's functionality or actually gaining points. The problem is that the actual experience of drawing a hand full of useless 6-VP province cards is dull at best and incredibly frustrating at worst.<br />
<br />
<i>Heart of Crown</i> expands on this dynamic to create difficult in-the-moment tactical choices. If you draw a hand with points cards, you can "bank" these cards and get them out of your deck (and in fact only banked cards add to your score), but you can't purchase any cards that turn. So a hand full of points cards, rather than a wasted turn, feels like an efficient opportunity to bank, and a hand with some useful cards and some points cards suddenly offers an agonizing choice rather than merely an inefficient turn. Furthermore, this mechanic allows you to better slim and hone your deck, reducing late-game randomness.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Combos</b><br />
In <i>Dominion</i>, you can buy two cards that you intend to play off each other, and then proceed to never ever draw them both in the same hand.<br />
<br />
In <i>Heart of Crown</i>, you can stow action cards for use on later turns (depending on how awesome your "kingdom" is).<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Market</b><br />
In <i>Dominion</i>, all the purchasable cards are available right at the start of the game. This reduces randomness and allows for lots of long-term planning, but it also makes the turn-to-turn decisions less interesting since you mostly know what will be available and don't really need to react on the fly. An experienced <i>Dominion</i> player can look at any card setup and immediately say "oh those three cards are going to combo well," and then proceed to pursue that theory and potentially make few to no further choices throughout the game (aside from paying attention to how fast other players are accelerating the endgame). Also having to try and internalize what every action card does right from turn-1 can be a bit daunting if you're at all inexperienced.<br />
<br />
Subsequent deck building games like <i>Ascension</i> and <i>Marvel Legendary</i> address this by having a limited selection of random cards to select from. This forces on-the-fly strategizing, but it also increases the random factor, and potentially limits the overall strategizing that a player can do. Heart of Crown finds an interesting middle ground wherein there are always eight different types of action cards available, but which cards and how many of each card shift over time, emphasizing both short and long-term planning (and also reducing setup time). I'm slightly concerned that, because you see a bigger portion of the action cards every game, certain combos might become known and always exploited when possible, but there are expansions to remedy that.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Maids</b><br />
<i>Dominion</i> did not feature adorable anime handmaiden cards.<br />
<br />
<i>Heart of Crown</i> addresses this by featuring adorable anime handmaiden cards.<br />
<br />
<br />
In summary, <i>Heart of Crown</i> is basically Dominion 2.0, and I mean this in the best way possible. <i>Dominion</i> itself is a brilliant, important and innovative game, and <i>Heart of Crown</i> brings a whole host of improvements to the table (and I didn't even get into the fascinating game of chicken involving the Princess powers). There's enough diversity in this genre to justify owning a few different deck building games; <i>Legendary Encounters</i> is a pretty different game from <i>A Few Acres of Snow</i>, for example. But to be honest, given the choice between <i>Dominion</i> and <i>Heart of Crown</i>, I would pick <i>Heart of Crown</i> every time.<br />
<br />
...sadly <i>Heart of Crown</i> is not available in English, and as far as I know there are no specific plans to remedy that, which renders this review ...entirely pointless! On the other hand, it gave me the opportunity to type the phrase "please stop the mystic power generator."Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-34631973029788400772015-01-11T22:02:00.003-08:002015-01-11T22:04:28.216-08:002,400 Free DOS Games!<span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.dosbox.com/">DOSBox</a></span> can be kind of a pain in the butt, and some DOS games had copy protection that was <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.toplessrobot.com/2011/09/the_5_most_hilarious_forms_of_software_copy_protec.php">just as irritating</a></span> as the stuff EA puts out (particularly when you don't have the instruction manual that came with <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.star-control.com/starmaps.php">the specific starmap</a></span> with the coordinates you need!). Luckily you can now <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.themarysue.com/internet-archive-dos-game-emulation/">play 2,400 classic DOS games</a></span> right in your browser for free! Let's celebrate videogame history by falling in love with dying of dysentery all over again.<!--3-->Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-81392611673254647612015-01-11T21:10:00.001-08:002015-01-11T21:47:06.576-08:00My Game Design Course (Winter 2015)In the Fall I ran a game design course in Mount Royal's continuing education department, and it went quite well! In class we developed a tabletop adaption of Minecraft and an interesting alternate-history WWII game which is still under development (among other things). I'll be doing another run-through on Tuesday nights starting February 3rd and running until March 7th (seven classes total). Course content will be similar to <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://orinbishop.blogspot.ca/2014/06/my-game-design-course.html">the first iteration</a></span>.<br />
<br />
If you're in Calgary and are interested in learning about game design, you can find the course on <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://mruweb.mymru.ca/flexreg/index.jsp?frc=CF">MRU's website</a></span> by searching Course Registration Number: 30941<br />
<br />
Spread the word, superfriends!Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-43565992256709767522015-01-05T15:40:00.001-08:002015-01-05T23:30:02.317-08:00Steampunk Rally - Most Anticipated Games of 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/003/109/343/fb9d5cc5cab99f3292977e4025ea5e0d_large.jpg?1420526527" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ksr/assets/003/109/343/fb9d5cc5cab99f3292977e4025ea5e0d_large.jpg?1420526527" width="243" /></a></div>
Voting is now open for boardgamegeek's most anticipated games of 2015, and Steampunk Rally has been nominated for seven categories. We're currently in the coveted top 20 overall, but it looks like it will be a tight race. If you have a moment before January 18th (and a bgg account), please consider <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/184508/20-most-anticipated-board-games-2015-voting-open-1">heading over</a></span> and voting for us! ...that is if Steampunk Rally is one of your most anticipated games of 2015. If not, then never mind. We hope to do better by you another year.<br />
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...awkward.Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-44853344609921400392014-12-12T13:29:00.001-08:002014-12-12T13:29:52.911-08:00Steampunk Rally - More Shameless Promotion!Steampunk Rally has been nominated on boardgamegeek as one of the most anticipated games of 2015, and right now it looks like we're at #6! If you want to <a href="https://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/182853/item/3595152#item3595152"><span style="color: blue;">go give it a thumb</span></a>, we could use a hand to push it over the top!<br /><br />I also did a followup to my <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/34862/orin-bishop-and-his-steampunk-rally"><span style="color: blue;">earlier interview</span></a> with The Inquisitive Meeple if you want to <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/36370/after-kickstarter-steampunk-rally"><span style="color: blue;">check that out</span></a>.<br />
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Currently we're hard at work playtesting the 16 unique inventor powers and the Hoverdrome so we can finalize the art for the print 'n play files. Hope you like them as much as we do :)Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-73163783698295712272014-12-08T15:33:00.000-08:002014-12-08T15:53:45.648-08:00Sonic Retrospective: Gotta Go Fast!<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I was raised as a Nintendo kid, so I
didn't really grow up on<span style="font-style: normal;"> Sonic The
Hedgehog. Sure I have a few fond memories of the Genesis games from
when I was younger, but mainly I was in the Mario camp. (Actually I
was in the </span><i>Donkey Kong Country</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
camp, but that's <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://orinbishop.blogspot.ca/2011/08/why-dkc-2-is-better-than-dkc-returns.html">another topic</a></span>.) It's widely accepted
among most gamers that Sonic games were fantastic until he tried to
go 3D and, to put it mildly, failed to make the transition with the
seemingly-effortless aplomb of Mario (though he undoubtedly fared
better than <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viCUneosjw4">some mascots</a></span>).</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Long ago I
played through and quite enjoyed </span><i>Sonic Adventure 2</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
but the other 3D entries I've attempted to play over the years,
specifically </span><i>Sonic Heroes</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
and </span><i>Sonic and the Secret Rings</i><span style="font-style: normal;">,
turned me off them faster than almost any other games I can remember.
</span><i>SatSR</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> was brave enough
to attempt adapting the formula to motion controls, which for me
wasn't the issue, nor did I have a problem with jumping required
first doing a ducking-slide-thing. The issue was that this pre-jump
slide thing, which you needed to do constantly, slowed Sonic's speed
to a crawl (thus making the jump feel pretty wimpy), and worse, it took him an extremely long time to
accelerate to full speed when allowed to run interrupted, making the
whole experience feel a bit like trying to run through molasses or
perhaps navigate rush-hour traffic.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-style: normal;">Sonic's
mission statement of going really fast was
originally a gimmick to sell kids on Sega's “<span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlulSyBI2aY">blast processing</a></span>” (which arguably was <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://segaretro.org/Blast_Processing">not a thing</a></span>). Leaving aside the issue that Sonic's capabilities don't really <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze_uxxFJTvE">measure up</a></span> to the hype, this focus on speed has been a constant difficulty in terms of game design. A fundamental issue has always been the struggle to find reasons for the player to actually <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://redlettermedia.com/pre-rec-sonic-the-most-overrated-game-ever/"><i>want </i>to go fast</a></span>. Like most platformers, the Genesis entries rewarded patience and precision (i.e. not barreling into enemies and spike traps), which made for enjoyable gameplay but sort of ran anathema to the alleged central concept. Over the years, Sonic Team clearly realized this issue and has attempted to resolve it in two ways: give players time restrictions (e.g. something chasing them or a reward/pat-on-the-back for finishing a level quickly), give Sonic abilities (like the spin attack and homing attack) that reduce his vulnerability while going fast (to try and counter the inherent loss of control and response time), and add on-rails section where players can "cut loose" and go really fast without worrying about randomly running into a hazard (popping up even in the early 2D entries as pipes and loops).</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-style: normal;">Which brings us to near-present day and the game that not-so-subtly prompted me to contemplate Sonic's history: <i>Sonic Generations</i>. Despite everything I'm going to say, the game's really not bad (certainly superior to <i><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-trek/star-trek-generations/">Star Trek: Generations</a></span></i>). There's obvious visible effort in terms of </span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">honoring the character's history (without <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://orinbishop.blogspot.ca/2010/08/sonic-doesnt-need-story.html">overly bogging it down</a></span> with drawn-out cutscenes), catchy </span>remixes of old songs, pleasingly rendered environments that pay homages to earlier entries and effortlessly transition between 2D and 3D, and even plenty of clever level design. Trust me, if Sonic Team were as incompetent as some people believe, these games would be virtually unplayable. It's obvious that they understand the difficulties associated with the character and continually work hard to try and ameliorate them. (In fact to be honest I'm having more fun with the 3D levels than the traditionalist 2D levels, which sort of runs counter to the popular narrative that the designers have somehow "lost their way" since transitioning to 3D, as does the lukewarm response to <i>Sonic the Hedgehog 4</i>.)</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-style: normal;">Yet those inherent Sonic-specific difficulties are definitely on display as well. In order to give that sense of speed, the game makes use of extended on-rails sections. I have no inherent objection to on-rails gameplay, in fact it can be <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://armorgames.com/play/1215/arcane-castle">extremely enjoyable</a></span>. The problem is that combining on-rails gameplay with regular gameplay poses a number of additional challenges. If a player's control is removed entirely (e.g. the Genesis pipe sections), the sections are basically nothing but cutscenes: flashy but meaningless, and <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://orinbishop.blogspot.ca/2012/11/scripted-emergent-narrative.html">devoid of actual tension</a></span>. But to give the player even a modicum of control invites the possibility of disaster. In one section of <i>Generations</i>, Sonic was intended to bounce off a spring and land on a grind rail, but because I was trying to help and was pushing the control stick towards the rail, Sonic somehow managed to overshoot it and die. As expected, on my second attempt Sonic made it onto the rail when I made no inputs with the controller. In essence, the game was punishing me for trying to play it at all. Yet just as often, Sonic will fall to his doom or barrel into an obstacle because I failed to give an input in time. Thus, like an ornery housecat, the frenetic action in the game has so far repeatedly come down to a central challenge of trying to deduce when the game wants me to play and when it wants me to leave it alone.</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-style: normal;">The other continued frustration in Sonic games throughout their history has been that the punishment for screwing up, aside from losing rings or potentially falling to one's doom, has been stopping Sonic dead in his tracks, which is extremely frustrating in a game about going fast. An important tenet of game design is that failure <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://diegoricchiuti.altervista.org/wordpress/?p=901">should be <i>fun</i></a></span>. It should be glorious and spectacular and perhaps darkly satisfying. But the way Sonic games punish you after every minor screw-up by abruptly halting the action is far too understated. Despite the power rings colorfully flying from Sonic's sprawled form (which does help a bit. Try and picture how jarring it would feel without the ring effect), the loss of momentum, in the context of a Sonic game, is anything but fun. It would be like if every missed note in <i>Guitar Hero</i> caused the music to momentarily halt rather than triggering entertainingly-dissonant notes to play. Instantly halting the action is the reason <i>Bit.Trip Runner</i> failed to reach the heights inherent in its premise (though <i>Rayman Legends</i> eventually <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpK-7IMeHGs">made good on the concept</a></span> simply by relaxing the required precision). Put more straightforwardly, it breaks flow. And by this point, Sonic Team must recognize that Sonic is best when he's going fast (*cough*werehog*cough*aka hedgewolf*). At slow speeds, his controls feel slippery, like he can't wait to get back on the open road.</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-style: normal;">Most platforming games don't suffer from these particular issues because they're not about going fast, but there is another genre that generally is: racing games. In <i>F-Zero GX</i>, a particular favorite of mine (and ironically published by SEGA), a player's race car is rarely stopped dead in its tracks (and if this does happen, the amusing novelty of it helps make up for the irritation). Instead, when a player screws up (e.g. runs into the side rails or other racers), they maintain much of their velocity but lose shields. Because the shields double as the boost gauge, the game tempts you into tense push-your-luck moments where the more you boost the more likely you are to run into obstacles <i>and </i>the more able to destroy you those obstacles become, so the central challenge becomes "how much?" which is a lot more interesting than Sonic's central challenge of "am I supposed to?" I've brought up the brilliance of this system <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://orinbishop.blogspot.ca/2014/10/steampunk-rally-designer-diary-parts-1-5.html">before</a></span>, but the relevant feature here is that screwing up and running into hazards doesn't put a damper on the action, rather it heightens the tension. It makes you think "maybe I should slow down a bit" while the racers around you immediately push those doubts from your mind and tempt you to boost just one more time. (Interestingly <i>F-Zero GX</i> also features the sideways dash which is so crucial to <i>Sonic Generations</i>' controls.)</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-style: normal;">So to summarize, if I could offer any advice to Sonic Team, it would be:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-style: normal;">A) continue to try and find compelling reasons for Sonic to want to go fast. (Getting a final grade for finishing within an allotted time is not a very compelling reason.) Chasing or being chased (ala <i>F-Zero GX</i>) are good reasons. Letting Sonic smash through certain enemies/obstacles when he is going sufficiently fast (with clear visual indicators) would be another good incentive, as would enemies that punish tardiness (e.g. guided missiles) like in <i>Sunset Overdrive</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-style: normal;">B) find ways to punish failure that don't mean stopping Sonic dead in his tracks (losing rings is fine, though running in circles collecting them is irritating in 3D). Even having him sent flying in an unintended direction would be preferable (though I realize this pose level design challenges). Having him lose some velocity would also be acceptable, and could be very punishing were it actually necessary to go fast (though it's best if he has ways to quickly get back up to speed e.g. a dedicated "go-really-fast" button). Triggering things (e.g. alarms) that increase the perils of stopping or slowing down (e.g. the quantity of enemies chasing you) might also be a fun dynamic, forcing you to choose between proceeding more cautiously and facing the tidal wave of things you've triggered or doubling down and shooting the moon.</span><br />
<br />
The other realization I came to is that, in my opinion, Sonic is best when he's racing through recognizably Earth-like environments. That's not because I want realism in my Sonic games but because it's much easier to get a sense of how fast Sonic's really going, and be awed by it, when he's running through an environment that you intuitively <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_d8mEmK9k8">know the general scale</a></span> of. For all it's myriad failings (including <i>even</i> <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://sonic.wikia.com/wiki/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_%282006%29"><i>having a freaking name</i></a></span>), <i>Sonic 2006</i> recognized this I think, and the real-world environments impart a good sense of speed. (Though perhaps they just did it for the sake of "gritty realism"; this is the team that brought us <i>Shadow the Hedgehog</i> after all.) Proper use of camera also gives a sense of scale and speed, though I realize how challenging this probably has been in the series (it was one of primary downfalls of <i>Sonic 2006</i> and for what it's worth the camera only killed me a couple times so far in <i>Generations</i>, which is not bad considering). Showing off what's ahead better might not only help show off how quickly Sonic traverses it but also focus the gameplay more on timing and frantic choices rather than sheer reflexes.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-style: normal;">Admittedly I'm only a couple hours into <i>Generations</i> which is why I made this more of a retrospective than a review, and perhaps the pulled-back camera angles and real-world environments come in later, but my short time with the game (and the frequent transitions between old-school and new-school) helped clarify for me these fundamental issues that have always plagued the series through both good times and bad. So far I've enjoyed my time with <i>Generations</i>, but I suspect this will diminish as the difficulty rises since I've mostly been able to cheerfully breeze through everything, and the moment I've encountered any sort of adversity the above issues rear their ugly heads and tip things over into frustration.<br /><br />Rather than restrictively categorizing Sonic as a platformer, thinking in terms of racing games might help point to (less-band-aid-y) solutions since he feeds similar <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uepAJ-rqJKA">aesthetics</a></span> (and yes I realize that Sonic has been in <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohRt8nIJ5kE">actual racing games</a></span>, but that's incalculably stupid on the face of it. <i>Why does Sonic need a car! That's as dumb as <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.comicvine.com/justice-league-of-america/4060-31815/forums/flash-mobile-dcau-justice-league-returns-in-lego-b-1610434/">the Flashmobile</a></span>!!</i>). And racing against no opponents, stopping the player on a dime, having their inputs screw everything up...<br /><br />...it all starts to sound suspiciously like <span style="color: blue;"><i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR3a0gixfwI">Big Riggs: Over the Road Racing</a></i></span>!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-style: normal;">And <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcrtkiLEGbE">that's no good</a></span>!</span></div>
Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-58739024221554001572014-12-01T14:54:00.002-08:002014-12-01T14:59:55.750-08:00CovenI just backed the boardgame <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/121295/coven"><span style="color: blue;"><i>Coven</i></span></a> and you should too!<br />
It was designed by my good friend Paul Saxberg, and I've been helping him playtest and develop it for several years! (You can read about the fascinating roundabout journey in his <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1278197/designers-visual-diary-part-1-realm-water"><span style="color: blue;">design diary</span></a>)<br />
<br />
But don't just back it because he's a friend of mine, <i>Coven</i> is a legitimately awesome game, and totally unique! (It won the 2012 Canadian Game Design Award!) Based very loosely on the novel <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Night-Lonesome-October-Roger-Zelazny/dp/1556525605"><span style="color: blue;"><i>A Night in the Lonesome October</i></span></a> (which is also totally worth checking out; it's narrated by Jack the Ripper's dog), a coven of witches has gathered to perform a ritual that, with the help of certain goddesses, will usher in some sort of ancient Lovecraftian evil. However, some of the witches are secretly working for the forces of good and attempting to sabotage the ritual, so it's imperative that you discover which witches (and which goddesses) are which.<br />
<br />
The game is packed with a bunch of cool nods to paganism, mythology and the occult (for example, counter-clockwise is referred to as "Widdershins<span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; font-weight: bold; line-height: 27.6888904571533px;">"</span>). In fact I recall that at one point Paul sent the game off to be blind-tested by an actual coven of witches.<br />
<br />
In summary, this game is totally weird and cool and tends draw a crowd since the board is striking and it looks like you're performing some kind of eldritch ritual just by playing on it, so <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1545517208/coven-board-game-by-8th-summit"><span style="color: blue;">go check it out</span></a>!<br />
<br />
I'm pleased to see that the Kickstarter is already halfway to the goal after a few hours though (they just passed $6,666), so it doesn't look like they need my help. Regardless, dark things are in motion...Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-7316631066728936062014-11-29T14:57:00.000-08:002014-11-29T14:57:01.366-08:00Fiasco: How I Learned to Stop Caring and Love the 12-pound Mountain HowitzerWhen it's firing on all cylinders, <i><a href="http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/games/fiasco/"><span style="color: blue;">Fiasco</span></a> </i>might be my favorite game of all time. It's a weird mishmash of mechanics and GM-less roleplaying that basically lets you create a Cohen Brothers film. I just had one of the best sessions I've played yet and figured it was <a href="http://rpggeek.com/thread/1276829/how-i-learned-stop-caring-and-love-12-pound-mounta"><span style="color: blue;">worth sharing</span></a>. We used the Boomtown playset, which I've had good luck with; people seem to be comfortable with Western tropes, and they work well with Fiasco's themes. [gameplay details are in brackets. In Acts 1 & 2, each paragraph was a “scene.”]<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Setup</b></span><br />
[Lacey & Anglebolt – The Past (relationship): a criminal & a detective – Weapon (object): 12-pound Mountain Howitzer]<br />
[Anglebolt & Brisbee – Community (relationship): elected officials – Residence (location): a squalid apartment above a newspaper office]<br />
[Brisbee & Doogal – Crime (relationship): gamblers – To Get Rich (need): through fraud and trickery]<br />
[Doogal & Lacey - Work (relationship): professional/client – Information (object): contract with the Pinkerton detective agency]<br />
<br />
Brisbee, a portly Southern gent with the sort of charisma possessed by used car salesmen, has been Mayor of Pendleton for quite a number of terms. This is because he's supported by...<br />
<br />
James Doogal, a powerful crime lord (read “legitimate businessman”) who owns most of Pendleton legally or otherwise, including its mayor. Brisbee fell in with Doogal after accruing horrific gambling debts at his tavern, but he's been riding high ever since. However, the Mayoral election looms in a few days, and there are two relative newcomers he fears. One is a Lawyer, the other is...<br />
<br />
Thomas Anglebolt, Pendleton's Treasurer. He's a rising star in Pendleton's community, but he has a dark past. He used to be a notorious outlaw, and staged a bank robbery with a 12-pound Mountain Howitzer he recovered from his days in the Civil War, but he has escaped to remote Pendleton to clean up his act and used his illicit gains to establish himself as a respected political figure. He has temporarily stashed his Howitzer in a small apartment he owns above the newspaper office, but he needs a more permanent hiding place lest it be discovered by someone like...<br />
<br />
Dick Lacey. He's a private investigator with the Pinkerton detective agency who served alongside Anglebolt in the war and is convinced he is the masked outlaw he has been tracking for years, and he's come to Pendleton to find proof and closure.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Act I</b></span><br />
Doogal confidently strides into the Lawyer's home. They exchange forced pleasantries and Doogal is given a sarsaparilla. Doogal explains that he has a longstanding “arrangement” with the current mayor, and after his goons draw weapons, the Lawyer hurriedly agrees to leave town (and even asks him to keep the glass as a parting gift).<br />
<br />
Lacey comes into town and immediately heads for the saloon for information. The bartender doesn't know much about Anglebolt other than that he is very upstanding citizen, but he suggests Lacey should pay him a visit at his office above the local newspaper.<br />
<br />
But Anglebolt isn't at his office, he's in a dank basement beneath the saloon playing high-stakes Poker and winning big. He slaps down another big bet and nobody will match him until... Doogal saunters out of the back room. He owns this place, it's where Brisbee first got in his debt, and he doesn't like the attitude of this upstart who is looking to challenge his friend's campaign. They agree to play another hand; if Anglebolt wins, Doogal agrees to take his “business” to another town. But Doogal's men rig the deck, and Anglebolt loses. Doogal lets him go unharmed (though significantly lighter in pocket), but says Anglebolt owes him a “favor.”<br />
<br />
Brisbee pays Doogal a visit. He's glad to hear that the Lawyer has been run out of town, but he's nervous about his other opponent, the much-loved Anglebolt. Doogal says Anglebolt is too entrenched in the community to simply scare away or bump off without consequences, but his criminal network knows some things about Anglebolt's past that will serve useful, and he's heard that a new lawman has come into town...<br />
<br />
Doogal arranges a meeting with Lacey. He tells Lacey that his network observed Anglebolt hauling a large crate into his office, that he thinks Lacey has been involved in illegally-requisitioned Civil War materials, and he's willing to hire Lacey for a substantial amount to expose the truth. Unbeknownst to Doogal, Lacey was already hot on the case, but he's happy to accept a bribe and some useful information.<br />
<br />
Lacey pays a visit to the newspaper, but the receptionist won't let him upstairs without Anglebolt being present. He decides to stake out the place.<br />
<br />
Despite Doogal being the “unbiased” moderator, Anglebolt crushes Brisbee at the mayoral debates. Brisbee waxes about his dam projects and the expansion of a nearby mine (which Doogal just happens to have stake in), but Anglebolt's plees for education and a railway win over the hearts and minds of the people. With the election a couple days away, Brisbee is getting hot under the collar.<br />
<br />
Deciding that Doogal's approach is taking too long, Brisbee decides to take matters into his own hands. He discovers that Anglebolt owns insurance policies on several of Pendleton's amenities, including the mine. He drafts a document detailing an elaborate plan to break the dam and flood the mine, and he crudely forges Anglebolt's signature on it. He then attempts to break into Anglebolt's office and hide the document so he can later alert the Sheriff. However he lacks athleticism and struggles to try and reach the upstairs window, and he is discovered by Lacey (who has been staking out the premises) and flees into the night before he's identified, dropping some of the pages detailing the alleged plan!<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Tilt</b></span><br />
[Innocence: the wrong guy gets busted – Mayhem: a frantic chase]<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Act II</b></span><br />
Lacey finds the pages and brings them to the Sheriff. The Sheriff happens to know that Doogal has stake in the mines and thinks he finally has something to solid on him. They immediately head to the saloon and arrest Doogal.<br />
<br />
Seeing that nobody appears to be around, Anglebolt attempts to sneak the Howitzer out of the newspaper office so he can bring it somewhere where people aren't asking around for him. He loads it onto a wagon with the help of some criminal assistants, but Lacey returns to his stakeout just in time to spot him and the two recognize one another. A chase ensues! Lacey is in hot pursuit along with the Sheriff's men on horseback while Anglebolt flees with his men! Anglebolt manages to lose most of his pursers by escaping into the mine, but Lacey has a hunch and gives chase on foot. He meets a couple of Anglebolt's goons and without instruction (not knowing who he is) they decide to beat him within an inch of his life with mining equipment. Even though Anglebolt has no idea this even happened, Lacey lies in a hospital bed, consumed with boundless rage, thinking that his old friend ordered the beating. Now he doesn't just want Anglebolt brought to justice, he wants him dead.<br />
<br />
Brisbee visits Doogal in his jail cell, panicking about his campaign. They both piece together what happened (though Doogal has to violently strangle Brisbee through the bars to make him explain that he went behind his back with the forged document plan).<br />
<br />
Doogal is furious, but the evidence against him is shaky at best. He is told that he will be released.<br />
<br />
Brisbee is summoned to Lacey's hospital bed. Lacey offers him a solution to his problems: they'll kill Anglebolt together.<br />
<br />
Anglebolt wins the election in a landslide.<br />
<br />
Brisbee arranges for the inauguration to take place just outside the mine since it's “a symbol of the town's prosperous future.” As he ceremoniously passes off the key to the city, he makes sure that he gets Anglebolt to stand directly in sight of Lacey, who hides in the mine with a rifle. However, Lacey's injuries, combined with an untimely glint of sunlight in his scope, cause him to miss his target and strike Brisbee directly in the heart!<br />
<br />
At that very moment, Doogal arrives at the ceremony and steps out of his carriage with a theatrical flourish. Unfortunately he does this precisely as Brisbee is shot, appearing to have signaled the attack, and the Sheriff immediately takes him back into custody for murder.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Aftermath</b></span><br />
[Brisbee – 3 black]<br />
[Doogal – 10 black]<br />
[Lacey – 3 white]<br />
[Anglebolt – 15 white]<br />
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As Brisbee lies dying on the ground, with nobody around caring all that much, he thinks to himself that if he were to be involved with further crimes, he probably ought to just leave it up to the professionals.<br />
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Doogal calls in his favor with Anglebolt and is soon after released again. He decides it might be best to move his enterprises to a different town.<br />
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Lacey lies injured in the mine, fleeing further inside to avoid the authorities. With nothing left to lose, he searches for Anglebolt's mysterious crate. Locating it, he uncovers the 12-pound Mountain Howitzer. In a blaze of fury, he arms it and fires into one of the mine's primary support structures, causing water to rush in and bringing the whole thing down around him and his enemies!<br />
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Except that Anglebolt is long gone. Settling nicely into his new position as Mayor, he's surprised to discover that some insurance policies he held on the recently collapsed mine will be paying him substantial dividends, and he uses them to help fund a new railway and usher in a golden age for Pendleton! Sometimes he wonders what ever happened to his old war buddy Lacey though.Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-74397142087364483182014-11-28T14:29:00.003-08:002014-11-28T15:33:30.075-08:00Steampunk Rally - 565% funded!The Steampunk Rally Kickstarter has just closed out at an astounding $237k and 565% funded! From the bottom of my soul, thank you so so much to everyone who contributed! I wish I could personally buy each of you a pint, but Gavan tells me that's tricky to send through post without spilling.<br />
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I was hopeful that we would fund, I was cautiously optimistic that we might manage that 75k and get <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/image/2317012/steampunk-rally"><span style="color: blue;">sexy metal cogs</span></a>, but I never in my wildest dreams imagined that we might become <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/advanced?woe_id=2344915&sort=most_funded"><span style="color: blue;">the #1 highest-funded Kickstarter from Alberta ever</span></a> (by quite a lot!) or the <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/advanced?category_id=34&woe_id=23424775&sort=most_funded" style="color: blue;">second-highest tabletop game from Canada</a>!<br />
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And we even <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/roxley/steampunk-rally/posts/1066029"><span style="color: blue;">got that pony</span></a>!<br />
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Once again I want to thank David Forest and Lina Cossette for their breathtaking artwork (check out the <a href="http://legouffre.com/"><span style="color: blue;">trailer for Davids amazing looking upcoming short film</span></a>), Joe McDaid for his fantastic video and editing chops, Tom Sarsons and everyone else who helped us shoot it, Adrian Vaughan for lending us <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_3xrqjTyes"><span style="color: blue;">his incredible voice</span></a>, Gavan for a spectacularly professional and tightly-run campaign, and all of you who backed and helped spread this project. It means the world to me, and I'm eager to see what I can present to you next!<br />
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You folks are the Real McCoys!<br />
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<br />Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-53329613747073475812014-11-18T14:37:00.001-08:002014-11-18T14:37:27.750-08:00Speaking of Cannibalism<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/QrGrOK8oZG8" width="560"></iframe><br />
[Possibly NSFW and/or damaging to one's soul]Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-63752141282288001632014-11-18T14:33:00.002-08:002014-11-18T14:37:38.701-08:00No WordsThis may be the single greatest video the internet has ever produced:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/o0u4M6vppCI" width="560"></iframe><br />
Bonus points for the <i>Citizen Kane</i> reference. Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-49595064150259330752014-11-17T15:32:00.003-08:002014-11-17T15:32:53.913-08:00Steampunk Rally Designer Diary - parts 6-10The last 5 parts of my designer diary are up! You can read them here or <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/article/16917488#16917488">on boardgamegeek</a></span>. From the bottom of my heart, thanks so much to everyone who's helped make this Kickstarter such a resounding success. (currently we're <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/roxley/steampunk-rally"><span style="color: blue;">216% funded with ten days yet to go</span></a>!)<br />
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One of the core ideas of <i>Steampunk Rally</i>'s theme is that you're frantically clamping new components onto your vehicle as old ones break and fall off, tenuously managing an ever-changing mass of jury-rigged gizmos, sometimes having everything work perfectly in tandem but never able to hold on to the perfect combo for too long. In order to have parts fly off, I needed some method of constantly introducing new parts into the game.<br />
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The most logical thematically was that you'd stop at various towns and villages along the way and spend time rebuilding and reconfiguring your invention, and this was how things worked in early versions. However, this paradigm had two basic issues I never found elegant solutions for. The first was how to deal with players breaking down between towns. Would you go straight back to the previous town, or have to drag yourself to the next? Both were pretty dreary options. The other issue was that in a racing game, spending turns not getting to race feels like work. Even if the decisions are interesting, it's still like “eat your peas and next turn you can have dessert.”<br />
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The other idea for distributing parts I never got to work properly is having players' destroyed parts create card-draw tokens which can be picked up by players behind them. I still think this is really thematic and adds a cool catch-up dynamic, it just maybe belongs in a different game. If the draw tokens were claimed by being landed on, then a player directly behind someone playing very recklessly would get a huge windfall, so to be fair they probably needed to stay on the board, benefiting every player behind the one who spawned them. But this made the rate of card-draw very swingy and nearly impossible to balance because I couldn't (or rather didn't want to) directly control the rate at which players lost parts. The mechanic also provided no cards to the player in first, so it didn't fully address my original need.<br />
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It became pretty clear that, for things to stay exciting and strategic, everyone had to somehow be getting new parts constantly.<br />
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I really like auctions. They allow everyone to walk away with an advantage over others, they make direct conflict palatable to Eurogamers, and they auto-balance items of different value, making my job that much easier. Thus, the first card-distribution idea I tried under the new dice-placement system was an auction.<br />
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I knew I wanted players to be able to remove dice from their inventions in case they couldn't manage to get new parts that synergized, but I also knew I wanted it to be more efficient to add new parts so as to encourage players to keep building and changing their invention. Having new part acquisition and dice removal hinge on the same resource would let players choose how heavily they wanted to lean on one or the other, and a player with a big awesome invention would have tons of dice to remove, thereby pulling their resources away from the n00bs with small inventions and few dice who thus needed new parts the most. So players used “time” every round to bid on the right to select new cards first, and any time they had left over was used to remove dice.<br />
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The auction worked great, and it did exactly what I wanted it to. The problem was that it slowed the pace of the game to a crawl, and felt especially out of place because the rest of the game was resolved simultaneously. This was the hardest change for me, but eventually I was convinced (largely by Gavan) that it had to go.<br />
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What would take its place that could do the things I needed in a hastier manner? It turned out that the solution was more simultaneity: a card draft! Originally part cards could be discarded during the draft to either receive or remove dice, presenting a difficult choice between adding parts, renewing parts, and powering them. The final change was having cards be discardable for cogs, which could be spent to remove dice, rather than directly removing dice through discarding. Both functioned nearly the same, and the primary reason (aside from adding a bit more planning) was that playtesters frequently didn't realize that they could discard cards during the draft to remove dice, whereas it’s harder to miss a whole separate phase devoted to dice removal.<br />
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The lesson I learned is that occasionally a purposefully clunkier and less elegant turn-structure improves everything for everybody.<br />
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After the auction went, simultaneous turn resolution was the last major point of contention between Gavan and me. By this point he'd told me he wanted to publish the game, and I was totally on board. Gavan is a great game designer, so I knew than any changes he wanted to make would at least be sensible. And he's an amazing graphic designer by trade, so I knew whatever he did with the art and presentation would be mind-blowing (was I wrong?). We just needed to get <i>Steampunk Rally</i> to a state we were both happy with.<br />
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The vast majority of boardgames out there are turn based, and resolving stuff in turn order has some notable advantages: it's more familiar, it's easier to learn a game when you are watching other players interact with the mechanics, and when you do something cool everyone gets to (has to) watch you. The problem is that if I made the current <i>Steampunk Rally</i> mechanics turn-based, the game would be maybe three hours long with crushing amounts of down-time.<br />
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The damnatory term “multiplayer solitaire” has been leveled against many euro-style games over the years, but I see this not as an indictment but rather an opportunity. If a certain portion of the game does not involve other players, why must they wait for me? <i>Steampunk Rally</i> has interactive elements (counter-drafting, offensive boost cards, watching in fear as an opponent creeps past you), but when it comes to operating your lovingly-crafted invention by placing dice on it, it's all between you and the machine. We experimented with several turn-based round structures, and eventually Gavan conceded that these didn't do a whole lot except slow the game down. Through the development process I learned the value of traditional turn order as well, and I'd suggest resolving the racing phase in turns for the first couple rounds if you're learning the game for the first time. But by resolving simultaneously, <i>Steampunk Rally</i> crams a ton of game into a short playtime with virtually no downtime, where everything resolves at the speed of the slowest player. And I think, whether or not you prefer it to more traditional turn resolution, it will feel different from any other worker-placement game you've ever played.<br />
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The last design element to come together was boost cards (originally called action cards). In earlier versions, there had always been the option to equip vehicles with weapons of various sorts that could blast away at opponents <i>Mad Max</i> style. But these proved incredibly awkward to implement under simultaneous turn resolution. If you and I both have the potential to shoot at each other, we both want to wait and see how the other is operating their invention first so we know how much damage we need to deal with (and how much vengeful retaliation is necessary). Because of this, all the ideas for parts that could affect other players were converted to action cards that could be kept hidden and played at specific moments. (I also liked the idea of having virtually no text on the parts comprising your invention since it makes them much easier to visually scan, lets us make the cards a bit smaller to conserve precious table-space, and just looks cleaner. Action cards with text gave us a way to play around with wacky ideas outside the basic mechanics.)<br />
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But even as action cards, these powers needed to be constrained. It wouldn't feel good to resolve your turn carefully budgeting sustainable damage only to have someone play a weapon card right before resolving damage and incur catastrophic losses. Weapons were meant to add another challenge for players to deal with, not random screwage. So I made these action cards only playable before the racing phase, right after the draft, but this introduced other issues. If players could play them in any order, there were frequently timing issues, so the opportunity to play action cards was resolved in turn-order, which felt incredibly clunky. And since action cards mostly affected multiple opponents (to limit kingmaking), the game changed radically with different player counts since this affected the rate at which these cards were played.<br />
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I experimented with several variant ways of incorporating these interactive effects, at one point even having public events that players could claim or trigger by blind-bidding cogs. (As I said, I like auctions.) It turned out the solution was much simpler: I just had to reduce the number of cards that affected other players, replacing them with Gavan's suggestion of cards that give personal bonuses which can be played at any time (and changing the name to “boost” cards to reflect this change in focus). These cards add lots of fun planning since they are essentially mini-goals you can strive for to try and maximize their effectiveness, and a reduced frequency of offensive cards sped up flow of play, evened out the wonkiness of different player-counts, and actually made the attack cards feel a lot more special and impactful.<br />
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Sometimes it turns out the mechanics are working fine, it's just the math that's off.<br />
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<i>Steampunk Rally</i> has lots of dice. That's one of the many production challenges we've faced thus far. (We even played around with ways to mechanically reduce the potential number of dice used until Gavan thankfully found a supplier that will provide bulk orders within our budget.) Full character standees are awesome yet require the racetrack to be made that much larger to accommodate them. But for every unexpected challenge, there've been two unexpected delights. I am absolutely blown away by the game's art. David and Lina Forrester are incredible talents, and their work on <i>Steampunk Rally</i> has continually exceeded all expectations.<br />
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As always, I'm also extremely impressed with our video guys Tom Sarsons and Joe McDaid. As I write this, I'm merely preparing to spray-colour a very important wig, but I know that by the time this is posted, Joe will have edited together whatever disjointed shenanigans we manage to capture this weekend into some breed of cinematic masterpiece. [Update: Was I wrong??]<br />
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I also want to give a huge shoutout to Adrian Vaughan, our voice of Tesla. I based the script for our video off of the amazing trailer for the indie videogame <i>Crawl</i>, and having their voice actor agree to do ours feels like writing a <i>Star Trek</i> fan fic and then having Leornard Nimoy agree to narrate it. This man deserves to be famous.<br />
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Above all though, I want to thank Gavan Brown for funneling some of his manic energy into a project so dear to my heart. After seven years, the feeling of seeing this game come to life with such verve and passion behind its production, and having it meet with such cheerful enthusiasm by the gaming community, can't be adequately described in words. (The fact that I still love playing it after all this time is just icing on the cake.) And so instead I'll just say that I know with his talent and dedication, Roxley's going to have a breakout hit sooner or later, and regardless of how this one ultimately pans out I thank him for letting me along on his caffeine-powered ornithopter and feel like a hero-scientist for a while.<br />
[Update: This one seems to be panning out pretty well seeing as we funded in a week! You people rock so hard!!]<br />
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Several years ago, an intelligent, informed and well-intentioned man advised against my developing a game with a steampunk theme as he felt it was probably a flash-in-the-pan fad that would be over in a couple years. Much thanks to all of you for making this wonderful subculture bigger than ever, or at least letting it stick around long enough for me to finish this darn thing.Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-65173316419022799042014-11-04T10:48:00.000-08:002014-11-04T10:52:07.767-08:00Ada Girl! Steampunk Rally has funded!<i>Steampunk Rally </i>has officially funded!!<br />
That means that the <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/181076/steampunk-rally-inventor-stretch-goal-geeklist">inventor poll</a></span> has officially closed, with Ada Lovelace the strong front-runner (sporting <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/2294434/steampunk-rally">awesome artwork</a></span>). But don't worry, there's still plenty you can do help out. Go check out <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/roxleygames/photos/a.549434725162982.1073741828.549407068499081/602730966500024/?type=1&theater">Roxley's contest on facebook</a></span> and enter to win a free copy of the game, 'like' our images on boardgamegeek so it gets up in the hotness, and tell a friend so we can get metal cogs! Or check out my <a href="http://meeplemechanic.com/foxhole-fiver/orin-bishop/"><span style="color: blue;">interview with Meeple Mechanics</span></a>, which just featured us as their #1 Kickstarter pick!<br />
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(...and if you hurry, we <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/roxley/steampunk-rally/posts">just put out another round</a></span> of handcrafted deluxe 'Tesla' editions, so you might be able to snap one up before they dissipate into the aether.)Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-75962086966200545912014-10-28T17:30:00.003-07:002014-10-28T17:32:10.836-07:00Steampunk Rally - Stretch-Goal Inventor PollA day into our <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/66958057/steampunk-rally"><i>Steampunk Rally</i> Kickstarter</a></span> and we're already halfway to our funding goal! Fantastic!<br />
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It looks likely that we'll hit stretch goals (*knock on brass*) so it's time for us to choose our stretch goal inventors, and by us I mean <i>you</i>!<br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/181076/steampunk-rally-inventor-stretch-goal-geeklist">Go to boardgamegeek</a></span> and add your suggestion (one per person), and vote on your favorites by 'thumbing' who you want to see join the Rally.<br />
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We'd like to bring in a little more gender parity, so we'd like 3 of the stretch goal inventors to be women! (But you can also suggest a man, we've got room for one more! Or for that matter, if you know of a cool Victorian transgender or transsexual inventor, we want to hear about them too!!)<br />
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And as a sidenote, if we manage to hit that 75k funding level, every Kickstarter copy of the game will come with metal cog tokens. I have seen the production samples, and they are amazingly cool, so spread the word and let's hit those goals!Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5846958283978340822.post-25278312894768493172014-10-27T09:01:00.001-07:002014-10-27T09:03:29.742-07:00Steampunk Rally Kickstarter is Off to the Races!The <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/66958057/steampunk-rally"><span style="color: blue;"><i>Steampunk Rally</i> Kickstarter</span></a> has been up for a couple hours, and we're already over 6k (and growing every time I refresh the page) so things are off to a strong start!<br />
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Check out the seriously awesome video below (seriously, it's awesome):<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="360" scrolling="no" src="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/66958057/steampunk-rally/widget/video.html" width="480"> </iframe><br />
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You can also check out <a href="http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/34862/orin-bishop-and-his-steampunk-rally"><span style="color: blue;">an interview I did</span></a> for The Inquisitive Meeple.<br />
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Or this excellent gameplay runthrough:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/crgMn8JVyR4" width="560"></iframe>Orin Bishophttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13574769135072781097noreply@blogger.com0