When Cards Go Bad | MAGIC: THE GATHERING
this is about M:TG (obviously) but a lot of stuff here is relevant to designing, e.g., skill trees
this is about M:TG (obviously) but a lot of stuff here is relevant to designing, e.g., skill trees
"beyond inflated key user metrics, our in-game research revealed an X-rated pedophile hellscape" has to be one of the worst buried ledes of all time
expansive thread on how to do multiplication with processors that don't have multiplication instructions
"An engine for creating role-playing games using Twine's SugarCube language. Features a complex battle system that can be modified and integrated into your Twine stories."
yet another example of how the nytimes is a horseshit newspaper and organization
"You might think you can add enough epicycles to your rules to avoid this problem. For instance, you could list all of the different sorts of vehicles from this game in either the yes or the no column. I don't think this is true. I think you can reduce the problem, but I don't think you can eliminate it."
lmao i have worked on teams where each of these dark patterns were explicit design goals
"[I]t is actually possible to reconstruct the entire memory state of almost any game and in fact create an rp2040-based adapter that acts as a USB video class device offering the on-screen game footage in realtime. Players can simply put this adapter into their Game Boy and use it like a webcam without additional drivers or knowledge"
"clear evidence that children yearn for the depths of SR-388"
great discussion of dungeon generation techniques
"I like the skeuomorphism of playing cards in video games because they instantly communicate aspects of chance and probability, as well as common affordances like 'drag to play' or discard. They are also able to represent heterogeneous actions. Had the game been a top-down tycoon game, things like public transportation, job training, or insulation retrofits would have been more difficult to visualize as objects you drop on a map. [...] [A]nother design problem addressed by the deck-building gameplay: instead of choosing an action and then choosing where to apply it, the action is already chosen for you, so your choice is about where and not what."
"a game about going to the museum to get away for a bit and to think about feelings you like to feel"
"The reason that black box mechanics are so dicey outside of the casino is that it’s not always clear that a player has opted into the metagame, or that they are qualified to give consent. Those qualifications are, basically, maturity and intelligence, specifically with regard to the mechanics of the game. Any repeatable real-money transaction, such as a loot box, breaks the magic circle and turns every armchair into a swimming pool."
"It matters that the first staticky voices we’ve dialed in with our massive, multi-billion-parameter arrays are dreamers, confabulators, and improvisers. It matters that Chess and Go, the sites where we first encountered their older, more serious siblings, are artworks. Artworks carved out of instrumental reason. Artworks that, long before computers existed, were spinning beautiful webs of logic and attention. Art is not a precious treasure in need of protection. Art is a fearsome wellspring of human power from which we will draw the weapons we need to storm the gates of the reality studio and secure the future."
quack!
'“What already works” is a fundamentally conservative and nostalgic lens through which to view cultural production. Looking at “what already works” rejects an idea or potential of progress, and instead narrows the scope of possibility of a medium to only be capable or remediating its greatest hits.' [...] 'People already famous from producing “works” are now focused on meta-work, their cultural capital gained from doing that work in the first place now refocused on producing content related to their strongest signifiers.' (but how do you distinguish nostalgia from maintenance and re-absorbing work into the commons?)
"We are aware that we are not experiencing the world "directly", but this does not change our feeling that we are experiencing the world."
for improving tetris skills!
another little mapping utility!
elegant little utility for drawing dungeon maps
"BLABRECS is a rules modification for the wordgame SCRABBLE that swaps out the dictionary of real-if-obscure English words for a capricious artificial intelligence. In BLABRECS, real English words aren't allowed! Instead, you have to play nonsense words that sound like English to the AI. These nonsense words are called – you guessed it – BLABRECS."
"... modelled after two tools I admire for their accessibility, cuteness, and strong followings among fringe gamedevs: Bitsy and Puzzlescript. My aspiration for Gruescript is to be IF's answer to those."
"Rainbow Zero is a... toy? widget? thingy? that allows you to explore a part of the space defined by the GloVe word vectors."
this is very cool
"Submitted for your approval: my TOP FIFTY design decisions in WarioWare DIY."
sorta like roll20? foss?
incredible thread
"a whimsical & inclusive dating sim card game for 2-4 players, set in liminal spaces (e.g. a gas station at 1am) where players roleplay girls who are destined lovers across spacetime"
brutal
I'd like to play all of these
python-based mush/moo thing! could be fun to play around with
"interweaving micro-stories: Actions and dialogue decisions affect future interactions and outcomes as you meet new characters."
"The game takes place in the year 2031. Bill Laimbeer has become commissioner of a basketball league, fired the referees and created a style of play without rules. There are no fouls and use of weapons is perfectly legal."
"an open-source realtime server for apps and games"
from what crpg addict calls the "establishing era," this reminds me a bit of 80 Days
"We began the development with some clear goals: create an RPG set in late 90s New Jersey (as RPGs rarely are set in modern times), strike a healthy balance between humor and a compelling plot, as well as make a world with depth. We looked outside of games for inspiration, particularly to author Haruki Murakami. He is an incredible writer, our favorite living author, and someone who makes you feel as if he’s writing your dreams. We made sure everyone on the team read his entire collective works before we began development." (text from related article here https://blog.us.playstation.com/2019/01/16/inside-the-classic-rpg-and-literary-influences-of-yiik-out-tomorrow/)
fantastic, evocative application of wave function collapse
these look really good (via https://dice.camp/@turtlebird/101394359086975879)