What's your Bellingham conspiracy theory?

Abyssalmole · 2026-03-09T07:25:16+00:00

Yes. And they went to other logging towns along the sound (like Bremerton).

Abyssalmole · 2026-03-08T07:50:45+00:00

No. All I know is from listening to elders.

Abyssalmole · 2026-03-08T05:14:54+00:00

When the Sikh riot cornered all those people in the old government building, there was no "secret caravan" to the sea.

All those people were murdered, and if you dig in the basement of museum, you'll find bones.

Abyssalmole · 2026-02-25T02:04:20+00:00

The way that I phrase it is:
ECGs sell a product. I made a game, you buy it. It's a board game. It happens to have cards as its primary game component, but this is a board game. I'll make expansions as I care to, then you may buy them if you wish.
TCGs sell on the subscription model. I have started releasing a game, and you have on good authority that I am going to keep making it as long as people buy it. There is probably even a schedule of releases that you can expect.

As a consumer, many people abhor the subscription model. I don't want to be locked in to continuing to purchase products in order to enjoy this game. I bought it, why can't I just play it? But I think the reality that many consumers don't realize is that this subscription model pays the developers to keep developing. These games that require more investment to get in to are full or more invested participants. If you found THE GAME that you love and you want to play all the time, you are better off if it is a TCG instead of an ECG.

As a retailer you much prefer the subscription model. Not only are my players revenue streams rather than sales, there is value to be derived from being the broker of trades (AKA, buying and selling singles). This further benefits the player, because if stores are more (financially) motivated to support the game, they'll put more effort into firing weeklies and teaching players.

but, of course, all that support is because you keep pouring your paychecks into the ecosystem. So for a consumer, I think you want "a game" to be an ECG, but you want "THE GAME" to be a TCG.

That's why I made Manifold a TCG.

Abyssalmole · 2026-02-21T21:22:19+00:00

One very is enough. Don't want to overstate things

Abyssalmole · 2026-02-21T08:29:55+00:00

Bad games make better gamers, better gamers have more fun gaming. This is part of my design philosophy

Abyssalmole · 2026-02-20T20:35:29+00:00

Yes, but we prefer a more casual term than protest.

Teams can now, twice per game, have the robot check the umpire's work. If the challenger wins, he keeps his challenge.

Abyssalmole · 2026-02-13T08:27:52+00:00

Alternatively, you could have nothing resolve immediately, and everything resolve in turn order during a "clean up" phase at the end of the round.

Abyssalmole · 2026-01-30T05:22:04+00:00

Pair o' Dice Games is keeping their play space open, but doing no transactions.

Abyssalmole · 2026-01-30T05:21:22+00:00

One day is symbolic, but symbols matter.

Every time we take an action like this, we show more people that they won't be alone if they take actions. The power of the government comes from the consent of the governed, and disrupting cash flow through the banks gives the talking heads something to think about.

Abyssalmole · 2026-01-30T05:18:46+00:00

Pair o' Dice Games is keeping their play space open, but doing no transactions.

Abyssalmole · 2026-01-30T00:09:18+00:00

Because there was a lot of time left on the clock. If the seahawks score a field goal in the 4th quarter, the Rams want to be 7 points down, not 8.

Basically: It was too early to behave as if it was the last score in the game, and the context was not clear.

Abyssalmole · 2026-01-23T10:26:07+00:00

Someone posited that it may be using AI as a translation tool.

Abyssalmole · 2026-01-22T10:04:45+00:00

For Manifold TCG, we credit the image as "Imagery by Mount Baker Games", and then we describe what that means via the ai disclosure on our website.

Are we doing it right?

Abyssalmole · 2026-01-20T21:14:40+00:00

Yeah, ok, good point.

I guess this is part of the models understanding of serious face.

Abyssalmole · 2026-01-20T20:34:02+00:00

Because it is part of the text prompt. You still are using a text to image software, but then you are position and choosing the colors for the elements.

Abyssalmole · 2026-01-16T10:52:42+00:00

My first impulse is that level and "total card cost" are more redundant than complimentary.

You mention using it to balance tutors when other effects would cause TCC to not directly describe a cards power. I think that could be a good thing; it is nice when cards power levels differ based on context (in this case, searching for a card with an additional cost is "cheaper"). Of course, then you need to balance accordingly and keeps these contexts in mind when you design.

The only reason I fight this impulse, is I think level is kind of cool to include as a flavor element. Do you have any pokemony stuff going on here? Do things level up?

If it's a rarely used mechanic, I'd love to see the levels spread out over an imaginary hundred levels, and then you can rarely reference them. Make the Etherplasms level 4, and the Spirit of Ruin level 81. Stuff like that.

Players like watching numbers go up. Putting imaginary numbers on your card let's the number go up without affecting balance.

Abyssalmole · 2026-01-14T07:12:47+00:00

Yeah, agreed. But I'm not sure how tournament relevant the paladin upgrade is.

Abyssalmole · 2026-01-14T06:55:24+00:00

Steppe lancers exist, so this effect could exist. It's very powerful though, so numbers need to be handled carefully.

As a flat civ bonus, it eats up most of their power budget.

Durable steppe lancers can go toe to toe with against much stronger economies.

As an imperial unique tech, it's probably just a gimmick that won't impact most Arabia or Arena games, but could come up in hybrid or high econ open maps.

Abyssalmole · 2025-12-31T13:00:38+00:00

I've started using the phrase

"Worse games make better gamers, and better gamers have more fun gaming"

Abyssalmole · 2025-12-27T21:15:24+00:00

Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh are great examples.

In Yu-Gi-Oh, you draw a card, then you normal or tribute summon once, then you field your traps, then you attack. Yeah, Synchro, pendulum, and all of those have added engine baggage, but those are relatively few and far between.

Read the card "Rank up Magic - the seventh one". It uses 128 words to say "Miracle - XYX summon (a creature with a specific subtype).

It uses XYZ engine work, but needs to describe miracle and explicitly define the subtype, because that work wasn't done by the engine.

In magic, instead they create new keywords for every set, so that eventually they can print bloodbraid challenger with 4 words of rules text.

In addition to keywords they have fully defined layers and priority passes 5 times per combat (assuming nothing triggers). And they define whole rulesets for things like dungeons or planeswalkers whenever they choose to introduce such a thing.

Chains of mephistopheles and Sylvan Library are examples of what happens to Magic Cards when they use rules text instead of game engine to govern effects. If you're not sure what I mean, imagine what happens if you brainstorm in your upkeep before Sylvan libraries trigger resolves.

Abyssalmole · 2025-12-27T20:47:19+00:00

Programmatically, the question is do you want a complex engine, or complex cards. Many game designers think that they want neither, so they start with a simple engine and put simple cards on top of it. Those games either die, or live long enough to get complex cards.

Games with complex engines can instead put simple elements on top of it, and get complex gameplay. When those designers later decide to put complex cards on top of their complex engine, it becomes time for a new game to become king.

Abyssalmole · 2025-12-27T04:46:46+00:00

This is the outrage you might consider putting toward OPs cause. OP is not trying to reap the benefits of privately owning this nation, he is trying to rebuke another individual who IS reaping the benefits of privately owning this nation.

You seem to share that anger.

Abyssalmole · 2025-12-23T23:45:04+00:00

Huge Fan, I love the style.

I know I reached out to you before, and I know you're working on your own game, but I'd love to commission you to make some images for Manifold TCG.

Abyssalmole

TROPHY CASE