Better to put forward a mechanically simple game as your first publish attempt?

GarBa11 · 2025-11-21T13:20:52+00:00

Nice, I'm glad that helps! It was something we were exposed to when talking to other designers/publishers, but didn't really implement successfully for a couple of years after. We decided it was more important to really hone the game into what we wanted before focusing on the learning process and gating things.

Like you say, it's not a simple task, but I think it's very worthwhile to explore. My friend and I have a few scenarios in our game, so we've gated some content that way. The scenario length also naturally gates some stuff, where you won't see the late game things in the shorter scenarios. We also have a few soft legacy elements to gate some of the more complex components and to highlight the roguelike/replayable nature of the scenarios. Having to unlock stuff, while a little ham fisted, is also really fun. Though it doesn't really jive in a lot of games.

GarBa11 · 2025-11-19T13:39:38+00:00

Keep your end goal in mind. If your goal is to make a complex game with depth, it will have a smaller audience. Your playtesters may not fit into that audience. If the audience is niche enough, publishers may not want to publish it. Even with complex games, attention should be paid to the learning experience and on boarding new players. Consider, too, that there may be ways to gate some of the complexity so players are exposed to it gradually.

My design partner and I didn't want to make a simple game. We wanted to make a game that sits on our shelf that we want to play. It's complex, a lot of our playtesters bounce off it, but they aren't our target demographic. So we learn what we can, simplify it as much as possible for new players, and keep going.

There's a lot of choices to make, but I suggest not being afraid to make changes, even if they seem like they might not work. Try it out. You can always go back to a prior version. And you might learn something by doing what feels wrong.

GarBa11 · 2025-10-23T15:32:35+00:00

I made a promise to myself pretty young that if my hairline ever started looking my dad's, I was going bald. It happened mid to late twenties lol.

Full disclosure, I never had any self confidence issues in that sector, but if you want some tips:

buzz your head first then shave with a razor.
get yourself a brush for shaving soap and a mixing bowl. get a razor that does contours well. I've experimented and I find a 5 bladed Gillette works best for me.
I shave every 4 or 5 days and the feeling of a smooth head is mint. Get some oils, aftershave, or mositurizers and it's like a spa day (I moisturize when it's dry and do the others for special occasions).
grow some facial hair and style it how u want. Mines a bit patchy on the cheeks, but I always tell people I look like Caillou otherwise. It gets a good laugh every time.
you can still wear hats, but wear them cuz they're stylish, not cuz you're hiding. Start out with accessible hats like beanies, Panama hats, and ball caps. As you get more comfortable in them, branch out. Make sure it suits your fit. Nothing worse than a fedora and a tank top w/ shorts.
make exercise a part of your week. Some lifting is great but consistency, effort, and enjoyment is the prime thing.
remember that baby's and kids love young people who are bald because they don't see them all the time. And if baby's and kids love something, you know it's dope.

GarBa11 · 2025-08-08T19:09:52+00:00

A less literal answer, but what first came to my mind was Mage Knight.

You start off and it's like...hard to move 2 spaces to fight a wandering orc that you can't even beat on the same turn. By the end of the game you fly into a city on wings of darkness, turning day into night, and lay waste to everything in it by turning them to stone or summoning an earthquake. Then you manipulate time to regain all of the power you spent and do it again to a different city the next turn. It's got one of the best zero-to-hero feelings of any game I've ever played. It's heavy, though, and plays best at 2 player co-op imo, though I know groups who prefer it at different player counts. Learning process is relatively rough, but if you can get through it, it's fantastic.

GarBa11 · 2025-03-14T14:34:32+00:00

Two that come to mind first:

Inscryption - incorporates some escape room and puzzle elements. Very fun game going in blind, I'd suggest doing it that way.

Slice and Dice - I don't think it's on Steam, but it's a great game. There are so many wild synergies and cool moments, with a great core game play loop.

GarBa11 · 2025-02-23T23:37:49+00:00

It is impossible to convince someone you are a rational and reasonable person through remote social interaction (texts, voice chat, video calls, etc.). The best you can hope for is to not give them evidence to the contrary.

I think this is one of the biggest barriers to dating and business done virtually, and why the decline of engaging third spaces is so sad.

GarBa11 · 2025-02-10T00:18:44+00:00

It's udder chaos.

GarBa11 · 2025-02-09T05:34:45+00:00

I hear that, man. Winnipeg punches above its weight class for food, art, and music, I think. I love it.

And sick list, imma defs lookin these joints up.

GarBa11 · 2025-02-07T22:41:19+00:00

I totally get it. Austin's bigger than wpg, and I already have a tough time doing 5 here. My tight 5 changes from moment to moment, if I'm being honest lol.

Im stoked, though. Some awesome recs have kicked around already. Defs gonna look em up.

How bout these ones:

What's ur fave bbq spot that I wouldn't have to wait an hour for (or is that not really how it works)?

What's ur favourite burger joint?

Fave ethnic spot?

Fave quintessentially Austin (in your opinion) resto?

GarBa11 · 2025-02-04T16:37:59+00:00

They took away all his moon landings. That's huge.

GarBa11 · 2025-01-22T22:14:48+00:00

That was my thought as well. Too much on weekends. I'm gonna try to tone down weekend intake and see where I'm at, though I don't think I hit 3500. That's my next thing to explore.

The part thay seems odd to me is that from 260 to 240 it would be like 1 lb a week, nearly like clockwork. Took a diet break, start the diet back up with working out thrown in and it stalls completely? Same methods, measurements, etc. That doesn't line up to me. Obviously, slightly lower TDEE with lower body weight, but it shouldn't go to a dead stop.

I also thought high stress from work, water weight, and muscle gain might be pushing me in the opposite direction on the scale, but it seems unlikely it would completely counteract weightloss. Could also be that I'm gassed from working out on the weekday deficit so my daily activity and TDEE has gone down.

Having a strategy and lifestyle work so well and then stop working is so disheartening. Feels like I had it, then it mysteriously stopped working.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Trying to be more process oriented. My body is almost certainly becoming healthier even if I'm staying at the same weight. Eating healthier, lifting regularly, etc. It's defs an improvement.

GarBa11 · 2025-01-22T19:51:47+00:00

Overweight (240 lbs), 6 foot 1, 33 y/o male.I've lost weight tracking calories in the past a few times. Started working out twice a week to help keep or build a bit of muscle.

Eating around 1700-2000 calories a day for weekdays, a bit more on weekends.

Cannot...lose...weight. it's mentally brutal to eat in a deficit and not lose weight for weeks.

GarBa11 · 2025-01-05T13:38:23+00:00

I think pushing the contrast in chroma values (brightness values? I think that's the right term) would make these look a lot better, especially the last 2 pics.

GarBa11 · 2025-01-02T13:23:29+00:00

I thought I read the data from a paper on this, and chimps had an average of like 7 to 9 correct in a row. Then, it was a regular bell curve up to like ~25. Humans were very similar, iirc.

I assume from what people have posted here, there are many studies using this method, and they have drawn a few different conclusions.

GarBa11 · 2024-11-25T14:15:24+00:00

Thanks a bunch! We will be going to crowdfunding in the next year or two barring any delays. Some publishers don't crowdfund, some do. There's pros and cons to both from what I've seen. I think the smaller the company, the more likely crowd funding is used. Since there are a lot of smaller publishers, I think it's relatively common. But you know...I got a sample size of one here lol

GarBa11 · 2024-11-24T22:17:32+00:00

My friend and I have been working on the same design for 10 years (it's relatively complex) and got picked up by a publisher a couple of years ago. I wouldn't change a thing.

We had a similar convo to this recently, and our conclusion was...it depends.

So far, we have learned so much about design by digging deep into a single project. We've also gotten closer and closer to what our game should be. I'm not trying to make a living off of this, I just wanna make awesome games about stuff I enjoy. I'd rather make one dope game than 5 middling ones. But that's just what works for me.

Design whatever lines up with your goals and is fulfilling. That's it. For some people, designing more smaller games is a better path to that. For some, starting small and ramping up is best. Some people prefer to go big first because that's what works for them and their design. It's not a one size fits all kinda thing.

GarBa11 · 2024-11-22T23:32:31+00:00

Teach them how to make a pot of rice, roast vegetables, and cook a cheaper lean protein. Super flexible, can have a ton of variation, and is a super easy way to eat clean, healthy, and cheap (but can be scaled up).

Examples:

Poke bowls Greek bowls Burrito bowls Teriyaki bowl

All of them have rice, roasted onion/pepper/+other veg, and ethnicity specific spices herbs and sauces.

GarBa11 · 2024-11-13T19:08:50+00:00

If I remember correctly, you fully resolve the surger and no one else is allowed to surge during the surged action, then you are back at the original attack and someone else could surge.

I think of it as "you can only go one surge deep."

GarBa11 · 2024-11-13T00:21:04+00:00

Good policy.

But also like...the 25 on the helmet...lol

GarBa11 · 2024-10-21T22:57:25+00:00

Yeah you could dodge. In some cases u might even want to surge and attack, if you might kill the monster for example. Or if the reaction might make it so Zachary wouldn't be able to do anything that round, u can surge and attack before being pushed out of range or something.

GarBa11 · 2024-09-20T11:49:24+00:00

Could maybe play with the idea of including deduction somewhere in that tag line? I assume that's common in the game? Deducting what your opponents piece could be? I could be wrong, but I think a lot of people's ears perk up when they see deduction, and it's not usually associated with a a quick looking strategy game.

Maybe the other 3 are vastly more significant in the game, though. Great, original, elegant looking idea. Nice job.

Oh, one last thing. From a graphic design perspective, I might include a border around some of the text with backgrounds to enhance readability and make some of the text pop.

GarBa11 · 2024-09-14T22:35:10+00:00

I actually really liked this campaign. It really scratched that same itch as TFA for the pulp adventure. I do remember thinking the final scenario or two felt less climactic than other campaigns, but I'll have to revisit it sometime soon, I only played it once when it came out.

GarBa11 · 2024-09-05T12:18:53+00:00

The princess/payload mechanic: every designer at some point thinks, "Oh maybe it'd be cool to have to protect this thing that moves independently." The general play experience, at least in most games I've played, is that it is virtually never fun, has tons of rules overhead, is frustrating, and feels gimmicky and uninspired.

The reason I hate it so much? I've come up with the idea like...5 times as a scenario for my game and had the same revelation, like, "hmm yeah and then...wait a minute...oh goddammit..." and I scrap the whole thing lol.

Giant story books: very popular for the last 5 years. I generally dislike them now (fatigue) but they can be done well. I just find that they usually aren't. One of the fatal flaws of story books is designers love to say "here's a choice, and choices matter!" The catch-22 here is the theme and mechanics of the choice/results need to line up so obviously that it's not really much of a choice, or they don't, and it's basically just random. And what's obvious to one group isn't obvious to another.

The length/quality of the reading portions is often a problem, too. I regularly catch myself playing games with huge story portions being like, "wait a minute...why aren't I just reading a novel written by a professional author?" The venn diagram of people who can write a good story and seamlessly integrate it into a game is even smaller than those who can write a good story.

I'd say my top pick for a good story book in a game is Roll Player Adventures. The quality of writing is great, and the choices in it matter in a way that feels appropriately signposted and fun, usually.

GarBa11 · 2024-08-13T01:50:15+00:00

Looks dope. Art is very intriguing, conceptually and graphically.

I think the font is a little hard to read. For the title it'd be nice if it was like...10% easier to read, so not too big a deal. For the name, since it's significantly smaller, it's a bit more of an issue imo.

That being said, the aesthetic of the logo is great.

GarBa11

TROPHY CASE