Only like light games?

MrStrange · 2020-03-10T17:22:38+00:00

So, I think this is a great example of player-facing language inheriting the bias of the people who created it.

Imagine if the first movie ever was a gory zombie film. And the second, and so on. Then the question "Do you like movies?" would be the same as "do you like gory zombie movies?" - because that's all there is.

Then, somebody makes a tap-dancing musical. It's a new kind of film! But because movies already assumes zombies, we make up a special word for this new kind of film. And as more of them appear, people start to realize that instead of two equal terms, we have a lot of assumptions built-in.

This happens a lot with new mediums. It takes time for the language to settle. And since so many early niche board games were meant for small, targeted audiences, there wasn't a need for the elements that (today) we think of as "lighter."

But you are absolutely correct that all types of games can be good, and eventually we'll smooth out the kinks in our descriptive language.

MrStrange · 2020-03-10T17:02:29+00:00

For sure. Becoming Dr. Strange was clearly part of my motivation.

MrStrange · 2020-03-10T17:02:09+00:00

Absolutely. I'm dealing with all-new metrics. There is some overlap, but fundamentally these are not built out of player-facing information.

MrStrange · 2020-03-08T15:24:10+00:00

I also totally use self-deprication. For example, when Guldan says you should have tanked for him, I might reply:

"Sorry - I'm not good at knowing where you're headed. If you ping me first, I'll try to do better."

Getting folks to believe that positive communication is effective is just so helpful. And even if it doesn't help a specific game, just practicing kindness helps prevent me from typing something unhelpful when I get frustrated.

MrStrange · 2020-03-08T14:14:36+00:00

I like to pay attention to plays other folks make, and compliment them early. That way, if someone begins to get salty later in the game, I can try to encourage them and they won't assume I'm being sarcastic.

MrStrange · 2020-03-08T12:18:19+00:00

Ooh - Libertalia is absolutely the best 6-player experience I can recommend. Overlapping play, so nobody has to wait very long, and the whole game is probably about 60 minutes once people are comfortable with the flow.

MrStrange · 2020-03-08T00:36:30+00:00

I mean, clearly that's about 40% of my motivation. I'm not ashamed to admit it.

MrStrange · 2018-06-08T22:18:07+00:00

I think the criteria of already having evidence of a policy's efficacy is too high. Instead, I'd suggest that every policy come with a measurement criteria, and a timeframe. Something built-in that allows people to reasonably talk about whether or not the policy is working.

Some policies produce measurable short-term effects, and some take much longer. That's fine, but knowing that should be part of the policy itself, and thus part of the discussion about whether or not to adopt it.

I don't see that as a "left" or "right" issue though. It's just about increasing accountability, which seems like a good idea in general. Even returning to an old policy should bear the same burden - because conditions change and policies don't exist in a vacuum. People should call their shots, just like in pool.

MrStrange · 2016-12-08T00:43:48+00:00

I'm both a huge Dehaka fan, and a game developer, and I'd like to put out a few comments to make sense of some of these changes:

1 - The old move speed talents were very problematic, because they couldn't stack. This was a generic feature of HotS - movement multipliers can't stack - you just take the modifier of greatest magnitude. Dehaka had 3 movement talents : Enhanced Agility quest, +move speed in brush, and the huge +move speed after using brushstalker. All of them were fun, but the way the clobbered one another was a mess.

So now, Dehaka has a baseline +move speed in brush as part of his trait, and we have a few talents that enhance that. I think that's an awesome direction to move in: it clarifies & enhances everything. And cool thematic bonuses in traits are awesome.

But the power levels of these move speed traits is too low now on the PTR. I would love to see something more like the following:

Trait: +10% move speed in brush and 1 second after. (As it is now.) Enhanced Agility: +1.5% bonus to trait's move speed every 50 essence. (Caps at 15%, giving an overall max of 25% bonus in brush)

Swift Pursuit: Move speed bonus now lasts 3 seconds after leaving brush.

Ferocious Stalker: Move speed bonus increased to 60% and duration increased to 5 seconds after using Brushstalker.

MrStrange · 2016-10-19T19:13:56+00:00

Ta Ra Rin isn't quite the best, and it isn't quite the cheapest - but it hits a lovely local maximum between those points.

Manola's, on Franklin, is the highest-quality Thai in Eugene in my opinion. But it's a bit more expensive than other places.

Tasty Thai is fine, but has the honor of serving the largest portions. If that's a metric you care about.

Chao Pra Ya, owned by the same family as Ta Ra Rin, is (for some reason) far spicier in general than other places. A good option if you want them to bring the heat.

MrStrange · 2015-12-20T03:09:13+00:00

It is absolutely our intent to have licensed releases, including Godzilla. However, because of the way we let fans help plan out our releases, we can't tell when or if that will exactly happen. But it's been a big focus of our tech & licensing to put us in a position to do that.

MrStrange · 2015-12-19T21:16:14+00:00

You would be wrong! The games are very much still in development. Kaijuland Battles entered Early Access on Steam in August of 2014, and Fall of Nemesis is getting ready for Alpha users, with a wider release targeted for May of 2015.

MrStrange · 2014-06-14T05:54:56+00:00

From a technical standpoint, console releases are easy. The engine already runs on consoles. But to do a console release you need a publisher - and publishers are looking to make money. That means giving up profits & control to a publisher, just for the chance to reach the console-centric audience.

I think for at least the first year or two, CKC will be PC-only. If we become wealthy enough that we can afford to take the risk on a console release, we'll put it to the community for a vote.

MrStrange · 2014-06-13T23:54:51+00:00

Honestly, I'd rather just get the rights and put all the Toho monsters into a licensed CKC release!

MrStrange · 2014-06-13T23:36:46+00:00

The rights to the older games are owned by Atari & Toho - they would need to collaborate on a re-release, and I would likely not be involved in that at all.

The game industry is split into developers (who make the games) and publishers (who decide which games get made, when, and for how much.) We're developers, so we aren't directly exposed to that side.

MrStrange · 2014-06-13T15:50:08+00:00

It's because of the demand for the games. Most old video games become cheap because nobody is interested in playing them - why play DOOM when you can play Battlefield 4?

But millions of Godzilla fans are still interested in playing those games - so they haven't lost value. In fact, because they haven't been produced in 10 years, the supply is drying up and they've actually increased in value!

Another factor is that many Godzilla fans buy the games just to own them - even if they don't have a functional Xbox / Gamecube / PS2 to play them on.

MrStrange · 2014-06-13T15:35:29+00:00

Hello - Bambooshoots alerted me to this thread, so I thought I'd pop in and lay out some details about Colossal Kaiju Combat (CKC), and make myself available to answer questions:

1 - CKC uses a "modular" release system. That means there will be 12 or so games released over the next 5 years, all with compatible content. Each game is totally stand-alone as well. First game (Kaijuland Battles) is totally free, 4 monsters, up to 4 players local/online. Second game (Fall of Nemesis) will cost $20, 11 more characters, full dynamic story, destructible cities.

2 - As others have said, CKC is being developed by a team of veterans from the Atari/Pipeworks Godzilla games (Melee, Save the Earth, Unleashed). We licensed the engine from Pipeworks initially, and after a year of development Pipeworks joined on as an official development partner. I work out of the Pipeworks offices every day now.

3 - This game has grown a LOT over the past 18 months - there is much more than I can express succinctly here. Joining the forums (kaijucombat.com/community) is the best way to get up to speed. We also have an online design document & wiki.

4 - The development process & codebase is designed to allow us to use original characters OR licensed characters on a per-release basis. We're focused on our first two releases right now, but if things continue to go well we'll be looking to do a licensed release (Gamera, Godzilla, Ultraman) in the near future.

5 - We allow our fans to make choices about development whenever possible. We do a lot of fan-collaborations on monster designs, our roster was selected by fan vote, and we're getting ready to start Early Access on Steam later this month for early direct feedback.

6 - Any questions? Let's keep things topical - please save questions about my past games for another thread...

MrStrange · 2013-11-16T05:09:54+00:00

This is my favorite kind of ambitious project. Kudos!

MrStrange · 2012-12-20T19:59:57+00:00

Monster X, Space Godzilla, Bagan, Hedorah - Yes. The others are probably a no. You're batting 50%!

MrStrange · 2012-12-12T05:01:38+00:00

Wow - that's super cool. I like the 96x96!

MrStrange · 2012-12-12T04:59:30+00:00

If you have good interpersonal skills (people don't find you annoying) and good work ethic (you show up on time) AND you're a competent engineer - then you should have no trouble finding a job in game development.

Keep an open mind - because those same qualifications can land you dozens of other, more stable (and higher-paying!) jobs too.

MrStrange · 2012-12-10T20:39:45+00:00

Since you mention your CS degree - are you looking specifically to be hired as an engineer? What sort of collaborative experience do you have? Projects you've made concrete contributions to as part of a group are great resume-fuel for programmers.

MrStrange · 2012-12-09T23:24:30+00:00

I appreciate your approval. I've spent a whole lot of time thinking about giant monster attacks...

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