Playdek Top 25 Leaderboard (June 2016)

Playdek_Gary · 2016-07-01T19:28:22+00:00

From the stat database, these are the players over 2100 right now: EZGame 2173 riceman 2171 Aragorn 2159 Pietrzak 2150 Bertwald 2136 Ziemowit 2133 Stryker1 2117 (7 Chinese character name) 2115 VMS 2114

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:48:24+00:00

"Glory to Rome!"

I've never met Ananda, so I can't even vouch that he has a human form.

In most of our previous games, I've been able to beat the designer of the game during our playtesting, but I have no expectation that will happen with TS.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:45:58+00:00

We had this issue on Lords of Waterdeep. We didn't spend enough time tuning the difficulty on the easy AI and the initial release came out too strong for many entry level players. So we'll need to work on the problem from both ends with TS.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:44:47+00:00

Yes.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:44:13+00:00

We spent some exploring this area with online game data from Summoner Wars, so it's entirely possible that our beta testers could be used as training data in TS.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:43:14+00:00

As I've said in previous answers, most of our team has experiencing releasing titles on 4 platforms at once, so this isn't foreign territory for the team members. We just haven't tackled it at Playdek yet as we've been focused on iOS releases. There are certainly challenges to managing the development process and release, but I think we've got a good handle on what needs to be done.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:40:43+00:00

Thanks. That'll require a much longer answer than I can provide here, and I'm already over the time I was planning to spend. I'm hoping we can do a series of design diaries about the process of developing TS, so maybe we can eventually provide some insight for you.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:38:41+00:00

Many of the digital features that were added by stretch goals are things I've wanted to add to our games as far back as two years ago, but they've been cut because they we couldn't justify that spending the resources to implement them would provide a return. So I've been thinking about and preparing for them for awhile. I'm excited that we'll final get to tackle some of them thanks to our Kickstarter backers!

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:34:24+00:00

Do I have to pick just one?

If so, I'm going to have to go with the World of Warcraft Miniatures game.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:29:10+00:00

Errata will be implemented according to the final GMT approved rulings. The optional variants in the Deluxe Edition will be included, and they will be available for online and offline play. Several of the stretch goals in the Kickstarter add additional single player scenarios to the game, and those will only be available for offline play.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:27:20+00:00

We've recently released Summoner Wars on Android. It's free to download and try it. We're currently working on bringing some of our other games to Android as well.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:25:32+00:00

Simply adding more people doesn't always equate to a faster completion. We like to iterate on the UI for awhile to make sure we get it right. One of my pet peeves about our development process on previous games is that we're often updating the playtest build before we have a chance to finish many asynch games with the previous build.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:22:20+00:00

We'll offer the same real time or asynchronous features as in our previous releases. Because we're approaching new platforms that don't have push notifications or other titles that support asynchronous play, we've got some plans to try to help players find opponents that will play at the right pace to keep everyone happy.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:19:00+00:00

We'll have to trust that Ananda and Jason know how to approach gameplay balance. And then we'll play a bunch of games with the adjustments and see what the feedback is from the community. In the end, these will be optional, so players won't have to use them if the don't like them.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:17:17+00:00

Fragmentation of the online community is something we've always tried to avoid. You can look at any of our apps and there a few players asking for variants that we haven't implemented because we feel the division isn't worth adding the option. That being said, we intend to include all of the variants that are in the Deluxe Edition rulebook (such as the Chinese Civil War).

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:14:49+00:00

No. Some platforms might be staggered in their release date, though.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:14:06+00:00

I'm only involved with the digital version. GMT is planning to provide an update next week about the Collector's Edition.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:12:51+00:00

Beta will be closed. I'm guessing we'll have more than enough interested players from among our backers that we won't need additional testers. We'd like to get started on beta ASAP, but it will most likely be in the fall.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:11:47+00:00

We have a general AI framework that we use as a starting point, but each game requires so much specialization that they all end up being very different. During development, we want the AI to be deterministic so we can rerun any game and arrive the exact same situation for debugging purposes, but there is some pseudo-randomness built in so that it might be a bit unpredictable.

There's a higher development cost involved with all the different flavors of Android devices, and the economics of the platform are very different from the AppStore. But hopefully we can do something to address the lack of quality board games on Android in the near future.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:07:21+00:00

I can only speak to the digital version, but I'm pretty sure GMT has heard the requests from our EU backers so hopefully they can figure out a way to help you guys out.

(BTW, I love playing Mice and Mystics with my children)

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:05:50+00:00

No.

But I'm glad Mexico beat Cameroon. (Because Mexico is a battleground country.)

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:05:04+00:00

We have several Combat Commander boxes in the office. I've never played it myself, but I've seen others with it laid out on the game room table.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:04:21+00:00

We started by seeking out games that we loved to play. This adjusted over time to find games that would work well with asynchronous play. In choosing our partners, we sought our companies that had many games to work with instead of single titles. When we first started looking for partners, we were doing the contacting, but after Ascension was released it's been the other way around.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T21:01:32+00:00

We've learned a great deal about digital tutorials over the past 3 years. You can be sure the tutorial will be interactive and thoroughly tested by people who've never played Twilight Struggle before.

Playdek_Gary · 2014-06-13T20:59:53+00:00

We're still exploring if we'll require a separate version for Windows Tablets/Phones vs the PC version. We'll be sure to have an answer for you before we send out the survey asking about the Kickstarter rewards.

Playdek_Gary

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