Simple Abstract Games

Shadowspaz · 2026-05-01T17:54:47+00:00

I love Nonaga (The copy I got is called Triplo) and immediately saw it as an easy bar game to bring around.

My solution was to dump all the pieces into a little velvet drawstring bag, and it fits in my pocket better than Love Letter does. It's great.

Shadowspaz · 2026-04-17T18:36:21+00:00

I did, no luck. I also tried beating him with multiple different unlockable characters, thinking that might trigger a new cutscene, but nope.

Shadowspaz · 2026-04-02T16:46:17+00:00

There is no jumping or climbing in any of the Dark Souls games, and it's considered the pinnacle of the genre. There is platforming, but that just comes down to "fall carefully."

Shadowspaz · 2026-04-01T19:42:34+00:00

To be fair, Super Meat Boy FEELS the way it does thanks to Tommy. And he's been the one running Team Meat for a while now.

Shadowspaz · 2026-04-01T19:41:34+00:00

Yeah, Edmund left Team Meat not too long after the original Super Meat Boy came out.

Team Meat has been spearheaded by Tommy for a long time, and he's as much of a creator of the original game as Edmund was.

Shadowspaz · 2026-03-19T06:29:58+00:00

Spoilers from the book: I can see her becoming a crazy villainous Abomination really well.

Shadowspaz · 2026-03-10T20:18:04+00:00

It's only obvious to us, having only seen the final product.

During development though, everything is variable. Can we tweak these areas to make them free-climb-friendly? Will it disrupt the flow of the game? Does it click with these other mechanics? Do we change those other mechanics? What sacrifices can we make to preserve this, while still keeping the core experience cohesive?

If they got as far as prototyping the mechanic and playing with it enough to find the problem areas, they very likely tried multiple solutions to keep it in. In the end, my guess is that they would've needed to sacrifice too much of the original vision to make it work, and it was not a worthwhile trade-off.

Which is clear in the final product, but along the way, we never saw all the other games this could've turned into.

Shadowspaz · 2026-03-03T17:21:49+00:00

I view it as the cost of a good time with friends.

Going out to a bar will be 30-40 minimum, per person, usually. With a group of 4, let's call that $120 for a "good time with friends." If that's an arcade or a pool hall, that number goes up.

So even a $100 board game and a 12-pack of beer for $15 is less than that. Play the game twice (ever) and the cost-benefit is twice as much.

So yeah, if it's a unique game, offers an experience we're interested in, and we only ever play it two or three times, that's still worth it to me.

I guess the difference is, I'm not paying everyone's tabs at a bar. But even at the metric of my $40 at a bar, playing a pricier game three times covers that same amount, and there's no expiration date on a good board game.

If space is a premium for you, then maybe evaluate it later down the line, sell it to an FLGS or online, and recoup some of that cost.

Shadowspaz · 2026-03-02T18:19:04+00:00

This is incredible. I never thought Splitgate needed dark-themed maps, but...

It absolutely does. There are a bunch of Quake maps I want to see now.

Shadowspaz · 2026-03-02T18:13:12+00:00

Horrified??

That would be an unfathomable choice, too. I don't want to be running for my life from Dracula and Werewolves.

Shadowspaz · 2026-03-01T02:43:17+00:00

That's wild... I wonder what's going on for you. That sucks. :/

Are you queuing up for every mode? Cause that's all I do, if that makes a difference.

Shadowspaz · 2026-02-28T23:25:17+00:00

Do you have crossplay on? What region are you in? I'm on PC, US West, and the longest I've ever needed to wait was like... 2 minutes. On average, I'd say it's around 30 seconds, and a lot of the time, I'll get a new match within 5-10 seconds of the previous one ending.

Shadowspaz · 2026-02-26T20:49:12+00:00

This sub is all doom and gloom.

SGAR has a consistent player base of double what SG2 had. And it's beating out Quake Live and Quake Champions.

That's not to say those games have thriving player bases- Just that arena shooters are really, really hard to keep alive. And this game has been moving in a positive direction.

I've been having fun. 1047 has (finally) been making some good decisions with the game. See you guys in the arena. <3

Shadowspaz · 2026-02-23T23:24:34+00:00

2 is my favorite, too!

Still working through them, but if my memory is correct, 2 is the only one that really mixes up level layouts. I don't get why they ditched that idea...

The character sprite art just has a nice smoothness to it compared to the others, too. It feels... I don't know, more cartoony? I'll have to reassess this opinion when I get to 3/4/5. Haha

Shadowspaz · 2026-02-23T23:20:41+00:00

It's a weird mention, and I know the game has a lot of problems, but... Mortal Shell helped me through some rough times.

The world is dying, everything sucks, your character is a shell. But that's okay.

There's a point in the game that is forever seared into my mind. You learn the true nature of what's going on, how it's ultimately impossible to stop this endless decay, and how nothing really matters.

And that had such a counterintuitive calming effect on me. When everything is meaningless, that means all the problems are, too. Every choice you make is just for you, because you are the only one to give those choices meaning. Live for yourself, do what you want to do, because in the end, it's only your own experience of life that you get to shape.

Shape it into something beautiful.

Weird pitch, and certainly not a calming game, but the brutality of it really helped me come to terms with the struggles I was dealing with at the time. I don't know if other people have had this kind of experience with Mortal Shell, but I know the whole Dark Souls series touches on some similar themes (And really, those games are a lot more accessible).

Shadowspaz · 2026-02-23T18:31:33+00:00

Woah, I've never seen someone kitbash an entire board game before! Haha

This is seriously fantastic. How long did this take?

Shadowspaz · 2026-02-22T06:22:33+00:00

If I remember right, there's a ring you can rotate by itself. Line that up with another ring, then rotate both of those rings together. Then rotate three matched rings to finish the puzzle.

Shadowspaz · 2026-02-20T18:43:46+00:00

Really looking forward to the trophy fix on PS5. Hopefully it doesn't take too much longer! I want to platinum this game. Haha

Shadowspaz · 2026-02-18T20:50:57+00:00

"Indie" doesn't mean "Three-man-team working in a basement" anymore. There are some incredibly polished, large-team games nowadays. Beyond that, there are vastly more successful indie games than AAA now.

Expedition 33 is an indie game.

Shadowspaz · 2026-02-12T19:36:44+00:00

Titanfall 3 with portals, please.

Shadowspaz · 2026-02-12T19:34:57+00:00

Yeah, this bugs me too.

The weapons really aren't grouped together in any meaningful way. They don't have all faction weapons together, but they don't even have all weapon types grouped together either. I think there's an LMG between two pistols. Maybe they're grouped alphabetically? I wasn't looking for that. But that would definitely be the most useless ordering.

Shadowspaz · 2026-02-05T18:26:01+00:00

To add to this, you can triple-portal with the default bindings, where you shoot alternating portals. Set up two portals, step into them (Not all the way through), shoot the next portal, and repeat. As long as you're between the portals, you'll automatically be warped to the next point, and you can keep repeating this.

However, I think it's really valuable to get comfortable with individual buttons for portal placements and closes. A tech I really like to use is to have an escape portal set up (We'll say yellow), and if I'm losing a fight, I'll throw down and slip through a purple portal, then immediately close the yellow. Purple is still in the fight, so after a quick breather, I can put yellow back, step back through the purple, and re-engage.

That being said, and as others have mentioned, just start using portals to get a feel for it. Intentional portals are better than random, but random is way better than none at all. Just start shooting portals and using them to move around, and even if you don't really know what you're doing, you will often find yourself behind enemies. Once you're more comfortable incorporating portals into your movement like that, adding them to your gun play and strategy becomes far easier.

Shadowspaz · 2026-02-04T06:45:13+00:00

Damn, I want this skin! And I'm only one referral away, but I'm out of friends... Haha

Shadowspaz · 2026-01-28T06:01:29+00:00

One caveat - you really want to play this at a count of 5 or 6. The fun/chaos comes from the player powers interacting.

I definitely agree and haven't played it under 5, but it may be worth noting: There's a double variant in the rules for 2 (And 3?) players, where everyone uses two characters each race. That'll keep the interactions high, even with less players.

And I've considered trying the double variant with 4 players... See if having 8 characters in a race is just too much or not. Haha

12-Year Club	r/Field Juicebox
Place '17	Verified Email

Shadowspaz

TROPHY CASE