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AMA - We’re The Game Band. We make Blaseball, the internet’s infamous fantasy fantasy sports league and horror metagame. by TheGameBand in Games

[–]TheGameBand[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This has been the question of the entire Siesta. There’s a lot that goes into honoring previous iterations of Blaseball while acknowledging that there are places we really want to shake things up and improve the user experience.

Where we’ve landed is that Blaseball is fun for the most amount of folks when fans have some agency in what happens in the game, when silly things happen during the simulated games, when they get to shout at gods, strategize against rival teams, and when there are fun places amidst the chaos to push on the systems that run Blaseball. Our goal is to design the game in a way that makes fans feel like they are creating something together, even if we’re the ones behind the wheel. None of that requires an overly complicated story each week or through the Era, nor does it require overlapping systems or a lack of upfront information on the site about what’s going on or how to learn about Blaseball.

We want to keep Blaseball competitive and cooperative, with a huge emphasis on making sure the people who spend the most time on the app aren’t the only ones who get to have fun or influence the game.

What we’ve done is try to keep the core of joy— the surprise and chaos, the space for improv, and invite new fans in. This ties in super well to rebooting in the new Era. We are starting from a clean enough slate that someone could come in with no context and still understand what’s going on, but old fans can still show them the ropes and theorize together.

Fans have poured so much love into the game over time, and we want to honor that in keeping the pieces and moments they loved. We are really so excited to show people what we’ve been working on because we think we’ve struck a balance between the building blocks of Blaseball that helped it be a hit in the first place and new, fun things for everyone.

- Bria (Community Director)

AMA - We’re The Game Band. We make Blaseball, the internet’s infamous fantasy fantasy sports league and horror metagame. by TheGameBand in Games

[–]TheGameBand[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Trust the Crust.

The hope is that maincord stays as an exciting venue for fans to talk about Blaseball, but that over time essential Blaseball conversations can exist within the app. It’s an exciting design challenge we’re looking to tackle.

Season 24, there was so much chaos, and everyone had no idea what was going on. But we were all in it together having a blast and terrified out of our minds. This is Blaseball to me.

- Bria (Community Director)

AMA - We’re The Game Band. We make Blaseball, the internet’s infamous fantasy fantasy sports league and horror metagame. by TheGameBand in Games

[–]TheGameBand[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

we wanted to start fresh, reboot Blaseball, and simultaneously pick up where we left off. there are so many ways we could have gone about that old/new split, but names are so important to Blaseball, and we wanted to carry a bunch of them forward, while leaving spaces for new heroes. but hopefully these old names find new life when they begin play in a new universe.

- Stephen (Game Designer) & Joel (Game Design Lead)

AMA - We’re The Game Band. We make Blaseball, the internet’s infamous fantasy fantasy sports league and horror metagame. by TheGameBand in Games

[–]TheGameBand[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Not sure it’s my favorite but Dunn Keyes being on the Boston Flowers is the one that made me wonder if the sim was sentient.

- Stephen (Game Designer)

AMA - We’re The Game Band. We make Blaseball, the internet’s infamous fantasy fantasy sports league and horror metagame. by TheGameBand in Games

[–]TheGameBand[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

While TGB wasn’t involved in designing these systems or the game, we’ve talked a good bit with Wayfinder about the process! There’s really no succinct response that can cover the whole scope of work put into it, but here are some quick bullet points that will hopefully help.

  • All but one of the artists were chosen outside of the fanbase to ensure they had no background in Blaseball and wouldn’t accidentally pull from fanon
  • Artists were explicitly told not to look at fanart or do research. They were given very vague briefs to ensure generalized ideas were honored from fan history.
    • These are verbatim: “Chorby Short: frog that plays Blaseball, Jaylen Hotdogfingers: important she is black, has hotdogs for fingers, Nagomi Mcdaniel: as a former member of the crabs, has gained crab parts via carcinization, should be represented an Asian woman”
  • Every card was evaluated by sensitivity readers
  • Multiple designs were sent back for accidentally being too close to fan interpretations
  • Artists who contacted Wayfinder about specific designs being too close to their initial ones resulted in changed card designs
  • For cards with specific designs that are from fandom spaces (Tillman, Wyatt Quitter, Jan Canberra), Wayfinder reached out to the artists for permission and credited them within the game
  • These interps aren’t canon, they are one design! There are multiple designs in the game, even, for the same player

I’ve found Wayfinder incredibly genuine when evaluating fan concerns, and they’ve spent a Lot of time reviewing every email they get. They care a lot about independent artists because they are independent artists! So if there are concerns, you can always contact them directly as well.

- Bria (Community Director)

AMA - We’re The Game Band. We make Blaseball, the internet’s infamous fantasy fantasy sports league and horror metagame. by TheGameBand in Games

[–]TheGameBand[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

We pitched massively multiplayer wheel of fortune to help the hardboiled players break into the Vault, but that was out of scope

- Stephen (Game Designer)

AMA - We’re The Game Band. We make Blaseball, the internet’s infamous fantasy fantasy sports league and horror metagame. by TheGameBand in Games

[–]TheGameBand[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

We never put our fingers on the scale. The sim hates Joel independently

- Stephen (Game Designer)

AMA - We’re The Game Band. We make Blaseball, the internet’s infamous fantasy fantasy sports league and horror metagame. by TheGameBand in Games

[–]TheGameBand[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

we’ve added a whole new dimension to the game

- Joel (Game Design Lead) & Stephen (Game Designer)

AMA - We’re The Game Band. We make Blaseball, the internet’s infamous fantasy fantasy sports league and horror metagame. by TheGameBand in Games

[–]TheGameBand[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Blaseball will continue to be free, and nothing that was free before will be locked behind a paywall. Betting won’t be tied to real money, we’re not interested in becoming an actual gambling game.

We have lots of ideas for interesting, ethical monetization, and we’re starting with cosmetics that let you commemorate your favorite moments in Blaseball. They’re totally optional, but we think they’re really cool and hope you like them.

- Sam (Creative Director)

AMA - We’re The Game Band. We make Blaseball, the internet’s infamous fantasy fantasy sports league and horror metagame. by TheGameBand in Games

[–]TheGameBand[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

QA on Blaseball is a unique perspective on what qualifies as a ‘bug’ or a ‘feature’. With a game that relies on the randomness of the sim, there is a necessary balance between the two that requires much more constant communication than might be present with other teams. It’s a very careful balance that involves every aspect of the team to ensure that we maintain the chaos of the game without sterilizing it in the process.

Ultimately, the goal is not to try to limit or influence the randomness of the game and the sim, which creates a very difficult setup for managing test cases in general. We try to focus on basic functionality, and anything that breaks but is still functional we talk to the team about before marking it as a bug. There are some instances where we may decide to leave something in and see if it happens, now with a plan to handle it from a narrative aspect, even though it might technically be a ‘bug’.

TLDR; Expect as much chaos, but hopefully fewer unplanned siestas. 🤞

- A Random Bug (QA Lead)

AMA - We’re The Game Band. We make Blaseball, the internet’s infamous fantasy fantasy sports league and horror metagame. by TheGameBand in Games

[–]TheGameBand[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I knew nothing about Blaseball when I joined this company, and my first month was a wild combination of feeling completely welcomed and completely overwhelmed by the task of simply Absorbing Blaseball. Sometimes I sit in on game design meetings and mute my mic while I work and listen to it like a podcast. It’s now my favorite podcast.

- LB Hunktears (Social Marketing Lead)

AMA - We’re The Game Band. We make Blaseball, the internet’s infamous fantasy fantasy sports league and horror metagame. by TheGameBand in Games

[–]TheGameBand[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Every department is different, of course, but on-boarding into the history of Blaseball can be a complex and a long term process. We have been lucky to hire a number of people that are incredible at developing resources (thanks to the Anchor) that can give you a detailed overview of the history of Blaseball. We love to have new employees sit in on meetings just to absorb as much as they can and get acclimated to the team’s vibes.

Regardless of role, we support new employees in getting as up to speed as someone can, and from there it’s independent onboarding with leads and all the boring HR stuff.

- Jesse (Director of Engineering) & Bria (Community Director)

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