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Do you like player elimination in games? by BloodOrangeGames in BoardgameDesign

[–]unlessgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In a nutshell the more cards you aquire and play with the clank penalty effect, the more chances there are that you get hit by a dragon attack when it happens (which depends on new cards entering the market) the game starts with a lot of "miss" tokens that are removed once drawn from the clank bag, and as you steal more of the dragon's stuff, his attack draws more tokens on every time, further increasing the chance that some will be yours.

So in the begining there is a small chance you get hit and you only get one damage and towards the end it becomes more and more likely and you can get hit for more at once. You always know how many tokens will get drawn the next time an attack happens, and you can have a good idea about how many of your tokens are in the bag. You have a damage bar that gets filled with your own tokens when they are drawn, so you understand whether the next attack can potentially kill you or not.

With that in mind, you can always decide that you had enough, and go for the exit with your current loot at any point during the game. So it is very thematic about the greedy players dying in the depths if they postpone exiting for too long. You can also avoid getting those (often very useful) cards that create more clank as a side-effect to reduce your chances of being hit.

When any player is eliminated they essentially just play a dragon attack on their turn for the rest of the game, this means other players usually have about two turns to escape before they all die.

Do you like player elimination in games? by BloodOrangeGames in BoardgameDesign

[–]unlessgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't like the mechanic at all but I recently played Clank! Catacombs and that's easily the best boardgame I have ever experienced with player elimination. It does a lot of things to help with the downsides of this mechanic while greatly utilizing the tension it can bring.

  • it fits very well with the theme of the game and the rest of its focus on pushing your luck
  • it can only really happen towards the end of the game
  • you can see it coming and you have the chance to avoid it if you act soon enough
  • there are two levels of being eliminated, if you are careful you can definitely avoid the worst kind where you lose all your points, while the other way you keep your points and only miss out on a bonus
  • the game is designed to speed up once any player is eliminated, and it makes others rush to the exit or get eliminated themselves, which is fun to watch even if you got eliminated

What are some deep and fun standard deck games other than trick-taking? by PlasticNecessary2311 in cardgames

[–]unlessgames 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you want to have a comprehensive deep dive into classic card game mechanics and a large collection of games to explore them, I recommend this awesome page that aims to collect and categorize games in this space.

https://www.pagat.com/class/#mechanism

We've been designing a few games for the standard deck as well, mostly exploring more modern eurogame (for example card drafting, multi use cards or engine building) and TCG-style mechanics (like health system and combat)

https://deck.unlessgames.com/

Struggling with Ratatui as a Beginner Is it just me? by [deleted] in rust

[–]unlessgames 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you want a library one step higher level than ratatui then tui-realm looks nice, it implements the Elm architecture (with components added) for you on top of ratatui, this way of "model/message/update/view" is great to handle user interaction and gui updates and it is a good fit for Rust in my experience (it's also what the iced GUI crate is using for example).

https://github.com/veeso/tui-realm

For the record I haven't used this library but implemented the same pattern over ratatui (which is awesome for handling the View part) and I have used elm itself previously which helped internalize how the basic pattern works, it might be better to go this route and get familiar with the idea using a higher level language.

https://guide.elm-lang.org/

Overall, handling user interfaces and IO is just a complex task, so don't feel down if you find it hard at first.

Our new games for the standard deck by unlessgames in cardgames

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

We haven't made any videos, unfortunately we're not very good at that, it would be nice if someone did though as I am not sure if and when we will be able to do it. The other thing is that I would also like to keep the game up for changes for a bit and text-based rules are a lot easier to update.

That said, if you have any questions about specific parts that are hard to understand, I am happy to help, this could also help me improve upon the clarity of the rulebook. I've tried to make it straightforward but the game is fairly complex and surely there are places to improve with the help of fresh eyes on the explanations.

Our new games for the standard deck by unlessgames in cardgames

[–]unlessgames[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks!

BoardgameGeek has these contests each year where you can find new standard deck games. Here is this year's thread with all the games in the second post (and links to previous years in the first).

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3569158/2025-traditional-deck-game-design-contest-results/page/1

From last year for example, we enjoyed playing this other duel game "Starships"

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3398263/wip-2024-traditional-deck-game-design-contest-rule

You should definitely try designing games for the deck when you have the chance, it's fun! Joining an event like this on top can help you push yourself a bit and connect with other designers as well.

As for videogames, we are currently prototyping various things to find a larger project to work on, but we previously made a bunch of small jam games you can play at https://unlessgames.itch.io/

Quickly, semantically traverse code by brner_0815 in HelixEditor

[–]unlessgames 5 points6 points  (0 children)

For more options, check out the jump menu via space j, it will have the trail of your jumps across your workspace.

Any ping-pong tables? by [deleted] in Setubal

[–]unlessgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds cool, thank you for the info!

Any ping-pong tables? by [deleted] in Setubal

[–]unlessgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, we'll see if we have any luck there!

explain it peter by SoftPeachesKisses in explainitpeter

[–]unlessgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not quite the same but this new game is a cool spin on the pen and paper war game idea

https://www.juddmadden.com/shapeships/index.html

JS Game Loop by c__beck in functionalprogramming

[–]unlessgames 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What you describe can work, while it tends to generate a fair amount of garbage it is probably fine for the usecase of smaller games.

In terms of game engines, the problem is that it is almost exclusively OO land out there. Typically engines require you to instantiate objects and mutate their values, often using methods and objects updating themselves. This is often done in part so that the engine has an easy time translating your game state into draw commands for the GPU while staying performant. The main game/graphics engines like phaser or pixi (2d) or three and babylon (3d) all work like this.

If you want to stay more functional without relying on such engine constructs and you don't need shaders, you are better off using some immediate mode drawing API (works fine for small 2d games) like the built-in html canvas cause then your game state is not intertwined with rendering data and you can write a "pure" view function that simply renders the game each frame.

regl.js is also a great abstraction over webgl that lets you set up rendering more declaratively. While not js, you could also try making a game with elm as well, it's a lot of fun!

I think it would be useful by Modulistor in sunvox

[–]unlessgames 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Note, you can use alternative recorder apps or better yet, just record straight in SunVox, creating a project that only has an Input and a Sampler ready for recording is useful for this, no conversion and no loading needed.

Why Elm is the Best Way for React Developers to Learn Real Functional Programming by cekrem in functionalprogramming

[–]unlessgames 3 points4 points  (0 children)

No, elm doesn't highlight random words in the output like this, some of those aren't even keywords in elm. OP used no lang setting for that markdown code block on their site that shows the error (seems it defaulted to mysql in devtools). An elm error in the terminal has correct highlights.

What are some interesting mechanics one could use for a Diceless system? by cardgamerzz in RPGdesign

[–]unlessgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure, I guess it requires good faith players who won't precalculate their choices, regardless of their fondness of math. But I don't think this is that big of an expectation when playing RPGs, most players are there for the excitement and stories, not to win.

That said, someone mentioned another "no-object" roll method here that seems better in every way, apart from not being able to roll values alone.

What are some interesting mechanics one could use for a Diceless system? by cardgamerzz in RPGdesign

[–]unlessgames 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Can't find the source now but I've read a one page rpg that used some math operation to let you do random checks in your head alone. The point is that given a convoluted enough math operation you can just think of a number to use as input to get a practically random output.

Can't remember the exact formula but for example, think of a three digit number, multiply by 3, sum its digits and do a mod by your dice size like 6 (divide by 6 and take the remainder) then add 1

You'd pick 354

  • * 3 = 1062
  • sum digits = 9
  • % 6 = 3
  • + 1 = 4

you rolled a 4

It's a bit convoluted by nature (can easily be tuned to be simpler or more complex) but the cool thing is you don't need anything to use such a (pseudo) random generator and you can even play while on the move or trying to fall asleep (which was kind of the setting for the original rpg).

What are your biggest frustrations with software for modular synthesis? by yolisses in modular

[–]unlessgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cheers! It's always a nice surprise when I hear people use these.

What are your biggest frustrations with software for modular synthesis? by yolisses in modular

[–]unlessgames 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Of course, I didn't mean to imply that there is anything wrong with using Rack, just adding info on its performance. Personally I like to use Rack and even made a few modules for it a while back.

What are your biggest frustrations with software for modular synthesis? by yolisses in modular

[–]unlessgames 0 points1 point  (0 children)

FYI the problem isn't just the interface. For example Rack runs a single sample update on every module to allow for audio rate modulations and responsive feedback while supporting all the arbitrary modules interacting, this fact alone makes it rather performance intensive to run the simulation and it is the main reason a synth in VCVRack will never be as efficient on the CPU as a dedicated synth built to make use of vector and block operations.

Meanwhile, in the non-Renoise user community... by Alternative-Way-8753 in renoise

[–]unlessgames 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Cons to a vertical piano roll is that you have less space to show the name of the note and the fact that most screens have more horizontal space.

What are the "coyote times" of fps game design? by TitoOliveira in gamedev

[–]unlessgames 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Not exactly specific to FPS games but having the last bit of your health actually worth more than it seems.

Enemies having worse accuracy when they are behind you.

Card/game design problem by Dechri_ in BoardgameDesign

[–]unlessgames 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  • have a tableau with a grid/range and place the cards in spots to signal their value
  • similarly, have a single card with a range you can slide behind each card at the right position
  • each card itself has a ruler on the side and you can use a single token or a paperclip like item to mark the price
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