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I've been thinking about that a lot, about these games that uses procedural generation. I've been playing a game on Xbox where "random" events occurs and you ha
by atum47 6y ago
I've been thinking about that a lot, about these games that uses procedural generation. I've been playing a game on Xbox where "random" events occurs and you have to act accordingly. I've noticed the game wasn't fair or even winnable. That random event striking me that moment of the game, there's no way I could be prepared to deal with the situation (frostpunk, I think is the name of the game). When I released Qubes, my game, I made sure every level was winnable. So when people write me emails telling the level doesn't have a solution, I know for a fact that it has, the player just couldn't find yet. That's a nice article and I appreciate you sharing.
- malloreon 6y agothis reminds me of the ~semi-famous Ignacy/Vlaada design stories in board games. each are board game designers, and Vlaada was play testing one of Ignacy's designs: https://boardgamesthattellstories.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/the-lesson/ https://boardgamesthattellstories.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/t...
- cableshaft 6y agoReally good story. I'll have to remember that one. I think I've kind of come to the same conclusion when designing board games but after a lot of trial and error :). I met Ignacy once several years ago, at Gen Con. He's a really nice guy.
- thaumasiotes 6y agoSomehow everybody overlooked the obvious solution of splitting the good events and bad events into separate decks? That's not at all rare in other games.
- malloreon 6y agothe trouble with that solution is that players are aware of the direction of what they'll get and can make action decisions appropriately. if I know one deck is the bad one, I'll avoid actions that result in draws to that deck, unless impossible to avoid. I think Ignacy wanted there to be ambiguity there.
- thaumasiotes 6y agoThe game as originally described already forced exactly 5 draws, so that's not an issue. If you're forcing draws, you can force some good draws and some bad draws. You can solve the "players know what's coming" problem easily, and some games do ("before you begin, take three disasters and two windfalls and shuffle them together"), but that adds a large logistics overhead that may not be worth it.
- atum47 6y agoby the way, this is Qubes, if anyone wants to check out. I've made an nice update, but Google Play haven't released it yet. The update shows you many moves you've made and how many moves (optimal solution) you have to make on that level. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.victorribeiro.qubes https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.victorribe... The update should be out really soon.