BYOND Strategy

Along The Tech Tree: 135

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:12:10 GMT

The entries to the 2010 Independent Games Festival have been listed. I was going to filter out all of the strategy games like I did when Crispy entered, but I didn't get around to it. (Much like the rest of you have not been making blog submissions!)

I did, however, take the time to read the 2010's Most Promising Bull[*] Indie Games article posted on Something Awful. It made me nostalgic for the Indie Gaming Bingo blog... which is, apparently, still active.

Unknown Person's tactical fantasy game, Ultimatum, has been updated with interface changes, bugfixes, and a new map.

Around the end of August, I was told the help file would be updated. It has not... Granted, I'm a disconnected fool who probably wouldn't notice if the warning inside the help file was simply removed. Feel free to nag UP and keep track.

Devourer Of Souls' Witches Chess has been released and is now listed in the guild. It's sort of like Chess with Puzzle Quest super moves powered by a Street Fighter resource meter. Players can choose their method of resource gathering and select their spells.

I'd like to see buttons for the help files and preferences, but the game looks nifty. =)

Ganing and his anonymous friend made good on their plans to release a strategy game with a Halloween theme. However, it's a not a base defense game. Instead, players are put on offense as they march an army of pumpkins, skeletons, and demons along guarded paths.

It's called Halloween: Terror and it's now listed in the guild. Check it out.

Theironx has announced plans to create an episodic RTS series called The King's Letter. A demo version of the first episode, The Receival, has been released and added to the guild.

That said, I couldn't get the game to run so speak up if there's an error. I'm guessing it's just because it was compiled in the beta version of BYOND and I'm holding off until I release a couple updates of my own.

Acebloke released an application for tracking the medals earned in his games. It's called AceMedalTable. Only the medals earned in his economic/military simulation, Wargames, are of concern to the guild at the moment. However, there are plans to add medals to his featured boardgame, Exploder, as well... along with an improved interface, I hope. ;)

Geldonyetich posted a mock-up interface segement for his persistent RTS, Vehicle Wars. He's also comparing his influences to help him determine exactly what kind of game he wants to make. Overall, players will feel connected to a small number of units which can be given several orders in succession with the option of repeating those orders.

Mecha Destroyer JD announced that he should be able to resume work on his RTS, Ultimate Strife, around the end of December. Granted, he was scheduled to give us an update quite a while ago. ;)

Hey, EmpirezTeam. I don't look often, but I have not seen an Empirez server up in a while. Players need access of some form. Please either host more frequently or add a functional download.

I updated the interface of my arcade action game, Wrangle, Warp and Weep. I also lowered the cost of subscribing to my multipass, Fooldom Come. (Current subscribers gained free extensions.) I'm currently working on interface updates to my card-battling boardgame, PathWrath 2, and my territorial dispute, Occupied Forces.

No videos stand out for me this week, but some of you might be interested in this gameplay video for Railroad Rampage and the trailers for Roro, Roll! (I never know how to handle titles with their own punctuation.) The former is a side-scrolling defense game with a wild west theme. The latter appears to be sort of a defense game blended with a shooter.

Got news? The Digital Cowboys are looking for donations. I'm a big fan of their podcast.

Along The Tech Tree: 134

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:49:04 GMT

Happy Halloween!

Most who voted in last week's poll said to keep the videos. However, 47% of the voters wanted to get rid of them in some form. I'm going to keep posting videos, but I'll try toning them down. I'll embed less and try to make sure that what is embedded is related to strategy games or, at least, games in general.

Meanwhile, I'm going to leave the invite links in because nobody complained. Speak up if you care because I'd just as soon have less editing to do for the Gamasutra version on Sundays.

Foomer posted a review of Crispy's Ataxx-inspired boardgame, Carpe Slimum. He was even kind enough to post a video. Meanwhile, his post reminded me that I had not yet added the games claimed from BYOND Casual to the Disclosure list. I finally did so. Check the forum for the reviews BYOND Strategy is requesting.

Acebloke has been hosting various updated projects this week. His boardgame, Exploder, was one of them. He's currently running a poll to help him decide whether or not the game should use an automated "Elo" ranking. I'm not thrilled with the interface, but the source has supposedly been optimized and players can now upload maps. There might even be medals added soon.

...BTW, I totally stole that screenshot from BYOND Casual because Acebloke didn't upload any himself. ;)

Oasiscircle updated his defense game, Turtle Towers. I thought I downloaded more than one update, but there's only one set of release notes in his forum. No help file yet. There were some bug fixes though. Meanwhile, hosts are cautioned to download the latest version if they want their servers listed on the hub... Did I mention there's no help file?

Geldonyetich posted another progress report for his persistent RTS, Vehicle Wars. He has been spending time working on the interface and players may soon have to deal with attacks on their base from burrowing creatures. With increased player interaction, Geldonyetich's worries about having a life simulation instead of a game seem to be diminishing.

I missed this last week, but Ninja_Roy is working on an RTS. I don't know if it leans more towards defense or conquest.

It appears Kozuma3 is working on some form of defense game. Not much is known about it. Green and black units, melee and range attacks... Dude, at least upload your BYOND avatar so I can pretend to have a relevant picture to post! ;)

Ganing is asking others to help gather ideas for a defense game with a Halloween theme. I don't know if he's actually going to implement the project, but he claims that "pixel art, programming, mapping, and the interface and GFX are all no problem".

So far, only Theironx has offered any input. That's his mockup.

Neos300 is looking for a host to help test Defense of the Base. The post claims the game is an RTS, but I'm a bit wary of team-based games. They tend to lean more towards the action side and not give a single person enough control. That said, I don't know much about this particular game's mechanics yet.

I updated my daemonic boardgame of adaptable units, Flesh and Drone. I performed a lot of interface tweaks and posted comparisons with the previous version. More importantly, drone modifications now involve redistributing strengths and weaknesses instead of constantly increasing power.

I posted my update again on BYOND Strategy using the developer tag. Feel free to do the same with your own work!

There were various Halloween-related videos I had bookmarked, including one by Mediocre Films, but I'll play ball and stick with the latest Board Games with Scott episode. It seems especially relevant to the guild because it's a boardgame interpretation of a base defense game.

Got news? Halloween is almost here. Is it too early to start preparing for Christmas?

Flesh and Drone version 3

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:06:54 GMT

I'll still be posting links in Tech Tree, but the guild has yet to receive any developer submissions that I know of. Here's a post to get the keyword listed and take off the edge of being first.

Mind you, posts don't have to be this long or have this many pictures! Just follow the General Article Guidelines.

Flesh and Drone is a boardgame where players fight to be the last daemon standing. However, they can't harm each other directly. Instead, they must summon drones from a shared list of drone types. Each type has a power rating relative to itself and each other. Players adjust these values through the course of the game.

The most important change in the latest update might involve how drone type powers are modified.

Previously, power was increased by the blood spent to claim a drone type. There was no limit. The relative benefit of modifying a drone in the late stage of the game was quite small. It was even possible to increase powers just to end up with the same 50%/50% chances of success in battle.

Now, the total power of each drone type remains constant. Daemons can redistribute that power so that the drones are stronger or weaker against different types. The benefit of modifying a drone type is unrestricted by time and a drone's success in battle is always threatened. Players will be able to make decisions that are influenced solely by pieces on the board and their predictions.

I also focused on polishing the interface. For instance, I replaced my unnecessary grids with controls that would stretch better and require less explanation (like buttons). I also redesigned the HUD to be more symbolic since some people seem to find words relatively intimidating.

Here are some comparisons. These were taken from different matches so pardon the chat and the color differences of the pieces.

Old => New
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=>
=>
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Here's the change log as posted in the game:

When modified, drone type stats now swap points instead of merely increasing.
The help file was updated with the above mechanical change, CSS changes, more concise language.
Players who can't modify drone types now have their turns ended automatically during the Modify phase.
The player limit is now displayed above the Join button.
Hosts and single players on unhosted instances are now greeted with a note locating server options.
Player options are now explained on the map with symbols instead of words.
The Drones tab is now a simple table with buttons for summoning selection.
The Bid tab now uses symbolic buttons and labels instead of a grid.
The Modify tab now uses a separate tab of symbolic buttons and labels for each drone type.
The Battle tab has been redesigned to explain the new HUD.
The last winner should no longer look smushed when the window is resized.
Various borders and colors were changed in the skin.
Various tab icons were changed. Sometimes the tab titles were removed.
The player logout timer was fixed.

If you wish to leave a comment, please do so on my blog.

Simple Yet Complex: A Review of Carpe Slimum

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:02:57 GMT

Carpe Slimum is one of the earlier games created by the infamous Crispy before he went off and decided to get all professional with his game Mayhem Intergalactic. Yeah, that's the same guy who used to be a notorious moderator on BYOND's Developer forums, who has the second highest post count on those forums in spite of the fact that he's been gone for several years. He says this game resembles Checkers, but I think that's ridiculous as the game obviously resembles Othello. Its really simple to play once you figure out what's going on, but like Othello it is difficult to compose a solid strategy and easy to have the tide of the game turned on you - especially with four players!

Alright, so lets get into the meat of this thing.

Fun Factor

This game is fun, plain and simple. It has challenging AI that comes in three stages of Easy, Medium and Hard, although Hard requires a BYONDscape subscription that is no longer possible to obtain. That means we only have access to the first two stages. However, Medium is still competent enough that its fun to play against. And if you play with four players then the game becomes so chaotic that losing is a real possibility at each turn and it doesn't matter what difficulty setting the AI is on.

The simplicity of the game means that you won't want to be playing it all day, as its sure to become repetitive after a while. But the depth of strategy, a common feature in Crispy's games, at least insures that each play will be engaging.

Control and Gameplay

The controls are easy and all you'll need is the mouse. When its your turn, you click on the slime that you want to move, and you have two options, you can click on a tile next to the one you have selected and it'll create a new slime on that tile, or you can click on a tile two steps away from the one you've selected and the slime that you have selected will "jump" to that tile. You have to decide if its worthwhile to sacrifice one of your slimes to gain a better foothold in enemy territory.

Graphics and Sound

Carpe Slimum has a nice setup using 64x64 tiles instead of the normal 32x32, meaning that all of the graphics can be twice as detailed. This is good for the game board itself, but the interface still leaves something to be desired with all the game options crammed into little 32x32 tiles on the right side of the screen. Carpe Slimum was designed before BYOND 4.0 came out with its advanced interface features, so this is understandable, but it still could have been done better.

I wasn't impressed with the choice of colors for the 3rd and 4th players. Dingy yellow and gray? The gray blends in with the background too much. I'd have gone with some yellow, green or purple. I mean, they're slimes right? Isn't green the classic color for slime?

There is no music in the game so you may want to provide your own, but there are some sound effects. You'll hear sloshing and squishing sounds whenever slimes move around, and there's a little victory fanfare that gets played when the game is over. Its not spectacular, but its better than nothing!

Replayability

As I mentioned before, the AI is competent enough that each play through in single player will keep you entertained. Of course, after a while you may start to find kinks in the computer's intelligence that will make it easier to defeat, but as long as you're not playing this game to excess, you'll forget just enough between plays to let it provide a fair challenge. Okay, that's a cheap way of saying the AI could still be better, but I'm sure it IS better if only Hard mode were accessible. Hopefully that will get fixed sometime down the road.

Playing online may well open up a whole new dimension of replayability for this game, but its not something that I've had the privilege to try.

Conclusion

Carpe Slimum lives up to its short hub description of being simple yet complex. The game is not deep enough to keep you engrossed for long hours and, being more or less a casual boardgame, you wouldn't expect this. If you just want to pass some time, then this is a good game to play, and it could certainly be a lot of fun if you have a group of friends who will join you for a game.

Along The Tech Tree: 133

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:52:30 GMT

Here's the new layout for Tech Tree. Developers are responsible for their own promotional tools. I'm not creating screenshots. I'm not clipping existing screenshots. If there are no screenshots, I'll try using a banner. If there is no banner, I may try the developer's avatar.

Pardon the invite links. I'm formatting this mostly for Gamasutra and you guys said you didn't mind the last time I asked. I can make sure to remove them in future posts if they bother you. (As far as I can tell, there's no way to edit the CSS in Gamasutra's editor/filter so I have to rely on style attributes and the HTML is a mess. Speak up if you know what I'm doing wrong.)

The guild's blog has been open to submissions for ages, but nobody ever took advantage of it. This week, I posted a set of General Article Guidelines (as opposed to review guidelines) which, as always, can be found in the rules section. Meanwhile, the New Conquests and Logistics forums have been merged into Our State since the blog makes them almost obsolete.

We've had a couple events/contests posted so far. Feel free to post more along with developer journals.

CalusCoRPS' (172.16.0.1's) game of turn-based fantasy battles, Fortay, is likely to receive a graphical update using the isometric capabilities that the BYOND staff is working on. =)

Please note that, while the files are not hidden, those using unofficial releases of BYOND should avoid bothering the staff with bug reports until a public version is released.

The abstract, competitive dungeon crawl, GrimTunnel is no longer being featured by the guild. It might regain its status later, but the redundant interface has become tiresome. Just how many times does a player have to be told to click the G links? The developer is a fool.

A beta version of an RTS, called Empirez, has been released by a group calling themselves EmpirezTeam. I added it to the guild. There's no download available, but the team claims that sessions will be hosted regularly. (Actually, there's a server up as I type this.) Meanwhile, the team seems to be getting some flak for not posting screenshots on the game's BYOND hub entry. I don't understand since they went a step further and created a video.

BenG's boardgame, Breakthrough, has been added to the guild. It's an older BYOND game which probably would have been listed earlier, but I believe there were download issues. The goal is to move one of 16 pieces to the opposite end of the 8x8 board.

Acebloke released Beta D of his empire building game, Wargames 2, and then patched it up. There have been many changes, including improved AI, new research, new units, and alliances. Meanwhile, a map and scenario editor is also available.

Oasiscircle apologized to his players for not updating his defense game, Turtle Towers, as much as he used to. I think he's doing fine. He released two more versions this week with new mini bosses, a new unit, and balances for increased difficulty.

Besides, he's conveniently forgetting that I wrote him a rain check to destroy me in his wargame, Nemesis. ;)

Xodinblood updated Godship: Egyptian Majesties. As usual, there is no record of the changes. The MIDI rendition of Castle on a Cloud still there. Maybe Cosette can get her mother back from Anubis.

Geldonyetich is working on the next design of his RTS, Vehicle Wars. This week, he decided to focus on a single faction and worked out some interface kinks. He's currently running a poll to help him decide how much his efforts should be divided by the RTS and RPG aspects.

Exophus is taking the opportunity to create what he calls a "tactical engine" using BYOND's soon-to-be-released isometric capabilities. I can't look at his rope bridge without thinking of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Last Sunday, IainPeregrine's Sessions Guild enjoyed Flick's simultaneous battle, Mano A Mano, and BenG's Breakthrough. This Sunday, the guild is planning a return to Mano A Mano. In additon, they're contemplating midweek sessions of various games. Hopefully, they'll feel free to post any events involving strategy projects on the BYOND Strategy blog.

Removal from the guild's featured list aside, I worked on GrimTunnel this week. I didn't add audio and I didn't add a press-your-luck mechanic. Instead, my first attempt at posting Tech Tree pictures embarassed me into updating the interface. I posted comparisons.

Cool. I rarely get to post videos that are directly related to the guild.

Congratulations to The Dice Tower for their 1000th video review. However, since the review is Candyland, I think I'll post a recent episode of Boardgames with Scott instead. ;)

If you have not voted in this post's video poll yet, scroll up and do so... This video could be playing dirty.

Got news? Cheers to The Dark Mod team on their release. Jeers to the cancellation of the Idle Thumbs podblast.

Strategic Event Week 2

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:04:51 GMT

Last Sunday Winners: (October 18, 2009)
Calus CoRPS(Click Here) - Byond Membership
NuttyDanny(Click Here) - $5

October 25, 2009

Hello guys! Its Domnic , Soul Survivor Snowman "Frosty" and Drehdog7 "Zachy" have decided to host an every sunday event! Here's some information on it.

Name: Strategic Event

Games: Castle, Space Castle. (More may be added)

This week: Space Castle(Click Here)

Time Hosted: 4:00 PM PDT - 5:00 PM PDT. (The server entrance will be closed at 4:10 PM PDT so make sure you join the server before it closes!)

Prizes: $5, Free BYOND membership.(More may come in the future)

During the session of play, the top 4 players with the highest wave will be added to the 'Highest Wave List' and all 4 of them will be given 5$ each. That's not all! The one individual who scores the most during the time frame given(which is 2 hours) will be given a free BYOND membership!(18$)

Again, This is the same as Castle. Whoever gets to highest score/wave wins the prize(s)

Winners get paid by Paypal.
Byond membership winners get gifted.

Strategic Event!

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:51:23 GMT

This is extremely short notice for this week's session, but it's my fault for telling people with a short deadline to submit a post yesterday and then sleeping in. My apologies.
- ACWraith

Hello guys! Me, Soul Survivor Snowman "Frosty" and Drehdog7 "Zachy" have decided to host an every sun day event! Here's some information on it.

Name: Strategic Event

Games: Castle, Space Castle. (More may be added)

Time Hosted: 1:00 PM PDT - 3:00 PM PDT. (The server entrance will be closed at 1:10 PM PDT so make sure you join the server before it closes!)

Prizes: 5$, Free BYOND membership.(More may come in the future)

During the session of play, the top 4 players with the highest wave will be added to the 'Highest Wave List' and all 4 of them will be given 5$ each. That's not all! The one individual who scores the most during the time frame given(which is 2 hours) will be given a free BYOND membership!(18$)

We hope this event will be a success :)!(I'm sure it will be.

General Article Guidelines

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:32:37 GMT

These are the rules for submitting articles to BYOND Strategy. Note that some specific kinds of articles, such as reviews, may have their own guidelines.

Developers, event hosts, and contest judges should take advantage of the blog! That said, articles from others might be fine as well. It will depend on the content.

To submit an article, select the Submit Post (or Add Post) option in the This Site menu at the top of the site. Note that articles might not be accepted right away. Please be patient as the site is run by volunteers. The staff might also wish to spread content across a longer period so it isn't all posted on the same day.

The views and opinions expressed by articles are owned by their authors. The guild is not responsible for them.
Articles should follow the behaviour guidelines noted in the rules section.
Articles should contain a reasonable amount of content. Please list changes for game updates, rules for contests, dates for events, etc.
While perfect grammar is not required, articles should be legible. For instance, leetspeak can be used to make smart remarks, but it shouldn't be used to convey the main points of discussion.
Articles should include links to the projects in question. If a game has a hub page, an article should link to it. If replies should be made in another location, a link should take people there. (Please note that BYOND's invite parameter for referrals might be edited out.)
Articles should use one or more of the following keywords rather than creating their own:
- event : The post refers to a gathering, such as a hosted game session. Test servers are fine.
- contest : The post refers to a challenge, such as a game tournament or design competition.
- developer : The post tracks the progress of a developer's work on a project. Game updates are welcome whether they are implemented or merely planned. Game announcements are fine, but please have them at least partially implemented as the guild doesn't need vaporware spam.
- miscellaneous : The guild may lack a proper keyword for the post. Please use this keyword sparingly and consider that the post might not belong in the guild. Suggestions for more keywords can be made in the forums.

Along The Tech Tree: 132

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:51:00 GMT

I lack an intro and my food is getting cold so allow me to repeat a question posed on the Gamasutra version:

I live like a hermit and the internet communities I take part in tend to be rather insular... Is Facebook ever going to be more than a mass of Flash game requests from family members?

I thought this week was going to be short until I got some update alerts. I should probably log into the pager more.

On the hub's discussion page, Tayoko quelled rumors that he is unwilling to to work with Vermolius and Guyst_X on the team's competative defense game, Efencea. I asked for clarification and was told:
"I did stop working on efencea because I needed to make money, but it dosent mean I didn't enjoy working with verm for free." [sic]
A new version of Efencea is possible, but the team is working on something else right now.
I think Acebloke already found his answer, but he was asking players for a time to test the latest version of his empire-building game, Wargames 2. The currently implemented changes in Beta D can be found here. The remaining changes can be found in Acebloke's forum along with the plans for the next beta.
Oasiscircle's defense game, Turtle Towers, has been updated. The new Versions forum will help myself and others keep track of the differences. This week, changes were made to wizard upgrades, wave 70, bosses, lieutenants, unit flags, and money. New enemies were also added. Oasiscircle is responding to feedback so feel free to leave some in the Turtle Towers forum.
XodinBlood's god-worshiping game has been renamed Godship: Egyptian Majesties. The interface is now in a wider format and it appears cosmetic changes have been made to the map... I'm a bit curious about why there is music from Les Miserables in the background.
Masqurade submitted Useless to the guild this week, but I have no idea what it is. Apparently, players can earn a medal just for logging in. That's sad... I'm tempted to try it in my own projects.
Geldonyetich has not been making progress on his persistent RTS, Vehicle Wars. However, he was recently interviewed on the MMO blog, Grinding to Valhalla. BYOND isn't the focus, but it is mentioned. =)
The last version of the Sessions guild died out when IainPeregrine became the first King of BYOND Strategy. However, he's bringing it back! The focus of the guild is on gathering players for games which are not persistent. In other words, the guild features alternatives to BYOND's glut of MORPGs. IainPeregrine's blog still has some changes to make, but give the guild a try if you've been looking for people to play with. =)
The audio in my abstract competitive dungeon crawl, GrimTunnel, is still suffering from my procrastination. However, I have come up with an unimplemented design change. I've probably been inspired by reviews of Incan Gold.

I also finished designing the latest versions of the cards and stickers for my boardgame, Genetic Fork. Fortunately, I managed to avoid being tempted by the latest batch of pieces offered by The Game Crafter. The price reductions of some of the older pieces were a nice surprise though.

Brigitte Dale is attempting to get a job as a "good mood blogger" in SAM-e's Good Mood Gig talent search. Please vote for her! (Once per day.) I always feel a bit better when I watch her videos.

I'd still like Leftley to release a version of Astrobiz from the aether, but Tom Vasel appears to be content with earthbound transportation.

I'm hungry.

Got news? I voted for Brigitte Dale today.

Along The Tech Tree: 131

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:10:48 GMT

BYOND isn't the only community that has trouble categorizing games. Witness the ongoing discussions to define wargames brought on by games like Small World and Space Hulk being nominated in the Board Game Geek awards. Unlike BYOND, however, the ones aching for a distinction are not the masses merged into a guild like BYOND Anime. They're not arguing about whether a cartoon or videogame came first. Instead, it seems they are grognards who fought to get a slice of Board Game Geek and are unhappy that others are treading on their territory. Perhaps its a local definition like how fangame creators use the term "original".

I don't know about BGG politics, but wargames to me are more than conflict simulations and theme doesn't matter. *shrug*

As far as I know, nobody has complained about my robot-crashing game, Gears & Peers, being featured. This week, the game began accepting payments for lifetime subscriptions. Previously, players could only subscribe through my Fooldom Come passport... which I might begin advertising on the bottom of my Tech Tree posts just like I've started doing on the Gamasutra version.
Techgamer has been hosting his strategy RPG, Strategy and Subtlety, rather frequently so I added it to the guild. However, testing will soon be closed so I removed it again. Either way, the game has been updated with equipment, interface changes, and bug fixes. Techgamer is still looking for teammates, including writers, if anyone is interested.
Polatrite updated his defense fangame, Pokemon Challenger, with a fix and some internal preparation for future changes. As far as I know, the game is still without a banner guild. I'm reluctant to open up the door to Pokemon games in general, but I may list Challenger if BYOND Anime and BYOND RPG settle on how they want to place them.
Oasiscircle updated his GiaD-winning defense game, Turtle Towers. I'm not sure what was updated, but the hub page discussion hints that he may have uploaded the wrong version earlier. Maybe I'm just late getting the 0.08 update. IainPeregrine mentioned helping with a 1.5 players mode, but I don't know if it's in yet... Actually, I'm not even sure what that means.
Lord Raven appears to have fixed a bug in his interpretation of Mafia involving new games and the last killed becoming observers. The game's structure may be rewritten to remove more bugs if another update is released, but no promises are being made.
Geldonyetich is losing confidence and calling his persistent RTS, Vehicle Wars, "more of an artificial intelligent experiment" than a game. Worried that the game lacks enough choices for players, he may start over from scratch.
Ease has been playing a territorial dispute campaign with his friends and is beginning to create a game to help them keep track of their progress. I'm not sure if it will result in something the public can play, but it sounds interesting. =)
AZA announced that the Build A Space Game 2009 website is now online. Rules and entry criteria can be found on the site along with the entry form, prizes, forums, and project tools including optional SVN access.
I meant to add some sounds to my abstract dungeon crawl, GrimTunnel, this week, but I didn't get around to it. Instead, I've been working on my non-digital boardgame, Genetic Fork. The Game Crafter recently announced changes in their card/board prices along with the the availability of stickers for their full selection of token chips. By swapping my joystick pawns and rings out for labeled tokens, I managed to knock the cost of my game back down to roughly what it was with my old dice. I rewrote the rules to note the physical changes and I'm now redesigning the cards to take advantage of the unique backs the new cutting process allows.

Congratulations to NakaTeleeli for attaining 2000+ subscribers. I've been addicted to his Let's Play videos ever since I caught a link to his Bunny Must Die: Chelsea and the 7 Devils sessions... This is actually a poor advertisement for the content of his videos, but he created the visuals himself to celebrate.

Holy crap. There's an IndyMogul video that is both educational and lacks the usual Next New Networks ads. How long has it been since that happened? More like this please!

A new episode of The Dogface Show has begun and it's before a live audience... I'm assuming the guy playing a DS counts.

...I know there are already 3 videos here, but I've been wanting to promote CO-OP some more and their TGS special was recently posted.

Got news? Happy birthday, Idle Thumbs ~~podcast~~ podblast! Wizard!