the eyepool

“Awkward Silence”

…I don’t know who made this picture, or anything more about it. My daughter forwarded it to me. I thought for a second it was a still from Wreck-It Ralph, but it’s even better.

(The only character I don’t recognize is the ordinary-looking guy sitting in the backwards chair. Who is he?)

Cards from the Decktet, by P.D. Magnus: The Borderland, The Penitent, The Window

The Decktet is an alternate deck of playing cards in which there are six suits and most cards have more than one suit. This allows for games that are structurally very different from traditional card games, and a lot have been created. Each card also has a unique name and image, which lend themselves to Tarot-like divination (for amusement purposes only.)

Tettix — “The Arid Plains” from Solace

“Solace is a game you will never get to play. A world built from the music up. Each song inspired a different piece of concept art/screenshot. I see the composition and concepts of the game with great clarity. But you can imagine whatever you like.”

It’s a soundtrack and concept art for every level of a game that doesn’t exist. (An updated version of the “imaginary film soundtrack” that’s a trope of ambient music.) In an interview with Boing Boing Tettix says that Orbital’s In Sides is one of his favorite albums, and it definitely shows here. “The Arid Plains” is my favorite track so far — try to listen to it on speakers/headphones with good bass!

Dice Rings!!

The Kickstarter ends in four hours and counting…

Random Genre Generator (author unknown)

I printed a deck of cards for Ewen Cluny’s game “Channel A”, which is a sort of retheme of “Apples To Apples” where you’re coming up with new anime series to match a concept being pitched by the studio (“It has to have idol singers! Who hunt monsters!”), but the titles have to be made from words on cards in your hand.

I played it with the kids, and took photos of some of the things we came up with.

“Psychic powers! Fanservice!”

• Machine Genesis Lingerie Maid
• Super Magical Girl Noodle Masters
• Lucky Sweet Flash-tan

“Bloodsport! American cartoon remake!”

• Ninja Corps Plus
• Eternal Panic Fighting Sword
• Cosmic Kitty Hell Channel

“Cyberpunk dystopia! Racing!”

• Sketch Battler Academy
• Silent Silver Bible
• Robo Seed Revolution

“Magical girls! Feudal Japan!”

• Angelic Samurai School Tales
• Brave Magica Knight Sakura
• Shining Rain Story Memories

If you want to play, you can download the PDF I made, which is formatted to print onto Avery business-card paper, so it’s easier to punch out the cards.

I have a weird relationship with games. I have always loved them, whether as boards or cards or roleplaying. (I love computer/video games too, but as mostly single-player experiences they don’t fit into what I’m saying here.) I love them as systems with rules to learn, and processes to follow. I love them as deliberately-vague simulations — this matchstick is a road, this tile is a farm, this wooden cube is an epidemic in Zaire. I love them as the visual aesthetics of grids and maps and icons and colored shapes, and the tactile aesthetics of wood and cardboard and slick paper.

But there are things about playing games that are difficult. I’m trying to explain this in a way that doesn’t make me sound pathological, because I’m not, but I’m introverted and sometimes shy and often sensitive to rejection. So … the hard parts come with actually playing the games.

Competition, of course, can be difficult. Many geeks are cutthroat players, but I’m the opposite; I’m not naturally skilled at strategy or tactics, and I frequently feel bad for someone who’s losing a game. Even if that person is me.

Even if that trigger isn’t coming up, there are other tangles I sometimes get into, if I’m the one who suggested the game: Are they having fun? Is this taking too long? Do they think this is a dumb game?

And yet there are often times when it’s just plain fun. Yesterday I was out with my friend M. We visited a game store, where I bought Ghost Stories, and then found a shady table on campus at which to play it. After opening the box and punching out the counters (which is always a joy) we settled down to figure out the rules and stumble through a game. It helps that this is a cooperative game — so we found ourselves as kick-ass Taoist monks defending a Chinese village from marauding evil spirits that pressed in from all sides. And we were overwhelmed and went down in defeat.

But we sat there side-by-side in the gentle breeze and laid out tiles, and tried to figure out ambiguous rules, and pulled out cards with their ghouls and mud spirits and vengeful dead brides. It was a little shared space we built together, with mechanisms we traversed together, and we lost ourselves in a shared purpose for an hour or so. It was beautiful.

tremulus: a storytelling game of lovecraftian horror

Kickstarter for a new horror roleplaying game based on the Apocalypse World engine.

Speaking of Legend Of Zelda mashups — here’s a dubstep remix of a “Link To The Past” theme, from the “Triforce Of BASS” compilation.

Feedback Loops in Game Design

as observed by Jesse Catron, Jay Barnson, Kyoryu

Design: Daniel Solis