Daniel Wynter 🔜 TCTC

I went to two different branches of my local library today, there's no such thing as too much library.

And???? WE’RE RIGHT!!!

Pinball Galaxy player board and main board

Pinball Galaxy player board

Evan Halbert just threw what's basically a pachinko machine into a euro game.
What a wild ride Pinball Galaxy (working title) was, with where your balls land determining what actions you get to do on your turn, and you have the ability to customize your board with upgrades as the game goes on.

I flip flop on that framing personally but I think there's a lot of value in both "this is who the game is for" and "this is my unfiltered thoughts, figure out yourself if it's for you"

I try to avoid giving numbers at all beyond personal use, it can lead to flattening a lot of the nuance or people disregarding it completely before reading. Doubly so for the binary positive/negative on Steam etc.

If we're in a place where you can only criticise big games, and only praise or stay silent on small ones, I think that's an artistic culture that's emaciated. I think that's saying developers of small games don't deserve grownup critical cosnideration, only head pats like they're children.

Apparently 'don't criticize indie games' is doing the rounds again, though I'm yet to find patient zero. Are we really just accepting that reviews are only here to be outsourced marketing of echoed praise?

Another Dracula Down 🧛‍♂️
Dracula X does a decent job of capturing the spectacle of Rondo of Blood and the music translates rather well to the SNES. But everything else feels extremely diminished with stiff movement and lots of insta-kill traps including the final boss. Not even a cliff shot at the end

Orange and yellow writing which reads Origins, with the dots on the 'i's represented by hexagonal shapes meant to reflect gaming dice. The words Game Fair are underneath in smaller, black writing. Logo for the Origins Game Fair, where the annual Origins Awards are presented.

The Origins Awards, one of board gaming’s longest-running prizes voted on by industry professionals, has unveiled its latest slate of 120 nominees – and come under fire for failing to mention any of the games’ designers for the third year in a row:

boardgamewire.com/index.php/20...

"Why isn't Xbox issuing a takedown notice??"

They don't want to! They profit off of this!!

When you buy Xbox games, when you promote them uncritically, this is what you are helping fund.

Looks cute, I'll take a look for it!

Thanks, I'll take a look. I've also picked up the How to Train Your Dragon book (the movies are partly to blame for this current obsession).

Huh, I would have said the opposite, but maybe I didn't get deep enough into Vampire Survivors, the runs grinding on too long for my taste. I remain fairly cynical about games where you actively seek the machine zone autopilot but to each their own 😜

Photo of me holding the large soft cover edition of the Ghost Dog TTRPG.

Look I’m not usually a collecting stuff for the sake of it kind of person, but as a TTRPG maker and lover of Jim Jarmusch films I couldn’t not do this.

So now I am the proud owner of the officially licensed Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai tabletop roleplaying game.

Behold.

a small white dog wearing a bow tie is sitting on a couch and saying `` you rock ! '' Alt: a small white dog wearing a bow tie is sitting on a couch and saying `` you rock ! ''

Congratulations!

Giancomo from Pokemon Scarlet/Violet "you don't really think things through, do ya? Declarin' war on Team Star is read bad"

Honestly shocked that she hasn't been skipping text in Pokemon, and there is a LOT of freaking text in Scarlet/Violet, those Team Star brats will not shut up.

My 6yo has already blasted through several chapters of Dragon Rider, and seems to actually be processing it. Reading rocks

This is bad, and part of what makes it so bad is that this is clearly pulling from *genre* understandings of reality, which the statistical linguistic machine seemingly cannot distinguish from other text included in the training data. Truly an ideology machine where every episode of CSI is true.

Central board of Emberleaf showing several hex tiles of town buildings with animal meeples placed on top.

Love a game with a sense of tempo and boy does this thing have rhythm.

I don't recall anything about Ender's Game specifically but there was a lot of chatter on that topic in this thread last week, in the context of the film Toys.

Love to see it! Not knowing the eventual scope of the game or it's pricing model made it tricky to assess it's original release.

YouTube video by The Omnigamers Club 139 - Urban Myth Dissolution Center, Animal Rescue Team

Rumours say that a new podcast can be found on your podcatchers. This week Mark debunks the mysteries and genre conventions of Urban Myth Dissolution Center; Daniel is thwarted by a particularly pernicious mouse in Animal Rescue Team; Plus Pokemon Anniversary announcements, Steam Next Fest and more.

It very devolves into a fairly homogenous state of watching balls and flashing lights where you have little agency. At the very least runs were relatively short, and I was strict with only allowing myself one at a time. I do find it fascinating in studying what we find compelling in games.

I'm collecting thoughts on Metroidvanias in Tabletop and curious on your thoughts.

How can you replicate that experience? Is it just a Megadungeon? Can it work?

Posted about it here: papercult.club/thread/663/m...

Likely to be a long form blog article at some point.

Mio is a wonderfully rhythmic and fluid entry to the genre with my favorite upgrade ability in years. It does however feel a little beholden to certain tropes, Metroidvanias having developed a compulsion for unnecessary difficulty, now pulling on Dark Souls as much as Castlevania and Metroid

Heh, we found it appropriate with the sense of tempo but I was thinking of it in terms of trying to balance 4 pots on the stove with different timers, does card cooking work better😅

Player board with 3 cards depicting anthropomorphic animals, with central board in the background

It takes two turtles to tango. Dancing with cards in Emberleaf

there were countless industry trends in this game's way, and they all played their part, but internal mismanagement remains undefeated in killing video games

I really don't want to have to learn Linux but I'm running out of excuses 😩

If you're betting on the term 'ghibli-esque' being in the description you'd be right!