Chris Lawrence

I used to use emojis a lot because it was an easy way to have in-line icons, back when I used GIMP for everything.

I feel like it's only worth it if it's a local in-person event, unfortunately.

The board game Nature. There are 2 species (represented by dials), with 3 trait cards above the first and 2 trait cards above the second. The first has 7 population tokens below it, and the second 6 population tokens.

Got a chance to play Nature last week. I really enjoyed it, which isn't surprising since I think Evolution's one of the best designed games out there.

We played with Jungles and Disasters, and I like how the modules change how you should play each game. Like due to an event, Tusks were very good.

I would probably shrink the timespan, but lesson 1 is also really good for board game design.

Though after posting this I immediately thought of a few point-and-click adventures games with the old PC aesthetic, so that is something.

I've always been a little sad over how while consoles have gotten plenty of games made in their style (like being solid green to mimic the Game Boy), you don't really see any games based on the old PC aesthetics.

There's something about the bright colors and chunky pixel art I just really like.

Hm, maybe you're creating the board you flick on with the cards people play?

Oh God, I wish that was true. I keep trying to get my friends to play deck builders other than Slay the Spire and they just say "why? I already have Slay the Spire".

(The reasoning is completely different though admittedly. Only in board games do you get this notion of a curated collection.)

Man, every screenshot I see of that game looks gorgeous. I don't feel like I have enough familiarity with the franchise to play it, but I really admire the artwork.

On a sandwich sure, but on *burger*? Now that's just crazy talk.

I feel like the twist did a lot of heavy lifting for people.

I think mine would be:

2020: Hades
2021: Cruelty Squad
2022: Signalis
2023: Backpack Hero
2024: Path of Achra

Though 2020 was rough, a lot of good games that year.

Insider, perhaps? If you're the insider you have to both hide your tracks, give helpful answers, and pay attention to what others are saying to bring up later.

I’m really excited to announce a new live show I’m starting that mixes standup comedy with gaming! It will be one of the most unique nights of laughter out there. Our first one is Sunday, July 6th at the world famous Comedy Store in Hollywood!

Tickets here:
www.showclix.com/event/green-...

Yeah, that is very true. I've certainly bought games with the intention of playing them and then never gotten around to it, so I could never blame anyone who's done the same, though of course it sucks to hear.

Multiplayer (ideally modded with friends).

Though even the built in summoning for bosses will help. And as others have said grinding here and there will make things easier.

Whenever I design games my philosophy is "everyone is going to play this the first time, but very few are going to play this the 20th time".

Personally the discovery is what I love so I've played hundreds once but only a handful more than a dozen times. I can't say I get why people take issue.

More the former, though I think there needs to be a minimum threshold of theme. So like it'd be the 10 best games that happen to have a space theme, but the theme couldn't be easily changed out; they are SPACE games.

The best moment was definitely when a racer turned around only a step away from the finish line, and then proceeded to draw a negative number and walk backwards over it.

Four different mascots racing along a grassy track, with the hot dog racer turned around running backwards. Stacks of cash and bets are off to the side.

The four mascot races in the "podium" (the box), indicating how they placed in the race.

Yesterday I went to a new convention in LA called LFG Con, and played a bunch of games, including Hot Streak.

Hot Streak was alotta fun, the chaos was great and there's a real reaction from players when someone is knocked down or squeaks over the finish line.

Recently during a playtest the designer was asked why the playtests in our group have all gone so differently compared to his other ones.

Normally the game is much more adversarial but with us it often became group hug, as it is a multivictor game after all.

He said that I was the anomalous player

Knowing where a ttrpg mechanics comes from is important for two reasons.

One, history. It’s cool to know how things were built and how they’ve evolved. From this, design ideas can grow and not repeat mistakes.

Second, credits. Acknowledging another designers work in a mark of respect.

Yeah. I know people who have met some great people through playtesting so it definitely can be worthwhile, but unfortunately there's only so many hours in a day too.

Few hours meeting with publishers since I tend to have 4-5 meetings planned beforehand. Another few hours going from booth to booth pitching (though honestly I could cut that down).

Rest of the time generally seeing people.

I don't playtest at cons anymore since I do it at home so much.

There are definitely some good characters/minor factions they could use.

I expect a lot of the cards to be multicolored though, just given the past licensed cards, even if monocolored would be more fitting.

Yup, the cards are all different eeveelutions. It even adds in Eevee as a wild, so it's actually slightly different from the original version.

Ha, it'd be funny if they made up a fifth nation or something to fill in the gap.

I suspect though they'll toss black in with one of the other nations. So the Earth Kingdom will be green... and black! With some kind of justification.

The Korean Pokemon Point Salad is also great.

Watching Magic the Gathering put out so many licensed sets is kinda funny because while the 5-colors work amazingly well when you build a world from scratch with them in mind, almost every other property has to awkwardly be shoehorned into them.

Oh wow, I've watched a lot of the web series that the game is based on. It's cool that they made a game set in the same world!