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Interview with Amir Rajan of A Dark Room, A Noble Circle, The Ensign, and Future Projects: Sasha, The Builder.

6/19/2016

Amir Rajan is the creator of A Noble Circle, adapter of the #1 hit iOS game A Dark Room (originally created for the web by Michael Townsend), and creator of the prequel to A Dark Room: The Ensign. His games conjure deep, swaying, and often conflicting emotional responses in the players through the use of original storytelling techniques. The worlds he creates are visually simple, yet intensely profound and complex.

Today we chatted about his experiences as an indie developer, his thoughts on his projects, another prequel to A Dark Room, and his next game Sasha.

Brian: What I found to be so striking about my experience with A Dark Room was the way the progression of the experience made me feel compelled to push forward despite the slow but steady realization that the community in the game, the community I started and oversaw, was being crippled by my advancement (literally enslaved). As more people joined my village, my resources expanded, and more features were unlocked, the stronger the urge was for me to drive ahead. It reminds me of how, in real-life, when people gain status and wealth in the world, they start to lack sympathy for those around them, blinded by their own ambitions. In short, the feeling of guilt was present, but it was overshadowed by my desire for growth and exploration in an expanding universe. Was this part of your intent, to have users experience these types of emotions? Knowing that this made some people quit the game, does that feel like a success for having evoked such strong emotions?

Amir: The game started as a web game and I (I'd like to say) "re-envisioned" it to a mobile medium. The web version didn't have any of the builder commentary or the slave transition. The builder was simply an NPC that was used to build stuff. Mentally I really connected with the builder, and wanted to answer my own questions: Who was she? Why was she helping me? So the emotions in the game were definitely deliberate and vocalized through the builder.

It's funny actually, someone reached out to me on twitter about the slaves transition and how "it wasn't his choice". He was pretty angry about it. His Twitter profile background was that of Fallout New Vegas, where you can literally [be] part of a slave driving army.

I think the emotions are exasperated by the fact that there aren't any pictures. In fact, these kind of emotional responses (specifically not having control) were what drove me to create the moral events in The Ensign, where you had a direct choice of whether you would "take food from the family" or not.

...the emotions... were...deliberate and vocalized through the builder.

Brian: In A Dark Room (and likewise in The Ensign), the player has minimal knowledge of what the game is before starting. You take it so far as to only have one screenshot in the App Store, and it is of the very start of the game. Doing so doesn't spoil, but rather, excites attention and curiosity. Do you think that this sense of curiosity is what drew people in? Likewise, do you think it may have scared others away?

Amir: Yes on both accounts. Michael and I did that deliberately so that the experience wouldn't be spoiled. After we hit the number one spot, and did an update to the game, [one] of the people on the Apple app approval process actually rejected our update because our description was "too short". I was really, really pissed about that, but we got it overridden and [were] allowed to update. It's tough balancing the "business" aspect of selling games, but we had faith that word of mouth recommendation would trump a long drawn out sales pitch on our app description page. We have a few accolades on there now. Still trying to find a good balance. [Having] good reviews certainly helps.

Brian: What did it feel like to see A Dark Room hit #1 in the App Store? Did you ever think it would gain such popularity?

Amir: When it hit the number one spot I was in complete utter shock. Definitely was not in a good state of mind, surprisingly.

This expert from my blog explains it well:
"This is the best way I can describe what I’m feeling right now: I’ve bought a lottery ticket, and the lottery commission has revealed 5 of the 6 numbers. And so far, I’ve gotten those 5 numbers right. I know I’ve got at least the winnings for those 5 numbers in the bag. But now I’m waiting for the 6th number… that jackpot number that changes your life forever. The lottery commission hasn’t revealed the 6th number yet, they haven’t even told me when they’ll show the 6th number. So I’m stuck in this weird limbo, where others see success and all I can do is temper expectations, be “responsible”, and move forward as if that 6th number will be wrong…. still number 1, just checked."

I didn't sleep well for almost a month. Every hour or so I'd wake up and see if I were still number one. Still never got used to it

When [A Dark Room] hit the number one spot I was in complete utter shock...I didn't sleep well for almost a month.

Brian: I can only imagine what that feels like.

Amir: Yea, we aren't prepared for that kind of success. When all was said and done Michael and I made about 700k that year we hit #1. 200k during that 18-day period at the number one spot. The rest was long tail trickles. Sadly, after taxes, Apple’s cut, and splits…both of us came away with about 270k. So that part was also not fun to realize. [I] was able to buy a house and pay it off though ^_^. Now I live mortgage free and don’t need to chase the mighty dollar so much anymore.

Brian: You spoke to some of the differences between the original web-based version of A Dark Room in the in-game commentary. Which difference did you find to be the most critical for the mobile experience?

Amir: Pacing and the builder's commentary/storyline. I felt that's what put the game over the top. The mobile version is about 3 times faster than the web version. The game is a bit more challenging too. The DPS for soldiers, snipers, and feral terrors was nearly doubled in the mobile version... rage inducing I'm sure. I didn't expect the builder's interactions would be so powerful. But I do feel that's what "made" the game…Your thoughts on this?

Brian: Pacing is so key in gameplay, and I find that in a mobile experience players would have struggled with a slower pace. As for the difficultly, I actually found it to be rather well balanced, but I tend to enjoy a bit of a challenge. For me, "dying" wasn't too frustrating, but more so, I blamed myself for venturing too far, too soon.

Amir: The Ensign was definitely an extension of that "your fault" mentality. I wanted to make sure it was 100% fair. And yea, the early moments of the game when the forest opens up was key. Didn't want people to play for 30 seconds and leave a bad review. That plus the ability to pick it up, play a little bit, then put it back down was extremely important too.

Brian: A Dark Room starts with darkness when you meet the girl, and comes full circle with darkness returning when the girl leaves. It’s a powerful, emotional moment in the experience, and for me, a point where everything felt like it was crashing down and at the point of no return. This isn’t a question.

Amir: The fire going out when she left was deliberate. Not sure how many people caught that.

Brian: You mentioned how you have never actually met Michael Townsend, the original creator. Do you think you two will ever meet?

Amir: If Trump becomes president I may move to Canada.

Brian: Not a bad idea.

Amir: He said I'm welcome to his couch :-) Hopefully we'll meet soon, but definitely haven't met yet. It's on my bucket list ^_^ Do you find it weird that we haven't met? Maybe it's poetic that we never do :-P

Brian: Actually, not really, not in this day. I collaborated with an artist on a web-based project I created, and we haven't met yet. We follow each other on Instagram though.

Amir: Cool, cool. The composer I [worked] with for ANC is in Brazil. Haven't met him either. But yea, I agree with you. Don't find it too weird personally.

Brian: In playing A Noble Circle and The Ensign, there is a clear, anti pay-to-win, in-app purchase message. In my opinion, in-app purchases, for the most part, replace what was once the designed challenge of a game into something that is now constructed, often purposely, to be purchased for the sake of completion. Which, in turn, taints the experience, removing the fun and entertainment elements for something that feels like it is run by finance people instead of creative folks. What are your thoughts on the direction mobile games have long been heading and do you foresee a backlash?

Amir: I've struggled with this myself. I'm hoping there is a backlash... but it's unlikely. Premium games are a "lost cause". I quoted it because I don't think AAA will go that route. As for indie game devs, it may provide an opportunity to thrive (since we aren't competing with shops like EA). And we also don't need as much money either. I'm happy netting $170 a day. And can live comfortably off of that for the foreseeable future. But I do want to build a culture of "gifting" games and "free to start" games like POTUS and Kung Fury do that very tastefully. So my next game might be "free to start". And maybe ANC will become "free to start" too. You may have noticed that ANC - Prologue is a free offering. But I'm not ready to jump ship yet. We'll see how this year goes.

Sasha, my next game, will be about "unrequited love”.

Brian: From A Dark Room to A Noble Circle it appears that a strong motif of yours seems to be a world that is visually simple, yet with an underlining complexity of somber emotions. And these emotions and layers of details get richer as the player progresses further, learning more of the world around them. What attracts you to this style of gameplay and this form of story telling?

Amir: I think it works well given the current mobile landscape. Given that most games do exactly the opposite of what I'm doing. When I was a kid, I wanted to get into building video games, simply because it was a way to share an experience. Still remember the shock when Aries died in FF7 (spoiler alert). I feel I have a knack for distilling an experience down to its essence. Which works well for me since I don't have the resources to build a fully 3d or gorgeous 2d game. Only so much one person can do.

When I start working on a game, there is a central emotion theme in mind. For ADR it was "the feeling of loss" (specifically the builder). For The Ensign, it was "cognitive dissonance", that feeling when you go against your ideals. For ANC, it’s "a rush of awe". Sasha, my next game, will be about "unrequited love”.

Brian: I’ve released a lot of free custom maps and levels for first-person shooters, so I can relate to the notion of creating something primarily by yourself. What motivates you when you are devoting countless hours to your craft, knowing it may yield little to no money (what if it gets lost in the App Store abyss)?

Amir: [I] always worry about how long my philosophies will bare fruit. So far I'm keeping my head above water. My general ideals is that I only want to build things that I myself would play/buy. I've been lucky (very very lucky) in finding an audience that operates on the same wave length that I do. There are 80+ million iOS devices out there. If I can capture even 0.01% of that in perpetuity [then] I'm happy. Cause I get to do exactly what I want to do: create.

And yes, I've been called pretentious multiple times XD (I even make fun of it in ANC). So, in short. I'll keep doing it until the well dries up. Then I'll figure things out then. [I] just don't want to sacrifice my ideals too much.

I've been called pretentious multiple times.

Brian: While A Noble Circle has a similar visual and thematic style to that of A Dark Room and The Ensign, it differs greatly in terms of gameplay and the sounds that are the backbone of the experience. What inspired you to explore this style of gameplay?

Amir: Geometry Dash. Such a fun game! That and it was a spark of inspiration from creating a virtual Go board. When you placed a "stone" on the board. I wanted to capture a sound that would "do the move justice". You get a nice "click" on a real go board, but in a digital medium I wanted to do something different. So it would randomly play a note from a pentatonic scale. You could almost make music while playing the game. So that's when I decided to take the rhythm based idea, plus the random music generation, plus Flatland and Ayn Rand's Anthem and put them together.

Brian: At the end of A Noble Circle, I just bounced around for a while. At first, because I wanted to see if there was more, but then later, just to enjoy the sounds and music I was producing.

Amir: You wouldn't be the first :-) Have you seen this video?

Brian: That's...incredible.

Amir: I made a musical score, and created a small AI to play the musical score for me. Just a silly little Easter egg. I wonder if anyone will actually try to compose the "perfect" piece. Would be cool if someone did ^_^

Brian: I want to circle back to your next game, Sasha, and the theme of “unrequited love”. What can you tell me about it? Earlier you mentioned the composer for A Noble Circle that you collaborated with, Rafael Langoni Smith. Will this project involve others as well?

Amir: Not sure about collaborations yet. It's barely in pre-production. But I wanted to explore the idea of loving something that doesn't love you back. In this case Sasha is a Tamagotchi style character. Almost an OS that you take care of. Things don't go as planned toward the end of the game let's say :-D ...Sasha is inspirited by Notch's game, Drowning [in Problems]. He was able to convey a narrative without explicit "cut scenes" or story line elements. It's really amazing.

I wanted to explore the idea of loving something that doesn't love you back.

Brian: Are you envisioning a 2D, black-and-white world like the previous titles?

Amir: Yep, I'm envisioning a B&W canvas. Sasha will be fully animated though. I think I can swing that (given that it's just one character). She may end up "making" mini games for you too. Parts of the progression will definitely be inspired by Drowning though. So I'd expect a similar game mechanic to further the story.

Brian: One of the things I truly love about your games is the minimalist details in both the visuals and descriptions, because this forces me, as a player, to fill in those details, to wonder, to be curious, to be eager to learn more, and to decide for myself what the meaning is. Am I an alien? Is this my world? What does this deserted town look like? Should I feel bad for these people? Are the defectors crazed like zombies or just disgruntled? Is the dusty path a post-apocalyptic wasteland? Again: not a question.

Amir: I hope The Ensign helped fill in those details a bit more. The Builder (prequel to The Ensign) will explore the relationship between Builder and Admiral.

Brian: If you had unlimited resources, time, and budget, what would you build?

Amir: I'd do a MOBA. Where players are like those from Dark Souls. So emphasis on swordplay, parries, etc. So stick a level 1 DaS character in the game and "go". Then you can level up to 120 by the time the game is over. Of course level would be faster :-P No one has a specific role, and you grow into the role you want to play. I'm addicted to StarCraft and LoL by the way. I tell my wife to hide my mouse during the week so I don't play it all day.

The Builder (prequel to The Ensign) will explore the relationship between Builder and Admiral.

Brian: This next question may sound crazy, considering your games are so beautifully packaged, feeling so complete in their simplicity, structure, and story…But do you ever think about making The Ensign into a larger, longer, more expansive experience?

Amir: It was initially going to be an infinite world, you go until you die. I could see the ADR world being extremely rich. Following the history of the Wanderers. So the final installment of the main story line will eventually come. Specifically the history of the Builder... I guess that's what ADR, and TE have shaped up to be. So another game may come that explores other historical aspects of the race and their universe.

Brian: What advice do you have to aspiring indie developers out there?

Amir: Start small, get something out the door in 6 weeks. Then iterate. [I] did this Reddit post that goes into details about it. [Given] all the choices, you can get analysis paralysis. So start with that [post]... build something text based even :-D

Brian: Other than StarCraft and LoL, what are some of your favorite and most influential video games, books, and movies?

Brian: I was so happy when FF Tactics was released for iOS. The perfect excuse to play it again.

Amir: Yep! I really want a PvP based game around that concept. The storyline of the game was so great.

Brian: I want to finish the interview by just reading you a few, nice quotes from the App Store:

A Dark Room: “This unique experience will captivate your attention and change the way you think about the world, your life, and the human condition.” [28490572629596]
The Ensign: “A well thought out prequel with stupidly difficult obstacles, was worth every second.“ [Kanaya Maryam]
A Noble Circle: “I’ve never been so emotionally connected to a game.” [A Pale Blue Dot]

Amir: Those reviews are the strongest reason for me to keep building :-) It's the best thing in the world I tell ya. And I'm hoping with ANC people will be more receptive to "unfinished games for now but I'll keep working on it" kind of approach to development. Seems to work well for that game at least.

Brian: For me, it worked.

Amir: [I'm Releasing] an update to that today by the way :-) You finally get to slide "bounce" into the lab.

Brian: I'll check it out! Thank you again for joining me for this interview. I really appreciate you taking the time. And I'm looking forward to your future releases.

Amir: I love this stuff...thanks for reaching out Brian, and please gift my games to your friends and family ^_^ and tell them to pay it forward if they liked it.

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Kickstarter for Dire Vengeance, the Retro 2D Action Platformer

6/19/2016

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Dire Vengeance, co-created by my friend and jiu-jitsu training partner Karl Espiritu, along side Adam Seger, has recently been added to Kickstarter. I play-tested this game a while back, and even way back then I could feel the extreme promise that it has. As it is accurately described on the Kickstarter, "Dire Vengeance is a retro 2D action platform video game inspired by classics like Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden and Ghouls 'n Ghosts". A ton of hard work and dedication has gone into this project, and I'm hopeful it will get the backing it deserves.

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If There Was an Interactive Museum for RPGs it Would be Evoland

5/15/2016

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In Evoland, you experience the evolution of RPGs by frequently unlocking new features (e.g. weapons, radar, and a mini-game), technology (pre-rendered environments, 3D, colors), and design elements (e.g. puzzles, combos, and secrets). Cliches are ingrained in every moment. Yet cliches don't feel like cliches, but rather they evoke the warming sensation of nostalgia. The experience is more akin to a history lesson, or a virtual game museum, than a standard RPG, sprinkled with jokes and jabs at moments and characters made famous by games like The Legend of Zelda, Diablo, and Final Fantasy VII.

The experience is short, making this less of a complete RPG and more of a brief walk through time. Essentially, Evoland is a taste of the integral pieces that have been built over the many years. Yet the foundation is so solid it beckons for a story-driven sequel.

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The Walking Dead: Michonne: A Mini Experience

5/10/2016

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The Walking Dead: Michonne, a three episode gaming experience, is the most recent The Walking Dead edition from Telltale Games. It follows a similar structure as the previous titles, yet falls short of emulating their success primarily due being limited in time, depth, and character development.

Pros

Story: The story, although rather short, is compelling and interesting.
Music: As with the previous TWD TellTale games, the music creates an engrossing feeling of despair that is so integral to the series. And it seems, with this iteration, Telltale corrected the awkward audio level mixing (music, voices, SFX) that was often not properly leveled before.
Intro: The intro is reminiscent of a high-quality TV show, and generates a truly episodic feel.
Michonne: A deeper, closer look at one of the most interesting characters from both the comic and the show.

Cons

Short: The game, in total, across all three episodes, is incredibly short. To be fair, Telltale Games warns us of this ahead of time, to properly set expectations. Warning or not, the limited experience restricts the story from properly breathing, meaning that characters and storylines don't receive the detail, and thus, emotional connection, they deserve.
Limited Choices: The game is lacking any real sense of impactful choice, unlike the versions before it.
Animation issues: Some animations are rough around the edges and could benefit from some polish time.
No skipping: The inability to skip the teaser for “scenes from next time”, the “previously seen” edit/montage, and the end credits that follow each episode is a big let down. Consider that many players will experience all three episodes back-to-back, as I did, resulting in the edit for “next time” unnecessarily appearing when you are about to play the next episode. Whereas, compound that with that fact that “previously” is redundant, considering you literally just completed the last episode.

Summary
All in all, Michonne doesn't have the same gritty and dark feeling of previous iterations, which is mainly lacking due to the short experience that doesn't allow for true depth. The game really feels like it is about to take off right as it is ending.

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My Favorite iPhone/Mobile Games Over the Years

5/5/2016

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In no particular order:

• Evoland - Evolve from GameBoy to PS1
• Dragon Quest VIII - It’s 3D
• Venture Kid - Essentially old school Megaman
• Battleheart Legacy - Missing the story element, but a fun action/adventure RPG
• Device 6 - Unique puzzle/mystery game
• Final Fantasy 6 - Classic goodness
• A Dark Room - It will make you question yourself
• Walking Dead: The Game - Deep, dark, gritty, and an emotional rollercoaster
• Zombie Highway: Driver’s Ed - Strangely addictive
• Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions - Classic strategy, tactical RPG
• Year Walk - Like living in an old, dark, European story book where the environments and creatures are as scary as they are bizarre
• Shining Force - Another classic, turn-based tactical RPG
• Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery - Beautiful design with an amazing soundtrack
• Orbital - Incredibly simple design done right
• Kingdom Rush - Fun, silly, and strategic

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A Few More Ideas for The Walking Dead: No Man's Land

4/23/2016

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Recently I wrote a post about my love/hate relationship with the game The Walking Dead: No Man's Land. As part of that post I offered a list of design ideas, and today I want to expand that list with some additional thoughts.

Since writing that last post a ton of work has gone into improving this game, which I applaud, and I hope the momentum can continue forward. I also hope some of my ideas are helpful to the developers (if they see this).

New ideas:

Mega-structures. As the game continues to grow and new building types are (hopefully) added, and as space in the town shrinks, one fun solution is to allow for combining of buildings. For example, you take 4 farms that are at least level X and combine them together to become one larger farm. This new farm would take up only 50% of the space of the previous 4 individual farms, but the output would be +25% (slightly higher output overall).
Guild gifting and trading. Recently, the ability to gift your entire guild a random treasure was added, which is a nice start, and ideally only the beginning of a gifting and trading foundation. The ability to gift and/or trade gear and characters to guild members would add a significant dynamic to the guild experience.
Council level building options are lacking. As the council levels up, new buildings can be added, at least, at first. At the higher levels, there are literally multiple level gaps where no new buildings can be added. This is a massive hole in what should be a rewarding experience.
Longer levels. At this time, I have yet to see a level that isn't longer than the equivalent of roughly 3 screens horizontally. Longer levels would up the feeling of exploration, which is a reoccurring trope in the Walking Dead universe.
Gathering 3 resources is repetitive. Most levels and challenges require the team to collect 3 resources. In the latest content, I have seen less of this, which is adding needed variety. For levels that are about collecting resources, why not change things up and have the characters scavenge for, say, 10 resources? Just something to add more diversity.
More achievements. Adding more achievements is an inexpensive development opportunity that adds high value (especially when you leverage stats you are already recording). For example, have additional achievements for killing a total of X walkers (multiple tiers higher than the current achievement that I acquired long ago), add an achievement for killing X saviors, and add achievements for upgrading gear and characters.
Character stats. The memorial shows the statistics of fallen soldiers, so then why not show statistics (elsewhere) for living characters? Clearly you are recording this data, if you are able to display it for the dead characters, so it just needs to be displayed.
Unequip. It's frustrating to have, for example, character Bob that levels up to be the best base-layer character and I cannot unequip gear from character Charlie, to provide to Bob. Currently, if I want to get that better gear from Charlie for Bob, I need to "sell" Charlie.
Survivor select UX needs an overhaul. When you select survivors to take into battle, the interface is cumbersome once you have acquired a large count of characters. There is no way to sort by character type, for example, and there is a lot of swiping needed to replace character by character. I recommend something more like a grid/matrix for the character view, possibly only after receiving more than X characters, or as a UI that can be toggled on and off. And/or a way to save favorite teams that can quickly be pulled in and out.
Hospital queue. Often I find some of my key characters being in the back of the hospital queue, waiting to be healed, behind in line weaker survivors. But what if the hospital gains the ability at X level to allow the player to sort the order of the queue?
Stunned opponents that are actually stunned. When raiding, I noticed that if I stun a defending character they still have the ability to counter-attack me. I think stun should mean you are truly stunned (and cannot counter). This feels more like a bug than a feature request.
More visual differences in building upgrades. The buildings have little variety in terms of visual differences when upgraded, often showing no visual change when leveled up multiple times in a row. It's a big let down moment to save up, upgrade a building, wait hours as it builds, and then see it looks exactly the same as before.

Ideas from previous post:

Balance the character types. Far too often do I find myself using the same character types over others, because of the unbalanced/overpowered nature of the design.
Add diversity to the special abilities. With the amount of grinding expected of your userbase, consider for a moment how utterly bored we may be of the repeated, simple abilities. Perhaps some characters within the same character type can have different abilities? Or maybe the player can select abilities? Or maybe as characters level up they gain secondary abilities? Or what about ability trees to unlock and grow? Or there could be a second or even third tier to every ability, so the player has to decide if they should spend the first tier with an attack or save up to the second or third tier? Why not some defensive abilities (e.g. smear walker blood on your body so that walkers ignore you for a turn or two)?
Grow the story mode faster. Again, this is where I see the most promise, at least, within the current feature set. It’s a shame that I always feel like I have to wait many days (or weeks) before I’m barely powerful enough to complete the next level.
Automated clearing of walls. What if, after, say, counsel level 12, the player can build up a sniper tower within their town, and the sniper will clear those 10 walkers off the walls automatically. It’s just plain tedious to click on those 10 walkers over and over again.
Build out guild features. How about trading or gifting unused gear to guild members? Or trading farm supplies with crates?
Fix the bad grammar and spelling errors. It’s just…unprofessional.
Redesign Challenge mode. I get it: you needed more content early on, and this was a quick solve, just like with the ability to replay the story mode in harder difficulties. But now, longtime players have hit high levels, and the mode just doesn’t make sense anymore. How about, for example, you start at a difficultly more inline with your current level? And/or have the levels be more dynamic, such as the loot crates being random. And for those enemies that spawn out of doors and gates, have that be more random too. I don’t even find myself thinking anymore as I cruise through these levels.
I love the idea of permadeath, I’ve just never had anyone actually permanently die. The Explore levels are simply not that threatening. I recommend that those levels become slightly more difficult, to raise the chance of death, and balance that out with better rewards.
Those pesky ads and promotions. I get it: you want to make money. But let’s consider for a moment all of the various ways that the players are inundated with ads and promotions: pop-ups when logging in, a limited time offer icon on the edge of the screen, a menu with various options for purchase, a theater with 30 second ads to watch for a prize, and an optional 30 second ad that unlocks more crates at the end of a level. Maybe tone it down a little?
Ability to unequip weapons and armor. Sometimes players like to swap gear. As it is now, you need to sell a character to free up the gear.
Ability to switch back to default uniform. I own one custom outfit, which happens to be female. I put it on one of my male characters, because, why not? But then I decided I wanted to switch it back to the default outfit. Not too surprisingly, this isn’t an option.
Add cosmetic decorations to purchase. Cosmetic items would be those things that don’t serve any function other than to decorate your camp. This could be things like a pile of walker corpses and wandering chickens.
Add solar panels. Solar panels would harvest the energy of the sun, making other building types, such as the hospital, more effective.
Add spiked cars. This would be a building type that you place outside the wall. The spiked car catches roamers milling about the wall while you are offline, with a finite limit which encourages you to log back in and collect the walkers that have been captured by the spikes.
Allow for building up (and breaking down) of the walls. A key element of the comic and show is fortifications, and the building and maintaining for those fortifications. But in this game, that element is ignored, as you start in a fully guarded camp from the beginning. What if you could build up walls to be stronger, and this strength tied into gameplay? What if walls occasionally broke down if not maintained? What would be the repercussions of an invaded town?
Include a mission where you wear walker suits. A reoccurring motif of the series is the wearing of walker guts and blood in order to blend in with the enemy. There could be a level where the characters kill some walkers, camouflage themselves in their innards, and then have to carefully traverse through a walker infested region.

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The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land - A Love/Hate Relationship

4/3/2016

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I want to love this game. I really do.

I’m a huge fan of the Walking Dead comic and show, as well as the zombie genre as a whole. But this game…oh this game. A mixture of the now cliche Clash of Clans style freemium gameplay mixed with the tactical strategy games of old, The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land feels like an ongoing experiment in bad game design, put forth for all to cringe at as the developers slowly massage it into something presentable. Yet beneath the layers of grinding and clicking is the framework for something special. Something that desperately wants to come to life. There is so much room for growth, however, in its current form, The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land is a menagerie of lackluster, unbalanced, and lame design decisions, sprinkled with obnoxious pop-ups and ads.

The pie chart below shows how I find my time is typically spent in this game, with an explanation of each slice. At a high-level, you will notice a trend where I argue that the most interesting features are where you spend the least amount of time, and vice-versa, which is primarily a failure due to the lack of content and feature diversity.

Upgrading - Behind the safety of the town wall, players can build crops, storage areas, and stations for upgrading players and gear. While on the outside of the wall, with a recently added feature, players can now add and upgrade a walker pit. Supplies are spent to upgrade buildings, gear, and characters. Supplies which are obtained overtime and by scavaging. After the first couple of days of play I found that building and upgrading is an activity that is extremely infrequent, even after spending hours grinding to gather additional supplies.

Story Mode - The story mode is, by far, the most interesting aspect in the game, and unfortunately it’s what players will find they will spend only a tiny fraction of time participating in. What gets so utterly frustrating about the story mode is how infrequent it can be played, because the difficulty curve is an insanely steep arch. Rather than including more levels that can be played more frequently, the developers opted for a drought of content that is stretched so thin that it cannot even be enjoyed.

Raiding Outposts - Every time there is an update I get excited again, hoping for some fun, new features. And occasionally there are new features that, unfortunately, always feel flat, like a quarter of an idea, birthed from the womb far too early. Outpost raiding is one of those recent additions, where players build their own defensive outpost and raid the outposts of others in search for yet another type of resource. Raiding feels far too formulaic, not only in the limited environments, but in terms of strategy as well: kill the walkers, which charges your special skills, then unleash a flurry of your skills on the human enemies.

Grinding

Log in, click on the 10 zombies outside your gate for pitiful resources, then click on your tents and farms for accumulated supplies. Rinse and repeat.
I’m lumping the Challenge mode into the grinding section, because that’s exactly what the Challenges always feel like: a grind. It’s an incredibly boring mode of play that yields weak individual and team-based rewards, cycling through a small set of reusable levels. Challenge mode always starts you off on the weakest version of each level, no matter how powerful your characters are, forcing the player to grind, grind, and grind some more through familiar levels. And since the prizes match the difficulty, you will be rewarded with low-level junk over and over again. There are rewards that the entire guild works towards, but those rewards are not worth the time spent, and further, the challenge creates a system whereas if a player within the guild has not participated then they reap the benefits regardless, creating angry guild leaders. Like most of this game, it is designed in a way that creates a lengthy experience with reused content and minimal enjoyment.
Replaying previous Story levels on harder difficulties. The levels are exactly the same, just harder. This is one of the oldest design tactics for extending gameplay as cheaply as possible.
Similar to replaying previous levels you can also Explore previous areas in order to get more resources and gear. Again, like the Challenge mode, these are reused levels with the exact same layout time and time again.

In short: great framework, terrible design, obnoxious ads, and an extreme lack of unique content.

Next, I want to offer up some suggestions, that I feel could greatly improve this game:

Balance the character types. Far too often do I find myself using the same character types over others, because of the unbalanced/overpowered nature of the design.
Add diversity to the special abilities. With the amount of grinding expected of your userbase, consider for a moment how utterly bored we may be of the repeated, simple abilities. Perhaps some characters within the same character type can have different abilities? Or maybe the player can select abilities? Or maybe as characters level up they gain secondary abilities? Or what about ability trees to unlock and grow? Or there could be a second or even third tier to every ability, so the player has to decide if they should spend the first tier with an attack or save up to the second or third tier? Why not some defensive abilities (e.g. smear walker blood on your body so that walkers ignore you for a turn or two)?
Grow the story mode faster. Again, this is where I see the most promise, at least, within the current feature set. It’s a shame that I always feel like I have to wait many days (or weeks) before I’m barely powerful enough to complete the next level.
Automated clearing of walls. What if, after, say, counsel level 12, the player can build up a sniper tower within their town, and the sniper will clear those 10 walkers off the walls automatically. It’s just plain tedious to click on those 10 walkers over and over again.
Build out guild features. How about trading or gifting unused gear to guild members? Or trading farm supplies with crates?
Fix the bad grammar and spelling errors. It’s just…unprofessional.
Redesign Challenge mode. I get it: you needed more content early on, and this was a quick solve, just like with the ability to replay the story mode in harder difficulties. But now, longtime players have hit high levels, and the mode just doesn’t make sense anymore. How about, for example, you start at a difficultly more inline with your current level? And/or have the levels be more dynamic, such as the loot crates being random. And for those enemies that spawn out of doors and gates, have that be more random too. I don’t even find myself thinking anymore as I cruise through these levels.
I love the idea of permadeath, I’ve just never had anyone actually permanently die. The Explore levels are simply not that threatening. I recommend that those levels become slightly more difficult, to raise the chance of death, and balance that out with better rewards.
Those pesky ads and promotions. I get it: you want to make money. But let’s consider for a moment all of the various ways that the players are inundated with ads and promotions: pop-ups when logging in, a limited time offer icon on the edge of the screen, a menu with various options for purchase, a theater with 30 second ads to watch for a prize, and an optional 30 second ad that unlocks more crates at the end of a level. Maybe tone it down a little?
Ability to unequip weapons and armor. Sometimes players like to swap gear. As it is now, you need to sell a character to free up the gear.
Ability to switch back to default uniform. I own one custom outfit, which happens to be female. I put it on one of my male characters, because, why not? But then I decided I wanted to switch it back to the default outfit. Not too surprisingly, this isn’t an option.
Add cosmetic decorations to purchase. Cosmetic items would be those things that don’t serve any function other than to decorate your camp. This could be things like a pile of walker corpses and wandering chickens.
Add solar panels. Solar panels would harvest the energy of the sun, making other building types, such as the hospital, more effective.
Add spiked cars. This would be a building type that you place outside the wall. The spiked car catches roamers milling about the wall while you are offline, with a finite limit which encourages you to log back in and collect the walkers that have been captured by the spikes.
Allow for building up (and breaking down) of the walls. A key element of the comic and show is fortifications, and the building and maintaining for those fortifications. But in this game, that element is ignored, as you start in a fully guarded camp from the beginning. What if you could build up walls to be stronger, and this strength tied into gameplay? What if walls occasionally broke down if not maintained? What would be the repercussions of an invaded town?
Include a mission where you wear walker suits. A reoccurring motif of the series is the wearing of walker guts and blood in order to blend in with the enemy. There could be a level where the characters kill some walkers, camouflage themselves in their innards, and then have to carefully traverse through a walker infested region.

I’m at that point again where I’m ready to, once again, uninstall. I’ll check back in again, one more time, and hope the positive elements of this game have been amplified, and the negatives have been sorted out.

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Dragon Quest VIII, Mobile Version - The Good and the Bad

3/29/2016

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I grew up playing Dragon Quest games (or Dragon Warrior as we knew it here in the states) on the NES, which for me and many others, was an introduction to the console world of RPGs. At the time, I had a vague understanding of dungeons and dragons, had seen fantasy movies, and had read the Hobbit, so this type of world, at this point, was already very appealing to me. But after the NES days, I never experienced the later iterations of Dragon Quest, as they somehow fell off my radar.

Fast forward to 2016, and we now have a collection of these games available on the iPhone. Many balk at the mobile price tag for this game, accustomed to 99 cent titles and modern, freemium games. What they don't realize is that this is a deep experience, packed with content that you don't get with most modern, cheap games (and unlike many modern mobile games, there isn't any in-game purchases).

I recently completed the game, and am listing out what I feel are the "good" and the "bad" of DQVIII. Of course, I am omitting critiques one would make with modern games, this being about 12 years old. However, I am including criticisms about the platform of which I experienced it on (the iPhone 6s). Lastly, be aware that there are light spoilers below, although nothing that would ruin the experience.

The Good

Epic - This is a truly epic RPG, with dozens of hours of gameplay, and a rich story that gets more complex as you progress further into your journey. If the price originally turned you away then I want to assure you that you have made a mistake.
Balanced Economy - I’ve played a number RPGs where you can too easily buy the weapons, armor, and items throughout the game. Whereas in DQVIII I found myself always short of being able to buy all of the latest gear at the newest town I passed through. This created the dynamic where I had to decide between some options: only buy a few items that appear to hold the best value and return later with more money, or sell old gear that might be usable in the alchemy pot later (a short return but not a solid investment). This type of moderate inventory and money management struggle is what makes RPGs interesting.
Travel progression - You start on foot and soon after learn to teleport to previous locations. From there, you earn a ship, which allows you to expand your search further. Next, as an optional mission, you earn a mount, allowing you to travel on ground at a faster rate. And at the point the mount is received, the distance in areas from point A to point B increases to accommodate the faster mount speed, giving the player the impression of grander exploration. Lastly, with the assistance of the mount, revising older areas is less daunting and time draining. In short, as the world continues to expand, and your explorations with it, your ability to explore in faster and more interesting ways expands with it.
Characters - The characters have unique personality traits and motivations, yet are banded together with a common goal. The group dynamic is often humorous and playful, balanced with the serious nature of the story.
Monster team - Like a light version of Pokemon, players can hunt for new monsters to defeat and recruit, create teams out of those monsters, and then use them in battles both out in the field and in the monster arena. The monster team is a great little side element that runs parallel to the main story throughout the game, by providing the player with yet another reason to explore the open environments.
Alchemy - Players combine items, weapons, and other gear together to form new items. Not only is it fun to find new recipes and discover ones through experimentation, but it also adds a layer of complexity in terms of how you upgrade your weapons and armors. In other words, instead of simply purchasing all of the best gear, I found myself saving older gear in the hopes of crafting it into something better, later on.
Skills - Skill points are gained as you level up, and can be spent to build up knowledge between various weapons, as well as some key abilities. You have to decide fairly early on which pathway you want to explore with your skill points, otherwise, you may find yourself diversifying your points too thinly, making it difficult to master something in particular. This system, like with alchemy, adds yet another layer of complexity, by encouraging the player to hold on to weapons that aren’t quite as powerful as their current, as that less powerful weapon may leapfrog over another as the associated weapon attributes are upgraded.
Animations - The animations are fun, clever, and have a fitting anime like style.
Retro audio - The original Dragon Quest was released in 1986, whereas Dragon Quest VIII was released in 2004). The decision to incorporate both modern sound effects (well, modern for the time it was released) with classic sound effects dating back to the original Dragon Quest was a nice touch.

The Bad

Crashes - All in all, by the time I completed this game it had crashed about 15 times. And considering this is on an iPhone 6s, which is a newer device than what this was originally launched on, that definitely feels too high of a count. Looking at the reviews I can tell that this is one of, if not the top reason for the negative reviews. Thankfully there is an autosave feature, which records your progress automatically, and quite frequently at that. Because of this feature I never had to replay much to get back to where I was. Surprisingly, the game handles the situation where I switch around to other apps and back rather smoothly, without crashing.
No outside music - The game doesn’t allow for the player to run music, podcasts, etc. while playing. And in today’s world, it’s fairly expected to be able to run audio in the background while playing a game on your phone. However, considering the amount of crashes experienced, I’m not surprised that the developers restricted this ability.
The music - Which brings me to the actual music in the game. While the music isn’t terrible, it isn’t particularly good either. And there isn’t much variety either.
Tactics - There are a diverse set of tactics that the player can select from, per character, for battle actions, such as “Fight Wisely”, which is the default. I struggled at first with placing tactics in the “bad” section of this review, because there is both good and bad here. Specially where I think the negatives come from with tactics is how overpowered it often felt. For example, when using “Fight Wisely”, my characters always avoided using abilities and spells that were not effective on an enemy, even if it was the first time I encountered that enemy. And when an enemy was susceptible to a particular type of attack, such as “sleep”, my characters would, like mind-readers, use that ability. Further, characters would always adapt their strategy mid-turn, something you are incapable of doing in any turn-based RPG such as these, without this type of exploit at your fingertips. For example, all of my players have full health. I elect that all of my characters “Fight Wisely”, and the enemy hits one of them severely, doing heavy damage. Then, one of the characters uses full heal on that wounded player. As you can see in this scenario, this is a switch in strategy, something I could not have done had I been executing actions in the traditional way, that makes the tactic too superior to regular decision based combat.
Free Maps - 98% of the world is detailed on a map from the very beginning. There is no purchasing of maps. There is no fog-of-war. That means that you will discover a hidden cave or ruins, long forgotten through time, something that the town’s people think of as myth…but don’t worry, because you have a full, detailed map of every room. Exploration is one of the most engaging elements of an RPG, and providing maps for unexplored areas means that a lot of the exploration elements are lost.
Gambling - Sure, it’s optional. But when you are someone like me who wants to earn the rare items of an RPG, you start to feel compelled to participate.
Final Boss - The battle was too simple, and straightforward.

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Battleheart Legacy, a Great Action RPG with Some Minor Flaws

5/22/2015

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Battleheart Legacy is a fun, action RPG, dungeon crawler, filled with campy humor, clean visuals, and interesting layers, but with some missed opportunities.

Gameplay & Combat
As with many RPGs, you can customize your equipment layout in order to maximize your skill set, such as by equipping weapons and armor that raise intelligence for spell casting. You aren't forced to pick a specific class, such as rogue or bard, and can actually mix skills from various classes to make for interesting battle combinations. At first I dabbled in a variety of classes and skills, in order to feel them out. My focus eventually was on the ranger class, with supporting skills mainly from the bard (charm) and necromancer (skeleton minions).

The battle system is seamless and easy to learn. Details like being able to queue up your next ability while your current ability is being initiated allows for a smooth combat experience.

However, combat becomes quite repetitive after a while. At first, a new combination of skills and fighting new enemies makes for a dynamic battle, but once you settle into your favorite skills and have learned how enemies behave, the battles get stale and formulaic.

Progression
The biggest issue with this game is the lack of activity and content starting around level 18, which left me attempting dungeons prematurely and battling in the arena with little success. I found myself slowly grinding to gain experience, replaying previous dungeons or getting smashed in high level ones. And this process carried on until the very end of the game. With just a little more content sprinkled in from level 18-30 the game could be infinitely more enjoyable, as it would maintain the steady cadence that the first half of the game provides.

When you traverse the world map, you sometimes get drawn into random encounters. Unfortunately the enemies do not scale in terms of difficulty, so you will quickly be one-hitting baddies. Having scalable world map battles would also help solve for the lack of content in the latter half of the game that I mentioned above.

Story
There's not much story in this game; Don't expect to see a complex backstory to accompany our hero. In fact, don't expect any backstory, and don't expect him to be much of a hero either. There is some information here and there about the kingdom and history, but it's incredibly minimal. Overall, the major lack of story is a huge, missed opportunity.

The only character defining elements in this game are the moments when you have the option to be nice or mean, which can translate to a sassy response or killing a stranger begging for mercy.

Bugs & Suggestions

The enemy and hero fire VFX and wolf look identical, so I often confused them (i.e. am I standing in enemy fire that hurt me or my fire that only hurts the enemy? Is that wolf my minion or an enemy?). It would be nice if, for example, my wolf was a different colored skin so that I could differentiate in chaotic battles.
At one point I ran into an invisible enemy that couldn't be hurt and only attacked if targeted.
In one dungeon I came across frozen enemies that didn't fight back.
If you charm an enemy, then use intimidate, and your charmed guy gets intimidated. This could be considered by design, but feels unintentional.
If you summon a pet while one is already out, sometimes a second pet will spawn, while other times the existing pet will be healed. I'm not sure which of the two scenarios was intended here, but I'm guessing the latter.
Path finding is generally good, but I did notice a few objects that get in the way and I even got stuck behind a bush, forcing me to restart the game.

Summary
I really enjoyed this game, at least at first, and then I got frustrated when the content got thin and combat got stale. Overall, its an enjoyable title that's worth checking out, and I'm eagerly hoping for a sequel that leverages the structure that has been created here, but with more content and preferably some story as well.

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How to Make a Tiny Star Wars Dagobah Terrarium

4/25/2015

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Recently I created a mini Star Wars terrarium, complete with miniature Yoda, and these are the steps I took to make it. In the future I plan to create some other scenes, and I will be sure to post pictures of those.

Step 1: Plan
I started by downloading a few references photos and rewatched the scene where Luke crash lands into the murky swamp planet. From there I made a list of the materials I would need. Here's a list:

Micro Machines X-wing and Yoda -- Luke and R2D2 would have fit well here too, but I didn't want to cramp the tiny space too much. You can find these toys fairly easily on eBay.
Glass container -- Mine is a cheap one from Ikea, minus the lid
Woodland Scenics Realistic Water -- Liquid modeling stuff that hardens after about a day
Acrylic Paints -- To tint your water
Glue -- I prefer gorilla glue, and it needs to dry clear
Sticks and roots -- A variety of brown shades to create your tree and some left over pieces to crumble into the swamp water
Moss -- I peeled my moss from our backyard, but you can also buy some on Amazon
LEDs -- I purchased all of my lighting material from this model train store and this lighting package had everything I needed, and was easy to assemble.
Electrical tape -- For wrapping up your LED wires

Step 2: Water and Tree
With all of my materials ready, I began by mixing some acrylics and then painted the base of the glass container. While that was drying I bundled up my sticks (for the tree), tied them off with some twine, and then applied some gorilla glue (the twine is temporary while the glue sets). I placed the tree and the X-wing in my scene, and stuck a small piece of cardboard under one side of the ship so that it would be slightly at an angle, like in the movie.

Using a small plastic container I mixed a tiny amount of acrylic paint (a swamp like color mixture) and then added in the realistic water. This water stuff will bubble if you shake it, so I was careful to instead stir it up, which took about 5 minutes. Next I took my mixture and poured it into my scene, about an 1/8 of an inch deep (as the bottle advises), spreading the thick liquid to the edges with a toothpick. 24 hours later it had hardened (this is the minimum amount of time it takes to dry).

I repeated my mixture and pouring steps, this time tweaking the color a bit to be more in line with what I wanted, but this time I also dropped in some flakes of twigs and dirt in order to get some grimy texture imbedded into the water. With the second pour I waited 48 hours, in order to make sure it was fully dry before moving to the next step. At this point, it was safe to remove the twine from the stick bundle, as the glue and water held it firmly in place.

Step 3: Moss and Lighting
I tore my moss into a few manageable chunks and then stuffed them into place, making sure to curve the pieces downward on the edges so that no matter what angle you looked at the terrarium it would still look good. I connected my LEDs, following the instructions that came with the set, and then used some electrical tape to bundle it into a tight fit. I squeezed the lighting set into place, tucking the bulk of the bundle under the moss patch, with the lights fitted under the wings.