Bill Young’s Post

Do you play games for fun? Or, do you play them because they give you a sense of control? I believe you play for the latter and fun is something you are choosing to manifest through your controls in the game. Is a game about fun or is it about power? I may not be able to defeat a berserk monster in real life, but I can in God of War. I can control things in the game that I can't in my every day life. I have the power to do the impossible in these virtual worlds. This power unlocks the ability to have fun, to get scared, to immerse yourself, to have control over something, and generally express yourself. It's not about fun or even the anthesis of fun what is artfully labelled by Bill as 'toil'. It's about the ability to control your inputs within the game and the power that derives from that control. While one player may play for fun, someone else may have an entirely different or untraditional motivation for playing the game. At the end of the day the root is the control over the interactive media and the capabilities with that control. I have fun in the Sims because I can control the course of my Sim's life in a powerful way than I can my own. This control unlocks all sorts of fun or possible value like seeing what my life could be with different career paths, entertaining virtual relationships, amassing unprecedented wealth, or even watching my Sims untimely death as they drown in a ladderless pool.

Finding meaning in what we do is to be human. The games I have played these past few weeks, in so many ways, are like life. When you begin, you have a deeply guided experience, pop-ups with tutorials, and folks who carry you along. Yet, at some point, a time comes when you must be free to roam and learn on your own and at your own pace. That's not to say these games, or any others, are completely unguided and free (all good design guides you in a hidden way), but there is a sense of mystery and exploration that, like life, keeps things interesting, pushes you forward, and makes you better for it. We have entered a lull in game releases, and a change up in the content of these articles will come, too! In this Article: Dragons Dogma 2 (Capcom) Tunic (@tunicgame on Twitter) Pepper Grinder (Devolver Digital) Teamfight Tactics Set 11 (Riot Games)

Today, I will explain in an express course how to make your game more interesting and fun! 😊 Yes, there was already a post on a similar topic, but maybe I can tell something new. Of course, not all tips will work for you personally. You should realize that each game development is unique and requires its own approach. So you have made a game, you have gameplay and it is even playable! But in the process of playing the game, you feel that something is missing... Then try running your game through the “basic fun” list: 👨👩👦 Multiplayer. How often I hear from people the opinion “co-op will save gameplay”. And it's true, in some cases it will actually play to your advantage. After all, multiplayer gives uniqueness to each session due to in-game events coupled with joint emotions of players. But it is also worth realizing that the development of multiplayer makes your project more expensive in terms of development time and complexity in 10 times. And if you take the payment of the server, it will also fly into a penny. So this idea can quickly and cheaply work in local cooperative. But it requires careful consideration and weighing in the global grid. 💥 Feedback. I have always said and will always say that any action needs appropriate feedback! Look at your game and see if everything is working the way it should. Is there a response to every action the player takes. Even a trivial button press requires good feedback and should cause satisfaction, not boredom and annoyance. 🎲 Randomness. If your game is monotonous and linear, maybe you should add some randomness... When a player performs monotonous actions, like hitting an opponent, and sees the same damage figure, he quickly becomes bored. He has long ago calculated that opponent A dies in 4 hits and opponent B dies in 10. The addictiveness turns into a chore and eventually fades... But add a little randomness to the process, and lo and behold the routine turns into interest! This can greatly brighten up your gameplay and breathe new life into it. So there you have it. 3 simple aspects to go back to and analyze your game for fun! Have a great day everyone, well done 💜

CONTROVERSIAL SOAPBOX POST!!! So there I was in Vegas, having lovely conversations with colleagues from around the industry when I felt the need to step onto my soapbox and try and express my feelings about where AAA gaming went “a bit wrong”.  It’s something I’ve ranted about, even in a press piece once upon a time, but I wanted to try and put in succinctly and trace its origins.  I wanted to explain Helldivers II and Palworld and why they resonate.  The simple truth is - we forgot how to make “fun”. I trace this back to 2009/2010.  This was the period in which Gamestop (among others) switched from being a seller of games to a REseller of games.  They started selling multiple copies of our games for which we were compensated once.  It started a long lived legacy - “how do you make the player keep the disc?”.  We added multiplayer to EVERYTHING, whether it was valid or not.  Hell we would’ve had multiplayer Monkey Island had point and clicks still been popular.  We also added grind, loops and role playing elements to a lot of what we do.  Action games ceased being action games, they became ARPG’s.  Games got longer.  And longer.  And longer.  And less fun. Designers became tuned to dragging things out. God of War : Ragnarok is an amazing product.  Is it GoW?  Is it fun?  It’s 20% walking and talking (length), 20% exploration, 40% God of War and about 20% sitting in UI deciding which glove to wear and cross checking YouTube videos for which doobey to upgrade next.  Is that FUN?  Not to me.  God of War was Kratos wailing on enemies while occasionally picking up blue/green/red orbs that pump me up and a few cutscenes here and there to let me know what was going on.  Did Ragnarok deserve all the honors?  It’s a hell of a product.  I played it extensively.  Did I have fun?  Hmm. Helldivers II is damn fun.  It’s a few minute tutorial that throws everything at you at once, then launches you into hell. Hell-a-FUN.  Palworld the same. Is it polished?  No, it’s completely janky.  But it's fun.  In a digital world where resell is no longer an issue, its time to go back to give players what they want.  Fun.  Players have their fill of “games as a job”.  They want the cookie games, they want the fun.  Arrowhead gets it.  We should all follow suit.

Refind Self: The Personality Test Game is fascinating. Here's a quick review of it, with more to follow. I was able to play it for about an hour this morning before I had to jump to other responsibilities (what does that say about me?). So while I completed one full playthrough, I didn't get to see my personality output at the end. The game presents the player with a basically open world, where you play as an android. You're asked at the beginning to play anyway you want, with no threat of "game overs", and no specific mission to accomplish. However, there are plenty of choices to make and an underlying mystery to unravel (if that's your style of play). I found myself getting more drawn in to the storyline, and I was saddened that I didn't have time to complete my first playthrough. I'll be heading back in this evening to try again. A few notes. First, this is an old school indie game. So don't expect triple A graphics or voiceovers. It's similar in design to most JRPGs in style. Think Final Fantasy III. Second, it's translated into English, so there are some awkward turns of phrase, but nothing too bad. As for the science behind it - well, the developer said pretty directly that the game is meant to be fun, and that people like taking personality quizzes to learn more about themselves. So if you're looking for well-validated psychological models, you won't find them here. What you will find is an interesting game where your choices are fully your own. Is there validity to using gameplay to understand personality? I think so. There's certainly a lot of noise, but there's a signal in there too. Do you choose to act like yourself? Do you do the opposite of what you would really do? Do you play pretend and act like someone else - and if so what chose you to pick that particular character? All of it tells us more about who you are. The challenge is deciding what to do with that information. Overall, it's fun. It's engaging, it's well designed, and it will run on just about any computer. And it's under $10 USD. I highly recommend checking it out. I'll post my personality results once I have them. #personalityassessment #games #testingcommunity

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a kinda-wake for John Prados, the designer of Third Reich (a best-selling wargame in its time), Year of the Rat (a Vietnam wargame created shortly after the Tet offensive), and many other wargames (https://lnkd.in/eZZGWWgg). In his later years, he became a well respected historian, writing multiple books about the Vietnam War and WWII (https://lnkd.in/eSm3rbbB). I and people from old wargame designers to his radical buddies to academic colleagues to his ex-wife and children were in attendance. I knew him as a game designer, of course. It was at an Italian restaurant across from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, on Morningside Heights; one of Prados’s favorite restaurants. Stories were told, pizza was eaten. I learned things about him, including his fearlessness in his academic career, which had its problems, and his insistence on being part of raising his children, including going part time to do so. John and Al Nofi were the mainstays of the Morningside Game Project, an indie wargame developer that is not well known now; among his games, I playtested Pearl Harbor, his Pacific Theater version of Third Reich, which never sold as well (but I think was a good game). I playtested his attempt at a four-player version of the game: one play played the Americans, the other Allied play controlled the British, Indian, and Australian forces… The American player also controlled the Chinese. The Japanese forces were split between the Japanese army and Japanese navy. Eric Goldberg controlled one, and I the other. We had a falling out, and refused to cooperate. Hard to conquer the Dutch East Indies if the Japanese army and navy are at odds, and hard to resupply the Japanese army in China. It was a clusterfuck. I think what Prados took from it was, yeah, this idea for a four-player game doesn’t work. As he should have. I was a teen, going up to Prados’s apartment on Riverside Drive, playtesting wargames, getting high (Prados was almost always high), and chowing down on pop corn he’d make. I thought he was the coolest person imaginable, a serious historian and researcher, an excellent game designer, radical beyond the beliefs of my conventionally Democratic father. I saw him again, maybe 20 years ago, at Origins or GenCon, I forget which. He was then a serious academic, and I was still a game designer, there because Mongoose had published a new edition of Paranoia, and I was there to help them promote it. It was in some ways like we were having Chinese food on the upper west side, like nothing had happened. An easy understanding of each other. He was an occasionally cranky guy, but I wish I’d kept in better touch. And lord knows, in an era where Trump 2.0 is a possibility, we need more radical people. John Prados. An excellent game designer; a good friend; and I don’t think I know enough to comment on his academic career, but some give him kudos there. Let all of us be remembered as well.

Let's be honest. We're all playing "games." We first started playing the school game, where we progressed each year and received scores (letter grades A-F). But now there's not just one game. There are infinite games. With infinite games comes infinite options. (𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘦 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘬? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘴?) So most people start (a new job, hobby, business) but get discouraged and stop. I was one of these people. Until I learned to 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬. Now I use a few frameworks to 1) pick better games and 2) ensure I *actually* want to play them. Here's a small example. I was debating if I should "do" Linkedin. (𝘐𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦? 𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘯 𝘟 𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘴?) Old me would post a couple of times and stop. I'd say it didn't work or it wasn't worth it. (crybaby I know) But I've since learned a better approach. That is, to first design the game I want to play. So here's my game. Designed BY me to make it as easy as possible FOR me. Yes, it's sort of like playing the game with all the cheat codes. I committed to 20 posts over 3 months. Easy peasy. Therefore a "win" is simply showing up here each week. But by defining the "rules" I see how to play AND how to get ahead. Which not only helps me stick with it, but it now becomes fun. (like a game!) My goal this week was one post and here I am doing my SECOND post of the week. Whattt? Why 2? Because it's aligned toward my "game" of doing 20-posts. Creating this beautiful thing called 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐦... Which keeps me consistent + excited. (Everything is easier when you're ahead) It's the minimum test to see if I want to keep playing the game. "Test and invest" as we say at AppSumo. If I like it after 20 posts, I'll invest more into it. But either way, I'm happy with the process of the experimental game. (Spoiler: So far, I like it. I think I'll be here a while. :) ) Ps. If you want this template and more principles and lessons to sharpen your thinking, check out my 3-minute newsletter (🔗 in bio) for this template this Sunday.

'Quordle' today: Here are the answers and hints for August 29, 2023: If Quordle is a little too challenging today, you've come to the right place for hints. There aren't just hints here, but the whole Quordle solution. Scroll to the bottom of this page, and there it is. But are you sure you need all four answers? Maybe you just need a strategy guide. Either way, scroll down, and you'll get what you need. What is Quordle? Quordle is a five-letter word guessing game similar to Wordle, except each guess applies letters to four words at the same time. You get nine guesses instead of six to correctly guess all four words. It looks like playing four Wordle games at the same time, and that is essentially what it is. But it's not nearly as intimidating as it sounds. Is Quordle harder than Wordle? Yes, though not diabolically so. Where did Quordle come from? Amid the Wordle boom of late 2021 and early 2022, when everyone was learning to love free, in-browser, once-a-day word guessing games, creator Freddie Meyer says he took inspiration from one of the first big Wordle variations, Dordle — the one where you essentially play two Wordles at once. He took things up a notch, and released Quordle on January 30. Meyer's creation was covered in The Guardian six days later, and now, according to Meyer, it attracts millions of daily users. Today, Meyer earns modest revenue from Patreon, where dedicated Quordle fans can donate to keep their favorite puzzle game running.  How is Quordle pronounced? “Kwordle.” It should rhyme with “Wordle,” and definitely should not be pronounced exactly like "curdle.” Is Quordle strategy different from Wordle? Yes and no. Your starting strategy should be the same as with Wordle. In fact, if you have a favorite Wordle opening word, there’s no reason to change that here. We suggest something rich in vowels, featuring common letters like C, R, and N. But you do you. After your first guess, however, you’ll notice things getting out of control if you play Quordle exactly like Wordle. What should I do in Quordle that I don’t do in Wordle? Solving a Wordle puzzle can famously come down to a series of single letter-change variations. If you’ve narrowed it down to “-IGHT,” you could guess “MIGHT” “NIGHT” “LIGHT” and “SIGHT” and one of those will probably be the solution — though this is also a famous way to end up losing in Wordle, particularly if you play on “hard mode.” In Quordle, however, this sort of single-letter winnowing is a deadly trap, and it hints at the important strategic difference between Wordle and Quordle: In Quordle, you can't afford to waste guesses unless you're eliminating as many letters as possible at all times.  Guessing a completely random word that you already know isn't the solution, just to eliminate three or four possible letters you haven’t tried yet, is thought of as a desperate, latch-ditch move in… https://lnkd.in/dyF94gZS

Entry #2: Playtesting and Analyzing 07.07.2024 The Week started strong! I visited a local Indie-Event, the IndieOutpost in Nuremberg, heard some awesome Talks (Big Shoutout to Leonie Wolf for making such a big difference in the Industry with her Work in Game:In and the FemdevMeetups) but most importantly for myself, i got to show of an early Proof of Concept and a few People playtested Ortomnia – Broken Trinity. All of them had a great time playing and trying out the mechanics already, i got some really useful feedback, just by watching them Play and got in some awesome Talks about other Metroidvanias and what seperates Ortomnia from them. (Someone came to me asking if iam the Person with the Hollowknight-Clone Game and that was a huge Confidence Boost!) The Animations also got alot of praise, which really gave me a Motivation Boost since they take a long time to produce! Of course there had to be some Bugs i didn’t find myself, even one Gamebreaking Bug which had me to restart the Game over and over again for the People to keep playing, so the next few Days were dedicated to reproducing and fixing them. I found out if you really wanna playtest your game, just mash your Controller as hard und uncontrollable as you possibly can! Also i started with the ~ Social Media Strategy ~ and i think only in this one Week i already learned a lot, i recorded over 10 Minutes of Footage which i needed to cut down to get back to the Short Videos of 1 Minute, so i need to talk faster or just be more concise! The Second Half of the Week was dedicated to analyzing various Tilesets, which i downloaded or bought (for like five bucks) to see how they worked, how they would be implemented. After a lot of Research and trying out to implement my own Tilesets i found out i don’t actually want to use Tilesets that much for my Game, since i can’t really produce the look iam trying to achieve. I found out Hollowknight didn’t use Tilesets either! They used one small, pure black Tileset to block out the Collisions of the Level, everything else is painted on top with Objects via an Atlas! So i went with a 64x64Pixels Black Tileset aswell, and thats a size which gives me a ton of Freedom in painting the Levels and to produce some really interesting Shapes! And that was a week worth of Work! Next Week is going to be crazy, tho! On Tuesday the Decision will be made if Ortomnia – Broken Trinity will get Funding for Developing a Prototype, so stay tuned! Thanks for Reading! - Deli (she/her)

'Quordle' today: Here are the answers and hints for August 20, 2023: If Quordle is a little too challenging today, you've come to the right place for hints. There aren't just hints here, but the whole Quordle solution. Scroll to the bottom of this page, and there it is. But are you sure you need all four answers? Maybe you just need a strategy guide. Either way, scroll down, and you'll get what you need. What is Quordle? Quordle is a five-letter word guessing game similar to Wordle, except each guess applies letters to four words at the same time. You get nine guesses instead of six to correctly guess all four words. It looks like playing four Wordle games at the same time, and that is essentially what it is. But it's not nearly as intimidating as it sounds. Is Quordle harder than Wordle? Yes, though not diabolically so. Where did Quordle come from? Amid the Wordle boom of late 2021 and early 2022, when everyone was learning to love free, in-browser, once-a-day word guessing games, creator Freddie Meyer says he took inspiration from one of the first big Wordle variations, Dordle — the one where you essentially play two Wordles at once. He took things up a notch, and released Quordle on January 30. Meyer's creation was covered in The Guardian six days later, and now, according to Meyer, it attracts millions of daily users. Today, Meyer earns modest revenue from Patreon, where dedicated Quordle fans can donate to keep their favorite puzzle game running.  How is Quordle pronounced? “Kwordle.” It should rhyme with “Wordle,” and definitely should not be pronounced exactly like "curdle.” Is Quordle strategy different from Wordle? Yes and no. Your starting strategy should be the same as with Wordle. In fact, if you have a favorite Wordle opening word, there’s no reason to change that here. We suggest something rich in vowels, featuring common letters like C, R, and N. But you do you. After your first guess, however, you’ll notice things getting out of control if you play Quordle exactly like Wordle. What should I do in Quordle that I don’t do in Wordle? Solving a Wordle puzzle can famously come down to a series of single letter-change variations. If you’ve narrowed it down to “-IGHT,” you could guess “MIGHT” “NIGHT” “LIGHT” and “SIGHT” and one of those will probably be the solution — though this is also a famous way to end up losing in Wordle, particularly if you play on “hard mode.” In Quordle, however, this sort of single-letter winnowing is a deadly trap, and it hints at the important strategic difference between Wordle and Quordle: In Quordle, you can't afford to waste guesses unless you're eliminating as many letters as possible at all times.  Guessing a completely random word that you already know isn't the solution, just to eliminate three or four possible letters you haven’t tried yet, is thought of as a desperate, latch-ditch move in… https://lnkd.in/dV32pqNs