Hearthstone; the death of CCG's.

Hearthstone is a good game. It's great fun. Quite enjoyable. You should play it. But when the meta game changes on a weekly basis, what's the point? A deck that was passable good last week looses frequently this week. Why does the meta game change so rapidly? The game was created in the age of streaming internet.  We watch, content, pick up some deck ideas, play those. Wash, rinse, repeat each week. The real question "Is that fun?"

Razer Makes Progress.

A year or so ago Razer took out a full page ad in the New York Times stating that 'pc gaming is not dead'.  Thanks.  In my opinion it was an overly expensive ad marketing to the wrong audience.  Kind of weird to review a game companies marketing strategy, but it's one of my more popular posts.  Razer has since starting doing some more creative, more targeted advertising, which addresses many of my concerns.

5 Risks No kickstarter ever lists, but should.

Recently Reddit, and Penny Arcade Report cited a Kickstarter Campaign which was successfully funded, but failed to deliver the product.  Based on comments and  tweets the game had a lot going for it.  Backers say that the game mechanics were done, that playtest had gotten to final stages.  But the game was still not produced.  There are rumors that they were attempting to start a company using funding from the project.  The kickstarter campaign clearly states that it is to produce a board game, not found a company.  Unfortunately a project is not a company, and if I had to guess I would assume that not understanding this point led to their downfall.

3 Game Production Resources

A quick post today with some links to resources for producing a physical game.  Having started making a card game, which has the potential to be a physical game, it would most likely be a good idea to have some resources around for physical production.  Maybe my game will never make it that far, but maybe yours will.

Play Test Round 1

The Design of my card game is going well.  This week the call volume is high which means time to buckle down at the day job.  Working on this is going to get put on hold.  Lunch breaks are 30 minutes, and I'm picking up extra hours.  No downtime to spend working on Dormouse Games, let alone a personal side project like this.  But over the past couple weeks some play tests were done, and some lessons learned.

5 great Podcasts for gamers.

There are some amazing game design related podcasts.  I'm always searching for more however.  If you have suggestions send them my way.  Here are a few of my favorites.  Additionally check out 198+ Game Design Resources (non of which are podcasts), I checked all the links they still work.

Card Game overview

This is an attempted description of the card game idea.  The inspiration is one part Game of Thrones Ascent, one part Magic: the Gathering, and one part Joshua AC Newman.  The idea here is to create a paper prototype card game and start giving it away.  Just to put something out in the world.  Just for fun,  knowledge, and my own sense of accomplishment.  Here is the beginning.

I accidentally a...

So I accidentally made a card game prototype recently.  My assigned task was to work on the GDD for Steam Scouts: Alchemy.  Which I did work on (GDD's are never finished).  However, inspiration does not follow the plan.  The prototype is a castle building, tactics card game.  After playing a lot of Disruptor Beams great Game of Thrones: Ascent, the card game came to me. I wanted to play stone block cards and build castles a bit quicker.

Gunpoint

The technoir tale of Gunpoint is amazing.  The game itself reminds me of the technology, film noir crossover of Automata by Penny Arcade.  It takes about 3 hours to play through.  Quick to learn and fast paced.  You'll be rewiring lights, and doors in no time flat playing as Richard Conway Professional Spy, Amateur Electrician, Weaponised Jerk.  You can prepare detailed plans of cause and effect tweaked to your hearts content.  Inevitably there are two results.

New Domain!

Previously we established that have a URL is good!  This blog's hit volume was drastically impacted by not renewing the old www.zorts.net.  Considering Zorts was a failed project, and not really something that identified me as a designer, it was time to scrap it.

The new URL is www.JeremyTeague.com.

Teague is my middle name.

It means Bard, Honor (Celtic and Gaelic) and Handsome (Irish)... But not danger.

Steam Scouts: On Track Open Beta

Steam Scouts: On Track is in Open Beta.  Click here and go play it!  We're still polishing, and tweaking so the game can change at any time.  The basic mechanics are in.  The art is (mostly) done.  We're collecting feedback and making changes.

3 online games that turn CCG's upside down.

With Hearthstone coming soon to slay all other CCG's, deck construction games are a bit of a blast from the past. Magic: The Gathering has defined what deck constructions is and should be for so many years, that thinking in different mechanics is a bit hard to do. Wizards of the Coast has almost 50% of the market share of CCG's. Yu-Gi-o has another 20%. Pokemon has about 10% and World of Warcraft around 5%.

What is the current state of online deck building and collectible card games? Here are a few that I've played online. These games are popular, but do they really push the bounds of electronics CCGs?  Let's find out.

Thoughts on Victory Points

The Game Design Round Table with Jon Sheafer, Dirk Knemeyer and David Heron discussed Victory Points on their recent episode. Here are a few thoughts in reply which started to get too long to write in a comment box. If you haven't listened yet, go on over and check it out.

Why am I starting a game company?

Incidentally I have a 'real job', in the financial services industry which I am good at and do not hate.  But despite the safety and security of the day job it just does not keep me interested.  Something more creative is needed.  I crave something more.  What has so captivated my attention about game design?  Why do I make games?  For that matter, why does anyone?

There are so many things that it could be.  But lets strip away all the bullshit reasons, vanity, peer pressure, 'cool', why anyone does something.  Read Fuck Videogames.  What are you left with? Make good art.  Each of these pieces of advice are powerful alone.  But are especially so when combined.

Domain name issues...

Look at that traffic pick back up!  So apparently when you have a working URL people can actually see your blog.  Look at me learning how the internets work.  Although I haven't been able to login to my domain registrar yet and solve the current issue, it's most likely a simple lack of payment.

Now is a good opportunity to raises a question, is www.zorts.net really me anymore?  Zorts or Zombie Real Time Strategy is neither a successful project, nor part of my identity anymore.  It's not even on my old business cards let alone my Dormouse Games business cards.  If not Zorts then what?  Jspringfield211 is still available by virtue of being a terrible brand.  But it is my twitter handle.  So there's that...

Dormousegames.net might be a valid thing to try.  Squat on my own companies alternative URL.  But ultimately won't that suffer the same issues as zorts.net?  My identity will change and grow, my URL static despite the best efforts of DNS.  This feels like picking a tattoo, for my forehead.

I have a (forced) opportunity to change my url to something that fits me better now.  Unfortunately I'm terrible at naming things.  Help me pick a new URL.  If you haven't yet read some of my blog posts (if you're new here) and tell me what works for my identity.  Group brainstorm: go!

Blog post meta blog post.

The Dormouse Games website is looking a lot more professional these days.  The blog aspect is basically going to be my domain.  We're going to be posting information specifically about the games we're making the and thought process that will go into them.

This blog is going to stay active.  The tone here will more personal, rather than business related.  Talking about events I go to, talks I like, etc.  But there might be some crossover.  So if you enjoy the stuff I post here, follow the blog at Dormouse Games as well!  Just in case.  Wouldn't want to miss anything, right?

For the company website I rewrote some concepts and ideas about Paper Prototyping because we used it recently.  You may see some revisions and changes in thinking.  This represents the things that I am learning through the process of starting company and applying all the lovely theory.

Merit vs Acheivement

Most games track progress in some way. It could be a level system, a system of experience, a score, or some form of achievements. There has been controversy about the value of achievements in games. Although now they are basically accepted as part of gaming. For Steam Scouts we want to introduce a system of both achievement and merit. So what's the difference?

3 great GDC Vault talks.

Or why I am a Luke Muscat fanboy.

Officially Beta!

Steam Scouts: On Track is in Beta!

Closed Beta for the moment.  Open beta coming soon.  And more art as well.  ;)

Find out more: 

on Facebook

on Twitter

#steamscouts

Steam Scouts Beta!

Dormouse Games has a functional Steam Scouts beta!  We'll have a closed beta, followed by an open beta, coming up in the near future.  That means it's time for the business guy to look to the future.  I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about how we're going to get the word out about the game.

Pax East 2013, attending my last Pax East.

Pax East 2013 was fun, and certainly enjoyable.  There were a lot of great things to see, and some neat swag to get (Got my Moga controller!).  But despite all that, there was no single game which really stood out.  No single piece of hardware or device which really piqued my interest.  This is most likely my last Pax East as an attendee...  But Pax East 2014 is most likely Dormouse Games first Pax as an exhibitor (if a lot of things go well).  We're already planning and psyched to go!

#steamscouts

Just a quick note this morning.  Dormouse Games is going to be using the hashtag #steamscouts.  We will be collecting feedback, both good and bad, via twitter, and communicating with our players.  While there's nothing there at the moment, follow it to find out what's going on via the twitters.  We will continue posting things elsewhere as well.

"The Lean Startup" vs Spaghetti Sauce

Our investors suggested I read “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries.  


I’m glad they did.  The book is well written and filled with examples from either the authors own experience or companies operating under similar circumstances.  All suggestions came from practical experience and are immediately relevant to my current experience as a start-up.  If you're starting a company, or running a project with vaguely defined goals, it will be relevant to you too.


Overall this book is really about applying the scientific process to business; specifically the product development cycle.  This book helps you understand what to measure and why.  Although the focus of the book is mostly on new businesses the process presented could be used by project managers to create small scope projects in existing organizations…  Assuming they can get autonomy.  As my Project Management professor said “Get permission in writing.”

In a way Malcolm Gladwell: Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti Sauce is a better argument for a lean startup in established organizations then the book Lean Startup is.  There are very similar themes running through this book and the presentation.  Gladwell’s discussion of large companies finding the perfect products through metrics driven iteration might sell the strategy, while The Lean Startup elaborates on the specific tactics which might otherwise scare an established corporate machine.

If you’re an entrepreneur starting a new venture, of just about any kind, giving The Lean Startup a read will get you started off on the right foot.  Your scope will shrink, your costs will decrease, and your chance of success will increase if you take his lessons to heart because you will realize that bloated scope, high costs and high risk aren’t necessary for making big changes in today’s world.  Iterative design fits in very well with the work of paper prototyping, and right before (and during for best results) all the marketing that needs to happen.  But really Lean Startup is a methodology for how to behave as a company in the modern world.

Board Game Review: Lords of Waterdeep

Lords of Waterdeep
is an amazing game in the Euro Resource Style. My wife has never been a D&D player, but as a huge fan of Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne she loves this game. Although I was never particularly into Forgotten Realms, the game is still amazingly entertaining for my wife, me and my friends. The setting never gets in the way, but often adds interesting flavor. The games play-ability by non D&D fans is a testament to its amazing design.

Busiest Week Ever

March is a super busy month for game developers on the East Coast.  There is no end to the parties, events, and talks being held.  The week before gets busy because there is a captive audience.  Game developers from all over the eastern sea board, and some from CA (Such as the creators of PAX themselves) meet, greet, and hang out before during and after PAX East.

How the new Xbox is like the old Steam.

The next Xbox is starting to get teased by Microsoft. The new Xbox will require an ‘always on’ connection to the internet. This will be used with some form of DRM to prevent used games from functioning. Business Insider has the basics. More about what that means below the jump.

Great board games.

TempleCon was amazing!  On the ride back home from Warwick to Boston all we could talk about was going back next year.  Considering that this conversation took place immediately after a 6 hour game of Arkham Horror, that's high praise indeed.  If you live in the New England area, definitely attempt to make it next year.

We spent the majority of our time in the Board Game room.  Played Carcassonne, Small World, Lords of Waterdeep and Arkham Horror.  Lords of Waterdeep is an amazing game.  I loved it, and reviewed it.  It is based on a D&D game world, but that does not get in the way of a great European Resource style board game.  Even folks who know nothing about D&D (such as my wife) love the game.  But then she's a sucker for a good resource game mechanic.

The Pro's and Con's of resource game design on The Game Design Round Table Episode 2.

Pretotyping Review

Paper Prototyping, or pretotyping, has been a valuable tool through the year, as well as developing into a bit of a skill.  There is still lots to learn, but we're putting that skill to work at Dormouse Games.  Here are some blog posts about the philosophy of paper prototyping, the use of wire framing as a prototype, and finally some practical tips learned while prototyping in public.

As an amateur game developer you should be spending at least some time developing a game on paper before developing anything digitally.  In the long run it saves time by identifying areas of a game which need improvement, don't work, or have to be cut.  Most folks prototype with Unity, Game Salad, or other game development platforms.  What are the benefits of going digital for prototyping?

90% complete is done.

It's really tempting, when making games as a hobby, to think that you can lavish time and attention on a design document, or the 'perfect coding' or the perfect art.  But that idea is a trap.  Anyone who has had an investor or built an operating budget for a company knows that even the smallest indie developer needs to be producing something.  Revenue has to come in.  If it doesn't you can't pay for food, desks, or development of your ideas.

Guy Kawasaki's book "Rules for Revolutionaries" was required reading at BU, and definitely worth the time to read (it's short).  Even if you have no great love of Apple Computers you can find advice to help you get your project done.  An incomplete project is simply a pile of ideas.  You cannot pay rent with ideas.  This book can help you turn ideas into revenue faster (assuming you have a well thought out idea to begin with).

The two rules that have stuck with me the longest, which have direct impact on game development "Don't worry, be crappy" And "Churn, Baby, Churn".  If you want to find out what that means, definitely pick up the book.  If your company is just barely getting by, it might be time to rethink your devotion to 'perfection' and try these two rules.

Some people might think means you are 'just in it for the money', but those people have never had employees wages to pay.  Nor understand the heavy responsibility of taking investment to make a company.  Any company, every company, runs 'for the money'. Every indie developer wants to get money, but rarely because of greed.  They don't have a choice, they have employees to pay.  But that doesn't mean they have to sacrifice passion.  Quite the opposite, it requires passionate Revolution.

Why are game ideas worthless?

Well, it's been two years since starting this blog.  Today 51 of you wonderful folks have subscribed to, read, and liked my posts.  I really appreciate it.  Thank you.  A recent twitter conversation reminded me of an old blog post, which is still relevant today.  "Until you launch something, the time you spend is meaningless" was controversial at a time when this blog had few readers, let's dust it off and see if it still is.

Bill H.R. 287 Video Game Rating Enforcement Act Update

After having reached out to some contacts in D.C., some new information is in.  H.R. 287 is basically a non starter in their trusted opinion.  A Democrat proposed the bill in a Republican controlled body.  The Republicans aren't going to let Democratic proposed legislation move forward, and as of writing they have not.  The Bill has been "Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce".

My contact has some alerts set up and will notify me if anything changes...  All that sound super formal, but it's really little more than a 'google alert', but from gallerywatch.com.

Bill H.R. 287 Video Game Rating Enforcement Act

Representative Jim Matheson of Utah introduced a bill on 1/15/2013 which would require ESRB ratings on games.  Some folks feel this would put an undo burden on indie game developers.  There would be a $5000 fine for violations, and I know that would sink Dormouse Games at the time of writing this.

However, from my reading of it the bill itself doesn't mention anything about games online.  Now I am not a professional lobbyist, but this seems relatively simple.  It says

"Conduct Prohibited.--It shall be unlawful for any person to

ship or otherwise distribute in interstate commerce, or to sell or 
rent, a video game that does not contain a rating label, in a clear and 
conspicuous location on the outside packaging of the video game, 
containing an age-based content rating determined by the Entertainment 
Software Ratings Board."

That appears to effect Dormouse Games very little.  We have no intention whatsoever to issue a game with packaging, to a retail location.  So this would hurt established game companies more then indies.  Assuming Indie game development companies don't want to put games in packages.  Then again larger companies could simply move to digital distribution.  They could also enforce the law completely differently then worded here.  There could be some translation issues between Legislative and Judicial wording.

I have asked some advice of some friends down in Washington.  They aren't directly involved with this bill, but have more experience reading bills.  Recap of their response here.  What do you think about my interpretation of the wording of the bill?  Am I not understanding the legal ramifications of the wording?  Are you worried about this?

5 paper prototyping tips from Boston Indies Demo Night

Eric and I went to our first Boston Indies Demo night as Dormouse Games to do some paper prototyping.  We learned a few things about how to do a paper prototype and why it’s a valuable process to go through.  We were not the only guys there, Legend of the Cipher a CCG that teaches you how to rap, had made some cards and were play testing.  Good stuff!

New Office

Today Dormouse Games moves into Intrepid Labs.  We have an office!  Intrepid Labs is a fantastic co-working space which houses some of our closest friends and mentors in the game design world.  The Tap Lab has been there for a while, and suggested we look into getting a desk there.  Owlchemy Labs moved in recently.  Some ex Zynga Boston folks (who I haven't met yet) are there.  And a few other companies are starting soon as well.

Blog on Blog.

Is white text on black lettering a little too harsh?  As I was reading an article on another game designers blogger, who happened to use the same template, I noticed reading white text on a black background was a little too harsh.

I am not actively trying to burn the retinas of my readers.  I'm assuming that most of you are reading through an RSS feed anyway.  But I turned the text color down, and increased the font size.  If you have opinions on how to make things more legible, please feel free to comment.

Also blog posts have been a little spares lately...  I've co founded a game design company.  Check out the facebook page.  I really do intend to keep this blog running, and keep writing articles.  Time is simply not on my side at the moment.

Any requests for topics?

No console? No problem!

Having not owned a console since Super Nintendo, but feeling a certain lack of gaming exposure, the near future is looking pretty bright.  Ouya had a super successful 8 million dollar kickstarter.  Gamestick is looking pretty awesome, and passed it's goal in 6 out of 30 days.  Nvidia has created the Shield...  A hand held console thing...  And finally Valve has released information about the Steambox called Piston at CES.

Price points are going to be a big deal.  The super portable Gamestick will retail for $79.  Add $15 shipping on the kickstarter to get it in April 2013 on launch.  Ouya is a $99 dollar console that promises 'free to play' as the basic purchasing mechanic of every game.  The Shield should be priced somewhere between $100 and Pistons $999.  Piston will be more like a PC meant to attach to your TV, rather then a bargain device.

By the time the Piston becomes available the desktop PC where I play all my steam games will be just about ready to be replaced.  $1000 is a terrible price point for a console...  But a great price point for a replacement of my gaming PC.  Having missed the Ouya kickstarter, the Gamestick is awfully tempting.  Super portable and cheap, even if it's games kinda suck the form factor and portability is tempting.  Although I don't feel the need to pay $90 now, when I could buy it for $79 later, which means their kickstart campaign isn't efficient.

With a flood of new consoles in 2013, will you be buying anything?  With Windows increasingly becoming a game tyrant, will Linux be coming to your rescue?   2013 might be the year of the console...  Therefore is 2014 the year of the console game?  Start coding folks!

Investopedia loves gamers.

As a lot of you know as well as creating an app, and cofounding a game development company, I’m also a financial services guy.  Call volume to 529 plans isn't steady, so occasionally I get to spend some time learning about finance, instead of just taking calls.  Today for example I found this article on Investopedia.  

I love this article.  The author is clearly a gamer or someone that loves one.  The article tackles the benefits of many different kinds of games with care and rational thought. He mentions many games by name from Chess to Magic: the Gathering as well as Dungeons and Dragons and points out the positive cognitive effects of each.

It makes me happy to know there are more financial services gamers out there.

Firelfy MMO?

As a huge fan of the masterful story-telling and world-creating of Firefly, I'm not sure how I feel about an MMO.  Fox seems to be down with it.  But what of Whedon?  The key word is verisimilitude.  If the MMO can do a good job, it just might work.

So many great things happening all at once...

Dormouse Games has officially filed for LLC status.  We're a real company!  The twitter account is more interesting then the website right now.  I'm running the twitter, Eric's running the website so there is a bit of light hearted satisfaction there.  I made the logo, can you tell!?

I mentioned an app idea in previous blog posts.  The prototyping has begun!  It will be completed before the end of January, and I have to decide whether to put it up freely on the App store, or gather feedback from a community of users to refine it.

This is going to be an amazing week.

Cortex Command

This is a crazy game.  It is not finished yet, and its been in development for quite a long time.  But it is weird, and fun, and has a ton of potential.  At first it looked like a Terraria knockoff...  But it is so much deeper and more interesting.  I really like the setting and the story ideas that explain the game setting.

There are two huge downsides about the game.  1.) It's an 'unpolished alpha'.  If you buy it now, you are not getting a polished product.  2.) There is some crazy drama, which I neither care about nor understand.  I paid full price almost instantly for the Alpha.