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Joystiq interviews BHG, Catan in March
In Joystiq's Off the Grid feature, Scott Jon Siegel recently interviewed Brian Reynolds of Big Huge Games. Big Huge Games, as 360 Fanboy readers know, is the developer of the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade title, Catan. The interview focuses on the challenges of bringing the classic board game to Xbox Live Arcade (and the process of computerizing it in general). Reynolds speaks about creating challenging AI and streamlining the interface so that players aren't drowning in information. The last tidbit, probably the one most of you will be looking for, is that Big Huge Games recently sent what they hope to be the final build of Catan to Microsoft. Assuming it makes it through the Dreaded Certification Process®, we could be playing Catan in mid-to-late March. Hit the "read" link for the full interview (including lots of development photos).
Off the Grid interviews Brian Reynolds of Big Huge Games
Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column on gaming away from the television screen or monitor. Big Huge Games, the developer behind the acclaimed Rise of Nations series, recently made a splash on the internet with the announcement that they were bringing the board game Settlers of Catan to Xbox Live Arcade. It's news that even palpitated the steel heart of Penny Arcade's Tycho, and for damn good reason. I recently had a chance to discuss Catan with Brian Reynolds, CEO and creative director of Big Huge Games. Reynolds talks at length about the difficult process of adapting such an esteemed title, touching upon issues like designing challenging computer opponents, mapping moves and menus to the 360 controller, and tweaking Catan's refined rules for ranked and non-ranked matches on Xbox Live. It's all here. And we've got photos too!Let's talk about how Catan Live was born. Who went to who with the idea? Did Big Huge Games want to make Catan for XBLA, or did Microsoft want Big Huge Games to make Catan?It was actually Microsoft who approached us – last spring I had no idea the project possibility even existed, but Microsoft was looking for developers to bring "Euro" board games to XBLA, and they came to us early in the process. Obviously once we knew about the project we were very excited.So you were tasked with porting a renowned analog title to a digital platform. Where do you begin? What was the absolute first step in designing? Wow, the very first step? In the rulebook for the board game, there are some black-and-white diagrams of the mapboard. I took one of those and xeroxed it up to the size of a full page, and then used it to create a system for numbering the hex tiles, the corners of the tiles, and the edges of the tiles that would be easy for the computer to deal with. Because one of my two initial concerns was whether we'd be able to make a decent A.I. for the computer player, so I started right in on some basic A.I. and rules coding, since I didn't need much graphics work to be done to start working on that. The word is that Klaus Teuber had a hand in the project. What did he bring to the development process? Yes, he was instrumental in helping us create the A.I. for the game. It turns out that over the years since designing the original board game, Klaus Teuber has always wanted to have a strong computer player, and so he had put a lot of thought into what the proper strategies and tactics were, and formulas that would be useful for helping a computer player evaluate choices. Of course he'd never had a chance to bring these into play, because the developers of previous versions of the game either didn't have time to do a full treatment of his ideas, or else decided to try their own approach altogether. So he had these Excel spreadsheets full of formulae, plus a nice write-up he'd done. Being an old-time A.I. guy, I looked at these and saw gold: here was somebody (the designer of the game no less) who'd already done the legwork of collecting the tactical situations and strategies, and even done some of the work of creating algorithms to choose between them. So I was able to blast through all of that stuff in a few weeks, and use most of my time refining the really high-end game for the expert players. The result... a much stronger opponent at the top level!%Gallery-1729%
Off the Grid reviews Pink Godzilla Dev Kit
Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column on gaming away from the television screen or monitor. This game was clearly made for me. An analog game about developing digital games? It's like they were listening to my dreams.The "they" in this case is Pink Godzilla Games, a hip little video game store based in Seattle. Although their current claim to fame is a ping pong tournament against the Penny Arcade boys, they've also recently gotten into the analog game business. At PAX 2006, they debuted the beta version of the Pink Godzilla Dev Kit, a full-color card game designed by attorney(!) Christopher Rao. It's all about creating video games, and the creators have certainly done their homework when it comes to appealing to the gamer crowd. In-jokes and references abound in this strategy title about everyone's favorite fantasy job.
Off the Grid: Set and un-fun gaming
Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column on gaming away from the television screen or monitor. The card game Set has been around since 1991, but I only learned about it recently. During a recent trip to Israel, a friend introduced me to the game. He was surprised that I hadn't heard of it, so I asked him the logical question: "Is it any good?"His answer: "It's not very fun, but it's good."...Eh? I must have missed something. For me, a game being "good" is all about it being "fun." I believed my friend to be mistaken in one of two ways: either the game is fun and he just had poor taste, or it wasn't good, and he still had poor taste (sorry, Daniel).Set's biggest claim to fame is its association with Mensa International, a society exclusively for people with high IQs. In 1991, Mensa chose Set as one of their top five games of the year, and it's been riding that honor ever since. At heart, Set is a matching game, where players have to create sets of three cards, where attributes of each card must either agree or disagree completely with the other two. Trust me, it's harder than it sounds.
Off the Grid: Scrabble and the elusive letter "Q"
This week, Bonnie Ruberg contributes to Off the Grid, Scott Jon Siegel's column on gaming away from the television screen or monitor. Scrabble is not a sexy game. When you think of Scrabble, what do you see? Family gatherings at your Aunt Mae's spent quibbling over proper nouns? Conventions of blue-haired grandmothers and smarty-pants girls in braces, all clutching their Scrabble dictionaries? Maybe Scrabble deserves its homely image, after all -- as board games go -- it's pretty dull-looking. No bright colors, no "some assembly required" three-dimensional terrain, not even the satisfaction of a tiny, silver boot for a game piece. Just words. Words, words, and more words. Scrabble may look, sound, heck, possibly even smell dorky, but when have gamers ever been afraid of a little dork-dom? I say, embrace your inner word dork. Okay, maybe I'm just a word dork. But if Scott had asked me, instead of all those games-industry leaders, what my favorite analog game was a few weeks back, it definitely would have been Scrabble.
Off the Grid: ... and on again
Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column on gaming away from the television screen or monitor. I adore analog games. I respect them for their design; I envy them for their relative simplicity; I've even enjoyed playing them, on the several occasions when I've convinced my peers to forego Counterstrike for Carcassonne, Legend of Zelda for LCR.But try as I might, I can't seem to stay off the grid.With regards to Joystiq, I feel as though I've made a poor role model. Here I am, writing biweekly columns in advocacy of a non-digital lifestyle and I so often, in my own personal gaming, turn to the Wii or DS instead of a collective game of Fluxx or Kill Doctor Lucky. I'm effectively evangelizing for a religion that I myself do not practice.So what's the problem here? Is there even a problem? Should I consider rehabilitation, or is there something video games offer me that analog games simply can't?
Off the Grid: Hacking LCR
Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column on gaming away from the television screen or monitor. Don't be surprised if you haven't heard of LCR. My exposure to the game came from my brother, who was presented with a copy -- along with everyone else in the studio audience -- as part of Rachel Ray's Thanksgiving special a few weeks back. It was one of four token gifts handed out to audience members before the über-surprise -- brand new cellphones for everyone! -- was announced. Having no need for what he quickly dismissed as "Dreidel with dice," my brother passed the game along to me. LCR comes packaged in a clear plastic tube, containing two-dozen red plastic chips, three special LCR dice, and a small one-sided sheet of paper with the rules. The packaging describes it as "the new game that everyone's getting hooked on." It looked modest enough, but its purported popularity certainly piqued my interest. Am I endorsing LCR? It's certainly not on par with classics like Settlers of Catan, or even cultural mainstays like Life or Monopoly. But no game is without potential. By itself, LCR may be dull, but the smallest twist, tweak, or hack can breathe life into even the stalest gameplay experience. The rules for LCR are basic enough, calling for a minimum of three players to be seated in a circle. Each player is given three chips to start. During his/her turn, a player rolls all three LCR dice. For every 'L' rolled, the player passes a chip to the left. For every 'R,' a chip to the right. For each 'C,' a player adds a chip to the center pot. The three sides of the dice with dots on them do nothing. Play continues in one direction until only one player has any chips left. If a player has no chips left, that player is still in the game, but does not roll dice during his/her turn. A player with two chips rolls only two dice, and a player with only one chip rolls one die. The last player with chips remaining wins the game.The notable upside to these rules is that nobody in the game gets eliminated. Even if you're out of chips, you could be back in the game easily if the adjacent players roll an 'L' or 'R' in your favor. The downside, however, is that gameplay is completely based on chance, and skill has no part in it whatsoever. The unpredictability might make LCR fun for the first few rounds, but where do you go from there?Well, for starters, you turn to gambling and booze.
Off the Grid: Thanksgiving edition (or industry favorites)
Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column on gaming away from the television screen or monitor. Between the launches of the PS3 and the Nintendo Wii, we're just about up to our ears in digital game coverage. So I've taken it upon myself to balance things out a bit with some analog lovin'. Fail to secure the hottest consoles on their launch dates? Looking for something a little less expensive to get you through the week? Or are you just jonesing for something other than Zelda? No need to worry; Off the Grid's got you covered.This week, in honor of Thanksgiving in the States (ok, not really), I've asked a few developers and industry personalities what their favorite non-digital games are. Like a great big turkey dinner with your relatives, let's dispense with the formalities and just dive right in.At present, it's probably Alan Moon's TICKET TO RIDE, a railroad game. Multiplayer, simple rules set but with surprising strategic complexity, playable in less than an hour, and sufficient randomness that games are not monotonously similar, but not so much that luck overwhelms the better players. I first played it in a wood-stove-heated country house in the depths of a Finnish winter night, but these days play it more often with my kids.-- Greg Costikyan, Manifesto GamesMy GO anecdote is actually stolen from Mahk LeBlanc, ex-Looking Glass guy. Mahk said that when the aliens finally land, and we learn to communicate with them, and then we describe Go, they'll reply, "oh yeah, we have that game". It's the uber game. Most complexity and subtlety and beauty from fewest rules. It will never be bested. After that, it's a long way down, but maybe Sid Sackson's DOMINATION?-- Chris Hecker, EA/Maxis
Off the Grid: Carcassonne review
Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column on gaming away from the television screen or monitor. From time to time, I'll be reviewing analog games here on Joystiq. I'm starting with Klaus-Jürgen Wrede's Carcassonne, a German board game which came out in 2000 and is already considered a classic of the genre.If you're already a fan of Carcassonne, there's not going to be any new information here for you. You already know that it's a deceptively simple game, and great fun to play with a few of your friends. This review's more for the unenlightened, and maybe even those few souls who remain unconvinced that board games can be fun ... even ones that are coming to Xbox Live Arcade.Carcassonne takes its name from the fortified city in southern France, famous for its strategic location and oft-conquered land. The game focuses on developing the land around Carcassonne, as each player vies for control of roads, farms, cities and cloisters.
Off the Grid: The analog analogues
Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column on gaming away from the television screen or monitor. Adaptation is an ugly word in the video game industry. Whether we're talking about film adaptations of our beloved franchises, or mediocre game adaptations of blockbuster movies, we as consumers grow reluctant whenever we see a familiar name in an unfamiliar format.But adaptation doesn't always end in tears. With their strict attention to detail, many board game designers have successfully moved the best elements from novels and video games to the analog format. What follows are three examples of this transition, in no particular order. Let's get right to it.DoomIn January of 2005, Fantasy Flight Games worked with designer Kevin Wilson to release a board game iteration of everyone's favorite first-person controversy magnet. Doom: The Board Game -- which apparently bears an uncanny resemblance to 1990's Space Hulk -- pits space marines against space demons, in any number of to-the-death scenarios ... in space.The game board consists of a number of interlocking corridors, rooms, walls and doors. The board can be assembled to create one of the game's pre-designed scenarios, or customized to fit the specific desires of the players. In every scenario, up to three space marines must work their way through the labyrinthian Mars base, completing specific objectives while fighting off hordes of evil invaders. One player will always play as the invaders, who must work against the marines and attempt to foil their objectives.
Off the Grid: Digital killed the analog star
Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column on gaming away from the television screen or monitor. It is an awesome time to be a gamer! We're already being wowed by the Xbox 360's impressive online integration, as we (im)patiently await the coming of the powerhouse PS3, and the très chic, über-unique Wii. Our PC's constantly need upgrades to handle the latest and greatest titles, but we happily oblige. It's worth it when we see the footage online, promising us the fully immersive experience we've come to feel we deserve. And when we're tired of being grounded by our consoles and computers, we can go anywhere with our PSPs or DSs. Even our mobile phones are slowly proving themselves to be viable platforms for our playing pleasures. As gamers, we are drowning in new technology, and we are loving every minute of it.And why shouldn't we? In a little over a decade, the video game industry has defined itself as an international influencer. Its games are constantly pushing the envelope, inspiring technological innovation and sparking paradigm shifts in this plugged-in, net-ready culture.For the latest generations of gamers, it's no longer even a question: To be a gamer is to stare at a screen; Board games are laughable, and passé at best; When we think of our roots, we think of a joystick. But why did this happen?Why did digital kill the analog star?
Off the Grid: Crossroads and avant-garde gaming
Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column on gaming away from the television screen or monitor.Though physically separate from the rest of Come Out & Play, area/code's Crossroads most definitely had a presence at the New York City festival, drawing players out to Pier 40 in the West Village for a chance to see GPS technology applied successfully to a fast-paced game of territorial control.Developed as part of the Van Alen Institute's The Good Life exhibition, Crossroads sets players or teams loose in a 4x6 grid of streets, where they must capture intersections using GPS-enabled phones. Their opponents, meanwhile, are attempting to do the same thing, with the hope of having the most intersections in their control at the end of thirty minutes. With phone in hand, a player can capture an intersection by remaining stationary in it for thirty seconds.Both teams, however, must keep an eye out for the Baron Samedi, an invisible spirit inspired by voodoo culture who wanders randomly through the game-space, flipping control of any intersections he crosses. The Baron is only visible on the players' phones, which also display a map of the play area and other relevant information.In an added level of strategy, players can influence the Baron's movement through the grid by placing offerings, which the Baron will then follow and devour. The Baron has no allegiances, however, and will temporarily deactivate your phone and steal your offerings if you cross his path.I was fortunate enough to have a chance to play Crossroads during my time in New York. The experience was revolutionary, though admittedly not without some technical problems.
