Cosmogramposts and experiments by robin2022-02-23T16:45:27Zhttps://cosmogr.am/Robin Vilaincosmogram@robin-v.netOn weapon degradability and universal truths2021-06-24T14:00:05Zhttps://cosmogr.am/posts/on-weapon-degradability-and-universal-truths.html<p>A few days ago, Nintendo dropped a new trailer for the upcoming Breath of the Wild sequel (<a href="https://youtu.be/Pi-MRZBP91I">here</a>). I haven't watched it myself, so I'm not sure if something in the trailer triggered what followed, or if it was just a matter of planetary alignment, but in any case, it did happen: <em>weapon degradation discourse on twitter</em>. Obviously I joined in because I can never shut the fuck up.</p>
<p>https://twitter.com/acccent/status/1405086128856879107</p>
<p>I don't like it! And well... who cares, right? It's just a game system. But strangely, whenever this particular topic is brought up, there's a whole range of people who will proclaim that they <em>do</em> like it, and that not liking it is an unequivocal demonstration of one's incapability to grasp the subtleties of game design.<br />
(To anyone reading this who tweeted something along the lines of <em>‘weapon degradation is good actually and if you can't see why you're a chump’</em>: I get it. it's twitter. what are you gonna do, post a nuanced take?)</p>
<p>Anyway, because it's a system that can seem frustrating on the surface, it's only natural for anyone whose identity is founded in part on ‘thinking about stuff’ to dismiss that first layer and assume the opposite must be true, and in one fell swoop, to also dismiss differing opinions. So for the sake of this discussion let's go ahead and acknowledge that a multitude of <em>actually thought-out</em> opinions can coexist, opposite of each other but on equal levels.</p>
<p>I'll go back to that in a bit, but first let's chat about the actual design problem at hand!</p>
<h2 id="how-can-my-shield-breaking-be-good%3F" tabindex="-1"><a class="header-anchor ui" href="https://cosmogr.am/posts/on-weapon-degradability-and-universal-truths.html#how-can-my-shield-breaking-be-good%3F" aria-hidden="true"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" fill="none" viewBox="0 0 24 24" stroke="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" class="heroicon" data-heroicon-name="link" data-heroicon-style="outline"><path stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="2" d="M13.828 10.172a4 4 0 00-5.656 0l-4 4a4 4 0 105.656 5.656l1.102-1.101m-.758-4.899a4 4 0 005.656 0l4-4a4 4 0 00-5.656-5.656l-1.1 1.1"></path></svg></a>How can my shield breaking be good?</h2>
<ul>
<li>it enables fluctuations of pace and power balance as the player goes from a wooden stick to a massive halberd, then back to a stick;</li>
<li>it encourages experimentation, since players can't get too attached to a single weapon;</li>
<li>it creates another reward for exploration and engagement with monsters (a Lynel's sword is now not only intimidating, it's also alluring);</li>
<li>it promotes the use of Rune powers (cryonis, bomb, etc) and environmental hazards whenever possible;</li>
<li>also it's funny when you chuck a legendary sword at a goblin and it explodes.</li>
</ul>
<p>Also, and quite notably, it really fits the overall theme and tone of the game! This is something that's rarely brought up but it's super true. Everything is falling apart in that version of Hyrule, it only makes sense that the weapons are as well.</p>
<h3>But Robin I thought you said you didn't like it?</h3>
<p>I don't! Because all four points above are actually highly dependant on the player's personality and approach to play.</p>
<p>For me, weapon degradability often:</p>
<ul>
<li>prevents fluctuations in power balance as I stash powerful weapons away for later encounters (which may never come);</li>
<li>discourages experimentation by telling me I shouldn't mess around with powerful weapons when I'm not in a critical situation;</li>
<li>suggests I should avoid exploration, because it might leave me stranded with no useful weapon or decrease their durability on optional encounters;</li>
<li>entirely negates the weapon throwing mechanic – why would I ever do that when weapons are a finite resource?</li>
</ul>
<p>(Note that the point about Runes and enviromental hazards holds up.)</p>
<p>People often say that degradability forces players to engage with the game's combat when they would otherwise stick to the safest, most optimal option throughout the game. That is true <em>for some players</em>. I naturally have a tendency to explore a game's world and possibility space, but this system takes that away from me. Without it, I would have swapped weapons all the time, wandered freely off the main path, juggled with the tools offered to me – a two-way relationship between me and the designers.</p>
<p>The very fact that a system exists creates a strange anxiety that would otherwise not burden my playstyle— a sort of quantum irk where I am simultaneously annoyed that I can't just switch weapons with no consequence and that my inventory has become an unmanageable mess.</p>
<h3>You're just not engaging with the game on its terms!</h3>
<p>First of all, how dare you.</p>
<p>I'm only half-kidding! Seriously— of course I try to ~engage with the games I play on their terms~, I wouldn't have made a career out of game design if I didn't love trying to understand how and why games do things the way they do them. That response would be pertinent if I claimed that the game should let me, idk, auto-snap to covers and peak out to shoot arrows like I was holding an SMG.</p>
<p>Of course I knew the obvious reasons why weapon degradation is there, and I tried to adapt my playstyle to that. And, to be fair, I did wander and explore (how could you not), and I did chuck a good amount of legendary swords at goblins. But in doing these things, I often felt like I was specifically <em>ignoring</em> the game's terms, because I'm a designer, and it's hard for me to turn off that layer of processing when I'm playing a game. The game was telling me to play safe and to hoard weapons, but I knew that would lead to a worse experience, so I played my way and tried to ignore the UI warning me that my stuff was about to break and all the blinking red icons in the weapon switcher. Like, the feedbacks aren't casually nudging the player to relax and try new stuff! They convey <em>danger</em>! So yeah, I did adapt my playstyle to what I knew would be most enjoyable, but it's not like I met the game half-way. I pulled it there against its will.</p>
<h2 id="so...-weapon-degradation-is-bad...%3F" tabindex="-1"><a class="header-anchor ui" href="https://cosmogr.am/posts/on-weapon-degradability-and-universal-truths.html#so...-weapon-degradation-is-bad...%3F" aria-hidden="true"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" fill="none" viewBox="0 0 24 24" stroke="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" class="heroicon" data-heroicon-name="link" data-heroicon-style="outline"><path stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="2" d="M13.828 10.172a4 4 0 00-5.656 0l-4 4a4 4 0 105.656 5.656l1.102-1.101m-.758-4.899a4 4 0 005.656 0l4-4a4 4 0 00-5.656-5.656l-1.1 1.1"></path></svg></a>So... weapon degradation is bad...?</h2>
<p>No. Weapon degradation is good, actually, and if you can't see why you're a chump. Just kidding you're not a chump I love you and I'm gonna explain the <em>actual</em> point of this blog post now.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A design solution like weapon degradability can never be a perfectly good thing; there are no universally good solutions in design. A design exists to create a certain experience, given a certain context; in this case, the intended experience is probably a more carefree playstyle, and the context – and this is crucial – is that the game's target audience is comprised of a majority of players who need this push to experiment within the game's possibility space.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For more casual players, the fact that weapons can break means they will be surprised when it happens to them, when they might even have considered switching otherwise. For completionists, it might force them to adjust their instincts and to not see weapons as trophies to amass, but as contextual tools. For hoarders, the abundance of weapons (which is a corollary to the degradation system) means they can freely use them, safe in the knowledge trhat more copies shouldn't be too hard to find.</p>
<p>For people who have a particular mix of attributes like <em>‘naturally inclined to play creatively’</em> and <em>‘negatively affected by extrinsic motivators’</em>, the system is a disaster, as it quite efficiently prevents them from experiencing the game the intended way, when they would have without it. But we have to assume the designers at Nintendo thought about that, considered the proportion of the audience it represented, the available resources for the game's development, and probably a number of additional factors, and ultimately decided: sorry robin. sucks to be u bud.</p>
<h3>I would rather it didn't suck to be me tho</h3>
<p>I find that a lot of discussions we have on this here internet about things like game systems are framed in the following way: “is<!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment-->it<!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment-->good?” The end. Either it's good, or it shouldn't exist. And it's <em>such a shame</em> that we don't go further!</p>
<p>Weapon degradability achieves certain things, but could it maybe achieve those things in different ways? Could BotW encourage players – <em>all</em> players – to enjoy the wild breadth (sorry about that one) of options it offers, without leaving anyone out? Do we truly only have enough imagination to compare a feature to its absence, and not envision ways in which it could be better?</p>
<p>That's what I mean whenever I say I don't like weapon degradation in most games: it's not so much that it should be removed, but rather that it's a poor way to achieve the intended goal, or that it's executed in a way that fails to reach its potential. What about weapons that are contextually more useful (against certain types of enemies, for instance), or with a power that recharges over time, or that can be repaired by merchants... these things exist in the game already, and – to me at least – they beautifully complemented the rest of the design, although I think it would have been even better if they had been applied to the worst weapons rather than the best. What about powerful weapons that get rusty over time, whether you use them or not? Weapons that are restricted to certain areas? That transform into other tools after being used a lot, rather than breaking? What about designs that encourage the player to experience the game the best way via positive reinforcement, rather than punition?</p>
<h2 id="anyway." tabindex="-1"><a class="header-anchor ui" href="https://cosmogr.am/posts/on-weapon-degradability-and-universal-truths.html#anyway." aria-hidden="true"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" fill="none" viewBox="0 0 24 24" stroke="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" class="heroicon" data-heroicon-name="link" data-heroicon-style="outline"><path stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="2" d="M13.828 10.172a4 4 0 00-5.656 0l-4 4a4 4 0 105.656 5.656l1.102-1.101m-.758-4.899a4 4 0 005.656 0l4-4a4 4 0 00-5.656-5.656l-1.1 1.1"></path></svg></a>Anyway.</h2>
<p>The core point of this lengthy ramble is this: <strong>designs serve specific purposes within specific contexts</strong>, and reducing them to binaries is counterproductive. And we can't know what the purpose <em>or</em> the context of a system like weapon degradability even is! So we really ought to be welcoming of the multitude of experiences it enabled, rather than trying to identify the one good take.</p>
<p>And, similarly, talking about designs through a binary lens – do they make the game better or worse – is limiting and reductive. These topics are so dense and so deep and so multidimensional! There is so much to explore!</p>
<p>So let's thrive to be open to all of this and to let it expand our thinking.</p>
I beg you to believe in something other than profit2021-10-15T20:40:05Zhttps://cosmogr.am/posts/on-blockchain-gaming-or-i-beg-you-to-believe-in-something-other-than-profit.html<p>When a friend of mine recently linked me to an article detailing a game designer's conversion from NFT skeptic to (I quote) “full blown crypto-bro,” my first reaction was to roll my eyes. “You have to at least take a look at their arguments if you want to counter them,” my friend said, and so I reluctantly did go through the whole thing. You can do so as well <a href="https://www.deconstructoroffun.com/blog/2021/10/9/5-reasons-why-i-am-bullish-on-blockchain-gaming">here</a>, should you wish to, but I'm not going to ask you to and I would certainly forgive you if you gave up on it halfway through; it was physically taxing for me to get to the end. So I'll sum up each of the author's points here before I address them.</p>
<h3>5 Reasons Why You've Just Spewed Bullshit on Blockchain Gaming</h3>
<p> <strong>1.</strong> <em>Using NFTs creates scarcity, and scarcity means new content drops in a live game can be attractive to players without having to resort to power creep.</em></p>
<p>It's unclear how NFTs help with this. Developers can create artificial scarcity by simply only enabling a few players to gain assets. Plenty of games have had rare items, long before we started talking about NFTs.</p>
<p> <strong>2.</strong> <em>Ownership of game assets means you can also resell them; players are more likely to spend a lot of money in a game if they know they'll be able to sell the things they bought.</em></p>
<p>Again, NFTs themselves don't really enable any of this. And again, plenty of games have official or unofficial markets for assets.</p>
<p>Actually, because we've already dealt with games that do have artificial scarcity, and do enable players to resell assets, we know all the problems that come with those ideas; the appeal of in-game items becomes inextricably tied to their monetary value, and we start to face issues of social inequality and vulnerability, and addiction mechanisms creep into designs. But the article's author doesn't talk about any of that, for reasons that I'll expand on later.</p>
<p> <strong>3.</strong> <em>If players can own (and therefore collect) in-game assets, that in itself can become their goal in the game instead of accruing power or getting high scores, so NFTs enable games to reach different audiences.</em></p>
<p>How sad is it for a game designer to think that we haven't yet found ways to speak to audiences who are more attracted to collection rather than power? Besides, once again, even if ‘ownership’ was a brand new thing, it doesn't require NFTs.</p>
<p> <strong>4.</strong> <em>(Rehash of point 2)</em></p>
<p>I'm not kidding, this is just literally a rephrasing of the second argument. I read both sections several times to try to identify the nuance, but there isn't one.</p>
<p> <strong>5.</strong> <em>NFTs enable the community to have governance over the game's evolution.</em></p>
<p>Now this is interesting! Oh— not because it's a valid point, sorry— just because it's about something I deeply care about. And which, you guessed it, <a href="https://www.blaseball.com/">games are already exploring</a> without the need for any crypto bullshit. The author doesn't even try to link his argument to NFTs here, he simply says that it would be cool if players could, for instance, vote on the next feature to be added to the game. I agree! But I suppose he is also saying that players who own more assets should get more votes. I... do not agree. And regardless: <em>enabling ownership of in-game things does not imply or require the reliance on NFTs.</em></p>
<h3>“Robin you keep saying NFTs are not needed and bad. Please explain.”</h3>
<p>Ok. The crux of NFTs is that ownership of one is inscribed on the <em>blockchain</em>, ie. decentralized – not controlled nor maintained by a single entity. That's the entire point of them, and it's also why they're terrible; <a href="https://everestpipkin.medium.com/but-the-environmental-issues-with-cryptoart-1128ef72e6a3">I encourage you to read this seminal article on them if you still need convincing</a>.</p>
<p>In a game, who owns what is traditionally controlled by the studio behind the game. Developers ‘give’ you in-game items, either indirectly – as you unlock them via the game's systems, as designed – or directly – if a dev actually goes into the database and manually adds the item to your account or save.</p>
<p>This works fine! There is absolutely no need to rely on the blockchain, unless a studio, for whatever reason, wanted <em>other</em> studios to determine whether you owned specific items so that you could use them in <em>their</em> game. Even then, an easier and more efficient way to do that would be via some sort of database sharing, account linking, etc. (This is also not a new concept.)</p>
<p><strong><em>There isn't a single idea around the notion of ownership of game assets that fundamentally</em> requires <em>the use of NFTs</em></strong>. And I'd argue that, given the insignificance of what NFTs bring to the table, there can't be.</p>
<h2 id="there's-more-to-this." tabindex="-1"><a class="header-anchor ui" href="https://cosmogr.am/posts/on-blockchain-gaming-or-i-beg-you-to-believe-in-something-other-than-profit.html#there's-more-to-this." aria-hidden="true"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" fill="none" viewBox="0 0 24 24" stroke="currentColor" aria-hidden="true" class="heroicon" data-heroicon-name="link" data-heroicon-style="outline"><path stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" stroke-width="2" d="M13.828 10.172a4 4 0 00-5.656 0l-4 4a4 4 0 105.656 5.656l1.102-1.101m-.758-4.899a4 4 0 005.656 0l4-4a4 4 0 00-5.656-5.656l-1.1 1.1"></path></svg></a>There's more to this.</h2>
<p>Look, there are few topics about which it is worse to be wrong than NFTs and cryptocurrencies, but ultimately I'm not the best person to explain how or why that is (see the previously linked article). I am, however, the best person to explain why the author's approach to game design is so offensive to me.</p>
<p>As a game designer, you often end up asking yourself: why am I doing this? What's the end goal? Why am I out here designing <em>games</em> when, well, everything is going to shit?</p>
<p>And the only answer I can find that still lets me look at my reflection in the mirror and be ok with the person I see is: I make games for players. So that they can find a community they feel safe in, or a different perspective to help them make sense of the world, or maybe a little bit of wonder and escapism. At the very least, so that they can find some harmless comfort, some respite.</p>
<p>If you're a game designer toying with the idea of NFTs – and, don't get me wrong, NFTs are just the latest, worst-est version of what I'm talking about here – you're not making games for players. You're making games that <em>exploit</em> players, <em>for</em> the profit of your company. You're dehumanizing your players into little bags of cash, and you see your job as being in charge of fine-tuning the game so that each bag of cash will drop as many coins as possible into the big gaping mouth of the company you work for, or worse, own. That's how we ended up with terms like engagement, acquisition, retention, and so on. The author of the piece I am writing this in response to says at one point that he wants to <em>“make players feel awesome”</em>, but it's actually not quite right; he wants to make players feel awesome, <em>because</em> when a player feels awesome she's particularly receptive to other elements of the game designed to get her to spend money.</p>
<p>I know I'm not saying anything particularly revolutionary here. The thing that gets me is how many designers lose sight of why they're in this field in the first place. I get it – it's easy to just get lulled to sleep by the metrics, the KPIs, etc. And maybe the author does genuinely believe that he's <em>just</em> making players feel awesome, with no ulterior motive! But look, man, you're writing a thinkpiece in which you readily admit that the games you help create make you miserable, and that one big reason you're excited for NFTs is that they'll help <em>“fight existential dread”</em>. Surely you realize there's a bigger problem here?</p>
<p>In a way, it makes sense. If you've become fully numbed to the practice of designing games mainly for profit, to the extent that you don't realize that's what you're doing, then maybe it makes sense that the notion of “ownership” is so exciting to you. Maybe you have, by choice or out of resignation, come to accept a capitalist framework for envisioning the world, and therefore you get truly hyped up when thinking about how a new technology will allow you to own more of something. Or, to own something more. (Doesn't matter what, the important part is that you can own it.) <em>“I didn't just unlock a gun in the new Call of Duty; I now</em> <strong>own</strong> <em>the gun.”</em> Amazing, even if it doesn't make any difference!</p>
<p>And well, if that's the case, what can I say? It's pretty sad. Such is the unassailable might of money, I guess. But I beg you, do try to believe in something else.</p>
How many designers does it take to create a card game?2021-11-23T03:00:00Zhttps://cosmogr.am/posts/how-many-designers-does-it-take-to-create-a-card-game.html<p>In November of 2021, <a href="https://twitter.com/osamadorias">Osama Dorias</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/lizardengland">Liz England</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/MonsieurEureka">Sam Boucher</a> organised a game jam (slash social experiment, slash communal design performance) titled “How many designers does it take to create a card game?”</p>
<p>I was invited, along with 99 other designers, to create a single card which would, along with the 99 other cards, form a deck to be used in a very chaotic game. Basically the only things I knew when I started designing the card were that:</p>
<ol>
<li>All cards would be shuffled into a shared deck from which players would draw 5 cards;</li>
<li>A turn simply involves playing up to 2 cards (following the instructions on the cards), then drawing back up to 5;</li>
<li>Cards played are placed in front of the player and remain there, unless stated otherwise.</li>
</ol>
<p>You can read more about the project and see all the submissions <a href="http://howmanydesignersdoesittake.com/">here</a>. Below, I'll talk a bit about my own card, the Pensive Lady.</p>
<img src="https://cosmogr.am/assets/img/hmddittmac-pensive-lady-small.png" title="Pensive Lady" alt="Card in the style of classic French divination decks, with the title at the bottom, a large illustration of a woman on a balcony looking wistfully at the sky in the center, the rules in the top-right corner and an image of the Queen of Spades in a frame in the top-left corner." />
<p><em>Card rules: Whenever another player discards one of their cards, you may instead place it face-down under Pensive Lady. (If Pensive Lady is discarded, all cards under it return to the discard zone.) When you place the 12th card under Pensive Lady, the game ends. Then, read the players’ fortunes in the 12 cards, to ascertain the winner.</em></p>
<p>When I started thinking about the project and what I would do for my card, I knew that I wanted to integrate elements of other card games, but not the kind that game designers often like to play and discuss (ie. MtG and the like). Instead, I was thinking of classic games like Hearts – which has always been a personal favourite of mine – as well as tarot and other forms of divination.</p>
<h4>Mechanics</h4>
<p>I started with the rules. The main goal was to evoke the Black Lady variant of Hearts, in which a player can attempt to “shoot the moon”: take all the spades, which you normally want to avoid (including the “Black Lady” herself, the Queen of Spades.) If they do so, they take 0 penalty points, while giving 26 (the maximum penalty) to all the other players. This creates a dynamic where a player has to hide that they're attempting to shoot the moon, lest an opponent prevents them from doing so; there's a slow crawl towards victory, with an increasing risk of failing and taking a huge penalty. When you do manage to shoot the moon though, the reward is all the more satisfying.</p>
<p>The Pensive Lady mechanically mimics the act of trick-taking (just like when winning a trick, you take cards from your opponents and place them face-down in front of you), and the gradual progress towards a big reward which other players have to counter before it's too late. Additionally, the rules ask for 12 cards, creating a stack of 13 cards when counting the Pensive Lady herself – the Queen of Spades is worth 13 penalty points in a game of Black Lady.</p>
<p>Some design tidbits:</p>
<ul>
<li>Not knowing any of the other cards, I didn't know how often players would play 2 cards in a turn (instead of one), but requiring 12 cards meant a minimum of two full rounds would pass before the victory condition could be achieved (barring any combos), which seemed like a reasonable amount of reaction time to give opponents.</li>
<li>I did worry that maybe no other cards would provide a way to actually neutralise Pensive Lady, but the risk was minimal, and odds were that the deck would be full of other similarly unstoppable creatures.</li>
<li>The rules avoid ambuiguities like targeting Pensive Lady herself by specifying that it only activates when <em>another</em> player discards one of <em>their</em> cards.</li>
</ul>
<p>The last aspect I considered when designing the card was its ‘playability’ – I assumed that most cards in the game would feature complex rules (us game designers can't help ourselves), and wanted to limit the amount of in-game reading and manipulation to a minimum. This is why there are no rules that penalise you if you fail to collect 12 cards; it made the card too convoluted. Credit goes to <a href="https://twitter.com/Robomachin">Tom</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/LucieViatge">Lucie</a> off whom I bounced ideas on this topic, and I think the final text is pretty good in this regard – the need for conciseness even led to a creative spin on the win condition, which I'll go back to.</p>
<h4>Aesthetics</h4>
<p>Thematically, the card pays homage to the French tradition of divination, <a href="https://www.wopc.co.uk/france/livre-du-destin">as seen here</a>. I knew I wanted to incorporate divination in the card, while also remaining true to my own culture – not because I am particularly fond of my French heritage, because it would feel wrong to use an aesthetic derived from a one that isn't mine without substantial research and sensitivity. French cards happen to have a long history that isn't often explored in modern cartomancy – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot_card_reading">the origins of tarot as an occult instrument are French</a>... and this was a perfect opportunity. So I chose <em>Le Petit Cartomancien</em> deck as a basis and bought a copy (see picture); its Queen of Spades has a widow as the associated illustration, which echoed nicely the Black Lady game, and therefore was a perfect starting point.</p>
<img src="https://cosmogr.am/assets/img/petit-cartomancien.png" title="Le Petit Cartomancien" alt="Cards from Le Petit Cartomancien deck laid out on a table" />
<p>I chose to replace the central illustration with one from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Ignace_Isidore_G%C3%A9rard_Grandville">J. J. Grandville</a>, a renowned French illustrator and caricaturist from the early 19th century whose style is emblematic of that era. Many French cards used for divination, including the ones from <em>Le Petit Cartomacien</em>, use a style reminiscent of his. The actual illustration is from <em><a href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k101975j/f128.item.texteImage">Les Amours d'un Pantin et d'une Étoile</a></em>, a chapter from Grandville's <em>Un Autre Monde</em>.</p>
<p>The title brings everything together: it can be interpreted as a description of the widow from <em>Le Petit Cartomancien</em>, or as a nod to Pallas Athena (the Greek goddess of wisdom and the Queen of Spades herself in the "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French-suited_playing_cards#Paris_pattern">portrait officiel</a>" style of playing cards, as used in the top-left corner frame). Of course, it's also simply a reference to the actual scene depicted on the card: a woman dreaming of becoming a queen – in this way, I wanted to play with the structure of the card to suggest a small narrative.</p>
<h4>The final word...</h4>
<p>It was important to provide a win condition to mechanically match the concept of shooting the moon, but I really wanted to tie it to the divination element. I think the last line of the card rules does combine these two aspects – the player has essentially ‘won,’ but they get the opportunity to add a little occult flavour to their victory.</p>
<p>I iterated a bit over the phrasing to find the final version of the rule. Starting it with “The game ends; then...” serves as a way to both alleviate the ‘mechanical load’ (ie. the player knows that everything that follows is not part of the ‘game’), and to add a little gravitas to the proceedings.</p>
<p>It's also a subversion of conventional victory conditions: the player is given agency to interpret what a “fortune reading” might mean in the context of the game and how it might be performed. And in doing so, they can decide who the winner(s) is or are, or if there even is one. In a sense, just like I was invited to design this card, it is now their turn to invent a small playful ritual... after all, isn't divination a kind of game in itself? In the end, via this card, I hope we ask ourselves if designer, player and fortune teller aren't maybe one and the same.</p>
Games for Friends2022-02-23T16:45:27Zhttps://cosmogr.am/posts/games-for-friends.html<p>Back in 2018, I created a website with the purpose of listing games released the previous year that were accessible to audiences not used to playing videogames. A big majority of games released every year have a huge reliance on the player's familiarity with a specific kind of ‘game grammar’, and their desensitisation to a particular gamey violence; for people who do play games often, it's very easy to lose sight of this! So I thought it was important to highlight games that went out of their way to avoid these things. This mattered to me both as a player (I wanted to have games to show my non-gamer friends and relatives!) and a designer (reminding myself not to take things for granted.)</p>
<p>The website was quite well received, and the following year I made a new edition with a new selection of games from 2018. Unfortunately, after that I lacked the time, energy and budget to make a list for the games of 2019 – plus, the whole world was going through a bit of a rough patch – so I didn't publish anything. Around that time, the <a href="https://wholesomegames.com/">Wholesome Games</a> website and events became quite huge and I felt there was enough similarity in the concept to make GFF redundant, so I didn't renew the domain.</p>
<p>I still did want to keep the lists somewhere though, so here they are!<br />
The handlettering for the 2017 edition is by <a href="https://twitter.com/haraiva/">haraiva</a> and the logo for the 2018 edition is by <a href="https://twitter.com/cynthealucidarm/">cynthea</a>.</p>
<style>
.gfflogo {
height: 15em !important;
width: auto !important;
margin-top: 4em !important;
}
</style>
<img src="https://cosmogr.am/assets/img/gff2018.png" title="Games for Friends 2018" alt="Logo for the 2018 edition" class="centered gfflogo" />
<h4>a good balance</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://burlymenatsea.com/">Burly Men at Sea</a>
<p>A folktale about a trio of large, bearded fishermen who step away from the ordinary to seek adventure.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://everything-game.com/">Everything</a>
<p>Discover what it's like to be the Universe in this beautiful interactive nature simulation.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://frost-game.com/">Frost</a>
<p>A tender salute to life. An emotional journey through a dreamlike space.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://gorogoa.com/">Gorogoa</a>
<p>An elegant evolution of the puzzle genre, told through a beautifully hand-drawn story designed and illustrated by Jason Roberts.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://hiddenfolks.com/">Hidden Folks</a>
<p>Search for hidden folks in hand-drawn, interactive, miniature landscapes. Unfurl tent flaps, cut through bushes, slam doors, and poke some crocodiles!</p></li>
<li><a href="http://gamebookadventures.com/gamebooks/miss-fisher-and-the-deathly-maze/">Miss Fisher and the Deathly Maze</a>
<p>Become Phryne Fisher, the independent, feminist super-sleuth. Go on a modish dance of adventure, murderous mayhem and mystery around the world.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://www.monumentvalleygame.com/">Monument Valley 2</a>
<p>Journey with a mother and daughter as they embark on a journey of discovery through a stunning and impossible world.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://www.oldmansjourney.com/">Old Man's Journey</a>
<p>A puzzle-driven story game about life’s precious moments, broken dreams, and changed plans.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://nerial.co.uk/rhm/">Reigns: Her Majesty</a>
<p>Swipe left, swipe right, and rule your kingdom as the mighty Queen!</p></li>
<li><a href="https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/snipperclips-switch">Snipperclips</a>
<p>In this action-puzzle game, paper pals Snip and Clip must cut each other up to overcome tricky obstacles…or just to laugh their heads off (sometimes literally).</p></li>
<li><a href="http://www.kamibox.de/zipzap">Zip Zap</a>
<p>Touch to contract. Release to let go. Bring the clumsy mechanical beings home.</p></li>
</ul>
<h4>bit more thinking</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.engare.design/">Engare</a>
<p>Part puzzle game, part drawing tool, Engare is a all about your geometric imagination.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/573170">Fidel Dungeon Rescue</a>
<p>Fidel is a rescue dog in a dungeon full of monsters, traps, treasure and trapped heroes.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://www.flipflopsolitaire.com/">Flipflop Solitaire</a>
<p>A new Solitaire that breaks the rules... Stack down and up! But be careful, you only have 5 piles and you can only move suited stacks.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://linelightgame.com/">Linelight</a>
<p>A refreshingly inventive, minimalist puzzle-adventure game set in a universe of lines.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://www.rumugame.com/">RUMU</a>
<p>An intimate, narrative-driven adventure game about a robot vacuum cleaner becoming self-aware.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://onelink.to/sudokus">Sudoku Sweeper</a>
<p>A minimalist mashup of Minesweeper and Sudoku. Logic puzzle perfection.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://swim-out.com/">Swim Out</a>
<p>Dive into the relaxing and refreshing atmosphere of Swim Out, a strategic, turn-based puzzle game.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://www.thesexybrutalegame.com/">The Sexy Brutale</a>
<p>Join a never-ending masked ball in this puzzle-and-adventure game featuring intrigue, murder and the (quite-possibly) occult!</p></li>
<li><a href="https://topsoilgame.com/">Topsoil</a>
<p>Grow plants and work your garden’s soil. Your goal is to harvest as many plants as you can before your garden fills up!</p></li>
<li><a href="http://www.playtypeshift.com/">Typeshift</a>
<p>Anagrams meets Word Search, with a sprinkle of Crosswords.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/">Universal Paperclips</a>
<p>An incremental game in which the user plays the role of an AI programmed to produce paperclips.</p></li>
</ul>
<h4>lots of reading</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://laundrybear.com/a-morticians-tale/">A Mortician's Tale</a>
<p>A narrative-driven death positive video game where you play as a mortician tasked with running a funeral home.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://studio-oleomingus.itch.io/a-museum-of-dubious-splendors">A Museum of Dubious Splendors</a>
<p>A storybook from the world of Somewhere. An adaptation of a series of essays written by Gujarati poet Mir UmarHassan.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://burymemylove.arte.tv/">Bury Me, My Love</a>
<p>The reality-inspired story of Syrian refugee Nour and her husband Majd as Nour undertakes a perilous journey to safety.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://brianna-lei.itch.io/butterfly-soup">Butterfly Soup</a>
<p>A visual novel about gay asian girls playing baseball and falling in love.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/654880">Dream Daddy</a>
<p>A game where you play as a Dad and your goal is to meet and romance other hot Dads.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://www.farfromnoi.se/">Far From Noise</a>
<p>Take a deep breath. Close your eyes. Let the wind wash over you as a wave. Don’t think about death. You will be alright. Keep breathing.</p></li>
</ul>
<h4>playful and cheery</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://fisho.itch.io/alien">Alien Caseno</a>
<p>this is probably going to be the most aliens you've seen in one spot EVER.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/creature-garden-by-tinybop/id1193760955">Creature Garden</a>
<p>Create wonderful, incredible, and fantastical creatures. Give them hooves and horns, wings and beaks, or paws and claws.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://captaingames.itch.io/freeways">Freeways</a>
<p>You are a traffic engineer. Draw freeway interchanges. Optimize for efficency and avoid traffic jams.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://www.gnoggame.com/">GNOG</a>
<p>A playful puzzle game about exploring monstrous virtual toys. Press, pull, slide, grab, click, and rotate every GNOG head to uncover its secrets!</p></li>
<li><a href="https://tocaboca.com/app/toca-life-pets/">Toca Life: Pets</a>
<p>You and your animal friends run the show! What’s your favorite pet like? Furry and fast? Wet and wiggly? A little bit creepy?</p></li>
<li><a href="http://vignettesga.me/">Vignettes</a>
<p>An exploration game without text or characters, where objects shapeshift as you spin them around to wander through a kaleidoscope of moods and settings.</p></li>
</ul>
<img src="https://cosmogr.am/assets/img/gff2019.png" title="Games for Friends 2019" alt="Logo for the 2019 edition" class="centered gfflogo" />
<h4>fun</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/astro-bot-rescue-mission-ps4/">ASTRO BOT Rescue Mission</a>
<p>Take control of ASTRO the captain BOT and go on an epic VR rescue mission to save your fellow crew who are dispersed all over space.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://beatsaber.com/">Beat Saber</a>
<p>A VR rhythm game, where your goal is to slash the beats which fit perfectly into precisely handcrafted music.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://labo.nintendo.com/">Nintendo Labo</a>
<p>A fun way to Make, Play, and Discover with Nintendo Switch.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://supermarioparty.nintendo.com/">Super Mario Party</a>
<p>The original 4-player Mario Party series board game mode that fans love is back!</p></li>
</ul>
<h4>cute</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.bringyouhomegame.com/">Bring You Home</a>
<p>The story of a humble alien hero that will traverse multiple worlds in a frenetic chase with the goal of retrieving his kidnapped alien pet.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://amanita-design.net/games/chuchel.html">Chuchel</a>
<p>Join the hairy hero Chuchel and his rival Kekel on their quest to retrieve the precious cherry and face numerous puzzles and challenges!</p></li>
<li><a href="http://frogdetective.net/">The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game</a>
<p>You're a detective, and a frog, and it's time to solve a mystery.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://andrio.itch.io/touchmelbourne">Touch Melbourne</a>
<p>Explore the city of Melbourne through its various, tiny everyday interactions.</p></li>
</ul>
<h4>dynamic</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://sennepgames.com/">Alphaputt</a>
<p>Typography meets crazy golf. Putt your way through the alphabet, complete your own wordy courses, challenge your friends, and share your best shots.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://altosodyssey.com/">Alto's Odyssey</a>
<p>An endless sandboarding journey set against a gorgeous and ever-changing desert landscape.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://holedown.com/get/">Holedown</a>
<p>Dig deep underground by shooting balls and breaking blocks, traversing your way to the planet cores. Thoughtfully strategize and aim for maximum impact.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://orangenose.page.link/pingpongking06">I'm Ping Pong King :)</a>
<p>The goal of this game is to beat 16 rivals and win the crown; these funny stickmen can be world’s best champion, your boss or super granny.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://trickshotgame.io/">Trick Shot 2</a>
<p>A game where you throw a ball in to a box... How hard can it be?</p></li>
</ul>
<h4>beautiful</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://donutcounty.com/">Donut County</a>
<p>A story-filled physics puzzle game where you play as a hole in the ground.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://nomada.studio/">GRIS</a>
<p>A serene and evocative experience, free of danger, frustration or death.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://www.paperbarkgame.com/">Paperbark</a>
<p>A game that tells a charming short story of the bush, a wombat and a very hot Australian Summer.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://stormboythegame.com/">Storm Boy, The Game</a>
<p>Experience an interactive retelling of Colin Thiele's 1964 children’s book by taking control of both Storm Boy and Mr. Percival.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://thegardensbetween.com/">The Gardens Between</a>
<p>Best friends Arina and Frendt fall into a series of vibrant, dreamlike garden islands. Manipulate time to solve puzzles and discover the secrets of each island.</p></li>
</ul>
<h4>tricky</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://dissembler-game.com/">Dissembler</a>
<p>A subtle puzzle game about unraveling playful abstract artworks one color at a time.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://sfbgames.com/">Marching Order</a>
<p>Take charge of an adorable (but disorderly) animal marching band in this addictive logic puzzle game!</p></li>
<li><a href="https://www.tetriseffect.game/">Tetris Effect</a>
<p>Tetris like you've never seen it, or heard it, or felt it before—a breathtakingly gorgeous reinvention of one of the most popular puzzle games of all time.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://pinestreetcodeworks.com/tiny-bubbles/">Tiny Bubbles</a>
<p>Play with squishy clusters of soap bubbles in this mesmerizing physics puzzle game. Inflate, mix, match, pop, and win with hundreds of super fun goals to complete.</p></li>
</ul>
<h4>pure</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.66rpg.com/game/1175832">A Gay's Life</a>
<p>The story of a gay man's childhood, adolescence and adulthood in China.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://www.florencegame.com/">Florence</a>
<p>The story of a young woman and the heartracing highs and heartbreaking lows of her very first love.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://haraiva.itch.io/novena">Novena</a>
<p>A bitsy poem.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://qwertyprophecy.itch.io/storyseeker">Storyseeker</a>
<p>A minimalist narrative experiment driven by your curiosity. Follow the trails of weasels, talk to ghosts, cross the ocean. Find out what happened to this world.</p></li>
</ul>
<h4>involved</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.far-game.com/">FAR: Lone Sails</a>
<p>Travel across a dried-out ocean following the tracks of a once thriving civilization. Overcome numerous obstacles and withstand the hazardous weather conditions.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://minitgame.com/">Minit</a>
<p>A peculiar little adventure played sixty seconds at a time.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/853500/Quarantine_Circular/">Quarantine Circular</a>
<p>Scientists interrogate an alien discovered at the heart of a global pandemic. Work with your team, make decisions and uncover the alien’s true intentions.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://obradinn.com/">Return of the Obra Dinn</a>
<p>An Insurance Adventure with Minimal Colour.</p></li>
<li><a href="https://www.bandainamcoent.com/games/11-11-memories-retold">11-11 Memories Retold</a>
<p>11th Nov. 1916, a young photographer leaves Canada to join the Western Front in Europe. The same day, a German technician is told that his son is missing in action.</p></li>
</ul>
<h4>captivating</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.acaseofdistrust.com/">A Case of Distrust</a>
<p>A narrative mystery from 1924 San Francisco. Play as private investigator Phyllis Cadence Malone in this historical 2D adventure game.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://heavenwillbemine.com/">Heaven Will Be Mine</a>
<p>A queer science fiction mecha visual novel about joyriding mecha, kissing your enemies, and fighting gravity's pull.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://www.mychildlebensborn.com/">My Child Lebensborn</a>
<p>A story-driven nurture game. Help the child of an enemy in a post-war society.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://reignsgame.com/">Reigns: Game of Thrones</a>
<p>Claim the Iron Throne as Cersei Lannister, Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen. Carefully navigate the complex relationships and hostile factions of the Seven Kingdoms.</p></li>
<li><a href="http://www.wherethewatertasteslikewine.com/">Where the Water Tastes Like Wine</a>
<p>A bleak American folk tale about traveling, sharing stories, and surviving manifest destiny.</p></li>
</ul>