More Miscellaneous Musing

There hasn't been much to share lately in the world of Standard Pauper, especially since I have barely been able to play the past month or so due to my schedule. BG Control continues to dominate the metagame, so if you have some tips or ideas on how to target that archetype, I'd still enjoy hearing them. But with little else to talk about (strange, given all the attention in Pauper around Eternal Masters), I thought I would simply share a random collection of things that I've been enjoying over the past couple weeks.

1. Soren Johnson (of Civilization IV fame) had a fantastic interview on the Designer Notes podcast about his new game, Offworld Trading Company, as well as some fascinating thoughts about video game and board design.

2. Speaking of board games, just today while mowing the lawn I listened to an interview on the Meeple Nation podcast of Dan Wells, author of the well-known horror thriller I Am Not a Serial Killer and cohost of the popular Writing Excuses podcast. Dan discusses his love of board games and particularly what attracts him to story-driven game play.

3. Somehow on YouTube I came across an indie strategy game from last year called Prison Architect, in which, as one might expect, you create and manage a prison. While this is not a game I think I ever would have picked up on my own, I've been watching Lets Play series by Sips and OfficialStuffPlus, and what I've seen has definitely caught my eye. I'm still not sure if I'll actually buy the game or simply scratch that itch by continue to watch other people play.

4. Finally, as I do every week, I have continued to enjoy the Dungeons and Dragons live shows Critical Role and Dice, Camera, Action. DMs Matt Mercer and Chris Perkins respectively make these shows what they are, and if you want to see roleplaying done well, you'd be hard pressed to find much better. I highly recommend you check both of these out.

If you've got some interesting content (particularly related to Standard Pauper) that you would like me to feature on my blog, please let me know! I always love hearing from my readers. Thanks as always for making me a part of your week. Until next time...

Offworld Trading Company (Release Version)

Exactly a year ago today, I posted about picking up Offworld Trading Company on Steam Early Access. Late last week, the game had its official release. So it seemed only reasonable for me to jump back into the game, see what had changed, and offer my thoughts on whether it's worth purchasing.

For those of you unfamiliar with it, Offworld Trading Company is a game designed by Soren Johnson, lead developer of the massively popular Civilization IV. It puts you in command of a near-future corporation operating on Mars to mine the valuable commodities found there, buy and trade them on the open market, and export them offworld, all for the purpose of buying out your competitors and earning the exclusive rights to the planet. While clearly a real time strategy game, what makes Offworld stand out is that you use money, and not armies, to conquer new territory, expand your holdings, and defeat your competitors. It isn't a game where your success is tied to how fast you can press hotkeys or micromanage your units; instead, the game is all about recognizing the best opportunities while reacting to a market that responds to what's going on in the game, but often not in a totally predictable manner.

While I played quite a bit of the game after I initially purchased it, I admit I hadn't played it in probably six months prior to its release. Here's what impressed me about the final version:

1. It received a ton of graphical polish. Gone are the placeholder art assets and bad digitized voice-overs. The graphical interface was clearer, each colony type had new artwork and story concepts, and overall simply looked much better.

2. It has an amazing soundtrack. Grammy award winning composer Christopher Tin created a fantastic atmospheric soundtrack for the game, and it was released as DLC (and given out free to anyone who participated in Early Access). You can listen to it here.

3. It comes with a bunch of great extras. These include a lengthy design document and strategy guide, the latter of which was actually compiled from the best players who spent all of Early Access streaming the game and participating in ten different tournaments, all hosted by the game's developer.

4. It has a variety of play options that support both single player and multiplayer experiences. There's a short but detailed tutorial-style series of missions, a much longer single-player campaign that changes each time you play it, daily skirmish challenges that lets you view how everyone else did compared to you, and of course a variety of gameplay mods and maps for online play.

Offworld Trading Company has received very positive reviews, and for good reason. It's well worth picking up. I certainly intend to play it quite a bit in the coming weeks.

Transparency in Video Game Design

As any longtime reader of my blog knows, I am a devoted gamer of both the digital and physical media. And one of the fascinating effects of the ubiquity of the tablet is how the distinction between a video game and a board game is beginning to shrink. Indeed, many of my favorite board games are available as video games!

So when a link came across my Twitter feed to a presentation by Soren Johnson (former lead designer for Civilization IV and current lead for Offworld Trading Company), about what video games can learn from board games, I was immediately intrigued. I've linked the entire presentation below:

Okay, I'm guessing most of you didn't actually watch the whole video. It's pretty long and geeky, so I can't blame you if you didn't. You really should watch it. But if not, here's the gist of it:

What defines a board game is not the fact that you play with physical components. Instead, what makes a board game unique is the level of transparency in the game. All of the mechanics, by necessity, must be fully explainable to the end user; otherwise they don't work. And it is this transparency that creates such great games, fostering deep engagement, player comfort, and meaningful choice.

Now I'm a major fan of Johnson's Offworld Trading Company, and I can definitely see how he has applied these concepts to that game. So if you want to see these concepts in action, I would definitely encourage you to check it out.

More Game Updates, Part One

While generally I don't recommend jumping into games while they are in beta or on Steam Early Access, I have had a fairly decent track record with a few such games over the past few months. And one of the best things about participating in such games is that there is often a fairly quick cycle of new updates, breathing new life into the game in a way that rarely happens once it has been released.

In fact, there have been four such major updates to some of my favorite games. Today, I'll take a look at two of them:

1. Offworld Trading Company recently updated to Beta 5, bringing with it a host of new changes. These include new units, new music, some new campaign features, new art assets, and some balancing tweaks to some of the black market activities. While still very much in Early Access, the game is already very playable, and definitely comes highly recommended.

2. Another fantastic indie game is Darkest Dungeon, which recently released their Corpse and Hound update. The focus, not surprisingly, is on the Houndmaster, which is a new hero class, and the presence of monster corpses, that now linger once a foul denizen has been slain, complicating your ability to deal with the remaining foes. This update also includes lots of combat tweaks and balance, some changes to the way that madness and character quirks function, and some smaller changes to some of the other hero classes. With the final release slated for October, this game is quickly nearly completion.

Anyway, I am away at GenCon most of this week, and still trying to finish up Part 2 of my Standard Pauper review of Magic Origins. So that's it for today. See you next time.

Two Major Updates

As much as I love both Standard Pauper and Hearthstone, I have to confess that I've been more or less taking a break from both recently. Instead, I've been playing several great video games. And two of those have recently release major updates. So I thought I would highlight those today.

Just today, the long-awaited Terraria 1.3 update has finally been released! This will more than likely be the final content release for the game, and it's a doozy! The change log is over 8 pages long, and many of the best changes haven't even been included. Yesterday I got a chance to watch several popular streamers play advanced copies of the update, and it looks amazing. If you're unfamiliar with this game, Terraria is essentially an old-school 2D adventure game that is probably best described as Minecraft meets Legend of Zelda. It's probably my favorite game to come out in the last five years. Check out my previous posts on it, and pick it up right away!

The other game that has recently been updated is a more recent one that is actually still on Steam Early Access called Offworld Trading Company. They just released the fourth beta iteration, which added a whole bunch of new ways to attack your opponent's colony as well as an alternate starting mechanic. As the brain-child of the Lead Designer for Civilization IV, this game has a ton of awesome gameplay even though it's still not complete, with a growing community of skilled multiplayer opponents. Best described as an economic real time strategy game, Offworld Trading Company puts you in the CEO chair of a major corporation racing against the competition to colonize Mars and turn a profit. You can find out more about it in my previous posts. It's definitely worth checking out!

As an aside, I also think it's awesome that both of these games are independent titles released through Steam and not through a major software developer. This bodes well for the future of gaming! See you next time...

More Offworld Trading Company

Last time, I wrote about the excellent Offworld Trading Company, now available through Steam Early Access, designed by Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson. Today, I want to share with you two great resources for this game that have helped me tremendously to understand the mechanics behind the game and improve my skills.

The first is the videos and streaming provided by Zultar, who regularly streams the game on his Twitch channel and posts many of his games from the stream to YouTube. He also serves as a beta tester for the game, with access to unreleased development builds to provide feedback and bring further exposure to the game. He also streams both Hearthstone and Darkest Dungeon, so there's quite a bit to watch if you share my enthusiasm for those games as well.

The second is the document provided by another Offworld pro who goes by the name of Cubit32. He also regularly posts games to YouTube, and it was his match with the developer and TrumpSC (streamed on Trump's Twitch channel), that first brought the game to my attention. In any case, Cubit32 produced an excellent written primer on the game, giving you everything you need to get started and some very useful tips and strategy regarding the game. If you're playing Offworld and haven't check it out yet, you're doing yourself a disservice.

I continue to play and watch a ton of this game right now, so I encourage you to check it out! But don't worry, I'll be back next time with more Standard Pauper content. See you then!

Offworld Trading Company (Early Access)

I seem to be playing more early access games than I ever expected. Back in March, I discovered Darkest Dungeon, an excellent fantasy/horror game RPG. Today, I want to tell you about another great find: Offworld Trading Company.

Designed by Soren Johnson, lead developer of the massively popular Civilization IV, Offworld puts you in command of a near-future corporation operating on Mars to mine the valuable commodities found there, buy and trade them on the open market, and export them offworld, all for the purpose of buying out your competitors and earning the exclusive rights to the planet. While clearly a real time strategy game, what makes Offworld stand out is that you use money, and not armies, to conquer new territory, expand your holdings, and defeat your competitors. It isn't a game where your success is tied to how fast you can press hotkeys or micromanage your units; instead, the game is all about recognizing the best opportunities while reacting to a market that responds to what's going on in the game, but often not in a totally predictable manner.

Each game of Offworld is different. You start off by scanning the planet for resources, then pick which colony type seems most advantageous and found your colony, trying to beat your opponents to the best spots. Then, it's a land-rush to claim tiles and build infrastructure to pull some initial resources out of the ground. As you grow, you can upgrade your colony, giving you access to even more tiles and allowing you to start manufacturing goods from these raw materials, typically leading to greater profits (but, of course, subject to the whims of the market). At the same time, you also have to manage the black market, where both you and your opponent can take dramatic actions against your enemies by blowing up one of their buildings, shutting down their production with EMPs, or even temporarily taking over one of their claims. Of course, these actions cost you valuable money, that might have been better used expanding your own production.

Finally, once you've secured resources and production, it's time to use your wealth to buy up the stock of your opponent. Even here, the economics play a big role, as each person's stock price is based upon their cash in hand, the value of their assets, and the amount of debt they've accrued. Fall behind, and as your stock price drops, it makes all the easier for your opponents to buy you out. But gain a financial edge, and eventually you initiate a hostile take over of your opponent, taking over their corporation and getting access to everything they had.

Intrigued? While the game still is rough around the edges (it is in Early Access, after all), it is a very fun and engaging game, particularly in multiplayer. Check out the tutorial videos from the designer below, and if you like what you see, purchase it on Steam today. See you next time.