Weaknotes 1
Inspired by Alice Bartlett, this is minimal expectation blogging.
More …Slay The Spire
Sometimes a fresh new idea doesn’t require the invention of something genuinely new, but just the composition of existing disparate concepts. (In fact, I’d wager that’s more common than not.) Slay the Spire, the debut title from Mega Crit Games, is a perfect example. Take a deck-building mechanic (very popular right now in titles like Hearthstone), add a rogue-like randomly generated map to explore (also very hot right now), and build that on top of a very simple turn-based combat game and you’ve got something that feels both familiar and yet like a new experience.
More …The structured improv of Dungeons & Dragons
Somehow I spent the first thirty years of my nerdy life without playing Dungeons and Dragons. After listening to the first season of The Adventure Zone I decided I’d been missing out and convinced a small group of friends (with even less experience than I with pen-and-paper RPGs) to spend an evening imagining themselves in a world I’d made up.
More …SteamWorld Dig
I’m a sucker for games about digging. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something satisfying about going deeper and deeper for more precious resources as the danger increases them dragging your haul back to the surface.
More …SteamWorld Heist Review
Often conversations about recent video games center around what a game does that’s new, as if new experiences were like a breath of fresh air. In the case of Steamworld Heist, there is little that is really novel, but the humble execution of the game as a whole feels genuinely refreshing.
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