Snow vlog! On making games 'different every time'

It's snowing, and I have a mic that makes me audible outdoors! So I rambled about board games as roguelikes, what matters when making games 'different every time', and how Dune Imperium pulls it off so well.

[@TheHopperUK]

The microphone sounds fine!

[@chrisgreen6259]

Loved this video! The snow is beautiful, as are the thoughts. Thanks Tom!

[@littlecurrybread]

fun stuff!

[@EnticingChasom]

Big fan Tom! Keep up the great work!❤

[@PomoxToaster]

What you're describing in the context of board games as (or vs) roguelikes makes me think of what made FTL so fun and engaging to play over and over again, even after I figured out what strategies generally guaranteed success in the final parts of the game (and which ones would prohibit success, but were still often fun to choose or try out.) The fun of the choose-your-own-adventure style story-ness of FTL made it so satisfying to play out from just a short time into a new run, because its minimalist storytelling does such a good job of setting up an interesting new adventure and set of circumstances that make players want to know what happens next, and whether early good decisions pay off or bad ones come around to bite you. On the other hand, I enjoy the heck out of Vast, and I've always felt that it has the potential to have a sort of "feel different every time" but it gets it out of how asymmetrical it plays between roles, rather than how different it plays out, in my experience. Playing it multiple times or with different groups always does feel fairly different, but I think it's interesting how it is designed fairly specifically to sort of engineer a replay-friendly experience by having several roles with very different rules, so even without mechanical or thematic variety between games, just swapping roles makes it feel so different. I really love when a game can include a good sense of theme not just for the game, but for the role(s) players have to engage with to participate!

[@Notemug]

Sounding good and looking good!

[@Quimbyrbg]

I'm so glad you mentioned Race for the Galaxy. It's a staple game for my phone because of its story telling. Paying attention to the cards and making a story in your head as you go generates so many unique narratives. My favourite so far was an all tech build by sentient robots who generated prestige as the universal defence provider, and then sowed rebellious chaos to turn that into VP. Also, shame on you for not promoting your roguelike celebration talk on Heat Signature. I really enjoyed it and had to find it by happenstance.

[@finctank]

Great to see you Tom, good video

[@Jay_Maul]

Snow is Canada, come visit Ottawa sometime and do work in my office basement in the winter..lol. I'm dressed like you.

[@HypoceeYT]

Dune nerd stuff: Baron Harkonnen being frustratingly lucky or a master manipulator, not really. He gets lucky once or twice in the story, as do most characters. In a story and world that's all about clever, expert, "beyond good and evil" people working under constraint by forces larger than any individual, he's a spectacularly and intentionally cruel psychopath - and philosophically a troll, for lack of a better word. If not for the upsets caused by Jessica and Paul, he would have successfully manipulated his better-connected enemy Leto Atreides into walking into a lethal trap on Dune, by playing on his misplaced sense of nobility and the business needs of his liege the Emperor. He then intended to run a simple "good cop bad cop" sequence with his sacrificial stupid heir to set up his valuable smart one when they regained the planet upon destruction of House Atreides. Dune "vs" Star Wars: Shut Up and Sit Down - "This game lets you be as cunning as a Bene Gesserit witch. The Bene Gesserit were what Star Wars ripped off to make the Jedi. They're also cooler than Jedi. Don't @ me. Unless it's to say that you agree about the Bene Gesserit, in which case, that's fine." "Dune feels like there are lots of stories that could be told in it, or like the stories could go a lot of different ways." Right on. Ignoring for the sake of argument the literal clairvoyant prophecies, it feels like in almost every scene there are a dozen ways the characters could come out, while still being consistent with their nature. The whole story's set on knife edges. The story you generated, with Paul or Jessica or both being successfully killed but Liet-Kynes bringing more Imperial/Corrino attention down on Arrakis as more than the source of totally-not-oil, could be an equally valid book.