What This Bird-Brained Game Shows Us About Strategy Design 🦖⁉️ [UFO50:Avianos]

[@stevedaguy9639]

I'm just happy my favorite ufo 50 game got recognized

[@nah82201]

“Some nerd will get angry about.” 😂 It went from a pejorative, to a positive, to now both. It’s reach word equivalent of Feng Shui.

[@IndieGameClinic]

Always both!

[@Paul_Ward]

Exactly as you say, it's a really good idea to have your player's options presented to them in branching ways, outside of strategy as much as in them. It's quite taxing on the mind, figuring out which door to walk through in a room with 155 doors over and over again. But if you have 5 doors, and each room after has another 5, and each of those another 5 again, it's always a 1-in-5 choice, which is a lot less fatiguing than that 155.

[@blarvinius]

For half the video I was trying to apply the concepts to other kinds of games such as I am working on, and then you totally went there. One of your best. 🎯

[@ChristopherAOBoyle]

Subscribed to you cos of this video! Great stuff man, you break points down in a very intelligent and easy to understand way. Video had great flow

[@IndieGameClinic]

@@ChristopherAOBoyle thanks!

[@QuinnArgo]

Your explanation made me realize why I could never finish a Fire Emblem game and why, even though I do love them, I often had to take breaks from the Advanced Wars games. It is exactly because there's *no* compound decisions, I have to fiddle around with every single unit every single turn, placing them exactly at the edge of my opponent's range, putting them in the right formations, etc etc. I'm wondering now, could something like Advanced Wars be improved by combining it somewhat with my duly beloved game of chess? Say, you had limited bandwidth and could only contact a certain kind of unit each turn, or maybe the fuel of the vehicles could be a lot more limited, forcing you to spend turns on delivering them with fuel, also affecting the long-term planning... Idk I think I've gotten a bit ahead of myself, but this was a very enlightening video

[@khongnoi1012]

This is the first time I've heard of Compound decision, and simply having this critical vocabulary gives me such an important new perspective on many mechanics I thought I understood!

[@IndieGameClinic]

I’m sure there is a better name for it, but it’s a design pattern I’ve seen in a few places. I think we assume players like having more choice, but there’s a point at which having more choices amounts to less meaningful choices because it all just becomes a rush to click through all of the options

[@hydrax7131]

I really wasn't expecting that, what a fantastic analysis, you definitely understand tactical games - that seems to be your field!

[@IndieGameClinic]

@@hydrax7131 I guess? I play pretty much every kind of game but I do tend to be a button basher when it comes to anything which isn’t slow and thinky 🤣

[@diredier]

Learning so much from your work, thank you so much!

[@dariuszpys9307]

Thank you! Great work. As always with the right humour and value.

[@dariuszpys9307]

Now I must just rethink the leveling system planned for my game. 😅

[@TheKeppu]

Very interesting design perspective for strategy games!

[@SuperEssenceOfficial]

good point also about the art!!

[@woomod2445]

whhhaaattt? a strategy game that intends you to get through it's tech tree?! also yes, this is a problem i have noticed with 4xs. mechanics that don't scale to the games size.

[@ictogon]

When I played this game I never got through the tech tree, even though my main strategy was using brintor to speed up the tech tree.

[@ArkThePieKing]

So I have to ask: What is a "4x"? You used the term several times but I don't think I quite understand the definition.

[@IndieGameClinic]

@@ArkThePieKing it’s the genre Civ is in and stands for explore expand exploit exterminate. Broadly though they are just turn based strategy which focus more on empire building and map control than on detailed combat.

[@ArkThePieKing]

@@IndieGameClinic Oooh okay, cool I'd never heard that term before, thank you!

[@bingusbongus9807]

"charming but infuriating" about block koalas????? what the hell?? did you put the right footage on screen?? did we play the same game?? block koalas had zero infuriating moments, i actually kinda was disappointed it stopped getting harder around level 20, baba is you is way way harder i still haven't beaten baba and yet block koalas was the very first game i completed in the pack (i cherried and golded it at the same time)

[@IndieGameClinic]

My brain just cannot do that genre of puzzle game, for whatever reason!

[@bingusbongus9807]

@@IndieGameClinic damn, well thats ok, my brain just couldnt figure out how to the owl one, i just got in a twist because block koalas has been my favorite so far

[@IndieGameClinic]

@ haha it’s all good. I recently did a video on an in development Sokoban and I really liked that one because there’s a lot of potential variability in levels. Still hurt my brain though! ☢️📻🥷 kzbin.info/www/bejne/eHXWq4ahYpeGodE

[@bingusbongus9807]

@@IndieGameClinic woah that looks pretty groovy!!