Currently, I follow ‘Rollplay – Mirrorshades‘, ‘Rollplay – Swan Song‘ and ‘Critical Role‘, I watch the Acquisitions Inc. PAX games every year, I tried ‘Turn Order – Edge Runners‘ but didn’t quite like it, I, of course, watch the RPGs on TableTop when they happen and I just finished watching ‘Titansgrave: The Ashes of Valkana‘. Why? Well, it’s fun. That’s the first thing. Secondly, I think there is a benefit to roleplayers from watching others play. Whether it is to get a different perspective, see what they’re doing right, what they’re doing wrong and probably change your style accordingly, especially if you enjoy what you see. I started watching Mirrorshades because it’s Shadowrun and I love Shadowrun. Even if it’s first edition (which is weird) and I stayed because the players are very engaged, the GM is incredible, in preparation and performance, and it’s touching at times, has good action and mostly just funny and fun. I stopped watching Edge Runners because that was almost the complete opposite. The GM was new and inexperienced. While I might fault the language use of the Mirrorshades crew, they know what they want and what they mean. They don’t fumble. That was not the case here. The players seem not that engaged and not that interesting and everyone seemed like they were trying too hard. And the story itself didn’t hook me. Watching Critical Role is like watching the X-Games. The cast is all engaged with the story, they care about what happens. Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, No Category, Practice, Role-Playing, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with .
After some time taken to rest and resupply, Throutek crashes down on the bed in their new accommodations. The Deep Dark is a very nice ship but they really need to scrub out any markings if not completely repaint her or they’ll be on the Empire’s radar in no time flat. He still had his commpad and access to his holonet account and encrypted files so the log was still intact. Jax went to get himself fixed and, apparently, ran an exclusive interview with the local technician. In the morning, the wake up call was the sound of drums. Went out to see the captain. Apparently, the Eyahr guys took down a sentry droid, took his weapon and escaped back to their ship. Harsol organized a party to go after them and requested we go back to our tent. Asked him about grandfather but he just got more upset. He went off. We went to the lab tent. Met a techie – Tekbah – that is responsible for all the Nexu teeth augmentations. He felt really proud until we told him the wild cats tried to eat us several times. We saw that he also monitored them and there are several of them roaming the jungle. Discussed whether we should just cut our losses and get out of here, tell Rohm what we found and that there are no valuables. Suddenly, everything went quiet and dark. We went to check it out and found two Rodians messing with the generator. Killed Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Role-Playing by Eran with .
Shadwen (Which I will not attempt to pronounce) is the new IP from Frozenbyte, the guys behind the Trine trilogy. Now, I know Trine 3 was a bit of a flop but the ideas behind it were great and I really enjoyed the first two. This time, they seem to be focusing on pure stealth. I love stealth games. But stealth games are not easy to do. So, I really hope they get it right. Coming in 2016.
Posted in Gaming, Less Interesting News by Eran with .
So… What’s up with me? Well, obviously, I’ve been busy. So busy that I was working 10-12 hour days and was so tired coming home that I barely had the strength to do the things I wanted, let alone the things I needed to do. But we’re officially world wide now. The game is open on all territories. Which means, sans marketing, our server load doubled and tripled. Which means, bugs came out that are only relevant under heavy load. Also, the stress is on, we are officially competing now. And we haven’t even rolled out our more competitive features. So, before any of the big ones notice us and pull out the big guns, we have to roll out our secret weapons. This means, everyone onboard, working as hard as they can, to deliver those feature ASAP. And after those days, I’m tired. Even writing this, the weekend after an iteration is finished. I can barely muster enough brain power to write more than 200 words. On top of this, the 2016 Global Game Jam is almost upon us and this time, I want to try to write something all on my own. So, I’ve been catching up on Twine knowledge as much as I can. And I’ve been roped into a Secret Santa game which I am so very bad it. I’m also still trying to work on my personal projects; I’m running two games in the Pundak forums, one of them is already using THF, and I’m Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Geekdom, Me, No Category, Role-Playing, Thinking Out Loud, Work by Eran with .
Here’s another interesting article I came upon called Progression is the New Victory. It talks about how games are not really completed anymore and about how a game could be never ending and boring or never ending and fun, mostly dependent on the progression system. And it got me thinking: I played some mobile games that are supposed to be never ending, or at least very long, and they couldn’t hold my attention for very long and here comes Star Wars: Uprising and I’m hooked. And, apparently, it’s not just because it’s a Star Wars game. They do progression well. Especially since the latest patch. First of all, the missions might be repetitive but they are not sufficiently difficult that I am currently stuck on two that are too difficult for me. So what do I do in the meantime? My second point, you can always do something. Even if I run one of the standard missions, I get a sizable reward out of it whether it be money or upgrade materials or equipment I can trade for money or salvage for upgrade materials. And while progression might be a bit slow, it doesn’t feel like much of a grind because I’m getting something appropriate to my position in the game. It’s not skinning 10 wolves for 100 gold pieces. Thirdly, the crew. You amass crew throughout the game which you can send on independent missions. They gather money, materials, gear, faction support or other crew members and, if you Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Practice, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with .
Boogeyman looks like it’s trying to ride FNAF‘s coattails because it looks just about the same as FNAF 4. But so far, it’s getting positive reviews. 6.5$ in Early Access now. Helldivers has been in development for a while, probably since Arrowhead abandoned the Magicka franchise and wrapped up Gauntlet. So, this looks like kind of the same thing except with big scifi guns. Yep. Count me in. Coming in December. Crashlands is a Don’t Starve like experience but… in SPACE! And it looks whacky and just plain cool. The video explains it best. Coming early 2016. Firewatch is a mystery story driven exploration game. There’s not a lot more than that to say except it looks very interesting. Coming February 10th.
Posted in Gaming, Less Interesting News by Eran with .
Current Status: Extremely busy. We’ve had a stressful past few days at work. Lots of things getting more complicated than they should, deadlines being pushed and pretty much everyone staying late. Hopefully it will end soon because I haven’t really had a chance to write something and there’s an article about Game Progression vs Game Victory I would like to discuss. In the mean time, I’ve been watching Adam Ruins Everything (and it’s awesome!) and I’ve been wondering, is it legal for employers in Israel to forbid employees to talk about their salary?
Posted in No Category, Work by Eran with .
This is usually the day we remember The Gun Powder Treason and Plot, a staple of civil disobedience and unrest. It is good to remember that it is not only our privilege but our duty to take responsibility for our state and how it’s run. And we’re not talking only about elections. It is also the day I remember Yitzhak Rabin, now dead for two decades, who is still, in my opinion, the last decent leader we had in this country. And no one has yet been able to fill his shoes. And this year, because the previous two were recurring topics of conversation between us, I remember Keren Embar. She wasn’t here last November too. I regret we can never have those conversations again. I don’t have time or presence of mind to write any more but check past November 5th post for ramblings of the same nature.
Posted in Humanity, Life Lessons, No Category, Philosophy, Practice, Thinking Out Loud by Eran with .
Throutek sat on his bunk in their provided accommodations in the survivors’ retreat. It was spartan but serviceable. After all, it has been of service to the people here for going on twenty years. At the current time, he simply didn’t care. His mind was occupied. He never expected finding his grandfather will be easy. But he also never expected that when he did, it would be a grave. He lay down, commpad in hand and recorded the happenings of the last day in the captain’s log. After Zimir and Jax investigated the engine piece, flew up to the bridge section further north. It was sunk in a river bed off the side of a small village punctuated by a tower. Found a graveyard with grandfather’s tombstone in it. Decided that he might be buried but the quest is not done. Still need to find out who he was and why he left. Spotted movement in the village. Went there and found a big cat-looking thing called a Nexu. Fought it off and it ran away. Started exploring the village. It seemed to have been built quickly and abandoned years ago. Continued to the main ship’s body. It was quite disassembled for parts. Climbed the ship and approached the bridge. Inside was dark but Jax provided light. Heard gut wrenching grinding noise from inside the bowls. Continued to the bridge. There were some B1 Battle Droid remains on the way. Found a well maintained toolbox in the entrance to the Continue Reading →
Posted in Gaming, Role-Playing by Eran with .
Descent: Underground… It’s Back!… It looks like a bunch of fans gathered together, got the license and are now bringing Descent back from the dead. And, hell, if it’s going to be as cool as Descent, as fun as Descent II and as smart as Descent3, I’m in. They even call themselves, Descendent Studios. I see what you did there. Now on early access for 25$. And, apparently, so is Aquanox, in Aquanox Deep Descent. There’s nothing much about it yet except saying it’s a reimagining of the original series and a return to the world. I haven’t played the originals but I was lead to believe they are pretty good shooters. Coming in 2017. Rocket League – Back to the Future Car DLCÂ just because I have to. I might want to actually play the game now…
Posted in Gaming, Less Interesting News by Eran with .