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Entries from September 29th, 2011

The Tropico Side Quest

September 29th, 2011 · 1 Comment · City Builder, Haemimont

One of the great things about the Bioware RPG model was the side quest design. There was a single epic main quest and a bunch of major quests that would take you along that path, but also alternate quests that really had nothing to do with anything, were entirely optional and you could take ’em […]

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Three Moves Ahead Episode 136 – Franchises and Fumbles

September 29th, 2011 · 11 Comments · Podcast, Three Moves Ahead

Soren Johnson quits in a huff and leaves podcasting so he can try his hand at making games. But first, Soren, Rob, Julian, and Troy talk about franchises and how they develop, or don’t. Rob tries to make the case for considering Paradox-developed games as a single franchise, but Troy explains why that doesn’t work. […]

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Three Moves Ahead Episode 135 – Board Game Lessons

September 22nd, 2011 · 20 Comments · Podcast, Three Moves Ahead

Computer and boardgame designer Paul Sottosanti joins up Soren, Julian, and Rob to discuss how board games are evolving, and how their design philosophies differ from computer games. Is the popular success of games like Catan something that will lead to wider acceptance of board games in general? Why do Julian and Paul love drafting […]

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One If By Sea. And Maybe Another Later.

September 21st, 2011 · 2 Comments · Design, Firaxis

Unlike Champ over here, I don’t have F1 2011 yet. So, I decompressed last night with Civilization V, a game I haven’t really spent a lot of time with lately because its tactical military issues were never quite resolved to my satisfaction. Re-reading Todd Brakke’s thoughtful (and frustrating) game diaries over at No High Scores […]

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UPDATE: Fall Meetup in Toronto

September 20th, 2011 · 4 Comments · Me

EDIT: Lack of interest and my own schedule means we’ll have to postpone this to later in the year. If someone has some space, we can do a proper board game afternoon. While Rob and Julian scramble to have a Boston meeting that doesn’t involve the two of them joining with Chris Remo and Ken […]

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Why We Don’t Do Transcripts

September 20th, 2011 · 10 Comments · Me, Podcast, Three Moves Ahead

Whenever we do a very popular podcast, it’s inevitable that there will be email or forum comments asking for transcripts of the podcast. This is especially true if the game we are talking about is one with a global audience. And it’s understandable to an extent. If English is not your first language, then reading […]

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