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Entries from July 30th, 2012

Three Moves Ahead Episode 179 – Spy Games

July 30th, 2012 · Comments Off on Three Moves Ahead Episode 179 – Spy Games · Podcast, Three Moves Ahead, Uncategorized

Soren Johnson returns to talk spies, espionage, and covert action with Rob and Julian. They then subject espionage mechanics to forty minutes of interrogation, torture, and unkind words. Then they remember the one game they’ve played that has spies and espionage that they don’t hate. Suspiciously, Rob’s microphone fails midway through the show. Happenstance or […]

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A Little Light Reading

July 24th, 2012 · 9 Comments · Books

As anyone that has gone through the dissertation process knows, one of the great fears of every graduate student is getting halfway through a research project and then seeing a dissertation published at another school on a topic very close to if not identical to your own. At the very least, it means adding one […]

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Three Moves Ahead Episode 178: Unit Customization and Game Design

July 23rd, 2012 · Comments Off on Three Moves Ahead Episode 178: Unit Customization and Game Design · Design, Indie Games, Sci Fi, Three Moves Ahead

Sixth Beatle Soren Johnson returns along with new guest, Cliff Harris from Positech – designer of Gratuitous Space Battles and the new Gratuitous Tank Battles. This week, how does the idea of unit customization fit with general design principles? At what point is this mechanic an intrusion into good 4x game design? Where do designer […]

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Crusader Kings 2: Sword of Islam – Family Matters

July 16th, 2012 · 3 Comments · Design, Paradox, Religion

I’ll add the usual disclaimer that Paradox is a client of Evolve PR, though no one can really call into question my serious love for many of the studio’s design ambitions. The Sword of Islam expansion is something that fans of the Crusader Kings franchise have been calling for ever since the first game in […]

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Three Moves Ahead Episode 177: Pokemon Conquest

July 16th, 2012 · Comments Off on Three Moves Ahead Episode 177: Pokemon Conquest · Podcast, Three Moves Ahead

With everyone very busy and very tired, a shorter and smaller show than usual this week. Troy welcomes Pokemon trainer and DS guru Nadia Oxford to the show to talk about the weird mixture of Pokemon and Nobunaga’s Ambition in Pokemon Conquest. How does it differ from other Pokemon games? Do the strategic and tactical […]

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Three Moves Ahead Episode 176 – We’re Making a Better World

July 9th, 2012 · Comments Off on Three Moves Ahead Episode 176 – We’re Making a Better World · Podcast, Three Moves Ahead

Cory Banks joins Julian, Troy, and Rob to talk about fiction and world-building in strategy games. They talk a lot about Endless Space and whether or not its fiction is undercooked, and how it affects the rest of the game. Does having an interesting world make for a better strategy game? Is Civilization just abstracting […]

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