Scratching an Itch

Idle Breakout by Kodiqi is an idle version of the classic breakout. It’s a fun game although there isn’t much to learn, which goes a little against Raph Koster’s theory of fun. Still, I spent a considerable amount of time playing even after “mastering” all there is to the game (circa 30 minutes).

This game builds on something fundamental: a tight action-outcome loop with guaranteed success, something inherently satisfying; in this case, click to break bricks. So we keep repeating it until it gets boring, and then try to find new ways to escalate the satisfying thing in the hopes of creating the same satisfaction.

Nethack is one of the defining roguelikes. I talk a bit about what it is really about from a subjective experience and compare it a bit to Hades, one the current roguelike poster-children.

One of the differences, which I think is very important, is how they represent progress between runs: Nethack doesn’t represent it at all, whereas Hades has both upgrades for your character as well as narrative elements that get elaborated as you play the game.

Doki Doki Literature Club by Team Salvato is perhaps the most famous visual novel dating sim game out there because there’s a big twist. I liked both the dating sim AND the twist!

The dating aspect is operationalized as poem-writing, where you have to show that you understand the girl you want to get closer to by picking the words she would like. I thought that was really neat.

Dice of Dusk by Kultisti is a puzzle roguelike game. It has random generated puzzles, progression, and builds! It also has a timer to create pressure, and one thing I forgot to mention in the episode is that this has another amazing side effect: “easy” levels become challenging in that you are trying to solve them as fast as possible to bank time for future stages. Good design serves two purposes at once.

Star Realms has player life; Ascension has a victory point pool. Both games have the core mechanic of buying cards from the center row to build your deck in a play session. However, they feel completely different. Yesterday, I talked about how that decision for the victory condition changed mechanics, and today I’m using the theory of constructed emotion to explain how that changes perception and therefore emotional experiences.

Star Realms by White Wizard Games is a deckbuilding game just like Ascension. However, unlike Ascension, Star Realms is a confrontational game, where the goal is to deplete the other player’s authority. This results in some huge mechanical and emotional differences for the same core mechanic. In this first of a two part series, I talk about the mechanical changes the win-condition results in.

Draftula by Jose Pacio is a tile-placing and drafting game. It’s a very fun game that made me realize why drafting has become a widely adopted progression mechanic for games.

Ascension by Stoneblade Entertainment is one of the seminal deckbuilding games. I’ve played it a lot recently and in this episode I talk about why I like the honor point pool and how I think it allows for adjustable challenge. I also briefly talk about why I think this game can easily become “a daily ritual game”.

Amalgamate by sunil. is a submission for the 2026 7DRL game jam. It combines a grid-based matching game with random loot generation and upgrades. There’s a small tutorial, but it intentionally holds back some key information, which became a magic moment for me when I figured it out. This realization put the world on its head and made me realize my true power, raising my score tenfold. Your mileage may vary in terms of magical moments, but it’s an addictive game regardless. Here’s what it looks like:

Yellow Game About Falling Things by Evgenii Petrov is an abstract puzzly roguelike. Throughout the experience, it has zero words and zero numbers, but I still understood the gameplay and goal very quickly. Would it have been better if it had all the usual competence supporting stuff like tutorials, goals, and leaderboards? Maybe, but I like it just the way it is.

Here’s what it looks like so you get an idea: