Total Pebble Knockdown

Sometimes you need an expert to teach you the basics. So, we looked at Will Wright’s Masterclass on writing game mechanics to see if his 5 tips are worth taking into consideration. Then, we try to parse numbers 3 and 4 to make it make sense.

So, what is the difference between linear and emergent gameplay? Can a chatbot give us half-way decent examples of games that use them? Do we have better suggestions? Can the two play nice together?

How many short-term goals go into a long-term goal? What are those? We look at how games and designers use short-term goals and build upon them for larger things. We also try to make an unnecessary number of levels for goals, which probably was just us over-thinking it.

There are many gaming mysteries, from glitchy pokemon to unattainable chests to questions about who kicked off a nuclear war. However, we have avoided discussing these things on the show. And now we explain the reason why.

We were once told we were bad at reviewing games. This is particularly weird since we do not review games. So, let’s discuss what we are apparently very bad at doing.

Drama alert? Not here. While we talk about industry news that might affect gaming or gamers, we’ve avoided discussing drama inside the community. This is intentional. We will now explain why.

The Game Awards announced nominees for 2023. Now, we here at TPK care so deeply for award shows that we almost forgot it was even happening. However, eagle-eyed viewers asked us about it, so we are going to look through some of the categories and see if we even know what these games are. What will win?

Every time a game asks you to build your own base, a variety of problems arise. How many resources do I need to collect? How does the game account for structural stability? How much time do I have to spend making it? What does the base let you do that you couldn’t do otherwise? We’ll figure that out, kind of, in this episode.

Base building mechanics are coming to D&D. In recent playtest material for One D&D, Wizards of the Coast announced the concept of “Bastions” which would let your character have a base of operations that could be expanded, protected and used to make items. Build a theater, get some bears to defend it, hire a bartender to make you a giant. Let’s talk about the way this would be implemented and whether this seems functional for a real game.

Big things are happening at The Escapist. Or I should say, big things used to happen at The Escapist before the staff left. We are talking about what happened with Nick Calandro and all the staff that followed him out the door. We also discuss what the future holds for Escapist ex-pats, most notably Yahtzee Croshaw from Zero Punctuation.

Blizzcon happened and Alex was very excited to discuss the future of World of Warcraft, while Nathan respectfully sat in pensive ennui. But Blizzard has big, long-term plans for their seminal MMORPG and we discuss what that will look like for the next decade or two.

Nathan got a pleasant surprise this week in the form of an unexpected game called Wartales. The medieval turn-based combat game keeps presenting new discoveries in both the game world and mechanics. On this episode we discuss what makes this game so engaging and why Nathan is ultimately going to go play it again as soon as he’s done editting.

Midnight Acres promises a unique combination of farming sim and tower defense game that seemed like a good idea when Nathan originally picked it up. Oh, how innocent we were… Perhaps there are genres that were never meant to go together and we are going to talk about it on this episode.

The act of playing tabletop games can be represented in video games, both through games that emulate the systems themselves and the ones who theme adventures around them. In this episode we take a look at Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and how it tries to represent tabletop gaming. We also discuss the different benefits and limitations of tabletop systems on pen and paper versus video games.

A very old, odd article came across Nathan’s desk recently. Forbes discussed mentally strong people and the 13 things they avoid. This seemingly has nothing to do with gaming. However another outlet modified this to be about 13 things that mentally strong GMs avoid. Is it really such a great idea to try equating advice for executives to the landscape of gaming? We’ll compare a couple of these points and see how they did.

So, you’re adventure party is outnumbered and outgunned. Now they have to choose to fight or surrender. Can you explain the statistically small odds of them succeeding? Can you save them from near-certain death? We look at a Reddit question to offer some unsolicited advise.

Breathedge is what happens when you try doing survival crafting games in space. The results are mixed. Alex and Nathan discuss their experience playing the game and why they stopped.

Micro-gravity is a popular thing to add in games set in space. However, the frustration of these sections warrants additional discussion. What requirements do you need to have to make games less floaty and disorienting?

Have you ever tried a game that you thought you’d hate, only to heartily enjoy it? Well, Dadam asked this question of us a couple months back and Nathan had a couple games that fit that bill. Which ones? Are they the ones you’re thinking about right now? Probably not, but watch to find out.

Redfall hit a low of 3 concurrent players in October. Before the recent update, there had been a 4 month period of having no fixes for the poor state it was in at launch. The “Bite Back” DLC is still on sale though. Should companies eventually give up on games that don’t work? Is it worth salvaging a bad game at launch? What if you can’t imagine what a good version of the game even is? Let’s talk about that vampire game… again.

The Thing is considered one of John Carpenter’s best films. The story of a research team in Antarctica encountering an alien organism that takes on the appearance of it’s victims, the feeling of paranoia and questions about the unknown cemented it as a great horror story. But could we take the formula and make a tabletop quest out of it? What skills, characters and solutions could you use to make this a spook-tastic role-playing experience?

Palia is an interesting MMO that takes place in a world similar to Stardew Valley. Can a cozy game work as a multi-player online experience? Does it make sense to apply the trapping of such an online experience to a cozy game? Well, do we have stuff to say about that.

Seasons change and so do we, but should they go through changes in your game? We often overlook the way time marches forward when playing an RPG, but there could be good reasons to implement mechanics around them. Let’s discuss the aesthetic and more detailed ways you can use seasons in your games. Also, could we use seasonal mechanics for board games?

Do you feel that chill in the air? Well, close your windows. Also, it’s spooky season. Time to think up some scary adventure hooks to terrify your party. First up, we visit the classic campfire ghost story and see how the old story of a killer with a hook hand in the woods might be utilized for your tabletop adventure.

Epic has laid off nearly 900 members of it’s staff, 16% of it’s entire workforce. We’re going to talk about that and also do a little math on how much Tim Sweeney makes. Fun times.

There’s an island full of kings and tyrants. Will you free them? Nathan ran across an interesting mission in Starfield called Operation Starseed and imagined a little adventure hook based on it. Let’s see if we can’t flesh it out a bit.

Okay, so what is a Bag of Holding Arrow and should it exist? We’re looking at the mechanical possibilities of doing something very funny with a pocket dimension.