I was graced with the opportunity to not only recall, but also record on digital paper, a game I played in dream-state. Tuesday. Early morning. Woken up by the urge ‘to go to the washroom’, or as my Google Assistant would fail to transcribe “crucibles to Washington”. Just prior to that I was in a semi-conscious state recounting a game that I’m playing with three other people at some undisclosed location. Like in many other dreams before, nothing new to me. I’m fairly lucid throughout my dream and picked up on the fact that this seemed like a pretty cool game. As I felt myself becoming conscious and my bladder now forcing my hand I quickly started to recap how the game looked and how it was played. This experience may be common for some of you, and if so you know how it usually goes. As my brain tries to cram abstract concepts to my frontal lobe a lot of details were missed. Kind of like jamming a peeled melon into a coffee cup, only so much will be retained. Odd analogy, but we’ll go with that for now. Of the information I happened to retain simple concepts like game pieces and board layout were pretty definitive. Basic concepts like game mechanics and order of play weren’t so memorable. I had to do a little thinkering.
Down the rabbit hole
For me, game-inspired dreams are still somewhat of a mystery. I can understand the why but I’m still figuring out the how. I still can’t pinpoint when. I’m always thinking of creative mechanisms in applications. High-level concepts for everyday things and everyday experiences. It’s not just for game design but creativity in general. That morning’s dream-state recital began roughly around 5:45 a.m. I kept on trying to remember the look and sequence of play over and over while in the washroom. Then quickly bolted back to my nightstand to grab my phone and started creating notes. I went straight to a notepad and my stylus took helm. I started drawing out what I remembered. Sometimes a few scribbled lines here and there were worth a paragraph of incoherent (and often misspelled) text. As I drew, I started to remember more concepts of game play and, eventually through the art of interpretation, started to construct game mechanics that made sense to the draft. Then designer divergence kicked in and I was literally of two minds on how to tackle this concept. From there it was an hour sitting on my bedside, in the darkness of the morn, cramming as much ideas from my head into little notes on my phone. Welcome to my life.
So what’s next?
Curse these hands for not drawing, typing or moving fast enough to keep up with my brain. Or, curse my brain for moving too fast for my hands or words to express such wonders. Yes, I could keep audio notes but I find sometimes they are filled with gaps of incoherent babble. I’ve done it in the past and I often use it when I find writing takes too long. Or sometimes after saying something the idea changes and I have to remit the previous thought. I usually voice-to-text my notes so I can control what’s said, taking breaks at punctuations and adjusting on the fly. Speaking softly so I don’t disturb my wife proves to be a challenge sometimes so I just go sit on the toilet lid or in the office. Pfft. Going back to bed? I wish. Brain is now almost at full throttle. Blessing and a curse, I tell you. If these game concepts ever take off expect a DevLog for them. I do really like the ideas. They may even reach my Game a Week campaign I’m running over on my FB page. Ciao for now.
So where do I start this post? Conventions shut down. Cities shut down. THE WORLD shut down??!! *sigh* Let’s just keep this light and game related, shall we. Going into February no doubt you had been aware of what was happening in the world. Pandemic. Global scale deaths due to a funky little mutated strain called corona virus (code name: COVID 19). Things really hit home when Ontario Premiere called for a state of emergency and shut down everything public related. No stadiums, no clubs, bars or restaurants, no conventions or gatherings of any sort. This meant the upcoming Barrie Game Exchange for Spring 2020 was closed. I was really looking forward to this one as I was legitimately prepared for another good day at the show. Then COVID busted that bubble. All the conventions for spring pretty much got tanked and so did my energy. Down goes everything.
Now that everyone had to shift gears, and I was unemployed, it was hard to find time or drive for game design. Not to say I wasn’t still thinkering and tinkering on ideas, but full blown self publishing came to a halt. All my time then shifted to unfinished home and car projects. I made use of the new free time I had and put it into getting the Forester summer ready. Full clean, removed and repaired tons of rust, swap out winter wheels for low-pro shoes, the whole nine. It felt good finally having time to put in full days. Rearranged the garage while I was at it, and did a little gardening. Inside the home I was tidying up little painting and repair projects. Suffice to say I was far from bored during lockdown.
Game design, right. Let’s stay on track. So my blog stopped, my devlog stopped (but not due to COVID) and I had plans on posting more seeing as I had more time. I started a whole diecast scale model world with my son and he was totally into it. We started collecting cars from all over the place, and I was ready to start doing videos for everything. I created intros for Instagram and YouTube, and was preparing my ADL Interactive channel on YT and never got back to it at all. There are videos there now but nothing to do with what I really want to share, game design process, prototyping, my library showcase and family game nights. Still need to edit a lot of game reviews and playtests I’ve already recorded. Every time I start fiddling in Adobe Premiere I never finish or get sidetracked. Month and months later. Enough rambling though.
So what’s next for ADLi during this rise from the ashes of a worldwide pandemic? I don’t know. I truly don’t know. I’ve started posting my never before shared game concepts over on my FB page for creative exposure. I have more game ideas than I know what to do with. And honestly, if I can inspire someone else to take an idea and run with it, great! I always have ideas brewing and now I’m not shy about these kind of things. Part of many game design groups and never once shared my ideas. Note, they are not all complete but it’s something I now feel more comfortable about. Why shy? I don’t know. I eat too much humble pie sometimes. That’s it for now. Here’s hoping that the years of content I’ve created up until now provide some levity and growth for other designers and players alike. Ciao for now.
*EDIT 120420 – This post has been drafted and edited too many times to count. As of this publishing, I’d lost my job of 8+yrs and dealing with a possible change in career. Not to mention a new year just started. Need to keep my head on right.
It’s been a hot minute and I feel terrible neglecting this site. I’ve just been sleeping on a lot of good ideas. My history on blogging and vlogging is a terrible one, wrought with inconsistencies and moments of inspiration only to fall flat on its face shortly there after. What is a busy guy to do?? Set a schedule reasonable enough to follow and stick to it? That would be a great idea and one that has cross my mind many times. Let me count the ways: One one thousand. Two one thousand. Three one thousand…
What do I do?
In the last half of 2019 I’d been updating and upgrading a few of my existing ideas. During the beginning of 2019 I had pretty much scaled back on design efforts and turned the focus on getting more of my developed and published games into the public’s hands. Hitting up conventions here and there within a 100km radius. Since cost is a major factor for us con exhibitors/vendor I wanted to be responsible enough to not spend hundreds of dollars on a table to only (hopefully) make $75 in profit on sales. Small cons offer small exposure but a better return on investment so far. Slow and steady, as they say. Some of the cons that I frequent here north of the GTA are Cottage Country Con in Orillia, Muskoka-Con in Bracebridge, the Barrie Comic-Con, and the Barrie Game Exchange. All of which I’ve done for at least 2+ years. More on the con scene in another blog. On to what I’ve been developing.
It’s all bling to me
This is a new game idea that I had just started developing this year. Only about 5 months ago did I start a poll on my Facebook and Instagram accounts to try and find out what people preferred – Candies or Gems. It was an interesting experiment and in the end I think the results were pretty accurate. Candies beat out gems as a preferred option. The idea for this game derived from a hunt for stock illustrations. I noticed that candy and gem designs were indistinguishable to the search engine and it’s interchangeable in some instances. I then decided to create a war between the two, leading to a pole and ultimately questioning peoples faith in what is better. The results weren’t as interesting as I had anticipated.
Boing boing boing
Shortly before I drafted this post I was working on a game for my son’s 7th birthday party. It originally was supposed to be a corn hole toss game. Along with a ladder golf game, these were to be built and played outside. Two days until the party I find out that is it going to rain on that Saturday so the party was to be held inside. I start working on a version of the corn hole toss for indoors but then felt the need to customize. Oh the creative mind – what a wonderfully complicated web it weaves. I decide to add more holes and starting to think on what objects can be used to toss onto the board. As I was looking around, it came as no surprise that, with the beer cups I’m using as the pockets under the board, I’m essentially replicating a version of beer pong. So a ping pong ball should work perfectly. Where would I get one at such short notice. It just so happens that I have a game called Cup Pong. Long story short you toss a ping pong ball in a variety of styles into a cup place in a variety of locations and score points. Yay! I have ping pong balls at my disposal. So the night before the party I finished this inverted beer pong / shuffleboard / corn hole toss game out of foamcore (foam board). As I’m designing it I figured why not add Christmas lights to light up the back of the cups and the rest is Pong Pong Shuffle history.
Convention time
It’s 2020 and ADLi has its eyes set on a few conventions this year. I had started this post a good while before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. I’m sure, aside from statisticians and scientists, no one thought it would leave China at the rate it did and infect the whole world. Being here in Canada, North American in general hurried to slowing the spread by social distancing and self isolation. Suffice to say all conventions across the country, or rather any group gatherings in general, have been X-nayed at a federal level. This has left the convention season stranded for the foreseeable future. Hopefully when things die down over the summer fall shows may creep their weary way back in society. After social distancing and isolation I know social gatherings will be in high demand.
In the hopper
I always have games in mind and something, somehow always triggers neat ideas or concepts for player interaction. The first thing I look at is ‘can this be played with an achievable goal’? And by that I mean, is it more than just a puzzle or roll ‘n move game. Not to say puzzles aren’t fun. At the end of the day almost all abstract games are a kind of puzzle – be it for one or multiple players, but I digress. With the unfortunate/fortunate abundance of time provided during this pandemic I’ve been slowly toiling away at concepts I’ve have floating around. Here’s just a short list of active ideas:
Card-based (and board) tennis game
Head-to-head close quarters combat tile game
Dice and card based system for simulating racing games (different vehicle types)
Custom solitaire RPG with inventory, power ups varying opposition/team ups
Abstract concepts like a tile capture grid game
Time traveling RPG zine for 2 or more players
Real-time musical chairs with numbers board game
Game drafts, demo play and notes will be released here on ADLi as they develop beyond the written concept stage. Something to definitely look out for.
With all that’s going on I’ve also taking liberties to set aside time for my crafting passion. I love working with my hands which lends to my knack for creating prototypes. I also create accessories, jewellery, trinkets and other small collectible items. My sister and I are working on little blank for custom painted vinyl figures. We’ve been doing this for decades and it’s never really gone anywhere due to distance and time constraints. Now that she lives 10 minutes from me we have more time to collaborate on ideas and put together prototypes. Creating is fun and that is the true reason behind my passion. I don’t care to make a living out of creating games. I just want to share the fun I have with others, and have them share that fun with other. A pandemic of entertainment beyond the digital world is something the world requires again, and the winds of change are here. I’m just going to let it sweep me away and I hope you do too. Now, on to designing.
This is a long one so get a tea/coffee, grab your salt shaker and park your keyboard warrior ego for a few moments. I have a story to tell.
I have a love hate for Monopoly, as do many, but my issue with the game isn’t really about the game at all. It lies with the fact that Monopoly, as a whole, is greater than the sum of its failures. Any modern game designer or theorist will babble on about PAPI and the equilibrium to the game. How Monopoly falls short on the core concepts, but excels at teaching how the capitalist concepts molded modern society (in the US at least). How you waste money, abuse power and ultimately bully your way to victory. How luck can work in and not in favour – Luck has no bias. How house rules have warped a generally boring player experience for the “better”. The National Post has a very interesting article on why we continue to perpetuate such a loathsome board game. Give it a read when you get a chance. This article isn’t necessarily about Monopoly in history. It’s more about how it’s spun off many favourable, and in one case a very unfavourable, variants.
Monopoly is now more or less synonymous with terrible, unbalanced, rage inducing, friendship ending engagement. Anyone who plays the game either loved it as a kid and now hates it, hated it as a kid and still hates it, or loved it as a kid and tolerates it now because they know what to expect. Casual gamer or not, Monopoly is one of those games that evokes a deep feelings in all our hearts. Hence, we keep re-themeing it to make it “better”. Let’s dive in, shall we.
The great
Playing with friends/family
Picking the game pieces
Owning properties and tacking chances
People really getting into the spirit
Revel in making money
Crushing one’s opponent without remorse
Easy to learn
The hate
People really get into the game (offensively so)
More money usually equates to less risk
Roll & Move board games are passé
There is no catch up mechnism
Whomever controls property controls the game (which is the point)
Incurring more debt by borrowing money
The sorrowful parallels to real life
Spin-offs
Monopoly has and still has a list of spin-offs using the ‘Opoly’ form factor (licensed and unlicensed). This has definitely kept a tired and outdated game in fashion for so long. People don’t always remember the game but they do recall the feelings and memory of playing the game. I think a lot of it’s charm comes from the experience more so than outcome. Win or lose, you were always involved, always righting against the odds and always fretting where you will land. Paying up is such a bitch. All of this made for a foundation for many themes people found to be more exciting than playing ‘Get Rich – The board game’.
Some of the fun little opoly games I’ve found on my travels.
Hasbro has capitalized on the fad of custom Opolies with their own spin-offs. I’d say the majority of the fun comes from the unlicensed, homebrew games. Ones created by those who love the format and slap on a wacky theme. Even when Monopoly was at its height (which varied with each generation) it was always seen as a entertaining game that provided hours and hours of fun for those willing to customize the experience.
The next (de)generation
There is something to be said about releasing an ‘Opoly game that actually annoyed people. It was such a big deal that Monopoly released a statement calling out all the haters while still being respectful. Yeah, I totally see it as a
“We created Monopoly for Millennials to provide fans with a lighthearted game that allows Millennials to take a break from real life and laugh at the relatable experiences and labels that can sometimes be placed on them.”
(conversation depicted below is purely fictional. Any resemblance to actual people and actual things said are purely coincidental and not to be take as truth)
Lunch Room: Nixon, Cresta and Jo are sitting around reminiscing about their childhood when Jo brings up that her mom found the old Monopoly board in the cellar with a bunch of stuff being packed up for good will. Jo remembers playing the game when she was younger.
Jo – Oh. My. God. The amount of times my cousins would beg to play every time they came over. I got sick of that game so fast.
Cresta – I know, right?! I only played it when I went to camp. I was like, I don’t know, like 8. The counselors would either break that out or Snakes and Ladders or Checkers. Games back them aren’t like they are now.
Jo – Totally. There are so many interesting copies of Monopoly out there. You know, the customised ones with crazy themes. I played this one called Weedopoly once. Absolutely hilarious when you’re a little high.
Nixon – Playing any game high is fun. Weedopoly sounds hella fun. What’s popular in mainstream media now? We could design a Monopoly around, let’s say, Trump’s presidency. Trumpopoly. A game around his whole empire.
Jo – Oh my god. Totally. The Presidential election alone would be a theme for the game. Become the next president. I would play that game.
Cresta – How about Farmopoly? Or Caropoly, based on the automotive industry? Those concepts have range. Anything to do with managing money and fuking over the next man.
Nixon – Pimpopoly, bitches! Manage yo hoes and make dat monay!
Cresta – YES!
Jo – Totally!
Cresta – How about a Monopoly around having no money. The Oppositopoly. Like, my life. Just burning cash as I run around, existing. Jesus.
Jo – Oh. My. God. I got it!
The next day a very lengthy email is sent to Greg, the 25yr veteran developer over at Hasbro. He has a laugh and dismisses it as a joke. It is not a joke. His manager is involved, then their superiors, and holy bujesus it’s green lit. Monopoly for Milliennials is produced. Greg smacks his forehead, the trio all high five each other over lattes and scones.
Oh, you know Hasbro had to do it to ’em. I kind of get why certain people would get up in arms about it, but enough so to berate the brand for poking fun at a very common (and understandable) mindset?
And the second in a supposed slue of parody Opolies from Hasbro, here comes Ms. Monopoly.
Ms. Monopoly is meant to celebrate women’s empowerment by giving women a head start in the game.
Bah. I can understand if they made a game themeing the American Dream – oh wait! That IS what Monopoly is. How about living in a communist country? Oh wait! That exists too.
The Waiting Game
Standing in queue is what you do. The game generally describes the Poland at the tail-end of the Communist era. Play is simple: players send their pieces different stores on the board to buy the items they require. The trick is you don’t know what items will come up in what store and certain things may be short on supply, therefore you may never get it. Product deliveries are uncovered (by turning over face down cards) and there will be only product for the lucky few who happen to be in line when deliveries drop. Players can use certain action cards to manipulate their place in line, like “Mother carrying small child”, “This is not your place, sir”, or “Under-the-counter goods”. It’s quite interesting and I think for anyone who loves an Opoly spin-off, though not directly a copy, would like this game inspired by such.
In this Hasbro Official spin-off players move around the board working together to make a better community. The new cooperative game play leverages teamwork to and , in a way, forces players to succeed together, but no one said teamwork was easy. Flipping over Chance cards presents players with controversies and complications they have to work out. Issues like annoying neighbors and failing community projects, you’re constantly voting to shake things up. The goal is to contribute all 10 of your chips to win the game, unless the Community Fund runs out of money and everyone loses. Good luck with that. To “do or die” by no power of your own. There is always a catch.
It’s okay to poke fun at the rich but not the poor. If you think about it Monopoly kind of does both. The whole concept of Monopoly is to benefit from setting up a financially stable set of assets. Basically, get rich off the backs of others. If that’s not the capitalist America the world has come to know and love/hate then why make such a big deal about these spin-offs? I guess everyone’s got a right to complain. I know I do, but before this post turns into a segregation of mindset vs. matter I’ll close by saying: It’s just a game. Get over it and find something you love playing. And if you love Monopoly the more power to you.
I’ve been thinking, and I’ve been blinking. It’s time for some change.
Today I’ve decided to reluctantly move all my previous dev logs on Tumblr over to the site. Now, it won’t be all posts as Tumblr will still retain live development recordings. Any completed game dev entries will be moved over here to the site and a snippet will remain over at Tumblr. Any concepts or work through entries will stay on Tumblr. It’s a great place to dump my progress. Plus it’s a great way to have another blog for SEO purposes.
I’ve also been slacking on posting to the site, primarily due to the massive renos happening in my office and home. It’s also partly due to very limited time in the evenings and weekends, but who’s life isn’t filled with stuff. I’m bad at keeping on time frames when it comes to my own stuff because I don’t hold myself accountable. I hope I’m not alone. I wanted to start updating the site but figured why not wait until I rebuild it. Rebuild it, you gasp. Yes! I’m rebuilding ADLi so it supports a cleaner navigation to the important bits. Game Design, Products, Blogs and Multimedia, the four branches of this brand. The current site is an ever changing blog and product site that, I feel, has lost its way.
Changes are on the way, and hopefully through the year end holidays I can bring ADLi into the New Year with fresh digs. Until then there will be posts here and there plus the migrated Tumblr content. If you’re new or haven’t been privy to the Tumblr blog give it a look-see. This site will be up and down, spotted with maintenance warnings and potentially broken pages. See you folks on the other side.
In a span of 24hrs I just got one of the biggest scares in my digital existence…
ADL Interactive Got Hacked!!!
Short recap: I went to bed last night after I finished touching up some posts and publishing a new post. Still trying to figure out what site builder I want to use. One that doesn’t override my theme’s posts types and other features but still gives me responsive, manageable columns and cool widgets to use on page. But that’s beside the point. After I had logged off I crashed.
Night time … sleep
After finishing up my Friday work I jumped right back into my account to continue to put a dent in my Pending list and create graphics for my drafts. Lo and behold when I refreshed my homepage I got a redirect that prompted me to accept a desktop notification. I chose Never, as usual, but then it refreshed. Refreshed the browser’s URL by appending a 1 subdomain and prompted me again. I declined… again! Refresh. Amend. Repeat. I was like WTF??!!
I instantly jumped into my account, looked through my Wordfence settings and performed a scan. Everything was gravy. I’ve seen this behaviour before, so the first thing I though was injection. I instantly went to Sucuri Site Check website and ran a test. Aaaaannnnnd I was right. Sucuri output the injection code and I jumped into phpMyAdmin. Now, not everyone has access to their hosting cPanel or know how to dig for these things, but if you do it’s best to stay educated on how to help yourself. The wonders and hindrances of self-hosted WP sites. I would recommend finding someone you know to help with things like this because paying a service could cost you a pretty penny.
Get outta here you
I found the string with a full database search, hiding in the wp_options table. I open the table and there it is bright as day. YUZO. I removed the text that Sucuri had identified and saved, then promptly deactivated the plugin and deleted it completely from my install. I took a screenshot of my database results showing the affected, or in this case, infected plug to send to them. As I jump in the forum, bam! Yuzo this, and exploit that. It was old news. Well, time to read what this is all about. After a little digging, Google sleuth style, I found the history on this plugin development and how this whole issue had been a thing since April. I’m such a fool. I don’t keep up with the WP community or the Security Forums that are out there. So much information to sift through it can get overwhelming. For those interested in the developer’s view on the situation, read what Lenin has to say.
A cautionary tale
I feel as though I dodged a bullet, and for two reasons:
If I had not been actively working on my game blog the last 2 days I would have not picked this up. All the visitors I was getting would have just locked down the tab and never come back again.
This could have been around for much longer (I do find myself taking hiatus more often than not), and there may have been more than just a redirect script injected.
Brush up on your php skills, get access to your cPanel and keep an eye on the forums. There’s always a storm brewing. Don’t get caught in the rain.
This may all seem a little silly but it is a true dilemma when it comes to design. Two things that are relatively similar in many ways, yet different enough to evoke a distinct preference. The battle in my mind continues…
It’s always blue
I’m always in the eye of the ‘design storm’ when it comes to colour and elements. I have my set of favourites and I believe a lot of people gravitate to a particular colour or colour range. Blue! Just so we’re all clear, blue is my absolute favourite. Any type of blue, that is. I seem to gravitate to it. From the rich, vibrant electric to the cold, hard slate. But enough about my blue fetish. Candy vs Gem. This topic goes beyond colour. Colour, surprisingly enough, is one main similarity these two share. Moreover, the shape and presentation of candy (gummies more so) have mimicked gems down to a tee.
The proof is in the prototype
The artwork for the game I’m working on will be either one or the other. I think I’m leaning towards gems, but will keep the art vague enough so I can get feedback on what play testers think the tiles should represent. Now, die cutting the pieces would be sweet sweet whichever way a lean. For the prototype I will just use square chipboard tiles that I always use. Just add a shape and colour to the tiles. Both shape and colour are part of the mechanism for this game. You may be thinking Bejeweled or Candy Crush inspired, and you’re not that far off. Though this game can be developed the same way with different elements, the shape and finish of the pieces cater more to the theme I’m going for.
I’m running an ongoing poll, through Instagram and Facebook, on which object people prefer. Might add a poll to Facebook as well, if I can figure it out. It’s a small thing but opinions matter, especially to a designer. You can contribute to this tally by voting on my Facebook page.
Injection code into a good deal of my pages has not F***ED up my damn evening. Hopefully I can get into phpMyAdmin and irradicate this SOB. Rrrrrrr. One thing that is ultra annoying about owning a WordPress site. Even with all the security features and plugins, there are small holes plugin developers may not see until it’s too late.
This may all seem a little silly but it is a true dilemma when it comes to design. Two things that are relatively similar in many cases, yet different enough to evoke a distinct response. Take a poll on your favourite at facebook.com/ADLinteractive
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