I havenāt read this yet, but plan too. Free from either Monte Cook Games or Drivethroughrpg.
Humble Bundle is currently giving away copies of Endless Space Collection for signing up for their newsletter.
Cheers.
So last night I decided to get Shadow of Death for my tablet, while itās free-on-sale.
Well, itās freeā¦ and very prettyā¦ but buggy, and kinda annoying. Itās your typical hack-and-slash fantasy game, killing your way through hordes of monsters while juggling a variety of stats, abilities, and equipment.
The graphics really are lovely, which is one reason I chose that game to try. The developers describe it as a stickman game, because the heroes and the villains are mainly depicted as shadowy figures. Yet thereās plenty of colors in the backgrounds and magical effects, and the rendering is smooth. Iāve got no complaints about the looks of the game.
The game play isā¦ well. Itās been so long since I played this type of game that Iām rusty in how to balance the numbers and stats (when I even remember what they mean.) The game doesnāt offer a tutorial or help files to explain things, either. The starting character has a ghostly helper who introduces some initial ideas, but that doesnāt give you much. If you switch to one of your other three unlockable characters, and they get ahead of the first character, you get no information at all. Itās not too hard to pick up if you ever played games like Gauntlet, but a total newcomer would probably get lost. In addition to the story mode, you also get to try yourself against a Tower filled with monsters in an endurance match, an arena for PvP, or what looks like a group raid on a Boss. (I havenāt tried that part yet.)
And the ads. Good goddess, the ads. You get options to level up your characters and puchase items by watching ads-- constantly. And itās largely the same one or two ads over and over again. I know, Iām the one tapping the button, so I have nobody to blame but myselfā¦ yet I want to get ahead without paying money. I am still sick of ignoring seeing ads. And if it isnāt ads, itās offers to pay-for-play. I know the developers need to make a buck, but the many offers for in-game purchases seem excessive. Hell, a portion of the in-game currency earned in each level is locked away in areas that cannot be accessed without paying in real world money. Seriously? Iām starting to feel annoyed at being treated more like a piggy bank than a valued player.
I was still having some fun with itā¦ until the game started getting buggy. Sometimes when exiting an in-game shop, all the menu text was rendered in some kind of gibberish. And now when I try to save my progress under my Google account, I get an error message.
Login Firebase Error: AuthError.InvalidCredential:
I sent an email to the developers; weāll see what kind of response (if any) I get. Even though Iāve kind of enjoyed playing, Iām highly tempted to delete the 
thing and try again with a different game, because as much as Iād hate to lose the progress Iāve made, Iām not sure itās worth the frustration involved.
Followup: I got a very brief email from the developer, suggesting I exit the game and restart it. With some misgivings, I didā¦ and after one last glitch (I chose Google, not FaceBook) it saved. Soā¦ yay?
Donāt get me wrong, itās a fun game, especially if you like that type of play. But it has its share of annoyances too.
Edit for update: as Iām figuring things out, and making careful investments in higher-quality weapons and armor, and even helper-petsā¦ this is fun! 
Not a perfect fit for this thread, butā¦ Humble Bundle currently has a bundle of resources for building card games (and, in higher donation tiers, hex terrain and tokens as well). Looks interesting.
Wellā¦ thatāsā¦ a thing, I guess. I donāt mind the concept of silly games, but the branding sounds like it would get tiresome quickly.
+++
Still playing Shadow of Deathā¦ for now. For a few days, it was really fun. I was figuring out game mechanics and strategies and leveling up my characters, and it was all working. Iām starting to hit a plateau, and Iām not sure if itās me, or game flaws. (Or both?)
There are four game characters you can play; each has their official name and a name you give them for the Arena, a PvP contest. Win matches, rise through the divisions and ranks, get prizes and gear-- the usual. All my characters are getting stuck in Platinum level. For a while I thought it was klutziness, or weak armor, or unbalanced skills. But I noticed today, Iām being paired up with players who are Level 70-81.
My best character is at 31. My weakest is at 26.
Is it normal for an online game to repeatedly match up players at that much of a disadvantage??? Because it gets frustrating pretty darn quick. (Iām also just a tiny bit relieved. Itās less damaging to the ego to repeatedly lose to somebody over twice your rankā¦ and some of those matches were close ones. 
)
Another reason Iām questioning the game: I keep coming across the same player names, no matter what time of day Iām playing. That seems pretty odd. Iād expect people to jump in and out more. Plus-- on two separate occasions Iāve found myself playing against a character with the same name as one of my other āpersonas.ā Sure, it might be coincidence, but the same name and character build that Iāve used? (And, insult to injury, they play better than me. 
) Thatās weird, and it makes me wonder if Iām playing against real people, or bots āborrowingā usernames. If itās botsā¦ not cool, SoD.
Sorry for whinging so much. I want to enjoy this game. Sometimes I still doā¦ if it wasnāt for the bugs and quirks, Iād be raving over this. Itās a good concept for a Gauntlet-style romp. It just seems kind of offā¦ or maybe Iām just a klutzy n00b casual gamer who isnāt being patient enough. >shrug< Or both.
Printed out the draft rules, maps, and pieces for a Panzerblitz variant Iām designing. Mounted the pieces. Started cutting them out. Hope to try it out this coming week.
Memories. I think that was the first war game my big brother tried to teach me.
Some useful sites:
http://www.imaginative-strategist.layfigures.com/
Even if you donāt like the rules, new hex maps can be useful for other projects:
http://www.imaginative-strategist.layfigures.com/IMSTRAT%20PB%20Maps.html
SoD followup: The developers admitted there was a bug in the Arena and they were working on it. Something may have happened; Iām not sure what. Sunday night the Arena āSeasonā ended, we got bonuses based on performance, and it started up again with rank based on previous results.
Iām still seeing a lot of the same names. They now show levels in the 60s-70s, not 70-80s. (Maybe a promo ending explains the lost rank?) And the weirdest thing-- Iām now winning more often against the higher-level players than I am against those near my own rank. 
I canāt figure out whatās going on. But Iām winning a little more than Iām losing, and Iām having fun again, so whatever. 
Almost two years laterā¦
Indivisible finally released today. I originally backed it almost exactly four years ago, so itās been a looooong time coming.
I havenāt played much of it, but so far I like it. The storyās fitting for the genre (if a bit cliche aside from a female protagonist and the main party-forming conceit), the artwork is generally beautiful in both cut-scenes and in game action, the music so far is reminiscent of Secret of Mana without being a re-tread. Itās been gradually introducing the fighting concepts, which is nice, though Iām not sure I understand the timing of the block action yet.
Bad side so far: I had some troublesome controller issues that might be due to Logitech not having released Win10 driver versions. And the very opening of the game (which I had to go through twice because I killed the game through the taskmanager one time very early on because it didnāt like me alt-tabbing) is pretty long and very boring the second time through.
I donāt think I ever played Panzerblitz itself, but I think I still have the Arab-Israeli Wars game that followed up on it. Itās been awhile but, so many counters and chart lookups. It did make it interesting though - the special CAT-attacks and all. They did design for the specific situations.
Finally tried 1st of my scenarios, 2 playthroughs. Not great, but I have higher hopes for the 2nd scenario.
The Internet Archive has been updated with more than 2,500 DOS games, marking the most significant addition of games to the archive since 2015.
New additions include forgotten classics like Wizardry: Crusaders of the Dark Savant , Princess Maker 2 , and Microsoft Adventure , a rebranding of Colossal Caves Adventure . They also include a whole lot of weird, early experiments and dead ends that should be fascinating to explore for historians, technologists, game designers, and players alike.
Ok, most of these probably arenāt really going to be worthwhile today. But there may be some gems of nostalgia in thereā¦
[Edit] for instanceā¦
Iām hoping to update āN30ā (currently 3.51) and create a smaller āSeattle '99ā game (same system, but fewer pieces, longer turns, areas not intersections).
The confrontation mechanics can be a problem, because of gas, locked-down protesters, unorganized protesters, and so on. Any suggestions for an easy-to-understand approach for new players?
An odds ratio might actually work, but it can be hard for inexperienced players to understand.