SCHMETE

TenCap

Sun, 13 May 2012 13:07:17 -0500

TenCap

TenCap is a tabletop strategy game for 2-4 players. The object of TenCap is to capture the opponent’s 10 card.

To play TenCap, all you need is a deck of playing cards, some dice, and a playing field, which is a 5x5 grid, each space roughly the size of a playing card. I made this playing field by simply taping two 8.5x11 pieces of copier paper together and drawing the grid on with a marker.

To set up TenCap, first divide your playing cards up by suit. Each player gets one suit. For this demonstration, I’ll be doing a 1v1 game of Diamonds vs Spades.

CHARACTERS

Each player has 3 characters, Jack, Queen, and King, which are represented by the 3 face cards. Each character has 2 abilities. Each ability can be used once throughout the entire game.

Jack’s two abilities are Mimic and Flee. Mimic allows Jack to swap one of his attribute cards with one of his opponent’s. Flee allows Jack to move two spaces after finishing a battle.

Queen’s two abilities are Aura and Resurrect. Aura allows Queen to roll two defense rolls on her next defending roll. Resurrect allows Queen to revive a fallen character on her team.

King’s two abilities are Fury and Counter. Fury allows King to roll two attack rolls on his next attack roll. Counter allows King to deal back any blocked damage to the attacker on his next defense roll.

Each character gets 3 attribute cards. The attribute cards are distributed by the player to each character.

Cards 1-3 determine base the characters’ attack power. Cards 4-6 determine the characters’ ability number. Cards 7-9 determine the characters’ hit points. Each character gets one of each type of card.

The ten card is given to one character to hold. This character must hold the ten card until killed.

Attribute cards, as well as the ten card, are displayed openly for everyone to see.

MOVEMENT

To start the game each player places their character cards anywhere in the row closest to them on the playing field. Player roll to see who moves first.

Each player has three moves per turn, which can be divided up among their characters as they choose. Player may choose to not use all three moves in a turn.

When a player has used all three moves, they may initiate battles. Once a player has initiated a battle, they may not move their characters again until their next turn (unless using the Jack’s Flee ability).

BATTLE

A player can initiate a battle when their character card is in a space vertically adjacent to an opponent’s character card. Only one battle may be initiated per turn.

When battling, both players roll a die. The value of the attacking character’s Attack Card, plus the value rolled is the attacking character’s damage dealt. Attack rolls are valued as Base 3*, defense rolls are valued at Full Value**. The value rolled by the defending player is subtracted from the damage dealt. The resulting value is subtracted from the defending character’s health.

When a player’s attack roll is the same as their Ability Card value, the player may use one of the attacking character’s Abilities. Abilities take effect after the battle has finished. Any change in attribute values or extra rolls go into effect at the start of the next player’s turn.

A character is killed when it runs out of health. When a character is killed, the card is flipped face down in the space it was killed in. The card remains in that space until it is resurrected, or until the game ends. If the character holding the 10 card is killed, it can punt.

To punt, the punting player first must roll a die. The value of the roll determines the number of spaces the 10 card can move. The 10 card can be punted diagonally, horizontally, or vertically a distance less than or equal to the value rolled. If the player has a character within range, they may “pass” the 10 card to that character. If the 10 card is passed to another character, it must be laid with that character’s attribute cards. If the 10 card is punted to an open space on the field, it is placed on the field in that space.

VICTORY

To achieve victory, a player must move one of their character cards to the same space the opponent’s 10 card.

*Base 3 rolls can only have a value as high as 3. (1&4 = 1; 2&5 = 2; 3&6 = 3)

** Full Value rolls are valued as shown on the dice. (1=1, 2=2, 3=3, 4=4, 5=5, 6=6)

created by Mike Westfall

Link's Awakening Fan-Made Remake Falls Short

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:59:00 -0500

Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is my favorite game. I’ve got a pretty long history with Link’s Awakening, which has garnered a love for it that is unmatched by any other game. So, naturally, when I recently discovered a fan-made remake of the title, I got pretty excited.

The remake utilizes graphical elements from other 2D Zelda games, like the Link character model and environment pieces from Link to the Past and Minish Cap. The more detailed graphics look nice, but can also clash if you’ve had enough exposure to the games they’re originally from.

I finally got a chance to play the remake last night, and, I have to say, it was disappointing. I was expecting a simple re-skin of the original game, but much of the gameplay has been redesigned as well, and for the worst.

The game is hard to control, because movement is restricted to a gridded space, so minor movements are impossible. Every tap of a directional key moves link a full square, even when trying to do a change of direction (you can’t turn to face another direction and stay in the same square). This makes combat difficult, because you can’t move away from the enemy and quickly turn around to attack. Doing so simply causes Link to run into the enemy and take damage.

The sword’s hitbox has also changed, only hitting things in front of Link, as opposed to the original, which could hit enemies in front of and to the right of him. Again, this makes combat difficult, because players can’t hit enemies that are standing to the right or left of Link without making a large, circular movement to face them (because of the poor movement).

Also, Link’s trademark spin attack has been changed. The spin attack was executed in the orignal by holding the attack button until the sword began to flash, and then releasing the button to unleash the attack. In the remake, the spin attack is an attribute tied to one of many Sage Medallions, items players can collect to gain new powers. Sage Medallions are tied to the 0 (zero) key on a keyboard, which is so far from the directional keys used for movement, that it’s nearly impossible to use quickly and effectively. I was also unable to find a way to reassign the controls, so, as far as I know, players can’t change that.

Lastly, the original’s save feature, accessed by pressing A+B+Select+Start, is gone and has been replaced by statues that act as save points and are placed throughout Koholint Island.

Despite the remake’s shortcomings, I’m going to attempt to beat the game, simply because I’m interested in how Koholint Island looks with the updated graphics. I could probably browse the image folders that were part of the download to see everything, but I’d rather experience it all in action. Plus, I love the game so much, I’m willing to give this inferior version a real effort.

Lion Killed My Play, But I'm Still Playing

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 15:25:03 -0500

I upgraded my MacBook Pro to OSX Lion the day it came out, and it made it impossible for me to play For the Frog the Bell Tolls. Lion doesn’t support PowerPC applications, or something, and my Game Boy emulator is one of those unsupported applications. I’m pretty disappointed, because I was enjoying the game quite a bit. However, it leaves me something to look forward to once I get my Compaq laptop back.

In the meantime, I finally blew the dust out of my copy of Bomberman 64 that I got a week or so ago. It’s actually a pretty difficult game. I can’t decide whether it’s hard because of bad mechanics, or just because I’m not used to how the game works. It’s probably a pretty good mix of both. The more I play, the easier it gets, but I still find myself dying at the hand of my own bombs, because I get caught at the very edge of an explosion.

I’m happy with my purchase of Bomberman. I bought it at the suggestion of a friend who said it was “very Japanese,” which was enough to convince me to buy it. It plays pretty well, and I’d actually like to see a new Bomberman come out for modern systems, because the gameplay is pretty unique. Also, on a side note, the grammar in the game’s dialogue is fantastic. I was happy to see a variety of complex sentences with perfect punctuation.

Watching Speed Runs Makes Me Feel Like A CHUMP

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:47:45 -0500

I got my Wii hooked up to my Super Station Command Center (desk) and started playing Super Mario Sunshine. I spent a few days watching a Tool-Assisted Speedrun of Sunshine a week or so ago, and a world record speedrun of Mario 64 (recently set this week). Now that I’m actually playing the game, I feel like a fool.

I can’t help but want to do all the cool things done in the videos, but I’m not skilled enough. Then, I feel dumb when I just try to do things the slow and easy way and still die. I actually learned a lot of techniques when watching the speedruns, but I still feel a bit awkward when trying to do anything near an advanced level of play.

Maybe I should just stick to watching speedruns of games I’m not planning to play soon. That way I won’t feel so stupid for messing up things that take hours and hours of practice to perfect. Oh well, maybe not.

SHAKE SHAKE!

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 09:22:01 -0500

I picked up a copy of Mischief Makers yesterday. It’s a weird, quirky, very Japanese platformer for the N64. I have a history with this game, and I’ve been meaning to pick it up since I acquired an N64.

As a kid, I really loved this game, despite not understanding one thing about it. The characters didn’t make any sense; they all looked like robots. Everything in the game had the same strange frowning face, including the blocks that made up the levels. And the game didn’t use the joystick, which meant that I had to hold the controller on the two outside prongs, rather than the middle and right prongs (which actually makes less sense than the two outside ones, but it was standard and felt correct at the time).

Despite all those oddities, I still really enjoyed the game. I now understand that I just have a soft spot for any kind of quirky Japanese game, and Mischief Makers is the earliest evidence of that.

The game itself really isn’t too bad. It’s a little on the easy side, but the platforming is decent and it has a ton of charm. Hopefully it’ll keep my attention long enough to finish it, but with Super Mario Sunshine and Bomberman 64 on the way, I’ll have a lot of distractions.

That’s enough writing for now. I want to play.

I guess building levels is fine, however, in MC, I guess you lose the ability of building with a purpose of what one would do once in the world.

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 10:09:48 -0500

I guess I never made it clear in my last post, but I play Minecraft on the Peaceful difficulty, so there are no enemies. I’ve always seen the enemies as more of a nuisance than anything else. I play the game 100% legitimately, digging for all my materials, so the excitement of finding diamond, iron, and other materials is still there. That excitement is what keeps Minecraft a game for me, not just a tool.

Builder of Worlds

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 16:32:27 -0500

For the past few days, I’ve been playing Minecraft for hours on end. I’m not a big builder when I play the game. I’ve only recently taken on my first relatively large construction job, which is a sort of castle/cathedral mix. The building itself isn’t that tall, maxing out at probably 25 blocks.

To be honest, I’m not even very excited to build the building. I’m more excited to create everything around it: gardens, ponds, fountains, etc. I even happened upon a natural deep hole that I’m going to fill with water and turn into a well. Creating environments is definitely my favorite thing to do in Minecraft, not make Giant Structures.

I’ve been fascinated by the environments in games since I started playing them. When I was younger and wasn’t able to progress in games, I didn’t mind, because just running around the world was enough for me. Mario 64, Mario Sunshine, Ocarina of Time, and Wind Waker have probably impacted me more than any other game when it comes to this. I spent hours and hours traversing the world, exploring its nooks and crannies, but not actually doing anything.

Those games have really influenced the way I play Minecraft. I want to build underground forests with light streaming down from holes in the surface. I want to build an entire village on a floating island in the sky. I want to build a glass castle beneath the surface of the ocean. (I do actually plan to create these things eventually.)

Maybe I should be a level designer for games. Or maybe I should just keep thinking up these things that I’ll probably never have the patience to do.

My Favorite Kinds of Gaming to Watch

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:03:29 -0500

I love to play video games. Enough to write about them, obviously. I also love to watch people play games. I could (and often do) spend as much time playing games as I do watching videos of other people playing. Here’s a few of my favorite things to watch:

Tool-Assisted Speedruns (TAS)

Speedruns are cool to watch. Tool-Assisted Speedruns are cooler to watch. I know unassisted speedruns take far more skill and practice to actually do, but a TAS is far more entertaining. The impossible things done in TASs are incredibly cool, and that’s what I love about them. The best part, I think, is that you can watch a full run of a game in a few hours time. For example, I’ve been watching a TAS of Super Mario Sunshine (in honor of my recent repurchase of the game), and the whole thing is done in an hour and a half. Awesome.

Competitive First Person Shooters

I’m not a huge fan of first person shooters, mostly because I’m bad at them (also because there are just SO MANY OF THEM). But that doesn’t stop me from getting some major enjoyment out of watching dudes who are really good play them. The best videos to watch are the ones where you get to hear team chatter (callouts, banter, etc.). It’s really amazing to see players work together and utilize their teamwork to overcome their opponent.

The Megas Commentary

The Megas is a band that writes songs about MegaMan (they’re good, check them out). One of the members (Josh Breeding) is a pretty good at playing MegaMan. He sometimes records a playthrough of a MegaMan game and then the whole band provides commentary over it. The guys are hilarious, so that’s where most of the entertainment comes from, but Josh is actually really good at playing, so it’s still quite a spectacle to see him play the game.

Role Playing Games

This isn’t something I can watch YouTube, because there’s something about sitting in front of the TV watching someone else play an RPG. I think my first experience of this was watching my brother play Final Fantasy X back in the early 2000s. Ever since then, I’ve been totally cool watching friends and others play RPGs. It’s weird, because RPGs are incredibly boring, but there’s just something about watching them that I can’t get enough of.

SHINE GET!

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:50:00 -0500

I just bought a copy of Super Mario Sunshine off eBay for $17, which is a pretty good deal considering it’s got the case, manual, and inserts (not that I care about that stuff, but it’s cool, I guess). I imagine Mario Sunshine will be that kind of game where people look back in twenty years and are like, “Remember Mario Sunshine? They gave Mario a weird thing that sprayed water and worked like a jetpack. That game was weird, but it was SO GOOD.”

Lucky for me, I now have a copy of it forever. I just need to find a Gamecube to play it on. I guess I have my Wii, but it doesn’t reliably turn on every time anymore. And by that, I mean I have to flick the power a handful of times before it actually works. Plus, if I just get a Gamecube, I won’t have to have all the extra wiring of a sensor bar and whatnot. I suppose I could use a classic controller instead of the remote’s IR, but that’s almost equally annoying. A Gamecube will just be easier.

However I end up playing it, I’m excited that I get to. I loved the music in Sunshine, as well as pretty much everything else about the game. I really just can’t wait to platform the crap out of Delfino Plaza.

STILL playing Dragon Quest IX

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:05:30 -0500

Yes, yes, I’m stil playing Dragon Quest IX. And I’m playing it hardcore. I’ve logged 86 hours into the game as of now, and I can’t stop playing. From what I can tell, I have almost completed the main story.

I put off completing story missions for a while, just because I was worried that once I finished the main story, I would have no incentive to continue to play the game. I mean, I would still have things to alchemize and equipment to collect, but what purpose would that serve, other than checking things off a list? I want to do that stuff now, so I can use it to help me complete the story. And if I finish the main story missions, what purpose do I have for collecting all the equipment?

Luckily, DQIX has pretty enticing post-game content, like items and weapons that are only available after the story is completed. After having attempted a few grottos (short dungeons that are accessed by using treasure maps), I’ve found that most of the grotto bosses are far too difficult at my current level. After completing my first lvl. 1 grotto, I got a map to a lvl. 8 grotto, and got trounced by the boss. I beat the lvl. 1 grotto boss a few more times and got a lvl. 3 grotto map, and was still unable to beat that boss (though it was close!).

So, I am confident that I’ll have plenty to do after completing the games storyline, and I’m proceeding to finish the game now. I’m still blown away by the amount of content present in the game. I’m curious as to how many hours I’ll be at when I finally stop playing. Hopefully I’ll be able to at least double my current time and hit around 170 hours. That would be awesome.

All Games Should Be Fighting Games (sort of)

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 11:31:00 -0500

I think fighting games have the perfect gameplay design. I’m not a huge fan of the fighting game genre, but I think the mechanics used in fighters is something many games could learn from. Keep in mind, I’m not a game designer, so my ideas are not incredibly specific. However, I do think they are specific enough to get my point across.

Most fighting games have a core 4 actions that players can use: crouching attacks, standing attacks, jumping attacks, and grabs/throws. And each of those actions can be countered or blocked by crouching guard, standing guard, or grab counters. It’s essentially a slightly more complicated version of rock-paper-scissors, but instead of guessing, players have a small window to react. This complex, hectic rock-paper-scissors game is what allows every battle to be unique and exciting.

So, how do you apply this rock-paper-scissors mechanic to an action game like Zelda, or a shooter like Uncharted? Well, the one thing these games lack that is present in fighters is a dynamic defensive system. These games need something equivalent to a fighting game’s crouching and standing block, different ways for players to defend against different types of attacks. And if they choose the wrong defensive maneuver, they’ll get punished. This applies to not just the player, but the enemy AI as well. Enemies have to utilize their defenses as much as the player.

Fighting games (specifically Street Fighter and Tekken) also utilize an automatic health regeneration system. Many people are of the belief that health regen makes games too easy. Again, that’s not the case for fighting games. Even though players receive a full health bar at the start of each battle, many people think fighting games are some of the hardest games to play. If players actually manage to win a fight, they probably don’t have much more than a quarter of their health remaining by the end of the match. But you can’t just give players all their health back after defeating an enemy in Zelda, so how does it apply in a game like that? Again, I’m not an expert in game design, but I know at least one solution that would work.

Elder Scrolls utilizes a system that allows players to regain their health by “waiting.” The wait system makes in-game time go by at roughly one hour per second. After waiting for as little as the minimum one hour, players will have a full health and magic meter. The catch is, players cannot wait when enemies are nearby. This prevents players from using the feature mid-battle to come back in full health. It also just makes sense, because if a player waited for an hour mid-battle, they would be standing in place for an hour while an enemy was attacking them. There are two key components to this type of health regeneration:

Enemies are not nearby
Players cannot be moving

Other games use somewhat similar styles of health regeneration, such as Shadow of the Colossus. The player can regain health by remaining still and crouching. There aren’t really enemies trying to kill you in Shadow of the Colossus, but I think it’s still applicable.

What it all comes down to is making each encounter with an enemy a battle that really challenges players, but is still fun. With a combat system that utilizes a variety of attacks and defenses by both the player and the computer, each battle will be unique and challenging. By giving players the ability to enter each encounter with their full health, the frustration of entering combat with almost no health is eliminated, making the game more enjoyable.

There are many more aspects of fighting games that other genres can benefit from, but I think these two are some of the most important, and will improve games more than the others.

Do you agree? Disagree? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment, or contact me in whichever way is easiest for you.

Can't Get Enough DQIX

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 14:09:00 -0500

I’ve been playing lots of Dragon Quest IX lately. I bought it a while ago, but never really got into it until recently. It’s the first game in a long time that I’ve been able to really immerse myself in for hours at a time. Whether I’m collecting materials to alchemize items, progressing through the main story (I’m still not done at 60 hours in), or collecting maps and exploring grottos, I always enjoy the time I spend playing DQIX.

I really feel like I’ve hardly even scratched the surface of this game. I accidentally skipped the Alltrades Abbey Fygg mission, so I only recently opened up the ability to change jobs. I changed from a Minstrel with a fan proficiency to a Thief with a knife proficiency. I’m excited to try out the other classes, as well as max out the ones I’ve started.

I also only recently explored my first Grotto, the boss of which apparently drops a new treasure map every time it’s defeated, so I’ve gone through that dungeon a handful of times to collect some maps. I’m currently making my way through a level 3 grotto, and I’m excited to see what’s at the end of it.

Dragon Quest IX really has a ton of depth to it, and I feel like I will never be able to finish it. The nice thing is, I don’t see myself getting tired of the game either. Most games that I spend so much time with, I end up getting burnt out on, but DQIX has so much to do, that I can constantly jump around between tasks and never get bored.

Dragon Quest IX might take the role of my favorite DS game ever, a title I’ve usually devoted to the magnificent puzzle game Meteos. That’s a big achievement.

Uncharted 3: 3 Team Deathmatch FTW

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 18:42:00 -0500

So, the Uncharted 3 Beta worked today. I played a handful of different competitive match types, most of which I enjoyed. My favorite of the available modes is definitely 3 Team Deathmatch.

3 Team Deathmatch is a 2v2v2 deathmatch, which, unlike anything I’ve played before, practically forces players to work together. With only two players per team, it’s easy to stick together and cooperate. And the buddy system works spectacularly for this mode, because you don’t have to travel across the map alone after you respawn. Instead, just spawn on your buddy, and you’re back in action with your partner.

It’s almost impossible to play this mode without cooperating with your partner. If you and your buddy get separated, you’ll most likely end up in a two on one shootout with another team, so sticking together is a must. Even when playing with total strangers, I rarely was separated from my partner, and I rarely encountered an enemy whose teammate was nowhere near him.

I’m thinking 3 Team Deathmatch will be my mode of choice for most of this beta.

They call it beta for a reason.

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:12:19 -0500

I tried out the Uncharted 3 beta after it finished downloading. The first thing I did was customize (with what little choices I had) my hero and villain characters, as well as create an emblem. My emblem turned out pretty cool, I think.

After checking out the customization options (and seeing I didn’t really have any options to choose from), I went to matchmaking. Well, I intended to access matchmaking, but my PS3 froze.

Reboot.

I checked to see if my customizations had saved, which they had. I moved to matchmaking again, this time without any freezes. I was excited to try out the new levels, so I decided to play team deathmatch, because that was what I typically played in Uncharted 2. Matchmaking apparently had a problem, because I couldn’t find any other players. A quick search on Twitter (you can follow me @schmete!) revealed that I wasn’t the only one experiencing the matchmaking problem. I checked out the loadout customization and messed with my audio settings to work better with my mic while letting the game try and find some players.

After a few (probably five) minutes of waiting, I figured I’d shut down and try again later. I was a little disappointed, but not surprised. These problems are the reason betas exist, so I can’t complain.

I would have given the beta another shot tonight, but I had a date with the lady (laser tag!), so I’ve been with her. Hopefully most of the larger bugs will be gone by tomorrow, when I get back to the beta. I know the matchmaking has been fixed, so at least I know I’ll actually be able to play.

I’m excited to see how this beta pans out. I’ll probably pick up a retail copy of Uncharted 3 if I really enjoy the multiplayer. Probably.

Uncharted 3 Beta is tomorrow.

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 19:16:40 -0500

I’m actually moderately excited to play. I started playing Uncharted 2 multiplayer a couple months ago for the first time, despite having no interest in shooters (I’m not good at them!). I received Uncharted 2 as a part of my PS3 Slim’s bundle, but never invested more than fifteen minutes into the game.

Fast-forward six months and I started watching some competitive Call of Duty matches on YouTube, which were surprisingly interesting. Watching those videos made me want to play an shooter online for the first time in around 4 years (the last one I played was COD:3). The only online shooters I owned were Uncharted 2 and Medal of Honor, both of which came packaged with my PS3 and were mostly untouched (MoH was actually still shrink wrapped).

I knew Uncharted’s online had a good reputation, so I decided to give it a shot. Conscious of my inability to play shooters well, I went into my first match with no expectation of killing anybody. I was my team’s top scorer. After a couple matches, I was somehow managing to score more kills than high level players I was being teamed up with and against (I later came to the conclusion that those players must have been incredibly bad, but had been playing for quite a while (although I really wasn’t that bad at the game)).

I played Uncharted 2 multiplayer for the next few weeks, managing to level up to somewhere in the mid-twenties. I surprisingly enjoyed the experience, but have since put it away to play other games (like inFAMOUS 2 and Dragon Quest IX).

I never got the chance to play Uncharted 2 with any friends, because they had all had their fill of the game back when it launched, so I’m looking forward to playing the Uncharted 3 beta with a few friends. Hopefully I don’t suck at shooters again!

SUP.

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 13:56:55 -0500

I decided I want to write more, so this is where I’ll be doing that. I might eventually decide to make schmete.com redirect to here, but for now I think I’m going to hold off on that until I prove to myself I have the motivation to write regularly.

I have no idea what the content will be like here, but I can assure you that it will likely be about things that I’m doing. I can also assure you that it will likely be uninteresting (Hopefully not, though!).

So, anyways…

My name is Mike Westfall, and this is my blog.