Soren Johnson

I have not played Depression Question. Seems like I've heard mixed thing about it, but I'll take your opinion as a vote in favor. And hey, it's free! Obviously a sinister plot to ruin real games everywhere...

In this episode, Adam Saltsman interviews Chelsea Howe, who is a Creative Director at EA Mobile. She is best known for her work at TinyCo, where she led the design of Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff, and for her community efforts organizing the Queerness and Games Conference, the Global Game Jam in San Francisco, student workshops, and more. They discuss how DAU's and LTV's compare to Quarterback Ratings, why F2P games end up as conservative as AAA games, why mobile devs have to pay people to play their games, and if a game is worthwhile if the player isn't learning something. Games Discussed: Choice Chamber, Renga, Twitch Plays Pokemon, Candy Crush Saga, Dragon Age series, Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/chelsea-howe

haha, who was the main offender? Me or Brad? (I've always thought my problem was too many "um's" and "you know's"...)

In this episode, Soren interviews Daniel Cook, who is the Chief Creative Officer at Spry Fox. He is best known for his design work on games such as Triple Town, Realm of the Mad God, and Steambirds as well as for his writing on game design at http://lostgarden.com. They discuss the joy of making tile sets, why Lost Garden was originally an anonymous blog, whether Triple Town should be free-to-play, and why we wish we had been neighbors. Games Discussed: The Faery Tale Adventure, Tyrian, The Circle, 1 vs. 100, Steambirds, Triple Town, Realm of the Mad God, Road Not Taken https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/daniel-cook

We are charging the same price now as we are going to charge at release. Seemed like the simplest approach.

Yeah, that sums it up well. I've been part of non-paid private betas before - we had a great one set up for Civ4 - but the feedback I've gotten via Early Access already completely dwarfs what I saw from betas, both in terms of quality and quantity. In about seven weeks, we've already had about 3 or 4 major balance changes which have demonstrably improved gameplay, and I'm convinced that would not have happened with a private beta (unless you happen to be Blizzard with a built-in audience). As for Jon, I guess my main point is that I don't see how Early Access could possibly be a bad thing for At The Gates, and I see lots of way it could be a good thing for the project, with the number one reason being it's the best way to get a high quantity of feedback before he officially releases the game. Are you listening, Jon??!??!? Don't make me come to Michigan!!!!111!!!1!

Yep, the Lantz, Fahraeus, and Cook interviews were all in the can since last GDC. I stocked up with 5 more this GDC that I'll be releasing over the year.

In this episode, Soren interviews Frank Lantz, currently Director of the NYU Game Center. Frantz was also the co-founder of Area/Code where he led the design of Drop7. We discuss how to make sure your game gets written up in Boing Boing, why most people who like ARGs have never played one, and how to take advantage of your friend's trip to the hospital in Parking Wars. Games Discussed: The Manhole, Dungeon Master, Mortal Combat, Wipeout, Gearheads, Diner Dash, PacManhattan, Shark Runners, Parking Wars, Drop7 https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/frank-lantz

Game is up now: http://store.steampowered.com/app/271240

In this episode, Soren interviews Henrik Fahraeus, who is a Game Director at Paradox Interactive, where he has worked on the Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, and Hearts of Iron series. Also sitting in on the interview is Jon Shafer, lead designer of Civ5 and currently at work on his independent strategy game At the Gates. They discuss whether the Civ and EU games live in alternate dimension, whether provinces are better than hexes, and why it's bad to have too many sons. Games Discussed: Lords of Midnight, Seven Cities of Gold, Europa Universalis series, Hearts of Iron series, Crusader Kings series, Civilization series https://www.idlethumbs.net/designernotes/episodes/henrik-fahraeus

Soren is not done with Rob yet! In the second half of the interview, they discuss the MMO that shocked everyone (including Blizzard), how to hire game designers, why they didn't make DOTA2, removing the auction house from Diablo 3, and what might come next from Rob. Link

New patch, btw: http://forums.offworldgame.com/459990/page/1/

Actually, auto-sell was a pretty recent thing. I implemented it so you can stop selling power if you want and just went ahead and tried it for all the resources. Was a weird feeling to use it, so I turned it off.

yes, buying stock in other companies does not increase your stock price. If you want to increase your stock price, you should buy your own stock. - Improving electrolysis increases the output but does not change the input. - Ice is visible depending on the latitude of the map. - All the patent trigger automatically. Once you have teleportation, you won't need blimps anymore.

Thanks for the feedback! To answer your question, no, the AI doesn't have to buyout stock you own in another company when they try to buy you out. Strangely enough, I was just about to smooth out the stock price some so that it won't have sudden jumps after auctions (although it will still go down...) which will make buying them out this way a little tougher. Were you able to get farther in the campaign?

yes

Thanks, Clyde, glad to hear you're enjoying the game! We just did an update this morning, so I'd be curious to know what you think of the campaign when you get a chance.

I've been working a lot on the (single-player) campaign recently. I think it's actually in pretty good shape now.

Offworld is 50% off for a limited time: http://www.mohawkgames.com/2014/11/19/50-off/

I'd like to do them once per month, so probably the first week of December.

Hi everybody, thanks for listening! Just so you, I had the tradition first-podcast-audio-problems, but they go away after the first ten or fifteen minutes.

I'm afraid that we had to delay the idea of streams when we decided to delay showing any of the game publicly until next year. Still want to do streams, however!

btw, we've lifted the non-graphical parts of our NDA, so feel free to discuss the game if you've played it. http://www.mohawkgames.com/2014/09/17/talking-about-the-game/

- The stock is already publicly available, so it doesn't go to the company. (However, when you buy someone out, the money you spend to buy other people's stock DOES go to them, which can be dangerous.) - Stocks can't be sold. It could work, but it just sort of slows down the game without much upside. - Patents can't be sold or leased. (You do acquire someone's patents when you buy them out...) - Buildings can't be sold or leased. (You can mutiny them for a period of time to take them over...)

Thanks for posting the link! Let me know if you guys have any questions about the game...