Linked List: Execution In Fighting Games

Master Sirlin, writing over at Sirlin.net:

The more a game is about the difficulty of making your character do what you want to do, the necessarily less it is about strategy (that is, making good decisions).

This is why it’s not a good idea to make special moves really hard to do.

I agree with him 100%. Special moves can have timing and movements that can give them away, but making them arbitarily difficult to do makes it a fighting game about dexerity rather than a fighting game about strategy. This is why I enjoy Sirlin’s game Yomi so much - there’s almost zero dexterity required (you need to be able to hold a deck of cards), so it’s all strategy.

Flash Duel Second Edition Unboxing

So my copy of Flash Duel Second Edition arrived today. Which is unfortunate, since today was one of those “alone with Skyrim and a bunch of quests” sort of days, so I haven’t had a chance to playtest it yet.

Isn’t it beautiful?

I don’t think I actually wrote about Flash Duel here before; I mentioned it in passing while writing about Yomi (another game by David Sirlin), but Flash Duel needs a mention. Sort of like Yomi, it’s a card game that simulates elements of fighting games. It’s deceptively simple, with most of the depth coming from mindgames. Essentially, you have a hand composed entirely of simply numbered cards, used for attacking, movement, and defending. So if you have a big close range attack, you want to move close to your enemy - but doing that tells your enemy you want to get close, so they will want to keep you at range (or maybe they have a stronger close attack, and you’re screwing yourself!). It’s actually been a while since I’ve last played, so I won’t go into details; check Sirlin’s website for the deets.

I just wanted to say that Flash Duel Second Edition is gorgeous. One major change made to the game is that the art went from full-size to chibi. Take a look:

Top cards are Flash Duel Second Edition; bottom cards are Flash Duel Deluxe (first edition).

I’d say it was an effective change. Flash Duel is a game that plays fast with simple rules, especially when compared to Yomi (which is still simple), and the chibi art really drives that home. It also leaves more room for the descriptive text on character ability cards (not pictured). Finally, the art is really cute!

I’ll have more thoughts on Flash Duel Second Edition once read the manual once or twice and play it a few times, but let me put it this way: the original Flash Duel was more expensive than the Second Edition, with half as many characters and only the 1v1 mode. Second Edition includes the 1v1 mode, a solo mode, multiplayer team battle rules, a ‘raid’ game (4v1), a raid-game with one player as a traitor (3v2), a deck-box and cards designed to make the entire game played anywhere. The game skyrockets from 1 to 6 game modes (Sirlin presents it as 7 game modes, but I don’t count 1v1 with no character cards).

For now, I have a small gallery of photos. Check ‘em out here.

Board games help bored gamers

The other day, I wrote:

Weirdly, a lot of gamers don’t ever play board games or even consider them. I’m guessing that’s because most people’s board game knowledge is limited to Monopoly and Scrabble, and most people associate card games with Magic the Gathering & expensive booster decks. Most people don’t actually know that most competitive card games aren’t actually like that.

Before I go any further, I am going to refer to board or card games as board games just so that I don t have to write board and/or card games in every sentence. I’m sure you’ll appreciate the shorthand as well.

Board games have a lot of advantages over video games in a lot of key places. They’re great for local & social play, they can usually have their base rules outlined easily (try asking somebody who’s never played Street Fighter to perform a Shinku Hadoken), and they can be played while other things are happening.

This card is much more difficult to figure out than the real Messatsu Gorasen.First, you usually don’t need a huge amount of physical dexterity or expertise to play board games, which is wonderful for people who aren’t skilled gamers, or for those who just aren’t good at pulling off Shun Goku Satsus on command, which can be frustrating when they try to play a fighting game. Or those unable to pull off a BXR in a Halo 2 game, or any other sort of gaming button gesture. Or hell, watch somebody used to the forgiving inputs of Street Fighter 4 try and much more precise movements required by a hardcore game like Blazblue - I’ve seen people relearn basic quarter circle movements, and it’s very frustrating for them!

Board games retain all the strategy components of video games, they just don’t require you to also be skilled at handling a controller and remembering complicated button inputs as well. It sucks when I’m playing Blazblue, and I try to connect with a combo and I set it up properly, but I fail to perform all the required inputs fast enough. Yes, that’s a part of fighting games and I do enjoy actually mastering those combos, but it can be very frustrating if you don’t really care to learn the game. The real battle, at least in my opinion, is the mindgame - trying to figure out what your opponent will do, then countering it, avoiding it, blocking it, whatever. This ranges from blocking in a fighting game to holding the Green Shell behind you in Mario Kart to deflect a red shell, or maybe delaying building a Settler in exchange for another Spearman in Civilization. Will he pass, or shoot? This is my favourite element of competitive games, and it’s preserved completely in board games, or maybe even made better since I don’t need to also worry about being able to input a button combination fast enough. And you can eat while playing without hampering your ability to win. This alone is pretty key.

Another great aspect is that board games don’t run at a set pace, so there is no timer stating that a game will end in 99 seconds (or more likely minutes). It’s much more relaxing for many people, who can take a quick time out during someone else’s turn to grab some food or answer a phone call. Even for faster paced games, it’s not the end of the world to miss a turn and take it later, or ask someone else playing to take your turn for you. Lots of board games do advocate a timer to keep the game moving, and that can be great if somebody is stalling, or for more competitive play, of course. But unless you’re at a judged tournament, you aren’t held to this.

The turn structure is also really, really useful for learning the game. Rather than a video game where you must learn on the fly while playing, in these games you can watch other players turns before taking your own, making the learning process much smoother and more enjoyable. Players can explain what they’re doing, and after everyone else goes, you should be able to at least make a basic move or two with relative ease.

Also, these board games make a great complement to some other social activity, since they don’t require a TV and are not terribly distracting. Going to watch a James Bond movie that a few people have already seen? Break out Carcassonne while you watch to keep them entertained. Or if you arrive at a gaming party where everyone there is embroiled in a long Halo CTF game, or lord forbid, a League of Legends 5v5? Break out Flash Duel or another shorter game to pass the time. Or have a board game night, where everybody plays the one they want; no fighting for the TV!

In fact, since they don’t require a TV or any sort of electricity, you can play wherever there’s light: you can play if the power has gone out (candles for the win), you can bring them with you, you can play them outside! I’m telling you, while Monopoly is a classic cottage board game, I brought Carcassonne to my friend’s cottage last summer and it was a hit. Of course, you’ll still want a flat surface like a table for games like Carcassonne, but other games take up very little space.

So whether it’s board game night at Jad’s house, or whether I’m just bringing Dominion with me to a party that will also feature Dance Central and a BBQ, they’re easy to incorporate into many social events.

There’s also a wide variety of board games, equally as wide as you might find for video games. Competitive one on one games, party games for large groups, games like Carcassonne or Settlers of Catan that scale to larger sizes. Games about economies, games about the Soviet revolution, about growing crops, about fighting, and games about heroes fighting demons. Competitive games, cooperative games. The variety is astounding - it’s not all Monopoly, Scrabble, or nearly-impossible trivia.

The last thing I want to mention is that board games are just as fun, if not more fun, than video games. I know, that sounds like heresy, but hear me out. A lot of them involve similar ideas to what you’ve already learned (maximizing resources, diplomacy and trading, map control, duelling strategy, building an economy, building a character, etc), they just don’t need a controller. It’s easy to associate them with simplistic games and to ignore the depth of strategy involved, but that’d be a false association and a poor judgment. I’m not saying everyone needs to love them, but if you call yourself a gamer, I feel that you should at least try a few of them out and see if you can expand your horizons. Now, don’t worry I won’t leave you out in the cold! I’ve compiled a short list of three great board games that each are easy to learn, but they’re also very fun in both casual and more competitive environments. All three of these games share a prized spot on my shelf, and I think Lvl of Detail readers will enjoy them as well. So, on with the list!

Carcassonne

A Carcassonne game board where the Yellow player just made a huge city. (102 Points! by Walter Rumsby, click for link)

Carcassonne is, for me, the board game that really taught me that these games are more than just Monopoly. It’s also one of the most popular board games out there. My first experience with it was the demo on Xbox Live, from which I promptly transitioned into the full game. Shortly after that my girlfriend purchased me the Carcassonne Big Box, which not only includes Carcassonne, but a bevy of expansion sets. For iOS gamers, I also highly recommend the Carcassonne app; it’s gorgeous, runs beautifully, features fantastic asynchronous multiplayer with push notifications, it’s universal, and it is well worth the $10 for some Carcassonne on the go.

Carcassonne is much easier to understand than it is to pronounce for non-French speakers. A big pile of tiles is shuffled, and players take turns drawing and placing tiles to create the lands of Carcassonne. Each tile has various elements like farms, cities, roads, and monasteries, and each player has a number of followers (Meeples) he can use to control pieces of the game board. When you place a tile, you can place a single Meeple; if you forgo placing it then, you can never again place a Meeple on that tile. Tiles must be placed next to other tiles, and the borders must be logical; look at the image above, how roads flow from tile to tile, nothing gets cut off. Other than that, the world of Carcassonne will typically be built in a different fashion each time, depending on how the 2-5 players want to make it. The above photo shows one huge city, but it’s also common for many small cities to be created, or a few medium cities, or a bunch of unfinished cities. Carcassonne is very fun to play, but it can get very, very cutthroat. Again, let s look at that city; it has two Red Meeples, and three Yellow Meeples, meaning that Yellow owns the city. When the city is completed, Yellow will earn 102 points (a massive boon). If Red was able to sneak another Meeple in or cut out one of the Yellow Meeples, they would share the points. Thus, Carcassonne between experienced players becomes a terrifying game of both creation, theft, and destruction. While you cannot directly place tiles in an illegal fashion, you can place tiles awkwardly, so there is no way to finish a city, rendering all the work made on it nearly useless. You can be a total jerk and make it nearly impossible for your opponents to finish any cities, and when they do, you can “help them” and share in the points. But for less cutthroat players, Carcassonne is also a total blast where each player just does his or her best to make points, without being super aggressive.

But these are advanced Carcassonne tricks. The basic rules can be explained in minutes, and several people can sit around this tile board having a great time. Carcassonne scales really, really well with your skill level. And all of this is very social. You might not want to hamper Red in the hopes that Red might hamper you, and if Blue is doing really well, maybe you and Red will band together to make his life hell until one of you pulls ahead.

In short, it’s an absolute blast to play. Incredibly easy to learn, and it works great for both group play and individual, one on one matches. And if you like Carcassonne, there’s a wealth of expansions available, allowing you to keep the game fresh. And ironically enough, both the aforementioned Xbox Arcade and iOS ports are excellent ways to play, should you not want to sink $50+ into a board game you might not like. Try the demo on Xbox Live first, as a good way to dip your feet in.

Dominion

Some Dominion treasure cards. (Dominion, by Leigh Jay Hicks; click for link)

Dominion looks like a collectible card game (CCG), but it’s anything but. It s actually a really clever idea that combines the best aspects of a CCG without the collectible aspect. The Dominion box ships with some core cards (like the pictured treasure cards) as well as about twenty-five or so different card types, with about 12 copies of each type (i.e. 12 Thief cards, 12 Militia cards, etc). Each game of Dominion includes the core cards, and players pick ten card types that will also be used in that game. Each player begins with an identical deck of just ten cards, and from there can buy whichever ones they want out of the chosen ten card types. So I might buy a Militia on my first turn, and my friend might buy a Thief, and another player might buy more money for future turns (on the other hand, they may want to buy a defensive card, seeing as how the first two players are buying Militia and Thief!).

Thus, you build your deck live, as part of the game, while still trying to earn points. This is super addictive, because each game you play gives you good ideas for what to try next time. You might want to see how certain cards synergize, or experiment with unusual cards nobody likes, etc. It’s great when the strategy for your deck “pulls together” and you make a huge run of points … until your opponent steals all your money!

Building your deck for that game is a lot like building a character or an economy (in an RPG or strategy game, respectively). You want to build up and maximize your economy, which lets you buy points, but having those points clutters up your deck, requiring you to buy more cards or else all you’ll draw are your point cards, which are useless until the game is scored at the end. Furthermore, you don’t actually want a huge deck, because the more cards you have, the less your deck is reshuffled, so if you have piles and piles of Copper, it might be a while until you see the one or two Gold cards in your deck. But again, I’m getting into more advanced Dominion strategy.

Just like Carcassonne, Dominion also has a few expansions available for when you inevitably fall in love. Sirlin’s Puzzle Strike also uses the same basic mechanic of having a certain number of chip types in any given game, so learning Dominion will set you up great for Puzzle Strike, or vice versa. Both are equally addictive, so definitely try one; I suggest Dominion because it’s more likely to be available for purchase near you, and if I’ve talked about Sirlin’s games enough already, I think.

Yomi

 Yomi unboxed.OK, I lied, I haven’t talked about them enough yet. Yes, I finally got around to playing some Yomi, and I loved what I played. I won’t describe it like I did the other games in this list (already did), but it really did feel like a fighting game. One character, Max Gergis, has a special ability where if one of his signature attacks is blocked, he can immediately follow-up with a throw. So I baited my poor girlfriend (sorry!) into a trap where I had a large, scary hand full of powerful combos. She tried blocking my combo, which would normally stop it, and I transitioned into a mean throw chain. Her character, on the other hand, could injure herself to bring back powerful attack cards from her discard pile, but she takes damage to do so, so she hit me with a series of just enormous powerful attacks. Despite these differences in our characters, Yomi was really easy to learn, at least the basics.

But beyond the basics, Yomi is designed in such a way that each of the ten characters characters feels unique, even though they all have decks of the same size and general layout (identical to a poker deck; numbered cards, aces, kings, etc). Valerie can combo so easily she can combo by accident, while most of Rook’s moves can’t combo at all. And don’t get me started on Argagarg, the shaman whose curse deals 2 damage per turn; my buddy outguessed me so often that he wore down my hugely tougher Rook in a tight game. Of course, he was in a huge amount of danger, especially near the end as I almost had a single huge attack capable of nearly killing him.

If I had to recommend a single game designed explicitly to make video gamers feel at home, it’d be Yomi, especially if you play fighting games. The base mechanics are simple, but the gameplay is incredibly deep and more importantly, a huge amount of fun to play!

Board & card games are fantastic, and they offer a great alternative from video games in a lot of ways. If you’re any bit like me about two years ago, I implore you to go out and buy one, or try the Xbox Live demo of Carcassonne, or finally take up that seemingly crazy offer to have a board game night that doesn’t include Risk. Trust me, it’s one of the best decisions you can make.

Fighting Games Without Fighting

Yomi arrived last night, and I’m extremely excited to try it. Chances are, you have no idea what Yomi is. Let’s change that.

Yomi is a competitive card games based in the Fantasy Strike universe, designed and created by David Sirlin. Sirlin, who you may know as a professional game balancer, pro gamer, or gameplay theorist, is also an independent board/card game designer. Yomi is his third independently created and printed game, following Puzzle Strike and Flash Duel. All three games take place in his “Fantasy Strike” universe, and all three games are physical, boxed games that simulate the atmosphere and style of a fighting game. Puzzle Strike, for example, simulates a gem fighting game, something Sirlin has much expertise with. (On a side note, every link above is an excellent read. Of particular interest is his ‘Playing To Win’ book, as well as the Street Fighter balancing posts. He goes into insane amounts of detail about the balancing decisions made for each character.)

What’s most interesting to me about his games is how accurately they recreate the feel of a fighting game. The first game I purchased from Sirlin was Flash Duel, and for a little while, it didn’t really *click* with me. Moving back and forth along a board, throwing out attacks that seemed random - something about it just didn’t really work for me. But after a few matches (he isn’t kidding when he calls if ‘Flash’ Duel; matches are obscenely quick), I realized something: I was trying to think about what my opponent had. And it clicked for me. Flash Duel was about spacing and pacing; preventing your opponent from getting too close to you, until you draw him just close enough for your huge attack. Suddenly I started to love it, and I ordered Puzzle Strike, which as already mentioned, is a surprisingly accurate simulation of gem fighter gameplay, and it’s a lot of fun. Puzzle Strike is all about building up a huge gem pile and then crashing that gem pile on your opponent. Just like in Puzzle Fighter, however, building a gem pile is dangerous, because once your gem pile gets too large, you lose. It’s a blast.

Flash Duel and Puzzle Strike are both better competitive fighting video games than The Deadliest Warrior, and they aren’t video games.

But Yomi is the one I’m most interested in. In short, Yomi shares the same gameplay conceit as most fighting games. Attacks can be blocked, blockers can be thrown, and attacks interrupt throws - rock, paper, scissors. Of course, this simulates a fighting game, so if someone lands an attack or throw, they can start a dangerous combo. But what makes Yomi so interesting are the mindgames. Each player has a hand of potential cards, and you have to try and tell what your foe is going to do to win. If you see him holding a huge hand, he might be preparing for a huge combo, so you might want to try blocking. On the other hand, he might be preparing for a combo and notice that you’re likely to block, so he might try and throw you. The entire point of Yomi is reading the other player (the word Yomi means “reading” in Japanese), and it sounds like a blast. The same idea of winning the mindgame applies to his other games, especially Flash Duel; the entire game is about spacing, and trying to predict what your enemy will do. Which is key to winning most competitive games. Figuring out what your enemy will do, and countering it.

While the piano combo looks difficult, remember that a Shinku Hadoken looks that difficult to a non-gamer! (The Ultimate Combo, by David Soames; click to buy the shirt!)

It’s great that these board & card games simulate every single aspect of fighting games, save for technical button presses and complicated button combos. You get all the strategy, all of the mindgames (indeed, even more of them, since it’s much easier to look your opponent in the eyes when you’re sitting facing each other), all of the fun social aspects of playing games with each other, but it’s much more accessible. I love fighting games, but the difficult combinations don’t add much to the strategy of the fight and they make it much more difficult for new players to enjoy. If I want to introduce somebody to fighting games, I might consider introducing them to Yomi or Flash Duel as well to help them understand the core concepts of how the battle works before we start discussing the finer aspects of Focus Attack Dash Cancels.

Weirdly, a lot of gamers don’t ever play board games or even consider them. I’m guessing that’s because most people’s board game knowledge is limited to Monopoly and Scrabble, and most people associate card games with Magic the Gathering & expensive booster decks. Most people don’t actually know that most competitive card games aren’t actually like that; while collectible card games (CCGs) are big money, games like Yomi or Dominion have no booster packs, no randomized cards … in other words, no wasted money or time. While these games sometimes have expansions, this is more analogous to an old-school expansion pack or a major piece of DLC; the expansion packs significantly expand the game by adding more options, but the core decks are tournament worthy right away. This is actually a big selling point on Sirlin’s website.

Yomi’s gorgeous box. On a bonus note, the decks also work great as standard playing cards!

The final thing I should note about his games are their fantastic production values. Yomi arrived in a gorgeous box, and each character’s deck is individually packaged in classy boxes, not only keeping them separated but also making them easy to transport if I was just bringing a deck or two for a game. In addition, it includes two gorgeous battle mats used for tracking your health. And not the cheap, paper-thin battlemats of other games. These are thicker than my mousepad, and the artwork is absolutely gorgeous. Puzzle Strike & Flash Duel both arrived in wooden boxes, the chips are made of wood … buying one of these games and displaying it on your shelf is much more satisfying then buying Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, with a one-page legal warning inside the box. They real feel like something you want to show off, you want to take out of the box and show people, and that segues really well into “let’s try it!”. 

So, what’s the take home message of today’s post? Nothing insightful or massive, I suppose. I’m super excited to play Yomi, on the sole basis that Sirlin’s other games are fantastic, and if you’re at all a fan of great games, fighting games, board/card games, or games in general, I highly recommend you check out Flash Duel or Puzzle Strike (Yomi is currently sold out), or at least check out his website and read about them. I haven’t yet played Yomi, but you can be sure that when I do, there’ll be a follow-up post about it. In addition, my excitement about Yomi will potentially incite me to write a bit more about boardgames, so expect that later this week or next week.