http://www.fantasystrike.com/dev/
(Note to mods: I'm not advertising a product here--the link above is an online simulator for both of the board games I'm about to describe)
I don't know how many of you are really into board games (I'm not), but hopefully you've heard of Puzzle Strike and Yomi, two really awesome games designed by David Sirlin. This guy's record is fucking impressive: he's an MIT grad, and he's been in charge of several serious design projects, including rebalancing Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo for their HD Remix incarnations, designing Kongregate's Kongai card game, and (although I haven't seen much tournament footage of him) being really good at Street Fighter. As you can probably tell, he's also a fighting game buff (who has helped run Evo in the past) and a brilliant game design blogger.
The fact that it's really hard to explain what this game actually is is a testament to its originality. Sirlin touts it as a "card game played with chips instead of cards that simulates a puzzle video game (that doesn’t exist yet) that, in-turn, simulates a fighting game (that also doesn’t exist yet.)" Naturally, that description is awful, and a better analogy would be a deckbuilding game that essentially functions as Starcraft in a box. The basic idea is that you have a gem pile, which basically is a Tetris screen filling up, and each turn your pile automatically fills up. Your goal, therefore, is to use "Crash Gems" from your deck of chips to split up your own gems and send them to your opponent. At the start of the game, you pick a character, each with its own playstyle, and along the way, you buy chips from a bank to add to your deck to increase its power.
I have a hell of a lot of fun playing this game because of the extremely deep gameplay beyond its cute facade. In order to play well, you have to keep track of your economy, purples, gem pile, and puzzle chips to ensure that you have a more efficient and effective deck than your opponent so you can outlast him as his gem pile fills up. The character you choose at the beginning also plays a big influence on how your game develops. Argagarg, for instance, might function as a disruptor who likes to ruin his opponents' decks by filling them with useless "Wound" chips, while Rook is usually an economy-focused character who prefers to gather up big money, spend it on the most powerful chips, and then unleash an unrelenting barrage of gems in the endgame. The community has done some impressive strategy analysis on the game, so I'd recommend checking that out it you're interested in becoming better.
It's really hard to describe this game in a short paragraph, and I probably did a terrible job, so it's probably in your best interest to take a gander at the rules.
If Puzzle Strike is the chip game version of Puzzle Fighter, then Yomi is the card game version of Street Fighter. Sirlin spent SIX FUCKING YEARS developing this game, and the results, to say the least, are stupendous. Yomi functions as a fighting game where each player plays with a deck of cards representing a character from the Fantasy Strike universe. There are ten different decks and, funnily enough, they're the same characters from Puzzle Strike. It's not like MtG--these decks are preconstructed and prebalanced, so there is no deckbuilding. Every character has normal attacks (2-10), special attacks (Jack, Queen, and King), and a super attack (Ace), along with two special Jokers, and each card is double-sided, meaning that the bottom of the card is different from the top. The basic gameplay is this: each player selects a card and plays it facedown in front of them, and then both players flip the cards to reveal them at the same time. The system is simple: Dodges and Blocks beat Attacks, Throws beat Dodges and Blocks, and Attacks beat Throws. Each Attack or Throw has a speed value, and if two Attacks or Throws are revealed, the faster Attack/Throw wins. If you land an Attack or Throw, you can follow up by playing more cards to form a "combo." Blocking an attack not only makes the opponent discard his attack, but it also lets you take your block back into your hand and lets you draw an ADDITIONAL card, putting you at an instant 2-card advantage and making blocking a huge deal. Dodging an attack lets you follow up with your own attack. The Jokers beat Attacks and Throws, but instead of doing damage, they let you search your deck for an Ace. Although Yomi has a very heavy rock-paper-scissors influence, the fact that there are unequal payoffs for each result makes the game infinitely more interesting than simple RPS.
Although I prefer the turn-based strategy of Puzzle Strike to the simultaneous psychology of Yomi, I will say this: Yomi is the most best conversion of one game media to another that I have ever played. When you tag someone with a small attack and then follow up with a combo, it truly feels like you're playing a fighting game, not something stupid like War. Even though I feel that it has less depth than Puzzle Strike, it also requires strategic play to be successful because each character has its own strengths and weaknesses. Rook, for instance, is a grappler relying heavily on his throws, while Valerie is a pixie character with long but low damage combos. I have no idea how Sirlin did it, but I honestly have nothing but praise for the game, and it truly deserves its Game of the Year award.
Again, I can't do this game justice in a couple of paragraphs, so take a look at the rules.
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The best part about both of these games is that you don't actually have to buy them to play them. They're pretty expensive, with Puzzle Strike costing $60 (it used to be $150!) and Yomi a whopping $100 for the full game. The link at the very top of this post is a simulator for both Puzzle Strike and Yomi with fully functioning online play and, in the case of Yomi, matchmaking. The nice thing about the simulator is that it has a functioning framework, meaning it automates everything that can be automated and "knows the rules," so the games more like video games than card games. You will need to download the Unity Web Player to play, but that really isn't a big deal for what it's worth. Not very many people play at once, but hopefully we can change that!
(Note to mods: I'm not advertising a product here--the link above is an online simulator for both of the board games I'm about to describe)
I don't know how many of you are really into board games (I'm not), but hopefully you've heard of Puzzle Strike and Yomi, two really awesome games designed by David Sirlin. This guy's record is fucking impressive: he's an MIT grad, and he's been in charge of several serious design projects, including rebalancing Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo for their HD Remix incarnations, designing Kongregate's Kongai card game, and (although I haven't seen much tournament footage of him) being really good at Street Fighter. As you can probably tell, he's also a fighting game buff (who has helped run Evo in the past) and a brilliant game design blogger.
The fact that it's really hard to explain what this game actually is is a testament to its originality. Sirlin touts it as a "card game played with chips instead of cards that simulates a puzzle video game (that doesn’t exist yet) that, in-turn, simulates a fighting game (that also doesn’t exist yet.)" Naturally, that description is awful, and a better analogy would be a deckbuilding game that essentially functions as Starcraft in a box. The basic idea is that you have a gem pile, which basically is a Tetris screen filling up, and each turn your pile automatically fills up. Your goal, therefore, is to use "Crash Gems" from your deck of chips to split up your own gems and send them to your opponent. At the start of the game, you pick a character, each with its own playstyle, and along the way, you buy chips from a bank to add to your deck to increase its power.
I have a hell of a lot of fun playing this game because of the extremely deep gameplay beyond its cute facade. In order to play well, you have to keep track of your economy, purples, gem pile, and puzzle chips to ensure that you have a more efficient and effective deck than your opponent so you can outlast him as his gem pile fills up. The character you choose at the beginning also plays a big influence on how your game develops. Argagarg, for instance, might function as a disruptor who likes to ruin his opponents' decks by filling them with useless "Wound" chips, while Rook is usually an economy-focused character who prefers to gather up big money, spend it on the most powerful chips, and then unleash an unrelenting barrage of gems in the endgame. The community has done some impressive strategy analysis on the game, so I'd recommend checking that out it you're interested in becoming better.
It's really hard to describe this game in a short paragraph, and I probably did a terrible job, so it's probably in your best interest to take a gander at the rules.
If Puzzle Strike is the chip game version of Puzzle Fighter, then Yomi is the card game version of Street Fighter. Sirlin spent SIX FUCKING YEARS developing this game, and the results, to say the least, are stupendous. Yomi functions as a fighting game where each player plays with a deck of cards representing a character from the Fantasy Strike universe. There are ten different decks and, funnily enough, they're the same characters from Puzzle Strike. It's not like MtG--these decks are preconstructed and prebalanced, so there is no deckbuilding. Every character has normal attacks (2-10), special attacks (Jack, Queen, and King), and a super attack (Ace), along with two special Jokers, and each card is double-sided, meaning that the bottom of the card is different from the top. The basic gameplay is this: each player selects a card and plays it facedown in front of them, and then both players flip the cards to reveal them at the same time. The system is simple: Dodges and Blocks beat Attacks, Throws beat Dodges and Blocks, and Attacks beat Throws. Each Attack or Throw has a speed value, and if two Attacks or Throws are revealed, the faster Attack/Throw wins. If you land an Attack or Throw, you can follow up by playing more cards to form a "combo." Blocking an attack not only makes the opponent discard his attack, but it also lets you take your block back into your hand and lets you draw an ADDITIONAL card, putting you at an instant 2-card advantage and making blocking a huge deal. Dodging an attack lets you follow up with your own attack. The Jokers beat Attacks and Throws, but instead of doing damage, they let you search your deck for an Ace. Although Yomi has a very heavy rock-paper-scissors influence, the fact that there are unequal payoffs for each result makes the game infinitely more interesting than simple RPS.
Although I prefer the turn-based strategy of Puzzle Strike to the simultaneous psychology of Yomi, I will say this: Yomi is the most best conversion of one game media to another that I have ever played. When you tag someone with a small attack and then follow up with a combo, it truly feels like you're playing a fighting game, not something stupid like War. Even though I feel that it has less depth than Puzzle Strike, it also requires strategic play to be successful because each character has its own strengths and weaknesses. Rook, for instance, is a grappler relying heavily on his throws, while Valerie is a pixie character with long but low damage combos. I have no idea how Sirlin did it, but I honestly have nothing but praise for the game, and it truly deserves its Game of the Year award.
Again, I can't do this game justice in a couple of paragraphs, so take a look at the rules.
-----------
The best part about both of these games is that you don't actually have to buy them to play them. They're pretty expensive, with Puzzle Strike costing $60 (it used to be $150!) and Yomi a whopping $100 for the full game. The link at the very top of this post is a simulator for both Puzzle Strike and Yomi with fully functioning online play and, in the case of Yomi, matchmaking. The nice thing about the simulator is that it has a functioning framework, meaning it automates everything that can be automated and "knows the rules," so the games more like video games than card games. You will need to download the Unity Web Player to play, but that really isn't a big deal for what it's worth. Not very many people play at once, but hopefully we can change that!
