My List Of The Best Games Played This Year, And A Small Reflection For 2020

On the last post of this year, I decided to make a list of the best games I played during 2019. Curiously, during the process of this ranking, I found myself reflecting on the content of Jesper Juul's new book "Handmade Pixels" (2019).

In his new book, Juul discusses how independent games became a historical movement that borrowed the term "independent" from film and music while finding its own kind of independence. The reading of Juul's book makes me reflect about how truly independent games that I played this year are, and what makes an indie game a really independent product.



Well, I'm still reading the book and I'll make some considerations about it soon. It's a really interesting content for game design and game studies classes.

For now, I want to share the list with the best 10 games that I have experienced in 2019. Important: 1) some of them are a little bit old, but I only played them this year; 2) they aren't listed in a scale "from best to worst", I just put them together.

• Baba is you
• What remains of Edith Finch
• Blasphemous
• Return of the Obra Dinn
• Cuphead
• Gris
• Gorogoa
• Katana Zero
• Hue
• Resident Evil 2 (remake)

Hope you enjoy it! See you next year!


#GoGamers

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Reference:

JUUL, Jesper. Handmade Pixels: Independent Video Games and the Quest for Authenticity. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2019

Gaming In The ATL - 5Th Best In The US

This is a good article highlighting Atlanta as a great place for game play and development.

Platic Crack?

Here is a little something I have been waiting on for a bit over six months…. A proof of concept in plastic from another manufacturer.

I am stoked! The quality looks good, the price is right and the turn around time will be good. So why did it take six months then? Because it was free, a test mold and test shots arranged by my old account manager at WGF who has struck out on his own. He asked if I could send him the original files to split and use as a non-retail sample to show other clients. I agreed and after some waiting they arrived! This is only two of the five pose options... As a free test mold we were limited to a single sprue.

No doubt Wai Kee and the old WGF makes incredible plastic, but his shop is always jammed with production, this makes it pretty much impossible for me to look at that as a viable resource for future production or Kickstarter's. I had my doubts that anyone could get close, but I am reeealllly happy with these shots, and as this opens up the door again I am eyeing another Kickstarter.

I am still pulling together all the costs and if it appears to be a real option, I am more than happy to give it a go. This time would be FAR more focused. One kit at a time, with true costs, the molds and production would need to be funded in full for that 'episode'? But if it works, another would be on the heals of the last… Ferals? then StuG? then Shadokesh vehicle or walker… then whatever sounds fun.

With this kind of Kickstarter there would be a very focused goal, drive and costs… We are not so much looking at the typical song and dance hype train. The product would make it or not on its own merits, and cover its true costs.

Soooo what do you think?

Would you like to know more?

Insurance (Tradecraft)

A nuts and bolts post? Sure, why not.

A business requires insurance. At the minimum, you need liability insurance. There are other types of insurance though. I've got liability insurance, workers comp insurance, key man life insurance, and for years we had vehicle insurance on our van. Insurance is one of those things new store owners don't always think about.

My second year in business I went to a seminar where a store owner had someone drive through their front window into their store. Twice. He was the likely guy to give a presentation on business insurance and for many, needing such a thing was an eye opener. When I started I had a home and assets and made sure the store was incorporated and insured and far away from my personal life. For most young people without a pot to relieve themselves, that might not be a consideration. 

So how do you get insurance? Find a human. I'm not sure if you can get business liability insurance online, but if so, it's a bad idea. You want to talk to a human about your particular business needs and exactly what you do and where you do it. For example, my store went from a regular retail environment to an improved, two story monstrosity in need of rebuilding if it burned down. It probably wouldn't be rebuilt there, but they'll pay to rebuild it somewhere.  If I had just gotten regular liability insurance, I would be left with no protection and a ton of outstanding loans for a burnt out shell. 

Other considerations include insuring Magic singles. My policy has a "fine art" clause that includes those. What you don't want are surprises. Insurance companies are all about taking as much money from you as they can and paying out as little as possible. It's better to be up front, find angles to cover everything necessary, and avoid surprises. Look at your lease and see what you're responsible for.  Plate glass insurance is often inexpensive, but if someone breaks all your windows, you could be out thousands of dollars. Over time, revisit your policy and up your limits when you add inventory or fixtures.

Who is that human? I have a customer who jumps from job to job, and one of his latest was insurance agent. He was an agent for about four months before he moved on. Do not use a green agent. Find someone experienced. I had a new agent misclassify my company for my workers comp policy, thinking I didn't need to be covered as an owner, when in fact it was necessary. A company audit revealed the mistake, and rather than admitting their agent error, they charged me $3,500 in back premiums. Insurance companies exist to do two things: take as much money as possible while denying your claims. 

Personal insurance agents tend not to handle commercial insurance, so you probably won't be able to use your Aunt Kathy's agency to handle your commercial needs (my Aunt K does my personal insurance). Attempt to find a well regarded commercial agent who has been doing this for a while and lay all your cards on the table.

Classification is tricky as there is no "game store" category for liability insurance. You might be classified as a toy store, a book store, a hobby store, whatever is close, and the cost between agencies and within each agency could be enormous. As long as you don't get cute, something reasonable should be fine.

Avoid buying a policy based entirely on price. Ask what's not covered in your case. Have a good heart to heart with the agent. These policies are really cheap compared to what could happen. I once transitioned between agencies and in a 30 day overlap period, someone broke into my store, doing a lot of damage and stealing a lot of cash (foolish me).  I talked to my new agent who walked me through my old coverage, which sucked, and my new coverage, which was great. I filed a claim with the better coverage, and yeah, they canceled me exactly a year later, but I saved $900. 

Make sure you have extensive business interruption insurance, which is usually standard. Knowing that my store could burn down and I have months to find a new place while paying employees allows me to sleep at night. When you get bigger, losing all your employees can destroy your business as easily as fire. 

What's a Good Company? I don't know! They're all terrible! I can't even remember who I have now. Let me check: Travelers for liability, State Farm for key man life insurance, and AP Intego for workers compensation insurance (pay as you go). Farmers burned me on that workers comp policy I mentioned, so maybe avoid them. 

Procedurally Generated Annotations

Imagine exploring this dungeon:

Procedurally generated dungeon map

But that's not what watabou's One Page Dungeon generator produced. It produced that dungeon with a title, Underground Lair of the Cursed Lich: For several centuries the lair of the Cursed Lich was considered lost, until recently was rediscovered by a gang of gnolls, and also with text annotations on some of the rooms:

Procedurally annotated dungeon map

Big difference! The text sparks curiosity and imagination in a way that the map by itself does not. Is that bard good or evil? Did the bard and cleric know each other? How did seals kill the gnoll?! What does the magic gem do? This type of text is missing from many procedural generation projects, including mine. I love what watabou did here.

Let's look a map from Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator:

Procedurally generated continent map

But that's not all Azgaar generates. He also generates country names, borders, icons, and other annotations:

Procedurally generated everything

Look at how much more interesting that is!

Zoomed in, the map looks nice, with regions, rivers, and bays:

Procedurally generated region map

But look how much more interesting it is with town names, roads, and trade routes:

Procedurally generated everything

It doesn't take much annotation to make the magic! Just a small amount triggers our curiosity and imagination. Our minds see patterns easily, even when they aren't really there ("apophenia"). This is something I'd like to explore the next time I'm making a procedural map generator.

(Note: this is an expanded version of what I posted on twitter)