I took one of the turrets through to completion to see how I liked it. The Doomweaver was intended to be red that fades to bright orange, I'm not sure there's a whole lot a difference when compared to the hull orange though. Thoughts?
Hiring: Audio Lead / Sound Designer
Title: Audio Lead / Sound Designer
Focus: Creating and implementing sounds, managing audio content
Type: Full-time, permanent
Last day to apply: Monday 15th of April 2019 /CLOSED
Location: Malmö, Sweden (Doing remote work from EU/EEA countries welcome)
You remember it: a faint rustle in your periphery, dragging footsteps around the corner, a raspy breath. You still break in cold sweat when you hear that high-pitched screech that means a monster is near. All the iconic soundscapes that make Frictional games what they are.
We are now looking for an experienced audio designer to work in-house and continue this tradition of keeping a new generation of gamers on their toes with lovingly designed, eerie and memorable soundscapes.
What will you work on?
We are quite a small team, but we consider that our selling point. As a sound designer you will get to work on everything from small effects to the overall mood of the project. This means your contribution will greatly influence how the final game sounds, feels and evokes emotions.
Here are some of the things you will be working on:
- Collaborating with designers to create soundscapes, taking both artistic and gameplay aspects into account.
- Being a part of designing the overall mood of the game.
- Creating some of sounds used for our monsters, machines and other otherworldly noises using libraries, or from scratch if possible.
- Creating sound effects timed with specific events and animations.
- Refining events by working with both our map editor and scripting tools.
- Researching various technical features needed to achieve certain effects.
- Handling the music, either by creating it or working with a musician.
- All in all, helping the game world come to life.
We also encourage working outside of your area of expertise, and always learning new things. The more areas of development you are willing and able to take part in, the better! For example you are encouraged to participate in our fortnightly testing and leave feedback on other aspects of the game.
What are we looking for?
You have to be a European (EU/EEA) resident to apply.
The person we're looking for is creative, driven and self-sufficient. With a remote team such as ours, the ability to organise your own work is a fundamental skill.
We have recently set up a central hub in Malmö, Sweden, and will help you move to our seaside city if it suits your situation.
Here are some essentials we require:
- Hardware and equipment to work with.
- We don't expect you to have a fully equipped home studio, but enough to work on most of the sounds. Additional equipment can be provided if needed, but it is important that you have the hardware needed to start working.
- At least one year of experience in audio production for games.
- Good understanding of sound and music, and how they affect the player experience.
- Ability to challenge yourself, make bold creative decisions, and try non-conventional things.
- A critical approach to your work, with the ability to take a step back and reflect.
- A strive for structure, efficiency, and clarity.
- Strong self-drive and ability to organise your own work.
- Interest in and ability to do research for interesting sound and music solutions.
- Love for working on a variety of tasks.
- Fluency in English.
- Familiarity with FMod or Wwise.
- Basic knowledge in programming.
- Basic knowledge of creating maps in a level editor.
- Love for horror, sci-fi, and narrative games.
- A major role in completing at least one game.
- Experience in level design.
- Strong game design skills.
What do we offer?
We make games, because that's what we love. But we know there are other things we love, like playing games, taking part in sports, or spending time with our families. We believe a healthy balance between work and life reflects positively on your work, which is why we don't encourage crunch.
We also offer:
- Flexible working hours.
- Opportunities to influence your workflow.
- Variety in your work tasks, and ability to influence your workload.
- Participation in our internal game Show & Tell sessions, so you'll have input into all aspects of the game.
- Social security and holidays that are up to the Swedish standards.
- An inclusive and respectful work environment.
- An office in central Malmö you can use as much as you please.
- Fun workmates, game and movie nights, and other outings!
If all of the above piqued your interest, we would love to hear from you! Send us your application 15th of April the latest - but the sooner, the better!
Please attach your:
- Cover Letter
- Why should we hire YOU?
- CV
- Link to your portfolio site
- Link to a video reel demonstrating sound design abilities
- A document describing a game soundscape you have worked on. Please write about the following:
- What you worked on.
- What you were going for with the design.
- What went well in the project and what you would prefer to change in retrospect.
Send your application to apply@frictionalgames.com!
Wonder how we hire? Read our blog on How we hire at Frictional Games.
What kind of application are we looking for? Read our blog on Writing the best application for a Frictional Games job.
Want to know how sounds were made in the days of Amnesia: The Dark Descent? Check out the video starring our old sound designer Tapio Liukkonen below.
Privacy Policy
By sending us your application, you give us permission to store your personal information and attachments.
We store all applications in a secure system. The applications are stored for two years, after which they are deleted. If you want your your information removed earlier, please contact us through our Contact form. Read more in our Privacy Policy.
3000Th Duel Review (NSW)
Written by Patrick Orquia
Title: 3000th Duel
Developer: NeoPopcorn
Publisher: NeoPopcorn
Genre: Metroidvania, Platformer, Action, Adventure, RPG, Soulslike
Number of Players: 1
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: 19 Feb 2020
Price: $14.99
Also Available On: Steam
I can confidently say by now that metroidvania is my most favorite video game genre. That feeling of my character gradually leveling up as I progress into the game and acquiring more and more skills, abilities, weapons, and other equipment and gears is just awesome. Unlocking new secrets and finding hidden areas are also pure fun. Metroidvania games really evoke the adventurous in me and provide me a rather sweet escape from my boring, sedentary life.
Metroidvania games are dime a dozen on the Nintendo Switch eShop. This is one of the go-to varieties by indie developers, and a good lot of them have released quality titles over the console's three years of existence. One such game is this game, 3000th Duel. Originally released on Steam late last year, it has now found a new and possibly better home on Nintendo's hybrid console.
Unlike most recent indie titles, this game is not of the pixel art variety. It is presented in 2.5D art style, similar to the Trine games. It looks quite amazing, with very good use of particle effects and photorealistic textures and run at a solid framerate all throughout (I think it's 60fps, but I'm not 100% sure). And complementing the visuals is the equally good soundtrack effectively evoke whichever environment or biome that you are in. I have to say, the overall quality of this game, from its looks to gameplay, is surprisingly good. I really liked it and it's just one fun and challenging game to play which sort of came out of nowhere. This is not part of some long-running franchise, and yet, playing it feels familiar. Because, again, it's a metroidvania game.
In this game, you play as an unnamed masked hero who has lost his memory. You embark on an epic journey to regain all of your memories to rediscover who you are and what destiny awaits you. You travel across an expansive world with interconnected areas and you have to acquire skills that will allow you to traverse one area to the next. You know, typical metroidvania stuff. Along the way, many different types of enemies that vary in attack power and size will try to kill you, as they usually do, with some big boss battles at the end of the areas you explore. As you progress into the game, you also gather your lost memories, presented in a wall of text that provide backstory to your character. I would have preferred some voice acting or some cut scenes, but I guess you get all that you want.
Speaking of typical metroidvania stuff, the developers of this game seem to have studied all the common tropes and clichés of metroidvania games and ran away with them for this game. Despite this, the game still manages to stand on its own, as the developers threw in some additional RPG and soulslike elements into it. The game doesn't make your character automatically level up, but as you slay enemies, they drop karma, the main currency for this game, which you can then use to upgrade four attributes for your character: vitality (HP), strength (attack), mind (MP), and activity (the more this is leveled up, the more you can perform dash moves, similar to how it is in soulslike games). Upgrading any of these require a certain amount of karma, and upon doing so levels up your character. At the same time, you earn seal breaker stones each time you level up. These stones are used in obtaining new skill upgrades (aka Sealed Skills) from the skill tree. The skill tree is broken up in sections, meaning you can only break Sealed Skills belonging to the skills that you have already unlocked. You unlock these skills as you progress into the game by collecting them, usually after defeating a boss at the end of certain areas.
The heart and soul of this game is its combat gameplay. You can wield three types of weapons: blade-type, broadsword-type, and lance-type. Blades offer fast attacks but comparatively weak damage, broadswords (which also include axes) are slower but deal heavier damage, and lances are for hitting multiple enemies in front of you at once with medium damage. You can upgrade the attack power of your weapons with the use of some metal ores and the like that you will find in your travels. As you hit enemies, your MP meter gets filled, and when it starts glowing, you can press X to perform a special attack with high damage. The more you upgrade your MP, the more special attacks that you can perform.
On top of these weapons, you can also wield spells, referred in game as occults. These spells also use up you occult devotions, which can be upgraded by breaking certain Sealed Skills and upgrading your Mind attribute. Depending on the type of occult that you use, the number of occult devotions needed for the spells vary, with those that use up more occult devotions having greater attack power.
Up to two different weapons and two different occults can be equipped at any given time and can be switched on the fly by pressing R and L, respectively. Pressing ZR allows you do dash, which is very useful in dodging enemies or traps or in traversing gaps. Pressing ZR allows you to view the map that expands as you progress and explore more areas in the game. Discovered treasures but left unopened or uncollected are marked on the map, so that you can easily get back to them once you have the necessary skills to reach them.
Speaking of the map, as previously mentioned, the world in this game is expansive and the way they interconnect and loop back to one another is very well-designed. The biomes in each area are also varied, with matching varied enemies waiting to take a bite off you. Special mention to the background art design with amazing parallax scrolling. They make the world even wider and more spacious, plus the superb lighting that really highlights the wonderful art style. Anyway, back to the map: the game also has a fast travel system, and these fast travel points are strategically situated within the levels. This makes grinding and backtracking easier. By the way, the NPCs that sell items and upgrade weapons and occults are only found within one area of the game, so using these fast travel points is quite a necessity, especially if you want to be more powerful and more prepared for your upcoming battles.
Overall, 3000th Duel is one surprisingly good game and it plays awesomely on the Switch. It gives you a good bang for your buck, with a playtime of 15-20 hours for $15. Plus it is only about 995Mb, so it won't be too taxing on your microSD card. If you have some spare cash and you want to scratch your metroidvania itch, go give this game a try and if you are a fan of the genre, you will surely love it. So buckle up, grind, and prepare for one epic adventure and be ready for your 3000 or more duels in this indie gem.
REPLAY VALUE: Very high
PROS
- Surprisingly good visuals with excellent art style, animation, environment, lighting, and particle effects
- Excellent soundtrack that effectively evokes the ambience of the environment
- Solid and smooth frame rate throughout the game
- Very good use of HD rumble
- Wide range of customization options, from occults to weapons to skills and abilities
- Good variety of enemies to slay
- Good variety of weapons and buff items to collect
- Amazing boss battles, albeit with simplistic attack patterns, but can get really challenging near the end
- Interesting NPCs that make you feel less alone in this world
- The challenge ramps up quite steeply by the second half of the game which prevents the game from hitting a plateau and thus will make you strategize more and grind a bit
- Metroidvania tropes and clichés put into very good use, with some RPG and soulslike elements thrown in
- Good price point
CONS
- No voice acting
- Walls of text for story exposition
- The title is a bit lame
- NPCs that sell items and upgrade weapons and occults are only found in only one area, which makes going back to them quite a chore, even with the availability of fast travel points
- Controls cannot be remapped, which could have helped those who prefer the D-pad over the left analog stick for movement
- The controls are floaty at times; some control inputs not are registering in time that could result to cheap deaths
- Some sections are too dark in normal screen brightness handheld mode
RATING: 4.5/5 Metroidvania heroes and villains
Where Have The Players Been In Your Campaign?
Sit back and consider, for a moment, the contiguous land mass of the Russian nation. It's huge. Wikipedia says that area is 17,098,246 square kilometers. (6,601,670 sq mi) For comparison, a city block ranges from 0.0025 square miles to 0.01 square miles.
Britannica says that "Russia has a maximum east-west extent of some 5,600 miles (9,000 km) and a north-south width of 1,500 to 2,500 miles."
When I created the full Lands of Men hex map, I took a map of Russia and then folded, spindled and twisted the map to make something new, then put my campaign into it. When I started, I had 3 hexes. Now I have... well... this. (Click to embiggen)
The areas in red are where the PCs have been, with a total of about 6 years of play (counting a 4 year campaign interregnum, we've been doing this for ten years.)
The Eastern Borders campaign is my tabletop campaign. They've ranged the most, having gone up towards the Sithasten Mountains when they freed the Marshal's daughter from the Black Brotherhood. They've traveled east to Irecia, the lost Diamond City. They've gone south into the Southron Duchy, into the Nisangel Forests to journey deep into the depths of Tuluk. It "feels" like a lot, but there is so much more to see and do!
The Southern Seas campaign is my play-by-post campaign. Those guys have been at this particular go around for almost five years. In that time, they've covered about two hexes of area, but then the pace of play-by-post is slower. Still, they've been in the mountains near orc territory, and they've sailed to the island city of Ramathia!
The Western Borders campaign is my online Roll20/Discord campaign. They started in January of 2019. While they've had a few hexes of travel while going to a nearby town of Tannia, they've mainly been in one hex of area, seeking to clear the ancient ruins of Griffon's Keep from an advance warparty of orcs, goblins and evil priests. This lies near their homebase of Gireford, a small village.
In a way, this is really cool to see, as well as eye-opening. There's so much space! So many things to discover, to see, to explore. I honestly don't think that I'll live long enough to see all of the major cities visited by PCs, much less every hex explored. That's... crazy.
Anyway, though I'd share this as I think this is hella cool! What about your campaign? Where have your players been? How much have they explored? What else is left?
Britannica says that "Russia has a maximum east-west extent of some 5,600 miles (9,000 km) and a north-south width of 1,500 to 2,500 miles."
When I created the full Lands of Men hex map, I took a map of Russia and then folded, spindled and twisted the map to make something new, then put my campaign into it. When I started, I had 3 hexes. Now I have... well... this. (Click to embiggen)
The areas in red are where the PCs have been, with a total of about 6 years of play (counting a 4 year campaign interregnum, we've been doing this for ten years.)
The Eastern Borders campaign is my tabletop campaign. They've ranged the most, having gone up towards the Sithasten Mountains when they freed the Marshal's daughter from the Black Brotherhood. They've traveled east to Irecia, the lost Diamond City. They've gone south into the Southron Duchy, into the Nisangel Forests to journey deep into the depths of Tuluk. It "feels" like a lot, but there is so much more to see and do!
The Southern Seas campaign is my play-by-post campaign. Those guys have been at this particular go around for almost five years. In that time, they've covered about two hexes of area, but then the pace of play-by-post is slower. Still, they've been in the mountains near orc territory, and they've sailed to the island city of Ramathia!
The Western Borders campaign is my online Roll20/Discord campaign. They started in January of 2019. While they've had a few hexes of travel while going to a nearby town of Tannia, they've mainly been in one hex of area, seeking to clear the ancient ruins of Griffon's Keep from an advance warparty of orcs, goblins and evil priests. This lies near their homebase of Gireford, a small village.
In a way, this is really cool to see, as well as eye-opening. There's so much space! So many things to discover, to see, to explore. I honestly don't think that I'll live long enough to see all of the major cities visited by PCs, much less every hex explored. That's... crazy.
Anyway, though I'd share this as I think this is hella cool! What about your campaign? Where have your players been? How much have they explored? What else is left?
Here's To Lookin' At You, Bugs!
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| Image used for criticism under "Fair Use." All rights belong to Warner Brothers. |
"What's up, Doc?"
Bugs Bunny was one of the great idols of my childhood. Looney Tunes used to regularly come on Cartoon Network, and Bugs was the one I always wanted most to see. In fact, Cartoon Network used to dedicate the entire month of June to playing Bugs Bunny cartoons nonstop. Such a bold move could hardly be imagined today. Even more inconceivable were his appearances at that time beside Michael Jordan in Space Jam, and Mickey Mouse in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The latter more productive than the former.
I speak of Bugs since he just turned seventy-five this year. In the few moments I've spent with him, eyes glued to the TV set, so many are fond. Who wouldn't adore his arguments with Daffy over whether it was "Rabbit Season" or "Duck Season"? We all know the routine. Bugs would concede that it's "Rabbit Season", but Daffy, not one to agree with Bugs, thoughtlessly insists that its "Duck Season", only to get his bill shot off by Elmer. Though Bugs hardly ever got on Elmer's good side, either. As much as he tried to be very, very quiet in his hunting for rabbits, Bugs usually got the upper-hand. Sometimes he did it by cross-dressing as a woman, most famously in What's Opera, Doc? Now remembered as one of Bugs and Elmer's finest, What's Opera, Doc? is a fanciful adaptation of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, with the "Tannhauser Chorus" and "Ride of the Valkyries" included. The short was produced in the 1950's, when the Chuck Jones cartoons acquired a more modernist art style. We see this on point when Elmer's fury to command the weather gets the background into more clashing hues and greys. What stands out about this particular episode is that Elmer actually succeeds in killing Bugs, to which he weeps. I was shocked upon first seeing this. Tom never caught Jerry. Sylvester never caught Tweety. Wile E. Coyote never caught Road Runner. Yet here we were. Though Bugs slipped in a final comment to berate my surprise, "What did you expect from an opera, a happy ending?"
Even when Bugs was shamelessly ripping off Tom and Jerry's Cat Concerto in Rhapsody Rabbit, he managed to get a good laugh or two in. I mean hell, he literally pulls out a gun to shoot a coughing audience member. I suppose a bullet does better to silence than cough drops.
Bugs had wit. I'd argue that's part of his draw. With so many one-liners, Bugs comes across as an animated Groucho Marx. (Bugs has even put on a Groucho disguise). The rabbit always used his brains to get the upper-hand over his opponents, and being a cartoon, he resolves matters in ways that may surprise the viewer. Compare this to Popeye the Sailor, whom while being entertaining in his own right, always ended his conflicts in the same way: with spinach and muscle. Though the type of character Bugs is comes from the Trickster archetype. NPR compared him favorably to Puck, Anansi, and the Monkey King. Further, the radio station quoted Robert Thompson, who directs a pop-culture studies program at Syracuse University. Thompson remarked of Bugs that, "He defies authority. He goes against the rules. But he does it in a way that's often lovable, and that often results in good things for the culture at large," (Sutherland). Chuck Jones, always made sure that Bugs only acted when provoked. His trickery was a matter of defending his dignity.
And to my recollection, he always won.
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| Image used for criticism under "Fair Use." All rights belong to Warner Bros. |
Bibliography
Sutherland, J.J. "Bugs Bunny: The Trickster, American Style." NPR, January 6, 2008. Web. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17874931
Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise Kickstarter
Yes, the creative batteries have been recharged and I'm ready to scribble my little eldritch-green heart out!
Right over here is the Kickstarter campaign. Yesterday was a soft opening... today is the full-scale launch. And it's already nearly funded.
I'm excited and encouraged by the projected numbers. Several individuals whose opinion I trust believe this will top out around $28,000.
Numbers like that mean we can go all-out with the book, just like our gorgeous Cha'alt hardcover! I intend to add as much value as I possibly can. Backers are like family to me - better, actually, because I don't want to kick backers out of my house an hour after the Thanksgiving meal.
Have any questions? Please ask. Have suggestions? Yes, indeed. Want to share this KS on social media? May you live to be a thousand years old, and the seven purple moons of Cha'alt shine their shadowy tentacles upon the fabulous wealth of your intrepid adventuring party!
Thanks for your support,
VS
p.s. I'll be making frequent updates to the KS. Additionally, keep an eye on those stretch goals. Regardless of how far we get, the list will grow. ;)
Playing Some Guild Ball
Once our local Scrum (month long Steamroller) has finished, I kind of got sucked into Guild Ball again. This is a fairly odd development, partially because I haven't played the game in roughly 7 months. Back in July of last year I had to stop all miniature gaming to help my wife through the end of the pregnancy and then birth of my youngest daughter, but before that happened I was a bit upset at the way Guild Ball was played because of how imbalanced things were.
Of course when I stopped gaming, Steamforged released an Errata in July that largely fixed a lot of the problems, and while I was raring to get back into Trolls as soon as I could start gaming again, a few things pulled me into playing Guild Ball and I've really been loving the game all over again. I figure I'll go through what that was, as well as some of the things I really like about the game in general.
Pulling Me Back In
During the same month of our Warmachine Scrum, a Guild Ball Scrum was also being run, with some playing in both games. This was handled as promotional event that would allow players who played to get a Lucky model. Since my first team was Brewers and my friend Brian has no intention of playing Masons or Brewers, he was kind enough to give me the model.
Lucky is my first PVC model and Steamforged is making all new teams come in very cheap $50 boxes with 6 PVC models that require no assembly, plus some extra terrain. They also recently changed the Official Play Document to say that you can now use unpainted PVC models in their tournaments. While I'm pretty good at modeling, it's not really my favorite thing to do, so this kind of setup seems great to me, it's also a great value for starting a new guild.
Another old friend of mine, Kevin plays mini games off and on, but he's not a modeler or painter, so this PVC setup is perfect for him. After talking about it and him watching us play at the local shop Kevin ended up buying the Kick Off set which has to be one of the best values in miniature gaming at the moment.
Since he was free to come over on Friday's when my wife would get a girls night out, I could strap my youngest to my chest, have my oldest help roll dice, and get some extra games in each week! I effectively became Kevin's unofficial Pundit, teaching him the game.
Please note, I'm extremely rusty here - many mistakes were made.
Since then, I've been playing some Brewers, Engineers, and I've purchased the last few models to flesh out my Union - getting something akin to Guild A.D.D.
Hobby
One of the nicest thing about Guild Ball is the fact that it's a small model count game that has as much intensity as larger miniature games. Small model counts plus the fact that you're really only ever painting a model once (ie. no units with duplicate models), it's so easy to get a fully painted force. This has triggered a kind of OCD for me to immediately paint my Guild Ball models within a few days of purchase.
I'm not a good painter by a long shot, but I truly enjoy playing with fully painted forces, and that's hardly ever the case when I play Warmachine (or when I played 40k or Fantasy). As such, I really like how achievable it is to play fully painted in Guild Ball.
The game is also nice that you are encouraged to build an optional goal post for your teams that can let you flex your hobby muscles if you wanted. I was excited to finally use my old Bugman's model from Warhammer Fantasy, mostly because it enabled me to put a beautiful Dwarf model I love on the table and actually have it be fun (Dwarfs were miserable to play with and against back in Fantasy). He makes a great Brewers goal post.
My Guilds
The game is also sort of dangerous since it's really not expensive to get into a guild at all, and that was back when everything was metal and starters only came with 3 models. I started with Brewers with a few Union models added slowly over time, then got a very different team in Engineers to play a more goal scoring game, and then it was "only two more models" (Captain and Mascot) to make a fledgling Union team.
Coming back into the game in the last month, I elected to buy the last few models I wanted to flesh out my Union with Grace and Benediction and getting a captain I'm very excited to play in Blackheart. Since Brewers are more of a Take-Out team, and Engineers a more Goal-Scoring Football team, the prospect of playing an all 2" Melee team lead by Blackheart that can adapt to whichever game plan I want, but easily do 2 Goals - 2 Take Outs to win is very appealing to me.
As it is, every model I own besides Lucky is metal, and after assembling the new Grace and Benediction models, I really am looking forward to when I can just buy PVC models from here on out.
Gaming Nirvana
Out of all the options I have to play with in Guild Ball at the moment, I'm spoiled for choice and I'm liking the way things are going. Apparently the game still has some balance issues with Thresher and Farmers, and Corsair Fishermen are still a bugbear in the meta - but supposedly an errata is coming soon. I've not played against either of those things yet though, and I'm not good enough to expect to win against competitive players so I just look forward to playing and learning in the near term.
Plus with my Hooch Hauler finally arriving, and with two local players getting the new God Tear early access/beta set, I've got a LOT of really interesting gaming time coming up in the weeks and months ahead.
I hope to put up some more content for each of the games I'm playing shortly.
Of course when I stopped gaming, Steamforged released an Errata in July that largely fixed a lot of the problems, and while I was raring to get back into Trolls as soon as I could start gaming again, a few things pulled me into playing Guild Ball and I've really been loving the game all over again. I figure I'll go through what that was, as well as some of the things I really like about the game in general.
Pulling Me Back In
During the same month of our Warmachine Scrum, a Guild Ball Scrum was also being run, with some playing in both games. This was handled as promotional event that would allow players who played to get a Lucky model. Since my first team was Brewers and my friend Brian has no intention of playing Masons or Brewers, he was kind enough to give me the model.
Lucky is my first PVC model and Steamforged is making all new teams come in very cheap $50 boxes with 6 PVC models that require no assembly, plus some extra terrain. They also recently changed the Official Play Document to say that you can now use unpainted PVC models in their tournaments. While I'm pretty good at modeling, it's not really my favorite thing to do, so this kind of setup seems great to me, it's also a great value for starting a new guild.
Another old friend of mine, Kevin plays mini games off and on, but he's not a modeler or painter, so this PVC setup is perfect for him. After talking about it and him watching us play at the local shop Kevin ended up buying the Kick Off set which has to be one of the best values in miniature gaming at the moment.
Since he was free to come over on Friday's when my wife would get a girls night out, I could strap my youngest to my chest, have my oldest help roll dice, and get some extra games in each week! I effectively became Kevin's unofficial Pundit, teaching him the game.
Since I already played Brewers and they're considered a lower tier team, myself and others recommended Kevin start with the Kick Off Masons, which is actually quite a strong team.
Since then I've basically spent the last three weeks playing only Guild Ball with my gaming night out and then again on Friday's while my wife has her girls night out. I've gotten double the games in for nearly a month now!
I'm actually good friends with Paul who runs the My Life With Dice YouTube Channel and you can see me play my first game of Pin Vice ever, and my first engineers game in 6+ Months:
Please note, I'm extremely rusty here - many mistakes were made.
Since then, I've been playing some Brewers, Engineers, and I've purchased the last few models to flesh out my Union - getting something akin to Guild A.D.D.
Hobby
One of the nicest thing about Guild Ball is the fact that it's a small model count game that has as much intensity as larger miniature games. Small model counts plus the fact that you're really only ever painting a model once (ie. no units with duplicate models), it's so easy to get a fully painted force. This has triggered a kind of OCD for me to immediately paint my Guild Ball models within a few days of purchase.
I'm not a good painter by a long shot, but I truly enjoy playing with fully painted forces, and that's hardly ever the case when I play Warmachine (or when I played 40k or Fantasy). As such, I really like how achievable it is to play fully painted in Guild Ball.
The game is also nice that you are encouraged to build an optional goal post for your teams that can let you flex your hobby muscles if you wanted. I was excited to finally use my old Bugman's model from Warhammer Fantasy, mostly because it enabled me to put a beautiful Dwarf model I love on the table and actually have it be fun (Dwarfs were miserable to play with and against back in Fantasy). He makes a great Brewers goal post.
My Guilds
The game is also sort of dangerous since it's really not expensive to get into a guild at all, and that was back when everything was metal and starters only came with 3 models. I started with Brewers with a few Union models added slowly over time, then got a very different team in Engineers to play a more goal scoring game, and then it was "only two more models" (Captain and Mascot) to make a fledgling Union team.
Coming back into the game in the last month, I elected to buy the last few models I wanted to flesh out my Union with Grace and Benediction and getting a captain I'm very excited to play in Blackheart. Since Brewers are more of a Take-Out team, and Engineers a more Goal-Scoring Football team, the prospect of playing an all 2" Melee team lead by Blackheart that can adapt to whichever game plan I want, but easily do 2 Goals - 2 Take Outs to win is very appealing to me.
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| Brewers |
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| Engineers |
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| Union |
Gaming Nirvana
Out of all the options I have to play with in Guild Ball at the moment, I'm spoiled for choice and I'm liking the way things are going. Apparently the game still has some balance issues with Thresher and Farmers, and Corsair Fishermen are still a bugbear in the meta - but supposedly an errata is coming soon. I've not played against either of those things yet though, and I'm not good enough to expect to win against competitive players so I just look forward to playing and learning in the near term.
Plus with my Hooch Hauler finally arriving, and with two local players getting the new God Tear early access/beta set, I've got a LOT of really interesting gaming time coming up in the weeks and months ahead.
I hope to put up some more content for each of the games I'm playing shortly.
DJMAX RESPECT V Officially Launches On Steam
Developed by Rocky Studio, and published by NEOWIZ, DJMAX RESPECT V, the PC edition of 2018's hit rhythm game and PlayStation 4 exclusive, is a culmination of every past DJMAX release. The base game includes 161 unique tracks in total, including an original opening track as well as nine newly licensed songs exclusive to DJMAX RESPECT V, with dozens more due to be released as DLC in the coming months.
For the first time since DJMAX Online, originally released in 2004, competitive online play features prominently in DJMAX RESPECT V. Supporting up to seven players simultaneously in online matches, as well as head-to-head ranked ladder matches, players can again challenge one another and climb the leaderboards.
"The future is bright for DJMAX!" says Ji Soo Moon, CEO of NEOWIZ. "The positive response to our Early Access period has been overwhelming, and we cannot wait to introduce more content for players in the months following today's launch."
DJMAX RESPECT V available now, 20% off, for $39.99 USD through March 19. All available DLC, including the game's digital soundtracks will also be on sale for 20% off through March 19.
Existentialism And Essentialism
How many of then however strayed into typical "enlighten the deluded masses that need to be rescued from their perverse religion"?
(That is no bad thing in one sense as most religions are false. There is only one true religion the Catholic Faith and all the rest are evil in some way or another- Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Calvinism, Pentecostalism, Anglicanism- they are false religions.)
But even worse, and even more toxic, how many of them essentially preach the doctrine of existentialism.
Man comes to realise that he does not have an essence- his essence is simply his existence- he makes who he is. Man is. There are no laws he must obey, no standards he is called to and no way of life that makes sense of the world.
This is problematic. Deeply problematic.
The challenge of the Christian RPG is to promote essentialism- you have a nature, you have a destiny, you have an end point, you are charged with a mission, you have inbuilt rules, you inhabit a world in which you have a place even if you don't know it yet, religion can help you discover who you are, your essence, your vocation, the meaning written into every fibre of your being.
This can be exciting too. In fact it can be far far more exciting that having a revelation that you are nobody and that your life is in fact empty of meaning.
We all find joy and experience a sense of expansion even in discovering some weird fact about a biological relative, say a grandfather. Imagine tomorrow you discovered your great great great grandfather was a prince who had been exiled from some small European state 150 years ago. Wow! And you are in fact the heir to that kingdom! Wow!
The joy of discovering your true place in the story of the world is awesome and the amazing thing is- God does have a place for you in this story.
Freedom means you can deviate and reject this role,
in eternity you will discover it, you will see your essence, who God had intended and designed you to be.
Unfortunately the vast majority of souls will gaze upon this essence in rage, amidst the fires of hell, for only those who conform themselves to this image, this vocation, this essence will make it to purgatory and through purgatory to heaven.
Domine ut videam.
Lord help me to see who I am, who you have made me, help me to live according to your design for me, to flourish and to lead others to this fulfillment that solely comes through relationship with you- in and through the one church you founded.
Gaslands And Kill Team
Those are the two projects I am spending my time on right now.
Oh, and I am doing fine, just incredibly busy. Dealing with a lot of things, but its improving, if you are worried about me. And if you are, well... thanks. I appreciate it.
Oh, and I am doing fine, just incredibly busy. Dealing with a lot of things, but its improving, if you are worried about me. And if you are, well... thanks. I appreciate it.
Ragnarok: Won! (With Summary And Rating)
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| I'd say that's better than getting membership in a guild. |
Ragnarok
United States
Norsehelm Productions (developer and publisher); distributed in Europe as Valhalla by Optyk
Released 1992 for DOS
Date Started: 28 January 2020
Date Ended: 26 February 2020
Total Hours: 23
Difficulty: Moderate-Hard (3.5/5)
Final Rating: (To come later)
Ranking at Time of Posting: (To come later)
Summary:
Ragnarok is an excellent freeware game with a roguelike base. Veterans of Rogue or NetHack will soon become familiar with the partly-randomized game maps and the game's 47 keyboard commands such as (A)ttack, (i)nventory, (q)uaff a potion, and (Q)uit and save, but they will also appreciate the original and varied things that the developers did with potions, scrolls, wands, and other inventory items, as well as the interface upgrades. The story is also richer here than in most roguelikes, requiring the player to solve a series of quests that will turn things in the gods' favor at Ragnarok. Character development, inventory, monsters, and combat tactics are particularly strong, but as with most roguelikes, there isn't much "role-playing." The game allows saving every 200 turns, which takes the edge of the permadeath of other roguelikes but still requires the player to act judiciously.
*****
What a ride. I was up late with this one Wednesday night, and even though I had to play through the endgame a couple of times, I never got bored with it. Ragnarok is one of the best games of 1992 and my blog in general. A lack of any real "role-playing," including NPCs, will prevent it from reaching the absolute top spot, but it's excellent for what it does.
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| The game warns me to stop wasting time. |
Late in my last session, Heimdall had warned that Ragnarok was at hand. Relying on one commenter's statement that there was no time limit, I ignored Heimdall and kept exploring around the River Vid, which wraps around the base of the world. As I was screwing around, a comment happened to come through from Thomas Boyd that there is, in fact, a time limit. Right about then, Odin appeared before me and his voice came booming from his astral form:
Many days will the gods battle fiercely with the forces of death. Make haste to reach Asgard but take care as well. You are the only hope that we have left. Aid us and join the ranks of mortals who have been honored with greatness. Fail and the universe shall perish. First, take Gjall to Heimdall at Bifrost or we shall be overwhelmed. We await you at Vigrid.
At this point, I only had solved two of the six quests: I had found Freyr's sword, Mimming, and Odin's spear, Gungir. I knew where the Miner's Well was to solve the third quest, and I had Thokk's soul in a ring, which would allow me to solve the fourth if I could find Hela in Niflheim. I hadn't heard a word about Mjollnir or a weapon that would allow Tyr to fight with one arm.
I headed back to Mimer's Well and used my Wand of Wishing to generate a Scroll of Knowledge, which teaches you one skill or ability. I think it selects at random, so I took a save just before using it, prepared to save scum for the "Swimming" ability, but I got it on the first try. This allowed me to enter Mimer's Well, where I promptly sank to the bottom, couldn't move, and was soon slain by the serpent Aspenth. Apparently, I had to divest myself of heavy items first.
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| Mimer's Well had a fun title screen even though it was only a small area. |
I reloaded, and suddenly the game had never heard of "Swimming." It took me about 12 reloads before I finally got the skill a second time, dropped most of my heavy stuff, and entered the well again. This time, I was able to maneuver. I drank a couple of Potions of Speed and attacked the serpent in melee range, killing him in about four blows. He dropped Gjall, Heimdall's horn, and I snagged it.
Worried about time, I figured 50% of the quests was good enough to try. I made my way back along the River Vid to the Bifrost, which occupies its own map. Heimdall was standing at the end. He gratefully took the horn and blew it to call warriors to the final battle, then disappeared. I followed him north off the bridge and into Asgard, at which point the game told me that the Bifrost collapsed and I wouldn't be able to use it to return.
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| Not so much a "rainbow" bridge as a Romanian bridge. |
Asgard was under attack, with enemies and allies everywhere. I didn't last long. In addition to hel dragons and draugr, which killed me in single blows, the map was swarming with a handful of unique demons. One of them had a piercing wail like the zardons I'd made extinct. Another could sap my strength from a distance.
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| I didn't last long in this crush of enemies. |
I reloaded an old save, from before I wasted so much time exploring the River Vid, and considered my options. Clearly, I needed to develop my character a bit more, with whatever time I had remaining, but also perhaps get some better equipment. Character and inventory development in Ragnarok are both consistent and rewarding because there are so many different methods. These include:
- Regular experience and leveling.
- Finding and quaffing Potions of Experience.
- Raising your strength with Potions of Strength.
- Raising your constitution with Potions of Constitution.
- Raising your luck with Holy Water.
- Finding better items of equipment.
- Improving your primary weapon or any piece of armor with Scrolls of Enchantment (preferably blessed).
- Improving your constitution by eating hel dragons.
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| Hel, yeah! |
- Improving your speed by eating blurs (this is temporary but long-lasting)
- Improving levels, for a while, and then maximum hit points by eating dead wraiths.
If you explore an area that generates a lot of monsters of different types, like the dungeons, it's nearly impossible that something on this list isn't going to happen every few minutes. Thus, I spent some time back in the forest and dungeon just hewing through monsters and finding items. I saved every 200 turns unless I hadn't accomplished anything in those 200 turns, at which point I loaded the previous save and tried a new area.
Speed is worth a note. A high speed allows you to attack multiple times for every one attack from an enemy, and I found that it was absolutely necessary for some high-level enemies like hel dragons. The character has 10 by default and can boost it up to 60 or 70 with potions, dead blurs (a monster), and the Amulet of Quickening. Above 70 runs the risk of killing you. Unlike all the other attributes, I don't think there's any way to make the increase permanent. Potions and blurs wear off and even the amulet eventually loses its power and becomes an Eye of Sertrud (it turns out you need five of these to retrieve Mjollnir). Thus, it becomes important, particularly towards the endgame, to load up on speed-granting items. Since potions don't stack but dead bodies do, at some point I used one of my wishes for 10 dead blurs. It worked, and that supply kept me speedy for most of the rest of the game.
At some point, I figured I'd try to re-visit Niflheim and see if I could make it to Hera. I was feeling pretty strong, and I had a Wand of Wishing with 5 charges and no particular idea of how to spend it. Niflheim turned out to be as hard as I remembered, but I learned how to use speed to keep ahead of hel dragons. I'd attack them, dart away, wait for them to close, then attack again. Eating their corpses significantly boosted my constitution.
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| Taking out a hel dragon with throwing weapons. |
Niflheim consists of 9 maps arranged in a 3 x 3 grid. Each one is ruled by a demon lord, and I recognized a lot of their names from the battle at Asgard. Apparently, if you don't kill them in Niflheim, they show up in Asgard. Thus, I took my time trying to kill them here. It wasn't easy; they're all immune to wands and have a variety of special attacks. Here's the rundown:
- Konr Rig: a powerful fighter-type demon. He can drive you insane, so you have to kill him before that happens. He's immune to wands and missile weapons. I had to get my speed up to the highest levels and kill him with a few melee blows.
- Vanseril: Hardest of them, I think. He has a psionic attack that he uses every few rounds, and it will damage you for several hundred points anywhere on the map. I had to look up an online hint to see that the only protection was a Disperser Helm, which hadn't shown up in the game for me. I ended up wishing for one. But even then, he can drain your strength from anywhere on the visible map. It took me almost an hour to kill him with hit and run tactics using missile weapons and speed.
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| When wishing for things, you can wish for a "+" equal to your current luck. |
- Plog: Easiest of them. He summons monsters and drains wands, but I learned to just drop my wands and wait until he came into melee range.
- Emanon: An annoying demon who takes your equipped weapons and armor. I killed him with throwing weapons.
- Anxarcule: Second-hardest. He can steal your equipped weapon, create copies of you that fight you, and eat your legs. And he's also immune to wands. As with the others, I used a combination of speed and missile weapons to kill him.
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| Speed and missile weapons are the key to this whole area. |
- Nidhogg: Not only is he immune to wands, he removes all their charges if you try to use them anywhere on his level. (That was a reload.) He also messes with the items in your backpack, turning them into useless items. Again, it was missile weapons and speed that finally did him in.
- Gulveig: This guy was easy. Two whacks.
Hela occupies the final section, and when I first approached, she took Thokk's soul and asked what soul I wanted released in return. I said BALDER (the game's spelling) and she complied. I then attacked her and was surprised when she died in just a few blows. She dropped a magic scythe, apparently one of the most powerful weapons in the game. Once I enchanted it a few times, hardly any enemy lasted more than one blow.
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| Solving the fourth quest. |
Much stronger now, I returned to Asgard and started punching my way through the battle to the eastern exit. With the demons dead, I only had to worry about hel dragon and draugr. Draugrs return to life a few rounds after you kill them unless you (uck) eat their corpses.
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| The chaotic final battle in Asgard. You must make your way from the left side of the screen to the right. |
Asgard has several buildings. One of them, in the mid-south, had stairs up. On the second level, three rooms held stacks of almost all the items in the game, including blessed versions of every scroll and potion--15 of them! I gorged myself on Potions of Strength, Holy Water, Scrolls of Enchantment, Potions of Constitution, and the like. I rendered a dozen creatures extinct (including most of those fighting below, but draugr and hel dragons are too powerful). I used Potions of Endurance to pump up my temporary health to ungodly levels. I loaded every free inventory slot with blessed Potions of Curing. Scrolls of Knowledge filled in every skill I didn't have.
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| A bonanza of items just before the end. |
It all turned out to be useless. A few steps later, I was off the Asgard map and onto Vigrid, site of the final battle. The game immediately started telling me that Heimdall was fighting Loki, Odin was attacking Fenrir, and so forth.
Giving the weapons I'd recovered to Odin and Freyr involved simply walking up to them. However, there was nothing else I could do. If I tried to attack any of the evil gods or monsters--if I even caught their attention--they would kill me from afar.
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| The character joins the battle in progress. |
Giving the weapons I'd recovered to Odin and Freyr involved simply walking up to them. However, there was nothing else I could do. If I tried to attack any of the evil gods or monsters--if I even caught their attention--they would kill me from afar.
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| Sometimes it's best not to be noticed. |
Thus, all the bonuses I'd gained in Asgard served for nothing. I just wandered back and forth until I got a message that the gods had won the battle and I was welcomed into Valhalla. This was accompanied by a nice image.
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| A real paradise would have more outlets near those tables. |
So you only need to solve some of the quests. I'm not sure you'd even have time to solve them all. I guess the fewer you solve, the less likely the gods are to win at Ragnarok, but I frankly couldn't even make a loss happen. When I reloaded from my first step into Vigrid and refused to hand over the weapons this time, the gods still won. This happened on two more reloads.
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| I guess they really just needed Heimdall. |
In addition to the two major areas I never explored and the two quests I didn't solve, there are many aspects of the game I didn't experience, including:
- Making use of spells or psionics (apparently, every time you pick up a "diamond needle," you get better at psionics).
- Dimension traveling. I got the ability when I ate a breleor, but I wasn't sure how it worked and never had occasion to use it. Apparently it makes traveling between the major areas much faster.
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| "The Crossroads" lets you travel between different planes. I only even visited for this screenshot. |
- Potion making and potion-mixing. The alchemist was the last class I tried. He can mix potions into combinations otherwise not found in the game.
- Ironworking. I guess I could have had a very powerful weapon (the runesword) long before I took Hela's scythe.
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| Blacksmiths can make things out of other things. |
- Polymorphing, which can grant skills not available to regular classes.
- Taming animals or creating golems.
- Writing my own scrolls, a sage ability.
- Helping my allies. You can give equipment, potions, and other useful items to any human fighting alongside you at any point in the game. I didn't explore this.
But unlike some players who prefer the so-called "completionist" approach, I enjoy leaving a game with plenty of content to be explored. It gives me an excuse to replay.
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| The various areas of Ragnarok. Although I played for 23 hours, I still missed a lot of the maps. |
On my GIMLET, the game earns:
- 5 points for the game world. We've had other games use Norse mythology--notably Dusk of the Gods, which has the same plot. But it's still relatively original among RPGs.
- 5 points for character creation and development. Development is satisfying, rewarding, and constant, as we saw. I don't think the different classes matter as much as they should, though. Since they're all capable of using the same items, the only real purpose of the classes is to work your way up to the highest level and get the class-specific skills. More benefits and restrictions would have made a more interesting game.
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| My character at the game's end. |
- 2 point for NPC Interaction. It gets this for the hint-delivering Ravens and the occasional NPC ally that you can help. It's too bad there are no dialogue options with any NPCs.
- 5 points for encounters and foes. There are no non-combat encounters or puzzles, but the bestiary is as original and varied as its source material while not being completely derivative of it. I enjoyed learning their strengths and weaknesses and adapting my own tactics in response.
- 6 points for magic and combat. As with most roguelikes, combat seems somewhat blunt but is surprisingly tactical. I was underwhelmed by the magic system, though.
- 8 points for equipment. Easily the best part of the game. Ragnarok doesn't feature quite as many item interactions as NetHack, but it still has a wide variety of things to find, use, and equip. You can even make your own items as a blacksmith, sage, or alchemist.
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| Dragons always drop a wealth of treasure. |
- 4 points for the economy. You stop thinking about it, or bothering to collect gold, about halfway through the game. But during the portion when you find the occasional shop (the forest and the dungeon), it has a reasonable amount of relevance.
- 3 points for a main quest with multiple parts, some optional, but no side quests nor role-playing choices or alternate endings.
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| An "alternate ending." |
- 4 points for graphics, sound, and interface. It gets almost all of it for the excellent interface. One command=one key, logically mapped, but with a mouse backup. I like the way the main interface shows both a large-scale and small-scale area. Graphics are a step up from most roguelikes; sound is sparse and only okay.
- 8 points for gameplay. It's mostly nonlinear and quite replayable. It offers the challenge of a roguelike without the insanity of permadeath. Limiting saves to once every 200 turns is just about perfect. The game lasted exactly as long as its content supported.
That gives us a final score of 50, six points higher than I gave NetHack. Omega (1988) remains the best roguelike I've played so far, but Ragnarok is a close second, and frankly a better game for a player who wants a tighter storyline.
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| A slick ad for what was essentially a shareware game. |
As we now know, Ragnarok was a passion project of two California-based college friends, Thomas Boyd and Robert Vawter, and I thank both of them for offering comments and recollections during my coverage. Norsehelm was their company, meaning they self-published and self-distributed the game in the United States, albeit with (as we see above) commercial production values. Their London publisher, Optyk, apparently never sent them any royalties, so the duo decided to offer it as freeware after a few years of modest income.
I couldn't find any contemporary American reviews. European magazines mostly weren't kind. The lowest score came from the February 1993 PC Joker, where the reviewer compared it to a flight simulator and seemed to find the number of keyboard commands bewildering despite mouse buttons, including a help menu, right on the screen. Other reviews simply suggested that the reviewer wasn't really aware of roguelike history and was looking for fancy graphics and sound. PC Games (March 1993) had the only complimentary review, recommending it for its replayability and challenging strategy.
It's too bad that Norsehelm never produced another game. Mr. Vawter hinted in an e-mail to me that they started one based on the Seven Wonders of the World but didn't get very far. Both seem to have done well for themselves, however, with successful technology careers in the San Francisco Bay area.
I gave the choice of the next game to commenter Lance M., who's helped me a lot lately with "lost" games. Lance wanted me to play GayBlade, one of the games he managed to turn up. This led to a confusing bit of research. GayBlade is listed as a 1992 game on a lot of sites, but I've found comments from the author that he based it on DragonBlade (1993), and moreover only released it after he got into a rights battle with the publisher of his Citadel of the Dead (1994). My attempts to contact the author have not been answered. For now, I have to assume DragonBlade came first and play it first.
I couldn't find any contemporary American reviews. European magazines mostly weren't kind. The lowest score came from the February 1993 PC Joker, where the reviewer compared it to a flight simulator and seemed to find the number of keyboard commands bewildering despite mouse buttons, including a help menu, right on the screen. Other reviews simply suggested that the reviewer wasn't really aware of roguelike history and was looking for fancy graphics and sound. PC Games (March 1993) had the only complimentary review, recommending it for its replayability and challenging strategy.
It's too bad that Norsehelm never produced another game. Mr. Vawter hinted in an e-mail to me that they started one based on the Seven Wonders of the World but didn't get very far. Both seem to have done well for themselves, however, with successful technology careers in the San Francisco Bay area.
I gave the choice of the next game to commenter Lance M., who's helped me a lot lately with "lost" games. Lance wanted me to play GayBlade, one of the games he managed to turn up. This led to a confusing bit of research. GayBlade is listed as a 1992 game on a lot of sites, but I've found comments from the author that he based it on DragonBlade (1993), and moreover only released it after he got into a rights battle with the publisher of his Citadel of the Dead (1994). My attempts to contact the author have not been answered. For now, I have to assume DragonBlade came first and play it first.
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