-+@ Tub of Terror @+-

Go Fish?



Art Credits:
Blade Eebit by Beth Zyglowizc
Conscript Vemment by Holmberg/Vega/Nov
Canopy Flist by Beth Zyglowizc

Yes, two of those cards are dated 2006. They were the ones I did a few days ago and so I thought I should show them here before the week is through. It's amazing how changing the colour and the background and adding multiple copies of the same creature can change a creature so much - compare the Conscript Vemment with the normal Vemment and it'll be obvious what I did to get that card. The other 2 are Beth's images and she's getting even better as she gets older - the eebit was one of the earlier images, the flist is a very recent one. Constrast the difference there.

Having said that, I haven't done anything MND-wise since the last blog so there isn't much to say. OK, I fib. Patrick Miteff messaged me to tell me that my MND demo cardlist was missing a card, so I added it into the site. That's about the only MND thing that I have done recently besides a minor correction to the website and talking to Mitch about his share of the TW cards. Well, that's not a big thing that I did with mal, I just reminded him gently that I was waiting for his card suggestions.

Secret game is now on the engine, but it's all hush hush and all so I can't say anything. I had a whole lot of problem uploading all the images last night to the server since the connection was intent on disconnecting. In the end I just gave up and waited until today to load up the images. Ed asked for the rules, so that got uploaded as well. I haven't done any coding wise there, but it needs a bit of graphic work for counters and markers before I can code them in.

The other game I worked on (finally!) is Go Fish. Added in all the cardbacks that I have and updated the plates. I wanted to add in Hecatombe as well, but I'm not sure if the engine will be able to display a pentagonal card. There's always a tile I suppose, but all that effort just for one card... I don't think it's worth it. Since I don't have an image of Hecatomb anyways, it was just an intellectual debate, and I didn't head over to search for a cardback.

One of the things that got added to Go Fish was the XP system. This was a lot harder to do in Go Fish because it is such a mature game compared to all the others. Mature as in coding wise, not target age wise. I had to compromise a bit on the code, but the players will be happy - they get more XP in certain conditions, all because I took shortcuts with the code.

And of course the spamfest continues. Today's was the announcement about Go Fish getting its tournament system. Not a big deal there. There are two ads already available for the game so there wasn't the need to create one. I chose the safer ad, but with a catchy title. Hopefully it'll entice people to play.

Of all the games I've added XP to these last few days though, only Bowling has seen some play. The rest has been rather lethargic due to the fact that they cost tokens, which is a pity. For anyone who can scrounge up 10 silver tokens, they could get all 10 silver tokens back if they play 10 games of Yukk and are lucky. Hmm... maybe the XP system needs a revamp? But wait, if they used the 10 they've just earned to play another 10 and win all 10, they get 15... and if they use that 15 to play 15 games and win just 10 of those, then they get 20... so the system rewards someone who plays a whole lot more of one game. That's not too bad. No revamp needed for the time being.

(OK, I fib again. I just checked the results and Reversi also had an increase just today. I guess those announcements do work!)

I updated the plates post today - after all, that's what the Go Fish update is used for. I can't believe I haven't updated some of the images on the plates post in 2 months. That's a long time and... well, only 1 game have been released in that time... it doesn't sound like a lot but it definately is a lot. The main thing that happened during that period was VTES going live (again).

With the success of the VTES engine, Ed's got ideas for other separate engines. That sounds intriguing... I wonder what will he come up with. Well, the best way to make money would be to combine it with something that makes money on the web - eeewww... porn engine just came to mind. I hope that's not in the works.

Mark just told me he's gathering materials for Attack! and he's working out in his head how he wants it to be coded. That's a smart way of doing it - it's his first boardgame after all. I'm sure it'll end up to be this singing and dancing (literally, with sounds and automations) adaptation of the game at the end of the day. I am looking forward to that one. That would be his 11th game - it's hard to imagine that he's almost touching a dozen games.

I dont' think I have mentioned that Eric posted in the forums that Judge Dredd seems to be malfunctional. I couldn't repeat that and neither could Tomi. I wonder if it's something else... nevertheless, it is good to see him working on something on the engine again, even if it's only Dredd.

That's not the major thing on the forums though. There was a SWD player who claimed harassment from another player and the other player claimed it was a concoted fake. I have no idea who to believe so I asked them to sort it out in private and locked the thread. Really though, airing their dirty underwear in public like that... I had expected better from SWD players.

And to end on a high note, I just finished scanning in a few things for Hyborian Gates. Now that the XP games are out of the way (the only other game where it's feasible for me to add XP is Quartet, but that is currently in a big mess, so it'll have to wait until the weekend when I can "clean house"), hopefully I can finish up Hyborian Gates (if mystery game doesn't get in the way). I also have a hankering to finish photographing (yes, with a camera - the chrome cards can't be scanned) WSS2 cards to create the WSS1 expansion. Ah good times ahead! Busy ones too, at least for me.