vojtablog

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Cyber-Nuns

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. (2 Timothy 4:2) 1 A cameraman tapped his forehead, activating his eye augment to focus on the grinning reporter in front of him. The reporter—Evans—broadened his practiced grin and began:  “Ladies, Gentlemen, AIs, and liberated robots,  welcome to your favourite…

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irreversible decisions (Pathfinder:Kingmaker and XCOM)

I think that irreversible decisions can be one of the most powerful tools you can use in your game design. But as we all know, with great power comes great responsibility. When there are decisions player has to make, that will have significant impact on the rest of the game –> it makes it very important and emotional. That can be the greatest strength or a complete turn off. Let’s have a look…

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Modern chess of into the breach

Into the Breach is amazing. It’s right there on top as an example of fantastic system design. Chilling with Darkest Dungeon, Noita and mainly chess. That is a high praise indeed. Game designer comparing game to chess is like painter comparing painting to Mona Lisa or Last Supper. It means a lot. You can read more on Why chess is awesome post. Into the Breach is very simple to understand and…

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About personality tests

I think personality tests are surprisingly useful. I don’t quite care how scientifically valid you or I think Myers-Briggs is. It doesn’t really matter. What makes tests like this useful is how they point out what I am bad at and what to work on. They are useful to get a sense of where I may be struggling. Once I know where the trouble is, it’s much easier to figure out a battle plan to improve…

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Why chess is awesome

Chess is amazing. It’s the purest and simplest example of beautiful systemic design. Photo by Anthony DeRosa on Pexels.com You see, what I appreciate about games is how deep and interesting systems they can create from simplest possible mechanics. Chess is a king and queen of this concept. Anyone can learn chess in few minutes, no matter the age. By learn I mean, anyone can quickly learn how…

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About meditating

This will likely be quite a cliche post, but you should try meditation. That’s it. Just try it. At this point, you probably heard bunch of advice how beneficial meditation is, but that’s not really what’s stopping you, is it? It would be nice if we humans actually did what we know is beneficial, but that’s not quite how we work. So no more arguments and benefits. Just go try it. Do it for a…

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About fitness VR games

Surprisingly fitness turned out to be one of the most common use-cases for VR these days. Who would have thought? Certainly not me, nor Oculus or Meta. There is a lesson there, but I will just ignore it for now. I would like to talk a bit about fitness VR games and the state they are in. What may be bit of a surprise to you is that I am quite disappointed with the current state. There seems…

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ABout loop hero and inversion

Loop hero is an interesting game in itself, but that’s not what we will talk about today. What’s interesting about Loop Hero is how it takes a genre trope, puts it on its head and then dances with it Cancan. It’s a very interesting way how to think about creating original game mechanics. For a brief overview: In Loop Hero you don’t control the main character, you control everything around…

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About stupid Steam reviews

I would like to talk a bit about Steam reviews and how I find them often irritating. It’s bit of a pet peeve and honestly something I should just wave my hand about. Still, maybe someone reading this will think twice before writing a stupid review and that would be worth both of ours time. So let me start by explaining what I mean by stupid review. It’s true for all platforms, but I encounter…

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My favorite bad game

Let’s talk about PlanetBase, it’s probably my favorite bad game. The premise is quite simple; Real-time base management game about small group of settlers building a colony on a new planet. PlanetBase is seemingly quite complex, you have bunch of statistics to keep track of, the usual suspects: Power (electricity), oxygen, food, water, biomass, metal etc… The longer you play, more unique units…

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About being lazy

So, I don’t feel like writing today or doing much of anything. Steamdeck is waiting for me on the sofa, quizzically asking why am I still in the office. You see, I want to write a blog every day.For myself if for nothing else. I find writing very useful. It clears my head, straightens my thinking and leaves a record of what I was thinking at that time. I also hope some of the blogs can end up…

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About Portal and introducing new mechanics

I think Portal may be the best example of pacing in any game I have ever played. I will assume that everyone played or have at least heard about Portal, so I will describe the game only very briefly. It’s actually quite simple: You have a gun that can create Red and Blue portals on any supported surface and connects them. So if you throw something into one, it will come from the other one. I…

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About probability and Buckshot Roulette

About probability and Buckshot Roulette

There is something very interesting about Buckshot Roulette. Let me first introduce you to the game: It’s a short horror game, which is actually not scary at all, sorta “Russian Roulette-like” exercise in probability. Helpful, aren’t I? Let’s have a look at our typical game loop: Player sits in front of the dealer with a shotgun on the table. Dealer will show you sets of shells. Some full and…

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Why I don't like weekends

Why I don't like weekends

I don’t really like weekends. The idea of a weekend is bit strange to me. You see, I am in a very enviable position where I make my own schedule. I have a lot of work, but I can mostly choose when I do it. I am quite a night owl for example, so it would be rare to see me before 10AM and if you do… You should run. If I am awake before 10, either something very bad is happening or I just woke…