People Behind The Meeples - Episode 243: Anthony Hore

Welcome to People Behind the Meeples, a series of interviews with indie game designers.  Here you'll find out more than you ever wanted to know about the people who make the best games that you may or may not have heard of before.  If you'd like to be featured, head over to http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html and fill out the questionnaire! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples. Support me on Patreon!

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Name:	Anthony Hore
Email:	anthonyhore@gmail.com
Location:	Vancouver, BC, Canada
Day Job:	Graphic Designer & Art Director
Designing:	Two to five years.
BGG:	The Pet Cemetery
Facebook:	The Pet Cemetery
Twitter:	@Ahore
Instagram:	@anthonyhore
Other:	The Pet Cemetery on Kickstarter
Find my games at:	On Kickstarter

Today's Interview is with:

Anthony Hore
Interviewed on: 7/20/2020

This week's interview is with Anthony Hore, the designer behind The Pet Cemetery on Kickstarter right now! The Pet Cemetery is his first game to be published and it's already funded in its Kickstarter campaign! Read on to learn more about Anthony and his other projects.

Some Basics
Tell me a bit about yourself.

How long have you been designing tabletop games?
Two to five years.

Why did you start designing tabletop games?
I've always been a really creative person and I felt that I should try and combine that with my passion for boardgames. This is my first time creating a game so I wanted to make something that was fun, easy to learn and play, and something that had plenty of variety and replayability.

What game or games are you currently working on?
The Pet Cemetery

Have you designed any games that have been published?
No, I'm a first time game designer.

What is your day job?
Graphic Designer & Art Director

Your Gaming Tastes
My readers would like to know more about you as a gamer.

Where do you prefer to play games?
At my good friend Ben's house, they have a really great outdoor patio with a large table so we can enjoy being outside in the summer while also playing games.

Who do you normally game with?
I have a great group of 10 friends who we play with regularly. From larger campaigns with 3-4 people to fun Friday night games nights with the whole crew.

If you were to invite a few friends together for game night tonight, what games would you play?
Currently I'm addicted to 'The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle Earth' as a campaign game with 3 of my closest friends.

And what snacks would you eat?
Pizza and red wine.

Do you like to have music playing while you play games? If so, what kind?
We always have on The Lord of the Rings playlist on Spotify.

What's your favorite FLGS?
Rain City Games at International Village, Vancouver, Canada.

What is your current favorite game? Least favorite that you still enjoy? Worst game you ever played?
Favourite: Mansions of Madness Least Favourite: Fireball Island Worst: Don't Wake Daddy (from my childhood - the premise and story behind this game is just horrible)

What is your favorite game mechanic? How about your least favorite?
Dice throwing for both - it can be so amazing to throw successes but when you're on a bad streak, you're on a bad streak.

What's your favorite game that you just can't ever seem to get to the table?
Tainted Grail - It's an amazing King Arthur inspired campaign game that I've only had a few hours to play but the rest of the crew are hung up on our other campaigns.

What styles of games do you play?
I like to play Board Games, Card Games, Miniatures Games, RPG Games, Video Games

Do you design different styles of games than what you play?
I like to design Board Games, Card Games

OK, here's a pretty polarizing game. Do you like and play Cards Against Humanity?
Yes

You as a Designer
OK, now the bit that sets you apart from the typical gamer. Let's find out about you as a game designer.

When you design games, do you come up with a theme first and build the mechanics around that? Or do you come up with mechanics and then add a theme? Or something else?
Mechanics are the most important to me when designing the game. I like to figure out the game play, the rubber banding for characters, how the cards or die influence character decisions and motivations. Then I love to test play the crap out of the prototype mechanics to get it right. Once that feels good then I come up with a great theme that I think works for the target audience of gamers.

Have you ever entered or won a game design competition?
No - I wish!

Do you have a current favorite game designer or idol?
I have favourite game illustrators at the moment because I have been so focused on getting the artwork for my game complete in the last few months - I'm most enamoured with Sam Yang who is a digital artist based out of Toronto - check him out on instagram @samdoesarts

Where or when or how do you get your inspiration or come up with your best ideas?
For the game mechanics my best ideas or inspiration come from playing games and getting frustrated with how somethings don't work, or how the game has broken usability. I have always wanted to play games that feel seamless and clear, where the rules and gameplay match up well and make for a fair experience for all. When I find an issue I think about upgrading the mechanic and creating my own version of a game around it.

How do you go about playtesting your games?
I first start with my core group of friends. We will playtest over and over again. Then I reach out to my local game store to get others playtesting and reviewing the game mechanics and art. Finally it's off to google and facebook to find some people who are a good fit for the mechanics or theme of the game to get some unbiased playtesting done.

Do you like to work alone or as part of a team? Co-designers, artists, etc.?
I love working as part of a small team. For my first game 'The Pet Cemetery' I worked primarily with my partner on all the details and mechanics. I find that having a few other voices and minds in the mix help to really elevate and change the game play. However if it's more the 3 or 4 people then it just becomes a big mess and it's hard to stay focused.

What do you feel is your biggest challenge as a game designer?
The biggest challenge is knowing when to take on feedback and when to let it go. I went through so many versions of the game while playtesting that I honestly can't quite remember how the game was first constructed. A lot of the feedback in terms of play and mechanics really helped to elevate and adjust the game however there were some pieces of feedback I knew I just had to let be as they were to help appease a specific person with a specific idea in mind.

If you could design a game within any IP, what would it be?
I already have an idea for a Harry Potter dungeon crawler campaign game - but good luck getting JK Rowling to sign off on the IP, am I right!?!

What do you wish someone had told you a long time ago about designing games?
That it's going to take so much time and effort. It's taken me nearly 2 years to get the game ready for Kickstarter and I don't know how I could have done it faster unless I focused full time on it.

What advice would you like to share about designing games?
That you have to be brave and put it out there for people to review, playtest, and comment on. Sometimes it's hard because the game design can feel like your baby and hearing people pull it apart or give negative critiques breaks your heart. But at the end of the day it will make for a much more compelling game.

Would you like to tell my readers what games you're working on and how far along they are?
Published games, I have: None yet, my Kickstarter just went live September 1st.
This is what I have currently crowdfunding: The Pet Cemetery
Games I feel are in the final development and tweaking stage are: RuPauls Drag Race: Cards for the Crown
And games that are still in the very early idea phase are: A Harry Potter dungeon crawler campaign game and an interesting Battle Mage competitive game where you try to dominate the board.

Are you a member of any Facebook or other design groups? (Game Maker's Lab, Card and Board Game Developers Guild, etc.)
Boardgame Spotlight, Board Game Developers Guild

And the oddly personal, but harmless stuff…
OK, enough of the game stuff, let's find out what really makes you tick! These are the questions that I'm sure are on everyone's minds!

Star Trek or Star Wars? Coke or Pepsi? VHS or Betamax?
Star Wars, Coke and Betamax all the way!

What hobbies do you have besides tabletop games?
Reading, writing, illustration, plants, video games, and baking.

What is something you learned in the last week?
That the little line on the bottom of a mug is to help water escape when it's in the dishwasher - weird I know, but I just found out about this today!

Favorite type of music? Books? Movies?
Music: Anything I can sing along to, primarily from the 80's and 90's. Books: Fantasy fiction for the win, if there's magic then I'm in. Movies: I'm a sucker for animated pieces, anything from Studio Ghibli and Hayo Miyazaki.

What was the last book you read?
I'm currently re-reading The Name of the Wind series in prep for the final book release.

Do you play any musical instruments?
No I wish! My parents focused my abilities into arts and the creative fields from an early age.

Tell us something about yourself that you think might surprise people.
I'm originally from New Zealand but have taken up residency in Canada.

Tell us about something crazy that you once did.
I jumped out of an airplane for my 22nd birthday.

Biggest accident that turned out awesome?
I applied for a green card to the USA 3 times but never got in, so I figured I would give Canada a try. It was the best decision of my life and I love living here.

Who is your idol?
Melisa Koby is a prolific and beautiful artist who inspires me daily.

What would you do if you had a time machine?
Ohh, big question! Shift the political landscape of the world, introduce 'Green thinking' to earlier generations, or maybe just buy apple stocks.

Are you an extrovert or introvert?
I'm an introvert masquerading as an extrovert.

If you could be any superhero, which one would you be?
Storm! She's a powerful queen who can throw lighting and fly!

Have any pets?
I wish, we live in a condo that doesn't allow pets.

When the next asteroid hits Earth, causing the Yellowstone caldera to explode, California to fall into the ocean, the sea levels to rise, and the next ice age to set in, what current games or other pastimes do you think (or hope) will survive into the next era of human civilization? What do you hope is underneath that asteroid to be wiped out of the human consciousness forever?
I'm hoping that a simple deck of cards survive - I have spent thousands of hours playing different card games with different rules and levels of complexity with all sorts of people. As for what should be forgotten forever, let's not get political. :)

If you'd like to send a shout out to anyone, anyone at all, here's your chance (I can't guarantee they'll read this though):
Thanks to George Takei for being an amazing ambassador to LGBTQ rights since the 70s. He has opened doors, hearts, and minds for the community.

Thanks for answering all my crazy questions!

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Thank you for reading this People Behind the Meeples indie game designer interview! You can find all the interviews here: People Behind the Meeples and if you'd like to be featured yourself, you can fill out the questionnaire here: http://gjjgames.blogspot.com/p/game-designer-interview-questionnaire.html

Did you like this interview?  Please show your support: Support me on Patreon! Or click the heart at Board Game Links , like GJJ Games on Facebook , or follow on Twitter .  And be sure to check out my games on  Tabletop Generation.

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Why You Should Allow Backseat Gaming (Monday Musings 81)

FuzzyJCats Twitch Channel

Almost all streamers I've met and have immense respect are really against backseat gaming, so this post is to explore reasons why you should reconsider.

I invite backseat gaming enthusiastically because I do need help in games and I don't care if someone says to watch out for x and y even if I'm aware of those particular issues, as well as for other reasons as will be explored below.

Albeit, I don't like story spoilers because other viewers may not know what happens in the end and you really don't want to spoil things. Unfortunately, I've made mistakes during stream where I inadvertently divulged which I then have to apologize.

Of course, I'm not talking about allowing toxic backseat gaming where your viewers are saying that you're a complete loser and waste of space because you missed a secret in game, or other hateful statements. 

Rather, I'm talking about the kind of backseat gaming when your viewers are very excited and enthusiastic about the game and offer tips and suggestions, which then spark a discussion in the community about best weapons, best builds and other gaming matters. This may lead to much needed conversational threads and sense of camaraderie amongst your viewers, since dead air is a death knell.

When new viewers come in and see friendly exchanges about the game in chat, they see that the stream is active and "not dead", and might even join in the lively conversation because they may feel compelled to put in their own two cents.

Now, if you're streaming just for the hobby and you don't care at all about viewers or streaming income, and you absolutely can't stand back seating, by all means, do prohibit it in your streams and ban/timeout anyone who doesn't follow your rules.

However, if you're interested in growing your channel and wanting to get some pocket money from your streaming endeavors, I would consider not just allowing backseat gaming, but perhaps even encouraging.

The key objection to backseat gaming is that it spoils the experience for you as a streamer, but the point is, you're streaming for your audience, not for yourself! Recall that streaming is a form of entertainment.

Another reason is that subconsciously, the streamer wants to figure things out which will make them seem clever to the community to stroke your own ego, but who cares? I found by listening and understanding others (rather than trying to impress by seeming clever and accomplished), people have found me "fun".

I'm emphatically not being a home body, but because I spend hours asking questions about their favorite subjects, such as their children (even as my eyes glaze over, I hate to admit), they enjoy talking to me.

That's not to compliment myself, because the reality is, people want to be seen and heard, and if you give them the platform, they find you absolutely charming.

Next time at a party of strangers, just listen and ask pertinent questions, that person will find you riveting and will talk to you for hours if you let them - they will never make a questionable excuse that they have to go home and feed their cats. Don't be surprised if that person tells their friend that they would like to get to know you better.

Why do people backseat game? There are many reasons, but the main one is because they're very enthusiastic about the game and want to show how much they know, as people want to be seen as intelligent, knowledgeable and helpful, even as backseat gaming grates on almost everyone's nerves. People love to show off and/or share their knowledge and expertise.

Next, what is the purpose of entertaining an audience, of which streaming is a form? People engage in entertainment to have fun and feel good. What better way to do that by allowing your audience to actively participate, and hence feeling good about themselves for being smart, helpful and capable!

Often, when I ask my community what to do in a particular situation or how to get to a certain location due to my horrific sense of directions, they always give me superb advice which adds to chat content.

By telling your viewers how helpful and intelligent they are - and you're not lying because they are exceedingly astute since they also play these games, often spending hundreds to thousands of hours - they feel good about themselves and a sense of accomplishment. Though I think I exhausted some of my viewers when they were giving me directions, so perhaps something I have to dial down in the future. But in general, viewers do enjoy being seen as smart.

The exciting thing is that through the power of backseat gaming, my community literally pushed me through half of Borderlands 2, which is no small feat, given I never succeeded in any FPS! At that time, I could complete Borderlands 2 but it was too mentally exhausting for me to stream since I was inexperienced. Even so, I know I can beat the game off-stream (or even while streaming when I gain more experience) thanks to my lovely community.

The other good thing about allowing backseat gaming is that no one likes to follow rules - freedom here is the key - so if you have a long list of don'ts, it can led to a sense of suffocation. Then there's the inevitable backlash where they do exactly what you don't want them too.

So often, when you hear someone say "Whatever you do, don't touch that",  you're going to want to touch said offensive object, even if in one million years, you'd never think of touching it.

As for objections, I'm sure streamers feel that if they allow backseat gaming, everyone will tell the streamer what to do and the chat will be a chaotic mess. This is actually good since Twitch specifically looks for engaged and active chats! This is Partnership material!

However, don't get excited, because the reverse is true. There are times when I'm practically begging chat to help me find a way, but because they're used to the general etiquette of backseat gaming = bad, they only relent after quite a lengthy period of time, when I'm tearing out my hair.

The other objection I can see is that other viewers might be annoyed with the advice and tips, but at the same time, they can ignore reading the chat comments. They're not forced to be glued to their seats, eyes trained on your chat box.

However, if your community is reasonable, another one of your viewers (maybe a new one) will invariably chime in that there is yet another way to get there, as well as tease you for bad sense of directions. The dialogue tends to go into other intricacies of the game that foster further comments, which is a must if you want to obtain partnership.

Another reasonable objection is that by stumbling about and the community seeing you figure out things your own way could be entertaining, so backseat gaming will prevent that. Again, because the ethos is backseat gaming = bad, even as I'm encouraging my chat to tell me what to do, crickets are chirping until I flounder for up to 30 minutes, maybe for even longer.

Even so, you can thank the viewer and mention that's very smart, but then mention, you'll try it this other way. This is where you can be clever, by finding another solution then what is recommended, in effect showing off your creativity!

The last objection I can think of is what if your viewers are toxic about backseat gaming? Well, timeout or ban said viewer, exactly as you do for any other type of toxic comments on chat, whether it's bigoted remarks, insulting others, or what not.

I can't think of any further issues or problems in empowering your community to give out advice and tips, only positive ones.

What about you? Do you agree, or do you see pitfalls?

The How of Happiness Review

Super Adventures With The Xbox Game Pass, Part 3

This week on Super Adventures, I'm still writing about the games I played last November when I bought a month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. I'm up to part 3 now because it turns out you can play a lot of games in one month if you really rush. You probably shouldn't write about them though, because you likely won't have played them enough to come to grips with the gameplay or get a proper impression of the content.

But I'm doing it anyway because I want to show some games off and I'm hoping someone reading these will discover something new they end up playing and loving, even if I didn't love it myself.

You can find part 1 here: Part 1.
And part 2 is here: Part 2.

The final part is coming tomorrow!

Read on »

Heroes Of Hammerwatch - Ultimate Edition Review (NSW)

Written by Patrick Orquia

Title: Heroes of Hammerwatch - Ultimate Edition
Developer: Crackshell
Publisher: Blitworks
Genre: Action Adventure, RPG, Roguelite
Number of Players: 1
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: July 29, 2020
Price: $19.99

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I like roguelike/roguelite games, even though they incite violent rage in me when I play them. Ok, no, not violent. I just cuss a lot and maybe scream loud enough for the people next door to call the cops on me. As frustrating as these games could be, there is one thing that is for sure: they are very fun to play, because they make me continuously get better at the game by learning from my past mistakes bit by bit and force me to try new strategies to keep me from dying over and over again.

Heroes of Hammerwatch is a roguelite RPG game, wherein you play as a warrior who has to explore dungeons to accumulate money and ores to rebuild the town of Outlook. As expected with roguelite games, you will die a lot of times in the process. This game is very punishing early on and the gameplay gets very repetitive very fast, but if you have the tendency to get addicted to the risk-reward cycle of games such as this, you could end up spending hours upon hours trying to level up and earn money and other rewards.

At the start of the game, you get to choose which warrior class you want your character to be and customize its looks to your liking. The game has 16-bit aesthetics, and your character and the rest of the visuals will look pixelated, but still, you get to create it and see how the game will show it in all of its pixel-y goodness. You can create multiple characters in a single save file, and they all share resources. This is a good game mechanic because it offers you multiple ways to tackle the challengers of the game, since different classes have different attack styles and skills. Plus you don't want to get stuck with just a paladin character. Maybe you would want a ranger or a wizard, too, depending on your mood.

The game is presented as a dungeon crawler, where your character has to battle hordes of enemies that will try to kill you in large numbers at first sight in large, procedurally-generated dungeons sectioned into rooms and corridors. There are two types of attacks, one is a normal attack, either melee or ranged, and the other is skill, which uses mana points (MP). Additional skills get unlocked as you progress. You get experience points upon defeating these enemies. If you defeat enough enemies in quick succession without getting hit, you will enter a combo state that makes your character move faster and hit harder, and you could also generate HP and MP. Some of the rooms contain loot such as gold, food, and the elusive ores. These ores are used to unlock new establishments that would provide permanent skill upgrades, temporary buffs, and other goodies.

At the beginning of the game, you start with the first dungeon, the mines. It is divided into four floors, with the last one containing a boss that you need to defeat to proceed to the next one. The bosses can be quite hard to beat, as they have a large HP plus waves of enemies also join fray, so you have to keep on moving and keep on killing, or risk getting killed yourself. The other dungeons are presented the same way. If or when you die, you end up back to the town, with all of your temporary abilities and unsaved gold/ores gone. This kind of stings, but typical for a roguelite game. But wait, you ask, unsaved gold/ores? Well, in this game, you are required to send to town the money you collect from the dungeons. Some floors will have an elevator that goes back to town where you can put the gold and ores you have collected so far. This will be your savings, minus some taxes. The game does not specifically explain this, and I personally wasted a few runs earning nothing because I didn't know that I had to do this. Not all floors have this, so the further you go without saving your money, the greater the risk that you have, plus the louder you scream when you die.

By the way, this game implements a cool way of skipping floors to advance to dungeons that you have already visited: at the starting floor of the preceding dungeon, you can find a portal that leads to a challenge room. Where you have to survive many waves of enemies in order to advance to the succeeding dungeon. The goal is to break a cube at the center of the room and as long as it is intact, the waves of enemies don't stop. Surviving this room will reward you with 8 FREE temporary buffs that you can use for the rest of your run (they disappear when you die). Typically, buffs can be bought at a shop in the town or found in treasure chests and NPCs inside the dungeons. These buffs add up and work alongside one another, so the more buffs you have equipped, the more fighting chance your character gets in surviving the dungeons.

The more you progress into the game, and hopefully you get more and more skilled in killing enemies and saving those precious coins and ores, the more you can build up the town. Town upgrades require a certain amount of ores, so yes, you will really spend hours upon hours grinding in the dungeons to upgrade them. But if you do manage to upgrade the establishments, you will reap the benefits, because you can then have more options to upgrade your character… for it to be more capable of killing more enemies and collecting loot and goodies. Rinse and repeat.

To somehow break the monotony of repetitive gameplay, you can try playing with other people, either local or online. The local multiplayer is fun and makes traversing dungeons easier, since you get to share the load of killing the multitude of enemies, plus you get to share a high five with your friends every so often, or maybe yell at them if they die more than you do. The online multiplayer is a bit of a mixed bag, as trying to find parties to join or people to join your own party can be a bit hard. Maybe the game is not being played as much by other people on the Switch, which is quite a shame. This version of the game also comes with all the DLCs that have been available for the game so far (it has been out and available to other platforms for a couple of years now). The new areas still play basically the same, but with tougher challenges, which will really test your skills. Oh, and the game also has a New Game+, so really, your grinding and killing spree will not stop if you so choose.

Overall, Heroes of Hammerwatch – Ultimate Edition is a good game that has a lot to offer. It has cool visuals and aesthetics, with an equally cool soundtrack to wrap everything together. It has a steep learning curve, but once you get the hang of the gameplay, you'll soon find yourself being a very capable warrior that can go toe to toe against the toughest of enemies. So if you are aching for a good roguelite game, give this game a go and put your dungeon exploration skills to the test.

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REPLAY VALUE: Very high

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PROS

• Cool visuals with 16-bit aesthetics
• Catchy soundtrack to keep you moving as you explore the dungeons
• Wide range of customization options to suit your play style
• High degree of enemy types
• Repetitive yet very addicting and enjoyable gameplay
• Very challenging, with a steep learning curve at the beginning, but very rewarding as you progress further into the game
• Has a surprisingly good amount of content
• Has local and online multiplayer options

CONS

• Characters look very tiny, especially in handheld mode
• Looks very dark in handheld mode, which make it even harder to differentiate enemies and traps
• Very grind-heavy
• Some dungeon floors don't have the elevator for saving gold and ores, and thus result to high frustration when you die because you lose everything unsaved
• Frame rate drops are encountered when there is too much action happening on screen
• Can be hard to find online parties to join or players to join your own party

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RATING: 4/5 Hammerwatch heroes and villains

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