This post is the second in a series examining why gamers should reconsider pre-ordering games. If you're just joining us now, you can find the first part in the series here.

Why Not Pre-Order? Save Money

Why Not Pre-Order? Anti-Consumer Practices

Other anti-consumer practices would include:

There is no defense for the bugs of Unity.

We weren’t kidding when we promised you guys loads of awesome games from indie designers. We’re going to keep up the trend of inaugural games as we go from last week’s Singaporean entry back to the members of the Game Makers Guild. Gameworthy Labs comes to us with their fast-paced, Greek mythology themed deduction game, Oh My Gods, which is the focus of a Kickstarter campaign that began earlier today.

Image Credit: Gameworthy Games

As we sat down to play, we were immediately taken with the art of Oh My Gods. The pantheon of Greek gods is rendered as a series of detailed but cartoonish characters, effectively introducing us to the overall tone and feel of the game itself. Aside from eliciting instant smiles, we understood right away that there would be mischief afoot. As we soon found out, though Oh My Gods certainly doesn’t take itself too seriously, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a game you’ll master in a minute.

You are tasked with discerning the identity of the god or goddess that has stolen the fabled lightning bolt of Zeus. At your disposal are the following tools: a small paper grid depicting all the possible suspects, a hand of cards, a small privacy screen, and your wits. With these, you must not only uncover the thief, but do so before your fellow players can do the same.

Play is divided into three phases: searching for clues, guessing the identity of the thief, and playing a god power. To search for clues, players inquire about the cards held by the opponent sitting to their left. The inquiring player will ask to be shown cards that display certain traits or elements, as each card will display one symbol representing each of these categories. If the player who is being interrogated has a card with the requested symbol, he or she must show the inquiring player the requested card.

Your hand of cards is a wealth of both information and power. Each card depicts a member of the pantheon, immediately cluing you in to which of the gods is innocent (if they appear in your hand or are shown to you, they cannot be the thief, whose card is set aside during setup). Aside from allowing you to whittle down the list of suspects, the gods present in your hand possess their own unique ability: the god power mentioned earlier. These powers can range from the defensive (e.g. allowing players to forego sharing details about their hand) to the offensive (e.g. forcing players to show you extra cards from their hands) to the purely informative (e.g. allowing for a peek at one or more cards housed on Olympus).

Olympus has the dual role of font of knowledge and complication to the ongoing investigation. This home of the gods takes the form of four cards arranged face-down in the center of the table. Even if you think you've determined the identity of the thief with some expert deduction, certainty in that conclusion will elude you if you cannot access Olympus.

It's a seemingly simple premise, which, taken in conjunction with the overall aesthetics, will effectively welcome players of all experience levels (the game is recommended for ages 10 and up, which we felt was appropriate). That being said, Oh My Gods will likely satisfy veteran gamers with the depth of strategy it presents. Much of this last point stems from the individual god powers, which are very impressively balanced and attest to the enormous amount of care that went into the making of this game. At no point in our many playthroughs did we encounter a card that felt overpowered and we found ourselves repeatedly surprised at the multitude of synergies and counters that the powers presented with one another.

The game plays very quickly, as we found that our many playthroughs matched the 15 minutes per player estimate on the box, and it is also highly portable, with all of the components fitting neatly into a 6 x 4 inch box (15.24 x 10.16cm). These, taken along with the exquisitely balanced cards and fluid mechanics, translates to an extremely high replayability factor.

Oh My Gods is good-natured, tongue-in-cheek fun that will have all sorts of gamers asking to play another round. Despite its diminutive size, light tone, and brisk play time, Oh My Gods shouldn't be mistaken for 'just' a party game. It's far smarter than your average party game, but doesn't rely on mechanic complexities to convey that cleverness. This makes Oh My Gods one of those rare titles that would be  equally at home during a nerdy dinner party or at your next game night. It can also be an engaging, amusing way to bring any non-gamer friends to the table.

We had so much fun playing this game. It's a finely-honed, well-tested bit of craftsmanship that will have players alternately laughing and shaking their fists at the gods. We enthusiastically recommend Oh My Gods and definitely suggest you check out their Kickstarter today (we certainly will!).

We're absolutely thrilled to bring you guys this edition of Developer Dialogues. Today's conversation is with Dominic of Medieval Lords Games, who comes to use with the very first Singaporean board game to appear on The Care and Feeding of Nerds! His project, Hitman Holiday, is an innovative and engaging take on deduction/secret roles games. 

Imagine knowing that another player is out to assassinate you, and just you. Meanwhile, you are preoccupied not just with your own assigned target, but with the nuances of daily life (albeit life in an idyllic vacation locale). This is just a taste of what Hitman Holiday has in store and Dominic gave us considerably more to chew on. 

Tell us a little about yourself. What prompted you to want to become a developer?

  

I have been a game designer for more than 14 years now, but I was always in larger teams. This is the first time I am trying to venture out on my own. My passion started a long time ago when I was a mere seven year old in school. My friend and I would make board games using just dice and boxes. We would theme everything from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to He-Man.

Once you decided to put on the developer’s hat, what made you choose a deduction/secret roles group game? Why did you feel this style was a particularly good fit for your vision of Hitman Holiday?

I chose to design a secret role game because this is was going to be our debut game. It had to represent the core of what Medieval Lords intends to be - we want to be very unique and different from the rest of the newer board games appearing everywhere. There are plenty of new games that are mere copies of previous games, with 1 or 2 rules tweaked and then a change of art. Hitman Holiday is kind of a testimonial of what the brains behind Medieval Lords are all about - being different. Not just this game, but all future potential games will also be going via very interesting themes and mechanics that are rarely seen or even exist in the tabletop universe.

The game is touted as being extremely easy to learn, but a highly satisfying overall play experience. How long would you say it takes people to pick up Hitman Holiday and what demographics do you think would most enjoy the game?

I wouldn't know about it being 'extremely easy' to learn. Honestly there is a reason we do not call this a party game where people could just pick the game up in seconds. It is a strategy game that can handle up to as many as 10 players, but it is no party game. I have already hosted more public games than I can count to spread awareness of Hitman Holiday. Each time the explanation was approximately 10 to 20 minutes. The game is really very simple, with only 3 things you can really do in your turn, but it is not 'extremely easy' to be taught the gist of the game.

In other words, the game takes time to explain, but once done it is very rare that people would still come up with questions. Age is not really the demographic here. It is more of player genre. I would not expect silent and conservative groups to enjoy this game. This game caters to those who really like to shout loudly in accusations, pretend or act in ways so that they can trick others into doing or thinking things that go in their advantage. It really is a game for fun loving extroverts or actors. I think it is pretty safe to say that folks who enjoy Mafia, Werewolf or Battlestar Galactica will find this a refreshing way to play their favorite genre of deception and deduction.

The deduction/secret roles market is pretty competitive with both major publishers and indie developers in the field. What would you say makes Hitman Holiday distinctive from others in the genre?

None has ever featured having to cater to daily needs in realism (going to toilet, taking meals and naps). None! And this mechanism was not introduced just to make the game unique. It had its design purpose of preventing camping on the map as well as giving other players opportunities to perform their kills on unsuspecting victims. And none in the tabletop universe have ever had the 'Traits and Clues matching' system to deduce who one's potential killer is. Again, none! Hitman Holiday may not be the BEST game in the world, but it certainly is UNIQUE and different from other games. Further design flavoring decisions such as making the assassins not look like the usual James Bond serve to make the game all that much more fun and distinctive.

The artwork and overall aesthetic of  the game is very visually striking. What was your inspiration for the look and feel of the game?

Since it was decided that we wanted to do an assassin game, we had to come up with a locale. A very interesting one that would totally spike up the usually gloomy mood of such dark games is a beach holiday resort! We chose to host the site of the assassins' 'tournament' at the world's most beautiful beach resort, aptly named Paradise. The setting is deliberately Italian, and we wanted the original flavor to be there, so we even got an Italian artist! It should be very colorful and give a Hawaii-like feel of a happy vacation, then peppered with the deadly intent hidden at every corner. Again, this brings the game into a whole class of its own in terms of being unique.

What do you feel was the most enjoyable part of developing Hitman Holiday and, conversely, what would you say was your biggest challenge?

The most enjoyable part was playing the finished product with friends who enjoy acting and bluffing. We had blast after blast of fun, openly declaring and accusing one another. It was a great sense of satisfaction that the game was finally playable after one and a half years of development! The biggest challenge is to bring the game to market, which since we do not live in the USA, disallows us to demo our games at important conventions etc.

Let’s say your Kickstarter campaign goes smashingly well. Would you be open to continuing to develop Hitman Holiday? What would your first improvements to the game be?

YES! We actually were just talking about it the other day that there might possibly be a small expansion to add another 10 assassins and another map so players can alternate locations! We were thinking of the place being a huge abandoned castle in Europe.

Is there anything else that you think potential backers and players should know about Hitman Holiday?

Hand of Fate was a game I didn’t know I wanted or needed until after I had it. A rogue-"lite" deck building action RPG, Hand of Fate is the result of a well-run Kickstarter by Defiant Development  that originally took place back in December of 2013. Reading the first part of the last sentence aloud makes me realize why I probably passed it over at its inception. It’s really a game that sells itself better through experience than clumsy catch phrases or tags, but I plan to do my best explaining why I found it so charming and why you might too.
The player approaches a table where a shrouded elder who acts as a DM/Narrator beckons you with a deck of swirling cards. These cards are the primary source of interaction in the game. Each session will begin with the Narrator shuffling the cards you have chosen, as well as add in some of his own. The cards are then laid out in a random pattern to create the board on which you’ll move the player token towards the ultimate goal of finding the Boss at the end of a zone. Defeating said Boss allows the player to claim a trophy, which provides various benefits such as new cards and stat boosts. As you progress through the central story and unlock cards you’ll eventually be able to customize the Reward and Encounter Decks how you see fit, though I tended to stick to the “Recommended Configuration” for the most part.  

As you explore and flip over cards, the Narrator will describe the consequences of your actions. The cards can be anything from finding equipment, gold, or much needed food, to side quests, mazes full of traps, or monster ambushes. Various vendor cards seem common enough, allowing the player to spend gold or sell off excess gear for upgrades, remove curses, or grant blessings, some of which seemed more useful than others.

Some encounters will be resolved through picking the correct card out of a face-down line up at the Narrator’s table, but often these revealed events will lead to a real-time action segment. The player will be dropped into a third person setting and tasked with hacking, slashing, and running their way through a simple combat map or maze. I was slightly disappointed in how small some areas were as each setting I found was lush and vibrant with color and detail. The action elements are lifted heavily from your typical Batman/God of War/Sleeping Dogs type games: one button to attack, one to counter when you see the indicator, one to dodge roll, etc. So the combat mechanics are serviceable , but not as unique or rich as the presentation Hand of Fate had provided for the game as a whole.

However, I quickly learned that, while combat wasn’t exactly difficult or taxing for anyone familiar with action games, the thing most likely to kill you was Starvation or the Narrator’s Punishment cards. Every new card explored uses food and though successfully completing a card event often grants Rewards (which MAY contain food) there is no guarantee you'll get what you need. 150 gold isn’t really helpful when you only have 2 apples left with a dozen or more cards left to reveal before you may advance. Even if you manage your resources well, you never know what consequences there can be when the Narrator draws Punishment cards for revealed Failures, or the dreaded Huge Failure, which, at one point, dropped my food and health reserves to low single digits on what was otherwise a flawless run. This is, of course, to be expected as Hand of Fate is a rogue-lite. That said, I use that term because, even through Huge Failures or a gamble that turns out poorly, the cards you unlock on any given run remain in your collection at the end, to be incorporated into your encounter and rewards deck for future use.            

The unique blend of ideas coupled with wonderful presentation won me over in the end and took some of the sting out of the harsh rogue elements. While some players might find themselves ground down by frequent failures or slightly repetitive nature of Hand of Fate, I found it no worse than FTL or Rogue Legacy. If you missed the chance to back this on Kickstarter, like I did, the full release is out now on Steam for $20 until 2/24 (after that it jumps back up to $25) and is well worth the price in my opinion; so go ahead and tempt fate! (I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist) 

*Hand of Fate was reviewed on PC using a controller, but is also slated to release soon for PS4, Vita, and other platforms.  

Why Not Pre-Order?  Bad Games

Remember the reception of Superman 64? It was one of the worst games ever made. I have never heard a person speak positively about it, nor any fanaticism defending the game. If you were the type of person to blindly pre-order a game without waiting for review information on its quality, you risk getting a game like Superman 64: a horrible un-fun experience that is nothing more than a waste of money. If you care about spending your money on fun experiences that entertain you, then what reason could you have for not doing your research first? Would you research a car? Would you research a computer? Then why not research a game?

Hi everyone. What do you think of the new site? The redesign has been in the works for a little while and we hope this makes your interactions with the Care and Feeding of Nerds more fun and user-friendly. A huge shout-out to Kay Luxe Design who coded the new site!

There have been a couple of excited mentions of new indie board games being brought your way and now we can follow through on that hype. Over the next few weeks several members of the Game Makers Guild are launching crowdfunding campaigns for their projects and we've had the opportunity to play quite a few of these. As such, we can give you the complete lowdown on these games so you have a full cache of information at your disposal as you decide which projects you may want to lend your support to.

Since we're talking about independently developed games that are either currently without a publisher or are aiming to self-publish as part of their crowdfunding efforts, we will not be assigning grades or ratings to these projects. The idea is to provide you with information so you can be happy in your decision to back a project or not. Instead, we'll summarize our reviews with recommendations and let you know if we plan on contributing. 

First on the docket is Find It & Bind It by Cray Cray Games. If the title sounds familiar, you might be recalling our Developer Dialoguewith Cray Cray Games that included many a mention of Find It & Bind It. (If you haven't read that post, we highly recommend you do so before continuing with this one.) The Kickstarter for this rapid-fire card-based game went live earlier today, so what's it all about?

Players of Find It & Bind It take on the role of witches on a quest to find the Book of Shadows and bind it to their bidding before rival covens (fellow players) can do the same. The Book of Shadows is hidden amidst a grid of eight other cards much like the layout pictured below.

Find It & Bind It is meant to be lightning-fast, with games usually lasting about 30 minutes or so. Part of the game's appeal is how quickly rounds unfold, even if you have a maximum-sized contingent of four players (it can accommodate as few as two players). Not only do you have to track down the Book of Shadows and throw your friends off the scent, but you're doing all this with a fair measure of speed. That's not to say that you're actually at the mercy of a timer, just that the number of options available to you on a given turn lends itself to a brisk flow of play. Also, moving quickly tends to create a certain measure of pressure on your fellow players, which can work in your favor.

The game is also highly portable, with the vast majority of the components being cards and the space required to get few rounds in taking up only a scant few square feet. It's the kind of game that'd you'd be grateful to have in your backpack while waiting with friends at the airport or in line for a convention event.  That being said, Find It & Bind It would be just as at home on your gaming table.

As mentioned above, the game is predominately card-based; the cards themselves are crisp and adorned with richly colored examples of classical art. Fans of Van Gogh, Gheyn, and Goya will get more than a bit of eye candy in addition to fast-paced deduction, even if you should back at a print-and-play tier.

Cray Cray Games has already come up with not one, but two expansions for Find It & Bind It: the Demon and the Hexes and Relics. The former introduces the eponymous Demon who hides in the tableau and causes all sorts of mischief for the players as he attempts to bind the Book of Shadows for himself. The latter ups the ante of the base game by increasing the hand size to four cards, allowing players additional leeway to gather and deploy the titular Hexes and Relics both of which, as you may have guessed, pack quite a bit of a supernatural punch. These expansions may very well end up in the stretch goals of the current funding campaign.

Find It & Bind It has proven to be addictive with fans of deductive games and those who love playthroughs that come in well under an hour. It's a good 'bridge' game if you find yourself in the company of both veteran and newer gamers, as the mechanics are non-superficial but are also not so numerous or complex as to be overwhelming. In that spirit, the depth of strategy available will appeal to more experienced players. The title also has a robust online community, with the guys at Cray Cray Games responding to questions and clarifying rules on a regular basis via their Facebook page.

If any or all of the above piqued your interest, then check out the Kickstarter page for Find It & Bind It. The campaign will be running through March 30th.