Episode 253: From Tabletop to PC

[Rob Zacny]

Rob and Bruce continue their Winter of Wargaming by talking about Conflict of Heroes and the critical changes that took place as the game transitioned to the PC. Come for the gaming discussion, stay for the talk of relevant books and history. 

 

Books mentioned:

 

The Forgotten Soldier

 

The Retreat by Michael Jones

 

Listen here.

 

[hexgrid]

Excellent podcast.

 

Things are getting easier than they used to be, but 3D graphics can still be a major investment both in time and effort. For a developer, especially in strategy games, you're often between Scylla (the theoretical expectations of the potential audience and potentially less theoretical expectations of a publisher) and Charybdis (the giant sucking money and time vortex that is 3D). I'm hoping we're gradually moving past it, but we still have vestiges of the "2D looks old and cheap" problem.

 

3D is also potentially quite expensive for terrain, mostly because of the foliage. Manmade features are relatively easy to model within a sane polygon budget, as is the landscape itself. Trees are a huge modelling problem; making a forest that doesn't either look like a bunch of cardboard tree standees or like a giant plush green beanbag tossed onto the landscape is not easy, and doing it within a sane polygon budget is a major challenge.

 

The result of this tension is often compromises that only really make sense if you were directly involved in the technical and political decision making process.

[Fhnuzoag]

If you are looking for English language first hand accounts of the Soviet perspective of WWII, I strongly recommend I Remember:

http://english.iremember.ru/

They have a bunch of translated interviews with Russian war veterans, many of whom have truly amazing stories to tell. I seriously recommend taking a look if you are interested in this period of history.

[sclpls]

Excellent podcast.

 

Things are getting easier than they used to be, but 3D graphics can still be a major investment both in time and effort. For a developer, especially in strategy games, you're often between Scylla (the theoretical expectations of the potential audience and potentially less theoretical expectations of a publisher) and Charybdis (the giant sucking money and time vortex that is 3D). I'm hoping we're gradually moving past it, but we still have vestiges of the "2D looks old and cheap" problem.

 

3D is also potentially quite expensive for terrain, mostly because of the foliage. Manmade features are relatively easy to model within a sane polygon budget, as is the landscape itself. Trees are a huge modelling problem; making a forest that doesn't either look like a bunch of cardboard tree standees or like a giant plush green beanbag tossed onto the landscape is not easy, and doing it within a sane polygon budget is a major challenge.

 

The result of this tension is often compromises that only really make sense if you were directly involved in the technical and political decision making process.

 

I also hope we're beyond the mindset that 2D art "looks old and cheap". It seems like it's much easier getting 2D art to look good compared to 3D art, and a game like Battle of the Bulge looks much better than a lot of war games out there with 3D art, including Conflict of Heroes, which is one of the better looking instances of 3D art I've seen in a war game (I think the presentation with the chits is nice looking though).

[Tim James]

I think the previous discussion on the physicality of boardgame rules was years ago on Lock 'n Load: Heroes of Stalingrad. I went back and listened after it came out recently (though now I'm doubting myself...)

 

Anyway, the same issue Bruce mentioned about not emphasizing the modifiers is present in LnL. I definitely just checked the percentage and clicked to fire. I read the rules and they went in one ear and out the other. Only after about 15 scenarios did I absorb enough to feel like I was exploring some depth to the system. It was still fun but seemed like a missed opportunity.

 

I feel like iOS boardgames, especially when it comes to asynchronous multiplayer, force me to understand the mechanics than PC games that try to help me with convenience.