Game Update
I’ve taken a small break from working on stages to implement a difficulty setting on the menu. The primary reason for this is to add certain modes to the game that I feel will improve the feel of the game. The most important one being the ability to have troops sometimes die and get removed from the roster completely. Right now when troops are defeated they can simply be healed and it has minimal impact on the player.
I’ve gone back to play X-Com 2 and I can’t get over the fact that I get pretty emotional when my troops die in the battles. We don’t have that right now in the game. There are no stakes for the player and they can simply smash their troops up against the enemy over and over with little to no consequence.
My mentor Chris is a little worried about this, but I’ve been very adamant that this is something that will be very important to implement. We made the difficulty system scalable with a number that the player can push up and down. One thing we didn’t do is lock in the difficulty when it’s chosen. It can be changed any time in between stages. We might do this in the future however.
Personal Update
I will be working GenCON this year which is very exciting for me. The last GenCON I attended was in 2018. I had made a conscious decision not to go in 2019 as I had expected to retire and move to Austin but that didn’t work out like I planed. Thank goodness it didn’t go the way I thought it would. I love Austin and still do, but I think the job might have been unsustainable, unlike the one I’m in now which allows me to live the lifestyle I want to live.
I missed a lot of blog entries this month. Many times I was busy on Sunday with friends and family. I did manage to get my first paid D&D session and I’m working on the next one. I’m becoming more and more business minded with ideas about advertising my company with tee shirts etc…
I also have had some time to relax and play some new board games as well as improving my board game area with some new matching cube shelves. I’d like to start streaming again, but there is a part of me that realizes that I may never get around to making video content on twitch and YouTube again.
The Magic the Gathering Lord of the Rings set was released this month to great success. I’m not surprised because LOTR has such a big built in audience. I think that the fantasy theme of LOTR fits well with what people want to see on their magic cards unlike some of the other universes beyond sets which are a bit jarring. They’ve really shown that anything can be a magic card now.
There was also a worldwide chase for the one of one “One Ring” which seems to have concluded two days ago now. Estimates were upwards of $2 million which would make this the most valuable magic card of all time. Pretty crazy times we’re living in for sure.
For me the set was pretty good and I have a couple of cards I think will work well in the Modern format that I typically play now and then. I was also able to put together my first commander deck using Tom Bombadil. I’m sure it’s not going to be overly competitive, but I’m excited to see it work, and I can finally play with my buddies that have been begging me to get a commander deck together forever.