Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 381

Might & Magic X: Legacy, Banner Saga, Broken Age, Eu: conquest of Paradise, Special Guest Bill Harris (Dubious Quality) Joins Us to Talk About His New Game, Your Emails and More!

This week we're honored to have Bill Harris from Dubious Quality on to talk about the game he made from scratch, Gridiron Solitaire!

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind. You can even send a 30 second audio question or comment (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined.

Chairman_Mao's Timestamps
00.01.56 Might and Magic X: Legacy
00.09.57 Banner Saga
00.14.20 Broken Age
00.16.54 Europa Universalis IV: Conquest of Paradise
00.23.22 This week's topic: The making of Gridiron Solitaire by Bill Harris!
00.47.59 Your emails!

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Love This - Echoside - http://echosidetracks.bandcamp.com/a... - 22:50

Makin’ Money - Echoside - http://echosidetracks.bandcamp.com/a... - 47:25

Comments

Stoked to hear Bill on a podcast.

Bill Harris in the house! Woo hoo!

I just finished a flight from LAX to NYC and the only thing that kept me sane was Gridiron Solitaire and some EPL football streams.

Next up...Tradem...er...Banner Saga.

Bill Harris whoo! and I haven't actually read anything of his in quite a while.
If I could just ignore all the posts about hockey...

Awesome, downloading now to listen to Bill. As an aside, my wife has a small credit in the game, which we're pretty psyched about.

MyBrainHz wrote:

Awesome, downloading now to listen to Bill. As an aside, my wife has a small credit in the game, which we're pretty psyched about. :)

My name rolls in the credits too. For me that's first time a published game has that.

Very glad to hear Bill on the show. Love reading his analysis on the industry. I hope he wasn't scared enough by the show to be a guest again in the future

Very glad to hear Bill on the show. Love reading his analysis on the industry. I hope he wasn't scared enough by the show to be a guest again in the future

In the question about if the game development is more than X then the game must include I think you could expand on the bad guys need to be evil in that I think the expectation is that the climax of the story is defeating the chief evil dude, preferably in a rather visceral fashion (i.e. it ends in a big boss battle).

I further think that the idea is to have the evil bad guys being evil in some fundamental fashion rather than just an opposing faction.

I also think that this expresses as the need to defeat the chief evil dude which may not save the day, and if the game devs want a franchise the threat to life as it is known in the game will not be ended justifying more DLC and/or sequels.

Looks like I need to pick up Gridirin Solitare, thoroughly enjoyed the insight on the development of the game.

By the way, just me or was there a lot of ice cubes jangling in a glass this ep..? Elysium?

By the way, just me or was there a lot of ice cubes jangling in a glass this ep..? Elysium?

Me actually. Maybe Elysium too. I ran out of straws!

Certis wrote:
By the way, just me or was there a lot of ice cubes jangling in a glass this ep..? Elysium?

Me actually. Maybe Elysium too. I ran out of straws!

I was using this so it probably wasn't me

http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/f0b6/

Yeah, wasn't me this time. I was out of gin.

It was awful.

Sean

I enjoyed the discussion on Nintendo this week, as it took a different tone and perspective than I'm used to hearing. An optimistic one, primarily.

I would argue that the WiiU GamePad wasn't exclusively a response to tablets at home, though. I would genuinely not be surprised if Nintendo was partially inspired to take such a direction after the DS and 3DS saw such success, or perhaps Nintendo had ideas they'd have loved to try on games that would fit better on the couch with a big screen TV rather than hunched over a portable.

Of course, I don't really know what inspired them either way, so it's all just conjecture.

As for games for kids: always be careful about how much reading a child needs to do. I thought my niece would love Nintendogs at a young age, but it turned out being unable to read in that game makes it a bit tough to do anything.

Sean talking about playing as one of the aboriginal nations in Europa Universalis reminded me of an AAR on the Paradox forums where a guy nearly conquered the world playing as the Iroqouis in EU3. There was obviously maximum min-maxing, but it was fun to read about.

Also, it was great having Bill Harris on the show. I love reading his blog and his industry analysis has always been must-reads for me. It would be great if you could have him back again in the future.

Controller games for six year olds: The Lego series is spot on for this. You may want to play through yourself first to unlock the various levels, but the kids can just tool around smashing stuff and exploring with no pressure to complete the levels. My son is six and he loves those games, but he also got so good that he can complete levels on his own, no problem. Another game I would play with him when he was 5 was Burnout Paradise. Again, there's no racing or winning, just exploring, so there's no frustration.

Apologies for the wrongful accusation Sean.

If the price for ice cube jangling free podcasts is to drink alcoholic beverages through a straw, well that's something I just can't support Shawn.

Jangle away.

troubleshot wrote:

If the price for ice cube jangling free podcasts is to drink alcoholic beverages through a straw, well that's something I just can't support Shawn.

Jangle away.

+1

I've read Bill for years, so it was great to hear him on the podcast!

Thanks for the advice on games that teach kids the controller. I guess the lego games are my next purchase.

I think the Skylanders games are good for this as well. Most attacks come from just one button, and you can get by with two handily. Using all the face buttons is just to show off, but it provides an incentive without it being required to progress or feel competent.

It is a combat game. Some outlets seem to imply that cartoonish violence of this nature can be a problem for children aged 6 or below.

Good call, Larry. My five and ten year old just finished the latest Skylanders game together this past week, and it really does avoid being overly complex from a control point of view.

This is so not how I imagined Bill's voice. Weird southerness to it. But he had me at "one of several thousand text events...." (36:00).

Text Events. We need more of their population and variety in every game.

Following Bill's blog for a long time and ironically dubious about Gridiron Solitaire; text events are something he's be great at. I can see him contributing lifelong to video games that way, adding character in text. Bless his soul that he's not a bad inventor and programmer. When a good RPG or sports game needs text, pay this man to do it.

Great show all!

Arclite wrote:

Controller games for six year olds: The Lego series is spot on for this. You may want to play through yourself first to unlock the various levels, but the kids can just tool around smashing stuff and exploring with no pressure to complete the levels. My son is six and he loves those games, but he also got so good that he can complete levels on his own, no problem.

Same here - Lego Marvel has hooked my 4 year-old. I've been staying up late unlocking characters and levels "for him," and then yesterday I leave him alone with the game for a minute to grab a drink and I come back and he's no longer flying around NY as Iron Man, but squaring off against the Lizard as Spider-Man.

He happened into the Lizard level I had unlocked but not beaten, and actually managed to get through it on his own. Proud moment in a father's life.

We've also had a good time playing Spider-Man 3 on the Wii. He uses the nunchuck and points where he wants to go, I hold the other controller and handle the web slinging. Works out pretty well just messing around the city.

To heck with games for six-year-olds; this podcast helped me buy a game for the 65-year-old in my life. Every time I visit my parents, my foot-ball loving father sneaks away at some point to play the game of Free Cell he invariably has on the go. After listening to this Conference Call, I grabbed my dad Gridiron Solitaire. I think he's already hooked.