All in the Cards - It's Triple Triad Talk Time

Alright.  I know I said last night that I would talk abut some games getting a release date and such tonight, but I just spent the last hour and a half save scumming Final Fantasy 8 on my Vita solely for Triple Triad-purposes, so I'm going to talk about that tonight.  Because I'm just gonna.  After all, as you all might remember or might have noticed, I have a whole little 'genre' of posts, I suppose you could say, that is dedicated solely to the discussion of cards and/or card-based games titled appropriately "All in the Cards".  As this post itself has that branding, I am furthering this idea and such, and just interested in really talking about Triple Triad tonight.  Even though it's my first time in a -long- time playing the game, I'm already getting some sense of 'nostalgia' sweeping back and after a rocky start, I've settled into a strategy that will generally have me win or, at worst, draw.  Defeats were few and far between when I started getting cards tonight at least, but again, I didn't keep those because I am a save scumming cheaterbaby.

Anyways, I'm up to 27 unique cards from the 7 you're handed at the start of the game should you chose to talk to the first non-story-important person (barring the three students in the classroom) you come across, with about three of those cards having duplicates to them.  (One of them, in fact, having two dupes.)  This is progress since that, in itself, means 31 wins, since the only winning rule I've encountered so far, what with being at the very start of the game is "One", meaning simply you pick -one- card from the loser's hand to take for your very own.  I cannot recall the other rules off-hand, but I suspect there's an "All" and then another rule that only allows you to pick from cards you actually 'flipped', but that's mostly conjecture on my part.  I don't remember the rules of Triple Triad so much as the very basic aspect of strategy I thought of years ago (which was not very strategic) and very basics as to how the game is played.

For those of you that don't know or don't remember how to play Triple Triad, I can offer a nice little primer here using the screenshot above as a basis.  As you can see, the playfield is a three by three grid, totaling nine squares in all.  Each player picks five cards for their hand which are revealed in normal circumstances, leaving it as more a game of understanding the strengths of your cards and the probabilities of how the other player is going to play his.  If you look at the cards, each one has four numbers (ignore the A) which reflects upon each side of the card.  So taking the Tonberry card on the right side, the top border is 4, the left border is 4, the right border is 6 and the bottom border is 7.  The goal is to use those numbers to 'flip' placed cards by being higher than them.  (There's another way to do it as well, but I've found it very situational and haven't pulled it off myself)  It's a quick and easy to understand game in that sense, but it offers a depth that's...rather deceptive.

So let's sort of visualize that game as it could play out, try to follow along if you would.  For the purposes of this, let's imagine Red won the right to go first and does so by placing their Tonberry in the upper left corner, playing on that cards fairly high numbers for the right and bottom borders, which are the only ones exposed.  Blue responds by throwing their Moogle under it, using the 9 on the top border to flip it.  Red retaliates by placing the 5574 thing (can't figure its name at the moment) to the right of the Moogle using the 4 of the left border to flip the Moogle since the Moogle's right border is 3.  At this point, Red is ahead since of the three cards on the board placed, two of them are his color.  Blue evens this up by throwing their Tonberry in the top middle since 7 > 5.  This is pretty much the precise moment that Red has lost, mind you, since Red does not have a card that can flip a Blue card that's on the board, yet Blue still has a few really strong cards in hand.  Buer, Anaconda (That's not the name, I don't think, but it's close) and Grendel can be flipped from just about any position playable by Ifrit and the soldier, so the only matter is placing the cards to see just how much Blue wins -by-.

Triple Triad is certainly a game governed by the cards where you can tend to win by overwhelming force.  It's all about utilizing which sides your cards are strong with when the situation calls for it.  Corner cards, as in cards that have two strong borders at a right angle are very good for defensive starts, since it ensures you can place a card down without losing one if you're so inclined.  Ifrit is a good example of this as with a border of 9 and 8, you could put it in the bottom right corner and not really worry unless your opponent has a card with a 9 or an A on the right border.  (A, I believe, is All, as in beats everything, even a 9.  Not sure about another A)  Regardless, higher numbers are better as Triple Triad is a game about putting down cards with higher numbers than the cards you put them down next to.  To that effect, I don't think there is a realistic scenario in the above screenshot where Red -could- win unless Blue....just...played like an idiot.  Blue's cards are just that much better.

Every card -does- have a weakness, however, as you can see above; cards with two considerably strong sides tend to have weaker edges to make up for it (more the Moogle than....say, Ifrit), so you do have to consider that when you're picking out your hand.  You almost have to visualize how you want to control the board before you pick to think of a strategy, and then it also relies on luck partially, depending on if your strategy accounts for you placing first or not.  The best-laid plans can be destroyed by this because you only have so many cards and so many places to put them where they'll make a real, honest difference.  Say Blue's strategy solely relied on throwing Ifrit down in the right corner to start (and didn't have super awesome cards on top of that, say Ifrrit is the best card Blue has) and Red goes first and does that instead.  If Red's Right corner card has a left border that is a 6 or higher, then bam, that strategy is potentially ruined.  You can still play Ifrit to the left of that card, as the worst that can happen is you -don't- flip it (and use its border as a corner to protect its middling 6) and you'll still have the 9 and 8 facing out, but that could very well be the first step to a Draw, depending on how it works out.

Fans have long joked that Triple Triad honestly kind of -needs- to be its own game and I'm certainly one of the folks echoing that statement.  It's...kind of perfect as a pick-up-and-play game, which would make it perfect in this sort of gaming culture we've crafted out for ourselves.  Release it as a relatively cheap 'hub' app, sell boosters as "DLC", though with the ability to earn cards through winning (both against human and computer opponents) and bam.  That, my friends, is a money farm right there that has yet to be sown.  Though, knowing Squeenix's practices, they'd sell the Triple Triad game itself (with like a minimal starter set of cards) for $30, price each card individually at $1.99-$4.99 and wonder why nothing's selling.  Still, we have the game itself as is within each copy of Final Fantasy 8, and for the price of $9.99, that's...quite a bargain.  I mean, I know I'm not alone in people who have loaded up FF8 -just- to play Triple Triad.  I'm far from an outlier in this, and that's kind of amazing, I think.

Sick Still, More Game Talk

So, it seems like I might be a bit on the decline rather than getting less sick but I guess it always gets worse before it gets better or somesuch other rhetoric.  Bottom line is, I'm still sick, there's still no news, I still haven't made enough progress in games to speak of (though this is mostly because my cooling ideas are falling through, meaning little to no real PS3 time) so why don't I just ramble about my card game some more.  I have a whole other facet at least somewhat realized in my head that I haven't brought up in the slightest and while it highlights one of my short-comings (the inability to draw people, hence not having concept pictures of them to share) it also gives a pretty good idea of what all I'm going for with the game itself, even if it might seem a bit scattered and/or more realized in my head at this point yet.

The entire facet that I haven't really gone into on here about is the actual 'Factions' of the game, of which I have sort of realized in my head, but I haven't put them to paper whatsoever for the reasons I've elucidated already.  They are a very rough realization of what I've envisioned so far, obviously, and I haven't worked out mechanics enough to know if they're viable/balanced with the 'perks' I've kind of figured on them having, but it's better than just not having anything at all.  Of course, considering the 'world' I've realized the game in bears an apparent resemblance to Mirror's Edge (that I am trying to figure -against- being since I'd rather try and stay away from 'rip off' comments if possible), I should preface things with a few facts here.  First off, I haven't actually played Mirror's Edge yet, but I've watched an LP of the game that I don't remember too much of despite it being highly entertaining.  (Both because of the game and the LPer)  Secondly, I know one of the factions is pretty much like Mirror's Edge, but I like it so whatever.

I'll go ahead and elaborate on that faction now, as it was the first, will likely be the 'hero' faction of the game (or protagonist faction or similar) and it's the one I've put the most thought into.  Of the four realized, this faction is classified as the "Runner" faction which does exactly what the name implies.  I don't have an official name for any of them as they're just concepts yet, but they all have a sort of descriptive title like that.  The Freerunners do pretty much exactly what you think; some of them actually try to do right by the city the game takes place in by delivering communiques and the like, where the others pretty much are just in it to run from the special army.  Adrenaline junkies, the lot of them, they still can offer a nice distraction for other runners who might be a little more 'professional' or righteous or what have you.  Their strength will be getting from Point A to Point B the fastest out of the groups, which will either be done through adding +1 base move to all their movements or those taken with Faction-specific cards, I haven't decided just yet.  With two movements possible in a turn, 2 extra squares will go quite a long way in the long run.

The second faction is decidedly the 'antagonist' faction, as they are the Special Forces militia put in place by the current head honcho.  I should've elaborated a bit earlier, but this sort of plays into the "I haven't played Mirror's Edge so I don't know if I'm ripping it off" thing.  Quite simply, after being elected into office (of some sort, dunno if he's actually the President or what) this high-up guy starts very slowly sinking his domain into a rigid, fear-based society, turning it from normal every day life to something more like V for Vendetta, what with the curfews, the possibility for random kidnapping, and other such things 'for your protection'.  Official crime is down by a bit (aside from those caused by the Runners and other factions), but at the cost of the bad dudes having free reign to cause problems themselves.  When playing as this Special Forces Militia or 'Gunners', you have the strength in numbers, since you'll be able to field 3 or 4 members of the faction (though they're individually the least impressive of all the factions because of this) at the start, and you -might- be able to call in reinforcements, I haven't decided.

The third is the first of the 'second-tier' factions, so said because I imagine if this were a game proper, this one and the next one would be dropped in favor of simply having the 'heroes' and the 'villains', but I don't operate as such.  The 'Modders' as I have dubbed them is a mainly co-op faction, since they get their strength from pairs.  As in, you field two at a time and one can augment the other, even from a distance, as they are kind of cyborgs.  The idea I'm running with is sort of Borg-ish experimental beings have been made by the head bad guy except two of them escaped with the technology used to make them and are now obsessed with bringing people into their 'order' to try and perfect their own design.  So their cards and the like will probably focus on equippable items mostly and either they can equip to their partner should they choose or they -share- equip slots, I'm not quite sure which.  Again, still not sure on the whole balance of things here.

The last faction is the faction that I'm sure none of you are surprised that I'm including and/or that I made an effort to actually fit this in.  The 'Brawlers' do just what you expect, and are basically just a group of streetfighters who cause problems among themselves and others for all sorts of reasons.  Some are trying to shake 'society' up with their fists to make everyone see that something is wrong, and some just want to punch people.  Regardless of the reason, they are very good at it and as you might expect, their cards/battle style is all about getting up-close and personal.  Because of that, however, in a world where guns exist, it's a dangerous venture, so I've had to think of how to make them equally dangerous.  My idea is, basically, either allowing them to equip up to three attacks (as opposed to two) -or- allowing them to chain attack cards.  Like, using an attack card and chaining that to an equipped attack card to decidedly increase their damage output.  Again, balance is probably going to step in here, but I like it as a base.

I like to think that I have, at least, a very definite cast of characters in the factions themselves, but I've also been thinking about individuals to fill those out.  Specifically, I've got about four people in mind for the Runners, five for the Gunners (which is easy, since you basically just have to pick names for the same base type, though there needs to be -some- variation of course), four Modders (two pairs) and three Brawlers, and while I'm sure it would be terribly interesting to describe designs, I'll save that for another time.  Or for a time when I can show you rather than describe them out.  Much as with the card concepts, at least I can put down something that shows I -have- put a lot of thought into this thing, even if it might not seem it.  With any luck, I'll be able to have more tangible proof sometime soon-ish.

My Game - A Thing Called Progress

You will never know the difficulty uploading this took.

So, I did say long ago that I had not only intended on having a slightly working prototype of a game made by the end of the year, but that I had an idea in mind.  And since then, it's more or less been complete silence on it as I took it behind-the-scenes as it were, and simply started working on it mostly in my own time.  And mostly in my own mind with tonight being not the first, but one of the few times I sat down and tried to concept something out for it.  Obviously tonight was the card design and layout (click Here for slightly bigger version) and with very general and broad strokes, since the mechanics are more or less still up in the air.  There are definitely two systems in place at the moment and they both offer their own strengths and weaknesses, so I have to pin down just which is the best of the two.

The two systems, which I imagine explaining prior to describing the cards above and the thought behind them is a good idea, are pretty simple and tried-and-true ones.  The first, which was more or less what the cards above were designed in mind with at the moment, is a cost system as most card-based games have.  All cards feature an Equip cost and a Use Cost (Why all?  You'll see.) which is admittedly partially taken from Metal Gear Ac!d as an idea, but it's not like it'd be the first nor last.  Ideas come from everywhere, etc. etc.  The gist of Use and Equip costs is that they make you think a bit more 'tactically' since you can keep a card to use if you think it will be useful or it might just be worth preparing by equipping it so you can chain it with something else.  Of course, not everything can be chained, but blah blah, details.  And the second idea is to simply have a number of actions a turn (2, for instance) wherein you can play a card however you want, but you only get two.  You can equip two cards, equip one and use one, move with both, etc.  The advantage here is the easier nature of it, since you don't have to track numbers and costs, but game balance is a concern, since with no cost or anything, some cards could easily become OP, all things considered.

That in mind, let's get a little bit into the cards and start peeling back what is simply visible to explain what it means.  Start with the left-most card that is, unfortunately, a little washed out because it's lightly sketched and glare happens, but I figure you can see it well enough.  It offers pretty much the simplest design that sort of looks like what most other cards design themselves after.  The Use cost in the upper right corner with the name of the card being up there as well, under that is the illustration, and under that is the description.  I have part of the description box taken up by a little space for an emblem that shows what affiliation the card is for (of the four 'Factions' as well as unaligned) for flavor and under that is the Equip Cost which is possibly a bit out-of-place.  But that is the point of doing roughs, of course, to figure this sort of stuff out and place things in a better place.

I know we're not supposed to play favorites, but I do think the middle card is the one I like the most in this group of three.  It's a fairly different spin on the classic design since it compartmentalizes the upper square usually dominated by the illustration for the card.  Since I want Affiliation to play a part in the game (I'm thinking bonuses for using cards affiliated with the faction you're playing, which is the simplest), it features that pretty chiefly and allows for flavor text and/or a reminder as to what bonus it might innately offer if I go that route.  (I'm thinking the Movement-based Faction gets an additional 1 to move for such cards and the like)  Then the Description is afforded a reasonable amount of space above the bottom bar which has a spot for Equip Cost, Movement Value, and Use Cost respectively, keeping everything fairly neatly in its own place.  The main problem is that it does cramp the illustration a bit and vertical space is generally trickier to work with than horizontal.

The last card, which kind of seems like a variation of the first is also a pretty strong contender.  Use and Equip Costs are featured at the top of the card on opposite sides, flanking the illustration and name, forcing it to the center rather than left to right.  The illustration still has plenty of room even with the triangles cutting into the space, the description has ample room, and the Affiliation Emblem watermark offers that distinction that I want to be very apparent.  The only issue with it is that it's a fairly basic design, and I honestly don't know where to put Movement Value, so I sort of just tossed it in the center at the bottom.  It has the benefit of keeping the 'triangle' theme, not only making a triangle with the other numbers, as well as them being cased in triangles themselves.  So it does have a bit of flow, which I like, but it still seems a bit lacking and/or thrown-together.

I just wanted to show that off to show that there was, indeed, work and/or thought being put into the project.  While I'm sort of doubting it being even a little bit workable by the end of the year, it's nice to have something a little tangible made up.  And writing this out has made it a lot more focused in my head as to how to rethink and/or refine certain aspects of the game as a whole, as well as the designs I thought up.  Of course, this is just one aspect of it that I have to cover, the other two being the characters/factions (which I have in mind, just haven't concepted them out because I am terrible with forms, as is obvious) and the ideals in place for making some maps to actually play the game out with and help me keep it balanced.  Everything sort of has its own facets which I'm realizing very slowly, and thinking out those facets will likely be the biggest challenge of the process on the whole.

All in the Cards - My Obsession

I'm going to level with you guys.  Just in case you haven't noticed, I kind of have a thing for Trading Card Games of all shapes, sizes and forms.  And while I haven't played 80% of them (In fact, half of the above pictured), trust me, were the time, money, and ability to do so mine, I would be familiar with all of the TCGs.  I'm not really sure what it is about it, whether it's the strategy involved in deciding your deck structure, collecting better cards, just the way a match plays out, or some other thing.  But there's just something that makes every card out there something I want to at least see if just to try and understand its place in a game.

And while you might have noticed the beast that is my TCG-desire has been temporarily sated, that doesn't mean I'm not constantly thinking about them and how any game out there could be converted to a TCG structure of some sort without too much hassle.  I say some sort, because I have been schooled in the ways of Card Games, and I've learned that they're not always going to be a simple "Here's your field, here's your bench, here's your hand, GO" affair.

This is, of course, because of the above-pictured Metal Gear Ac!d 2.  (I don't know how to do superscript.)  Also the non-pictured Metal Gear Ac!d.  Now, a lot of people don't even know about the two Metal Gear Ac!d games, and I can't honestly blame them, as they simply are not only strange games, but games that weren't really mentioned a lot when they were released, which was several years ago.  But Metal Gear Ac!d (I believe) was one of the two games I got with my PSP and I never regretted it for the sheer amount of fun it ended up affording.

If you're unfamiliar with the gameplay of Metal Gear Ac!d as a series, think of any grid-based Tactics RPG you've played.  Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea, Jeanne D'arc, etc. etc.  Every character has a base amount of movement they can do on their turn and they usually get one attack before it's over.  Kind of turn-based, but with strategic movements.  Well, take that and add cards.  Metal Gear Ac!d (henceforth simply referred to Metal Gear Ac!d to cover both games at once) feature a few different types of cards, which, regardless of what you have, fuel everything you do.  To move, you use a card and pay the COST of it, which builds up as you perform actions.  That COST then determines how long you have to wait til your next turn.  (You can usually only play two cards a turn.)

Of course, it's not always that simply or difficult.  Using a normal card usually only affords a few blocks of movement (3 or 4, I think), but there are specific Movement cards that will almost always let you move farther and/or more silently than that.  Another type of card is Equip Cards, which will be your Body Armor and such and also some weapons that, when you have them equipped, might afford you a counter-attack if you're attacked.  (Which then uses up the card or uses the ammo, which you can replenish with another of that card.)  Then you have Use cards which are instant-use and usually encompass the other half of the available weapons, rations, and special abilities.  There are other types, but I'm sure that's confusing enough for one installment.

And if you don't believe I spend my time thinking about this, well, you are quite mistaken!  To prove that, I'm going to use inFamous 2 as an example of a scenario setter where the game could be adapted into a card game.  Now, while it would be fairly simply enough to just do a complete reskin of Metal Gear Ac!d (replace gun Use cards with powers, Use Ration cards with "Recharge Point" cards, etc.), I'm sure we could go about this the extra mile so that, while similar, it would be a different game from MGA.

Imagine a grid-based board like you'd expect from, again, a Tactics RPG or if you're familiar, a Metal Gear Ac!d level.  Fairly easy level; you have a few Militia men on the other side of the board surrounding a Blast Core that is your main goal.  You have, instead of a deck, two half-decks, (Or maybe one deck is smaller than the other, regardless you don't have a single 60 or so card deck like most card games) one stack is powers or actions, the other is your "support" cards; Support characters, special actions, and such.  Each turn, you draw one of each and get to use up to three cards in any combination of what you have, though you can't have more than three of either type of card at one time.

So, the main goal is to get to the other side of the board (which has water hazards, of course) to fight the Militia and recover the blast core.  How you accomplish that is simply up to how you use what cards you've decided to put in your decks to start with.  For instance, there'll be "Good Cole" and "Evil Cole" cards, obviously, which will confer the Karma-specific powers.  For this example, we'll use Good Cole's card set.  We draw three of each card to start the match and end up with an Ice Pillar card and two sticky grenade cards.  The support cards, for this example, don't matter, as our Good Cole is rough and tumbler.  Using the Ice Pillar card from his starting location, Cole is propelled a goodly distance across the board and is in range of the Militia.  (I'm also sort of condensing this for ease of imagining.)

With two more actions, we use the first Sticky Grenade card and target the closest Militia.  The attack goes through and successfully hits, dealing enough damage to defeat him.  The other two Milita aren't close enough to stick one, but we can hit the square between them, so that's where the other sticky grenade goes.  From not being a direct impact, both Militia members survive, but are staggered, which means they lose one action on their turn.  You've used three actions, so you're done.  Enemy turn, the Militia with one or two actions a piece only, vainly attack Cole for a little damage, but nothing too lethal.  Their turn cleared, we draw our Action card (but not a Support, since we still have three.  Or maybe we draw a Support card and have to discard one) and it's Ice Rocket.  The Militia are standing next to one another, so a direct hit freezes them both.  Then using a support card for basic movement, we collect the Blast Core.  Match complete!

So there you go.  Looking back on that, I'm...not too sure why I plotted that all out.  But at least to me, it sounded cool.  Hopefully I didn't go completely out of the box and confuse anyone who might not be as obsessed with card-based games as myself.  And hey, if anyone from Sucker Punch is reading this (hahahahaha) and liked it, I'm more than free to consult on such a project!

All in the Cards - Magic 2012

So, I may be tapping into the deepest reaches of nerd-dom here, but I just love love Trading Card games, and while Magic 2012 (Full name:  Magic:  The Gathering:  Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012) may not be the perfect video game form of a TCG, it's acceptable at its worst, and excellent at its best.  There's just something about the strategy involved in a card game like this that gives it an allure I can't resist, not to mention the inherent "Collection" aspect of the game.  I've made it fairly clear in the past that I'm highly susceptible to collecting in games and the like, so you'd actually think that a TCG with a full-range of cards that you can gather would destroy me absolutely.

...And, in all honesty, it could.  I remember staying up til all hours of the morning playing Metal Gear Ac!d 2, grinding battles for points to buy booster packs just to try and get cards I didn't have already.  But the point of the matter here is that Magic 2012 (Nor its predecessor) is not one of those games.  Which is a blessing and a curse all in one.

Instead, what Magic 2012 does is starts you off with two Pre-Constructed Decks (that likely actually just mimic the decks they created for 12th edition) that you can use to try and unlock the rest of the ten available decks through campaign mode.  And as you use, and win, with each deck, you unlock up to 16 more cards per deck that you can swap out with cards in the deck.  Bare minimum deck is 60 cards, so when you unlock everything, you can have a 76 card deck, but, for a more optimized experience, it's heavily advised that you pare it down to 60 again, using your own judgment to decide what you need and what you don't need.

Doing some quick math here, every deck starts with 60 cards, with about 25 of them being lands, and with copies of cards, you can generally take that number down quite a bit still.  So let's figure on there being about 20 cards per deck being unique, not to mention the unlockables (which are sometimes copies as well.)  Bump the number up to, being generous, about 28.  Times that by 10, you get 280, which seems like a good number.  That's the number of unique cards I'm figuring are in the base game, or something of a rough guess, at least.  Every deck is different of course, but it's a fairly simple guesstimate anyway.  $10 for 280 unique cards is pretty good!  Even though you can't really mix and match them like you can with physical cards.

....Getting back to the point, is that Magic 2012 offers a fair bit of bang for your buck (especially if you got it on the Playstation Plus sale like I did.  Sure it was only a couple bucks less, but, well, I saved a couple of dollars) considering the Multi-player is quite well set-up, and there is a rather full campaign.  Pictured above is the campaign path, or at least one of them, with each battle with a planeswalker (the dots with faces in them) offering either a new deck to use or a pass to one of the other two 'campaigns', titled Archenemy and Revenge.  While I haven't played those yet, I took a look at the Archenemy board and it, well, looks kind of like the campaign board.  So even if you don't have any friends who'd geek out with you in a TCG, you can still play it.

Or, if you do have friends to play it with, you can.  And possibly lose spectacularly.



So if you're looking for a TCG game and don't mind minimal customization, consider this an endorsement for Magic 2012.  Once you get used to the flow of the game, it really captures the essence of playing face-to-face.  And speaking of, apparently there's an option where you can actually use your Playstation Eye to sort of Video Chat during matches online like only a few other PSN titles that I can think of (Hustle Kings being one of them.  I think.) can do.  Which is actually pretty neat, if you're playing with someone you know personally, or if you're just not camera shy.