Tick Talk

Meeples Together (Christopher Allen & Shannon Appelcline) is the book I have spent about 10 years looking for. The format of this book is as close to my ideal ‘game design’ book as I have found. Now, this book isn’t perfect, but it gets so much right, it should be considered a ‘must read’, allow me to elaborate...

As I have read more rumors about a Paper Mario for the Nintendo Switch, I have continued to play Paper Mario Color Splash.  Not my favorite Paper Mario, but the last one released.  However, as I play, I am again reminded why this is only my second play through in last three years.  This game is often an exercise in repeated frustration.  Yes, I am talking about the Tangerino Grill stage.

GameTek (by Geoff Engelstein) is a collection of brief thoughts and ideas that are fleshed out into two to three page chapters. The book covers a range of topics from emergence, power creep, to cheating.

Uncertainty in Games (by Greg Costikyan) is a short, informal book that reads more like a long essay than an academic work.  The book provides a good overview of different types of uncertainty (i.e. tension), but often fails to support or fully discuss their statements.  However, the book provides an interesting foray into sources of uncertainty in play.

Characteristics of Games (by George Skaff Elias, Richard Garfield, and K. Robert Gutschere) was a fascinating read and challenged more than one assumption I had about topics I felt were quite cut and dried.  This book starts at the foundation of design by examining topics such as number of players, game length, and types of games.  The book introduces some new vocabulary and contains some excellent appendices that give good summaries of topics such as Game Theory.

As a huge fan of the Paper Mario franchise (mostly, discounting the out-of-theme Wii game), I was very excited to play Paper Mario Color Splash for the Wii U.  I remember it having solid game play and good continuation of theme and style.  Then I decided to replay it recently and ran into a couple of issues that seem like good talking points of bad design.