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Rabu, September 30, 2020
📄 Alzahari Abd Rahman berkongsi siaran Tahfiz Mutmainnah Malaysia
Suresh Surez telah siarkan dalam IKEA TEBRAU JOHOR PS by Asz
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Selasa, September 29, 2020
📄 Aji Saka berkongsi siaran Asror Ali
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Rabu, September 23, 2020
Heroes Of Hammerwatch - Ultimate Edition Review (NSW)
Written by Patrick Orquia
Title: Heroes of Hammerwatch - Ultimate Edition
Developer: Crackshell
Publisher: Blitworks
Genre: Action Adventure, RPG, Roguelite
Number of Players: 1
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: July 29, 2020
Price: $19.99
I like roguelike/roguelite games, even though they incite violent rage in me when I play them. Ok, no, not violent. I just cuss a lot and maybe scream loud enough for the people next door to call the cops on me. As frustrating as these games could be, there is one thing that is for sure: they are very fun to play, because they make me continuously get better at the game by learning from my past mistakes bit by bit and force me to try new strategies to keep me from dying over and over again.
Heroes of Hammerwatch is a roguelite RPG game, wherein you play as a warrior who has to explore dungeons to accumulate money and ores to rebuild the town of Outlook. As expected with roguelite games, you will die a lot of times in the process. This game is very punishing early on and the gameplay gets very repetitive very fast, but if you have the tendency to get addicted to the risk-reward cycle of games such as this, you could end up spending hours upon hours trying to level up and earn money and other rewards.
At the start of the game, you get to choose which warrior class you want your character to be and customize its looks to your liking. The game has 16-bit aesthetics, and your character and the rest of the visuals will look pixelated, but still, you get to create it and see how the game will show it in all of its pixel-y goodness. You can create multiple characters in a single save file, and they all share resources. This is a good game mechanic because it offers you multiple ways to tackle the challengers of the game, since different classes have different attack styles and skills. Plus you don't want to get stuck with just a paladin character. Maybe you would want a ranger or a wizard, too, depending on your mood.
The game is presented as a dungeon crawler, where your character has to battle hordes of enemies that will try to kill you in large numbers at first sight in large, procedurally-generated dungeons sectioned into rooms and corridors. There are two types of attacks, one is a normal attack, either melee or ranged, and the other is skill, which uses mana points (MP). Additional skills get unlocked as you progress. You get experience points upon defeating these enemies. If you defeat enough enemies in quick succession without getting hit, you will enter a combo state that makes your character move faster and hit harder, and you could also generate HP and MP. Some of the rooms contain loot such as gold, food, and the elusive ores. These ores are used to unlock new establishments that would provide permanent skill upgrades, temporary buffs, and other goodies.
At the beginning of the game, you start with the first dungeon, the mines. It is divided into four floors, with the last one containing a boss that you need to defeat to proceed to the next one. The bosses can be quite hard to beat, as they have a large HP plus waves of enemies also join fray, so you have to keep on moving and keep on killing, or risk getting killed yourself. The other dungeons are presented the same way. If or when you die, you end up back to the town, with all of your temporary abilities and unsaved gold/ores gone. This kind of stings, but typical for a roguelite game. But wait, you ask, unsaved gold/ores? Well, in this game, you are required to send to town the money you collect from the dungeons. Some floors will have an elevator that goes back to town where you can put the gold and ores you have collected so far. This will be your savings, minus some taxes. The game does not specifically explain this, and I personally wasted a few runs earning nothing because I didn't know that I had to do this. Not all floors have this, so the further you go without saving your money, the greater the risk that you have, plus the louder you scream when you die.
By the way, this game implements a cool way of skipping floors to advance to dungeons that you have already visited: at the starting floor of the preceding dungeon, you can find a portal that leads to a challenge room. Where you have to survive many waves of enemies in order to advance to the succeeding dungeon. The goal is to break a cube at the center of the room and as long as it is intact, the waves of enemies don't stop. Surviving this room will reward you with 8 FREE temporary buffs that you can use for the rest of your run (they disappear when you die). Typically, buffs can be bought at a shop in the town or found in treasure chests and NPCs inside the dungeons. These buffs add up and work alongside one another, so the more buffs you have equipped, the more fighting chance your character gets in surviving the dungeons.
The more you progress into the game, and hopefully you get more and more skilled in killing enemies and saving those precious coins and ores, the more you can build up the town. Town upgrades require a certain amount of ores, so yes, you will really spend hours upon hours grinding in the dungeons to upgrade them. But if you do manage to upgrade the establishments, you will reap the benefits, because you can then have more options to upgrade your character… for it to be more capable of killing more enemies and collecting loot and goodies. Rinse and repeat.
To somehow break the monotony of repetitive gameplay, you can try playing with other people, either local or online. The local multiplayer is fun and makes traversing dungeons easier, since you get to share the load of killing the multitude of enemies, plus you get to share a high five with your friends every so often, or maybe yell at them if they die more than you do. The online multiplayer is a bit of a mixed bag, as trying to find parties to join or people to join your own party can be a bit hard. Maybe the game is not being played as much by other people on the Switch, which is quite a shame. This version of the game also comes with all the DLCs that have been available for the game so far (it has been out and available to other platforms for a couple of years now). The new areas still play basically the same, but with tougher challenges, which will really test your skills. Oh, and the game also has a New Game+, so really, your grinding and killing spree will not stop if you so choose.
Overall, Heroes of Hammerwatch – Ultimate Edition is a good game that has a lot to offer. It has cool visuals and aesthetics, with an equally cool soundtrack to wrap everything together. It has a steep learning curve, but once you get the hang of the gameplay, you'll soon find yourself being a very capable warrior that can go toe to toe against the toughest of enemies. So if you are aching for a good roguelite game, give this game a go and put your dungeon exploration skills to the test.
REPLAY VALUE: Very high
PROS
- Cool visuals with 16-bit aesthetics
- Catchy soundtrack to keep you moving as you explore the dungeons
- Wide range of customization options to suit your play style
- High degree of enemy types
- Repetitive yet very addicting and enjoyable gameplay
- Very challenging, with a steep learning curve at the beginning, but very rewarding as you progress further into the game
- Has a surprisingly good amount of content
- Has local and online multiplayer options
CONS
- Characters look very tiny, especially in handheld mode
- Looks very dark in handheld mode, which make it even harder to differentiate enemies and traps
- Very grind-heavy
- Some dungeon floors don't have the elevator for saving gold and ores, and thus result to high frustration when you die because you lose everything unsaved
- Frame rate drops are encountered when there is too much action happening on screen
- Can be hard to find online parties to join or players to join your own party
RATING: 4/5 Hammerwatch heroes and villains
Selasa, September 22, 2020
A Tremendous Chop To The Team
That tournament aboard the S.S. Anne went well into the evening and I remained undefeated. Between matches, I wandered the promenade deck sizing up the competition. The entire ship was buzzing about a rising star trainer aboard the ship. He was competing in a higher bracket than mine, so we wouldn't face each other here, but I really wanted to see one of his matches. Unfortunately, we never crossed paths but I would be on the lookout for this trainer named Red. It wasn't terribly surprising when I stumbled into Wolf. I assumed he wouldn't miss a chance to show off for a crowd of Pokémon enthusiasts. I caught sight of him just as he was soundly defeating an opponent in a few decisive seconds after the match had started. I quickly checked to see which bracket he was in because I relished the idea of soundly defeating him in front of spectators. And as luck would have it, the next time I trounced Wolf would be in front of a live audience.
When our numbers were finally called, Wolf was calm and collected as he stood across from me. We both had the confidence of a trainer who hadn't lost a single point yet. We exchanged casual, semi-friendly greetings and then chose our first Pokémon to battle. I opened with Douglas and he opened with his Pidgeotto. It was a predictable move. My tiny, ground-type Pokémon was at a disadvantage, but Douglas needed the training and I was over-confident. I let Douglas intimidate his opponent with fierce growls, but as soon as Pidgeotto landed a small hit, I withdrew Douglas and tossed out my own Pidgeotto, Kiwi.
"We've done this dance before," Wolf said across the arena.
"How did that work out for you?" I said with a sneer. Kiwi began kicking up dust and dirt. It was our traditional opening move, but it was much harder to pull off on a freshly swabbed deck. As Kiwi continued to harass the accuracy of his opponent, he took quite a few hits from Wolf's Pidgeotto. Restorative items were not prohibited in the tournament, so a Super Potion ensured Kiwi would be able to stay in the fight. Wolf looked annoyed, but he made no objection. As his Pidgeotto continued to flounder and land only the luckiest and lightest of attacks on Kiwi, Kiwi was able to swiftly put an end to Wolf's Pidgeotto. The crowd cheered.
Wolf tossed out his Raticate and I withdrew Kiwi and replaced him with Lucky who hadn't seen much action aboard the S.S. Anne. The Raticate was naturally faster and landed some quick attacks on Lucky. When it moved in close, Lucky showered the Raticate with a comforting sleep powder from its wings and it was lulled into a deep sleep. Lucky took a second point from Wolf when he used a psychic assault to knock out the Raticate without ever waking it up. The crowd was slightly less impressed with this boring victory, but Wolf was frowning. That was just as good for my morale as a cheering crowd.
Wolf called out Kadabra next. We were both underwhelmed by Abra's performance in our last match, so I had no doubt that Wolf had been training him into an impressive Kadabra since we last battled. I didn't quite know what to expect from this creature, so I went with my current powerhouse, Rascal Jr. A solid hyper fang instantly downed the Kadabra and all my worries instantly disappeared. The crowd went wild at this turn of events as Kadabra was apparently the star member of Wolf's team today.
I knew what was next and I knew how to handle it. I knew the crowd was more excited by tremendously powerful, fast-paced biting Raticates, but I was here to win. Wolf tossed out a Pokéball that released his Wartortle into the arena. I withdrew Rascal Jr. and brought out Arnold. He took a solid headbutt from the Wartortle, but managed to burst a puff of sleep spores into its face. Then Arnold proceeded to absorb Wartortle's energy, replenishing its own, until Wartortle was forced to submit.
Wolf actually looked impressed. "Well, I made it this far undefeated. I thought I had a chance this time. I guess you're still one step ahead of me," he said casually. He crossed the arena and extended a hand toward me. I felt a sneer crawl across my face as I took his hand and shook it in front of the cheering crowd. "You're still too serious, man," he laughed, cocking his head at me. "But I guess your seriousness is paying off. Until next time, Fox." Wolf waved one last time to the crowd overhead and then disappeared into the crowd around us.
After my very public victory over Wolf, I felt like I was living in a dream. Since knocking him down a few pegs, I was leading the tournament at our amateur level. It felt incredible. I battled well into the night and maintained my undefeated status. The talk of Red faded away and now there was a buzz around the young out-of-towner named Fox! Basking in these successes, I felt a deeper connection to the world of Pokémon training and competitive battling. The pride I felt I shared with my Pokémon and in return they fought harder for me.
Unfortunately, this euphoria was not going to last the night. My final match aboard the S.S. Anne was against a member of the crew. He was just a few points behind me, meaning he'd only let two of his team faint throughout the day. I knew the risks using Douglas against a sailor, but so far Douglas had grown considerably stronger and faster with our in-and-out techniques to get potshots on our opponents. This time, however, the sailor opened with a Machop. This small fighting-type Pokémon was not the typical water-type that sailors usually carried around. It should have been no problem for Douglas to get in a quick hit and then rest, but Machop was not fooling around. A critical Karate Chop came down on Douglas's head and Douglas was completely done.
As good as I had been feeling all day was instantly shattered. I had only known Douglas for 24-hours but he was going to be my ace in the hole against Lt.Surge tomorrow. I'd been meticulously training him and keeping him going all day and now in the final showdown it was all over, all for nothing. It felt like that critical chop went straight to my heart. Kiwi easily took care of the rest of the sailor's Pokémon - and I went on to win this level of the tournament. I graciously accepted access to the Hidden Machine which taught Arnold how to slice through excessive overgrowth, but inside I was deeply wounded that I had failed yet another Pokémon.
Current Team:
Attacks in Blue are recently learned.
Bill's Storage: Shakespear (Spearow) & Royal (Magikarp)
Old Man Daycare: Charlie (Pidgey)
When our numbers were finally called, Wolf was calm and collected as he stood across from me. We both had the confidence of a trainer who hadn't lost a single point yet. We exchanged casual, semi-friendly greetings and then chose our first Pokémon to battle. I opened with Douglas and he opened with his Pidgeotto. It was a predictable move. My tiny, ground-type Pokémon was at a disadvantage, but Douglas needed the training and I was over-confident. I let Douglas intimidate his opponent with fierce growls, but as soon as Pidgeotto landed a small hit, I withdrew Douglas and tossed out my own Pidgeotto, Kiwi.
"We've done this dance before," Wolf said across the arena.
"How did that work out for you?" I said with a sneer. Kiwi began kicking up dust and dirt. It was our traditional opening move, but it was much harder to pull off on a freshly swabbed deck. As Kiwi continued to harass the accuracy of his opponent, he took quite a few hits from Wolf's Pidgeotto. Restorative items were not prohibited in the tournament, so a Super Potion ensured Kiwi would be able to stay in the fight. Wolf looked annoyed, but he made no objection. As his Pidgeotto continued to flounder and land only the luckiest and lightest of attacks on Kiwi, Kiwi was able to swiftly put an end to Wolf's Pidgeotto. The crowd cheered.
Wolf tossed out his Raticate and I withdrew Kiwi and replaced him with Lucky who hadn't seen much action aboard the S.S. Anne. The Raticate was naturally faster and landed some quick attacks on Lucky. When it moved in close, Lucky showered the Raticate with a comforting sleep powder from its wings and it was lulled into a deep sleep. Lucky took a second point from Wolf when he used a psychic assault to knock out the Raticate without ever waking it up. The crowd was slightly less impressed with this boring victory, but Wolf was frowning. That was just as good for my morale as a cheering crowd.
I knew what was next and I knew how to handle it. I knew the crowd was more excited by tremendously powerful, fast-paced biting Raticates, but I was here to win. Wolf tossed out a Pokéball that released his Wartortle into the arena. I withdrew Rascal Jr. and brought out Arnold. He took a solid headbutt from the Wartortle, but managed to burst a puff of sleep spores into its face. Then Arnold proceeded to absorb Wartortle's energy, replenishing its own, until Wartortle was forced to submit.
Wolf actually looked impressed. "Well, I made it this far undefeated. I thought I had a chance this time. I guess you're still one step ahead of me," he said casually. He crossed the arena and extended a hand toward me. I felt a sneer crawl across my face as I took his hand and shook it in front of the cheering crowd. "You're still too serious, man," he laughed, cocking his head at me. "But I guess your seriousness is paying off. Until next time, Fox." Wolf waved one last time to the crowd overhead and then disappeared into the crowd around us.
After my very public victory over Wolf, I felt like I was living in a dream. Since knocking him down a few pegs, I was leading the tournament at our amateur level. It felt incredible. I battled well into the night and maintained my undefeated status. The talk of Red faded away and now there was a buzz around the young out-of-towner named Fox! Basking in these successes, I felt a deeper connection to the world of Pokémon training and competitive battling. The pride I felt I shared with my Pokémon and in return they fought harder for me.
Unfortunately, this euphoria was not going to last the night. My final match aboard the S.S. Anne was against a member of the crew. He was just a few points behind me, meaning he'd only let two of his team faint throughout the day. I knew the risks using Douglas against a sailor, but so far Douglas had grown considerably stronger and faster with our in-and-out techniques to get potshots on our opponents. This time, however, the sailor opened with a Machop. This small fighting-type Pokémon was not the typical water-type that sailors usually carried around. It should have been no problem for Douglas to get in a quick hit and then rest, but Machop was not fooling around. A critical Karate Chop came down on Douglas's head and Douglas was completely done.
As good as I had been feeling all day was instantly shattered. I had only known Douglas for 24-hours but he was going to be my ace in the hole against Lt.Surge tomorrow. I'd been meticulously training him and keeping him going all day and now in the final showdown it was all over, all for nothing. It felt like that critical chop went straight to my heart. Kiwi easily took care of the rest of the sailor's Pokémon - and I went on to win this level of the tournament. I graciously accepted access to the Hidden Machine which taught Arnold how to slice through excessive overgrowth, but inside I was deeply wounded that I had failed yet another Pokémon.
Current Team:
Attacks in Blue are recently learned.
Bill's Storage: Shakespear (Spearow) & Royal (Magikarp)
Old Man Daycare: Charlie (Pidgey)
Isnin, September 21, 2020
Nono telah siarkan dalam SEJARAH ULAMA DAN KARAMAHNYA
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Ahad, September 20, 2020
🎂 Let Samsul Bahri know you are thinking of him on his birthday today!
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Khamis, September 17, 2020
Mrs Martha .B. Douglas"<info@sgonlinegroup.org>
Subject: COMPANY {PRIVATE} PROJECT LOAN FUNDING:
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2020 02:13:13 -0700
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="Windows-1251"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000
Dear Mr/Mrs;
How are you doing?? Kindly permit me to share this information with you.
Our company {Societe Generale} as a brand is expanding its global presence by investing in projects outside Gulf Region/ Europe / Asia /Australia in the form of debt finance. I strongly believe you have a company or private project that requires funding. We are here to partner with you to achieve your goal for a 10years loan duration with no collateral.
1. Minimum Funding Amount: 1 Million USD
2. Maximum Funding Amount: 100 Billion USD
3. Placement Opens to: Entrepreneurs, Corporations and Investors
4. Funding Type:Debt Funding(100%)
5. ROI(Return on Investment): 4%
6. Duration of Loan: Up to 10 years - Renewable tenure
7. We finance 100% of the total project cost
8. We finance both ongoing and fresh projects.
Details of our activities will be shared with you as soon as you get back to me on {mrsdouglas00@gmail.com}.
Best regards,
Mrs Martha .B. Douglas
E-mail:{mrsdouglas00@gmail.com}
(Broker)
Subject: COMPANY {PRIVATE} PROJECT LOAN FUNDING:
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2020 02:13:13 -0700
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="Windows-1251"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000
Dear Mr/Mrs;
How are you doing?? Kindly permit me to share this information with you.
Our company {Societe Generale} as a brand is expanding its global presence by investing in projects outside Gulf Region/ Europe / Asia /Australia in the form of debt finance. I strongly believe you have a company or private project that requires funding. We are here to partner with you to achieve your goal for a 10years loan duration with no collateral.
1. Minimum Funding Amount: 1 Million USD
2. Maximum Funding Amount: 100 Billion USD
3. Placement Opens to: Entrepreneurs, Corporations and Investors
4. Funding Type:Debt Funding(100%)
5. ROI(Return on Investment): 4%
6. Duration of Loan: Up to 10 years - Renewable tenure
7. We finance 100% of the total project cost
8. We finance both ongoing and fresh projects.
Details of our activities will be shared with you as soon as you get back to me on {mrsdouglas00@gmail.com}.
Best regards,
Mrs Martha .B. Douglas
E-mail:{mrsdouglas00@gmail.com}
(Broker)
Selasa, September 15, 2020
Nor Fuzaima Ahmad mahu menjadi rakan di Facebook
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Ahad, September 13, 2020
Don't Kill The Messenger! A Game About The Post-Funding KS Process?
TMG in in the process of manufacturing and fulfilling 5 different Kickstarter projects right now. They are delayed, some much more than usual, and as I have taken it upon myself to handle Kickstarter updates and comments, I am pretty familiar with the kinds of things some backers post when a project is overdue, or when a project update is overdue.
Maybe I can make a game out of this dynamic! I don't think this is limited to KS projects, but for starters let's use that as a setting:
PROJECTS
This game would be from the POV of a publisher, so the logistics of design and development, even the quality of gameplay, could be abstracted away. Perhaps there's a way to pick up future projects (representative of taking submissions or pitches). And maybe the more effort you put into it, the more possible points the project could be worth in the end (representative of quality/sale-ability of the game).
These projects, maybe tiles or cards, could show a combination of different types of work that needs to be done (development, rules editing, blind testing, art, graphic design), represented by different colored cubes. One thing you could spend time or effort on (worker placements/action points) is getting those things together, and the more you have before launching a crowdfunding campaign, the better prepared you are, so the more backers you garner, and the more money you collect.
This could be an interesting sub-dynamic. Ideally, you'll have all the pieces in place, so you'll get the maximum cash when you launch crowdfunding (in this game, your project would automatically succeed, but the extent to which is exceeds would depend on how prepared you were when it launched). However, you may need money to do other things, so it might behoove you to launch early, a little less well prepared, to get less-than-the-max money, but get it now.
The other consequence of launching a project early could be the time it takes to deliver... if you've already completed everything but the manufacturing, and you have everything else lined up nicely before launching, then you'll deliver the game in the minimum amount of time, which would result in a maximal score for it. The more stuff you need to do after crowdfunding, the longer that delivery takes, and that could end up reducing your score (or some other attribute, such as backer satisfaction? Probably easier to just say "score").
Again, the ideal situation would be getting everything ready before launching, however the crux of the game could be finding ways to manage launching early, so that you can afford to do more things.
WORK FORCE
Worker Placement is an excellent mechanism because it encompasses a few different things: it offers interaction with regards to blocking (as players take the actions that other players were hoping to use), it provides a user friendly way to represent budgeting of actions/effort, and it does an excellent job of introducing opportunity cost.
Action Point Allowance is similar, but without the interactive blocking. Depending on the theme, it might not make much sense to have limited access to actions anyway - Agricola and Stone Age famously having the "Family Growth" space limited to 1 player per round, which just doesn't make any real-world sense.
In either of those cases though, it makes sense to be managing your own personal work force (whether or not they directly interact with opponents' workers). One extreme could be a company with a minimal work force, that concentrates on 1 project at a time, maximizing gains from it. The opposite extreme could be a company with a bunch of employees, that take on many projects at a time, even if they launch the early (to get faster income) and therefore don't score the maximum for each. Many economic games have this sort of "quality-vs-quantity" dichotomy, and in those I sometimes refer to the "quantity" side as a "Wal-Mart strategy" :)
CROWDFUNDING
As I alluded to above, the main (only?) source of income in this game would be launching crowdfunding projects. When doing so, the project would automatically "fund" -- so you would immediately receive money. The amount you get would depend on the project itself, and how "prepared" you were to launch it (how many of the required cubes are already on the project).
In an ideal world, you would have all the possible cubes at launch time, thereby maximizing your income for the project. However, just like in the real world, the realities of scheduling and of stretch goals and things like that mean you seldom see projects launched wen they are 100% ready to print. In this game, the abstraction would be that you need money to operate, and the only way to get it is by launching a project, so you may have incentive to launch early if the economy of the game is nice and tight.
POST FUNDING
I think the crux of this game would be managing your projects post-funding. This means continuing to get the necessary cubes to complete the project, and posting updates to backers to keep their satisfaction high. Perhaps some of the required cubes are only for after-funding, and you can't possibly get them beforehand, but of course you might also still need to collect whatever you didn't already have before launch.
The flow of these cubes would be that they first go below a project card, representing information about the next step in the process for that project, then from there they go onto the tile, representing that progress being made.When posting an update, the relevant thing is the info gathered for the project -- perhaps backers want a particular combination of cubes in the "info" position when you update. If you don't have the correct combination of info to share, then your backers may be less satisfied. If you wait until you do have more info, then your update may be "late," and again, backers may be less satisfied. And as a weird quirk of this game, if you "spend" the info cubes (by making progress, thereby moving those cubes onto the tile) then maybe that actually works against the info you need to update (unrealistic, but could help make the game interesting). Maybe this represents that you had the info, but didn't update until the progress was made, so it's akin to being "late."
WHAT'S THE HOOK?
To be honest, it's been about a week since I thought of this and started writing this blog post. I hadn't gotten far past what I'd written above, and while I can see some game mechanics that might work, I can't really see a hook yet. The idea was to make a game inspired by how the post-funding KS process goes. I guess the management of information and progress, as well as the timing of it, while having to also maintain backer satisfaction would be what the game is all about -- is that interesting enough on its own?
This feels like one of those ideas I'll file away, with little-to-no confidence I'll ever get back to it, so if it does sound interesting to you, then be sure to let me know in the comments below. And if you're a designer who wants to work on a game like this with me in a co-design capacity, feel free to let me know that too!
Maybe I can make a game out of this dynamic! I don't think this is limited to KS projects, but for starters let's use that as a setting:
Play as a publisher working on crowdfunded projects. Get info on those projects, make progress toward completion, and post updates to your backers. Each of those steps informed by the real-world dynamics of running a post-funding Kickstarter.
PROJECTS
This game would be from the POV of a publisher, so the logistics of design and development, even the quality of gameplay, could be abstracted away. Perhaps there's a way to pick up future projects (representative of taking submissions or pitches). And maybe the more effort you put into it, the more possible points the project could be worth in the end (representative of quality/sale-ability of the game).
These projects, maybe tiles or cards, could show a combination of different types of work that needs to be done (development, rules editing, blind testing, art, graphic design), represented by different colored cubes. One thing you could spend time or effort on (worker placements/action points) is getting those things together, and the more you have before launching a crowdfunding campaign, the better prepared you are, so the more backers you garner, and the more money you collect.
This could be an interesting sub-dynamic. Ideally, you'll have all the pieces in place, so you'll get the maximum cash when you launch crowdfunding (in this game, your project would automatically succeed, but the extent to which is exceeds would depend on how prepared you were when it launched). However, you may need money to do other things, so it might behoove you to launch early, a little less well prepared, to get less-than-the-max money, but get it now.
The other consequence of launching a project early could be the time it takes to deliver... if you've already completed everything but the manufacturing, and you have everything else lined up nicely before launching, then you'll deliver the game in the minimum amount of time, which would result in a maximal score for it. The more stuff you need to do after crowdfunding, the longer that delivery takes, and that could end up reducing your score (or some other attribute, such as backer satisfaction? Probably easier to just say "score").
Again, the ideal situation would be getting everything ready before launching, however the crux of the game could be finding ways to manage launching early, so that you can afford to do more things.
WORK FORCE
Worker Placement is an excellent mechanism because it encompasses a few different things: it offers interaction with regards to blocking (as players take the actions that other players were hoping to use), it provides a user friendly way to represent budgeting of actions/effort, and it does an excellent job of introducing opportunity cost.
Action Point Allowance is similar, but without the interactive blocking. Depending on the theme, it might not make much sense to have limited access to actions anyway - Agricola and Stone Age famously having the "Family Growth" space limited to 1 player per round, which just doesn't make any real-world sense.
In either of those cases though, it makes sense to be managing your own personal work force (whether or not they directly interact with opponents' workers). One extreme could be a company with a minimal work force, that concentrates on 1 project at a time, maximizing gains from it. The opposite extreme could be a company with a bunch of employees, that take on many projects at a time, even if they launch the early (to get faster income) and therefore don't score the maximum for each. Many economic games have this sort of "quality-vs-quantity" dichotomy, and in those I sometimes refer to the "quantity" side as a "Wal-Mart strategy" :)
CROWDFUNDING
As I alluded to above, the main (only?) source of income in this game would be launching crowdfunding projects. When doing so, the project would automatically "fund" -- so you would immediately receive money. The amount you get would depend on the project itself, and how "prepared" you were to launch it (how many of the required cubes are already on the project).
In an ideal world, you would have all the possible cubes at launch time, thereby maximizing your income for the project. However, just like in the real world, the realities of scheduling and of stretch goals and things like that mean you seldom see projects launched wen they are 100% ready to print. In this game, the abstraction would be that you need money to operate, and the only way to get it is by launching a project, so you may have incentive to launch early if the economy of the game is nice and tight.
POST FUNDING
I think the crux of this game would be managing your projects post-funding. This means continuing to get the necessary cubes to complete the project, and posting updates to backers to keep their satisfaction high. Perhaps some of the required cubes are only for after-funding, and you can't possibly get them beforehand, but of course you might also still need to collect whatever you didn't already have before launch.
The flow of these cubes would be that they first go below a project card, representing information about the next step in the process for that project, then from there they go onto the tile, representing that progress being made.When posting an update, the relevant thing is the info gathered for the project -- perhaps backers want a particular combination of cubes in the "info" position when you update. If you don't have the correct combination of info to share, then your backers may be less satisfied. If you wait until you do have more info, then your update may be "late," and again, backers may be less satisfied. And as a weird quirk of this game, if you "spend" the info cubes (by making progress, thereby moving those cubes onto the tile) then maybe that actually works against the info you need to update (unrealistic, but could help make the game interesting). Maybe this represents that you had the info, but didn't update until the progress was made, so it's akin to being "late."
WHAT'S THE HOOK?
To be honest, it's been about a week since I thought of this and started writing this blog post. I hadn't gotten far past what I'd written above, and while I can see some game mechanics that might work, I can't really see a hook yet. The idea was to make a game inspired by how the post-funding KS process goes. I guess the management of information and progress, as well as the timing of it, while having to also maintain backer satisfaction would be what the game is all about -- is that interesting enough on its own?
This feels like one of those ideas I'll file away, with little-to-no confidence I'll ever get back to it, so if it does sound interesting to you, then be sure to let me know in the comments below. And if you're a designer who wants to work on a game like this with me in a co-design capacity, feel free to let me know that too!
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