DGC Ep 079: X-COM: UFO Defense (part three)

Dev Game Club

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where we are in our third in a series of episodes about 1994's X-COM: UFO Defense. We talk about the ways in which procedural generation and written generation interact a bit, as well as detailing our playthrought a bit. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played: In theory, 6 months

Podcast breakdown: 0:38 X-COM segment 35:05 Break 35:35 Feedback segment

Issues covered: opportunity fire cost, reserve time units, how much things cost, how we did on our goals, Brett starting over and why, researching yourself into a whole, games are a a series of interesting decisions, what are we willing to live with, difficulty knowing how you're doing, failure conditions, Tim's rocket launcher opener, alien mental effects, tile generation algorithm for terror attacks vs downed UFOs, procedural generation at its best, an engine for wonderful moments, tuning procedural generation, multiple states for tiles, persisted state of tiles, telling a story via your swath of destruction, screaming deaths of civilians, center of the UFOs, determining when to reload a save, procedural vs written content (e.g. tech trees), Brett's base management, how does science and research work, Monty Haul problem, providing two ways of thinking about/explaining a problem, psychology in game design, tricks in game design, board game popularity.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Sid Meier, Civilization (series), X-COM: Enemy Unknown, Darius Kazemi, Superman (obliquely), Ryan, Giant BeastCast, Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahnemann, Bobby Oster, PlaneScape Torment, Final Fantasy Tactics, Super Mario World, Bloodborne, Warcraft, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Amy Hennig, Half-Life, Uncharted, Ogre Battle 64, Advance Wars, Tomb Raider, Eric Shields, Kotaku, X-COM: The Bureau, 2K Marin, Republic Commando, Jennifer Scheurle, Starfighter, Nathan Martz, Halo (obliquely), Andrew, Mario + Rabbids, Hearthstone, Pit People, Transistor, Armello, Antihero, Hare & Tortoise, Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Qwirkle, Susan McKinley Ross, Chris Ross, Dungeons & Dragons, World of Warcraft, Blade Runner, Star Wars, Pandemic: Legacy, JackBox Party Pack, Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit, Apples to Apples, You Don't Know Jack.

BrettYK: 0 TimYK: 44

Links: Kotaku article: http://kotaku.com/game-developers-explain-some-of-their-favorite-ways-to-1798749279 Board game stuff: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/25/board-games-internet-playstation-xbox https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/crowdfunding-is-driving-a-196-million-board-game-renaissance/ https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9bkj7z/rise-of-board-games https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/38121/tabletop-games-driving-2017-kickstarter-growth

Next time: In theory, a year?

@brett_douville, @timlongojr, and @devgameclub [e-mail]