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Author Topic: Interview with Donald X.  (Read 2126903 times)

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GigaKnight

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #525 on: January 22, 2013, 07:43:32 pm »
0

What's your favourite flavor of ice cream?
Bittersweet Nugget.

Who makes the best ice cream? James Bond or Indiana Jones?
Hans Solo, but you have to be careful not to eat any of the carbonite.

I knew it!  Donald thinks he's too good to eat carbonite!
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enfynet

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #526 on: January 25, 2013, 12:20:22 am »
+1

What I've always liked about Dominion and disliked about Magic is that in Dominion all players have the same choices. Every card in the kingdom was available to every player. You weren't limited to the amount of money you wanted to spend on random booster packs and such. You could just buy a set, know every card you were going to get and have equal access to all of those cards.

This is what instantly clicked with me. I committed to buying all the expansions if the game promised to be any good, and still be way below the money I spent for M:tG.
I was drawn in for the same reason. I actually had been avoiding ALL CCG/TCG games because of what I witnessed with MtG back in high school. Who wants to play a game where you lose before your 2nd turn? I actually wasn't much into gaming at all until this local company (PKXL, now Little Big Games) came to my work with PK Cards. The game struck me as exceptionally well balanced for a CCG/TCG so I tried it out. I'd love to still be playing it, but it doesn't seem that the company that owns the property actually does anything to promote it. (Which is sad, because it is a very fun game.)

So, as attention at work died, people started bringing in new games. The first such game was San Juan, the second was Dominion. Within 2 weeks I ordered the base game and two expansions to play regularly at game night. (We also tried Thunderstone and Nightfall without interest, the only one that seemed to draw any attention from Dominion was the Resident Evil clone.)

Sorry for the highjack. Donald, you have created an excellent game. I look forward to see what you might work on in the future.

With that said:

Dominion started out as "Castle Builder" and you have a game called Kingdom Builder. What can you say about the parallels between the two game concepts?
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #527 on: January 25, 2013, 03:02:51 am »
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Sorry for the highjack. Donald, you have created an excellent game. I look forward to see what you might work on in the future.

With that said:

Dominion started out as "Castle Builder" and you have a game called Kingdom Builder. What can you say about the parallels between the two game concepts?
Thanks, I'm there for you, and so is this thread; talk about whatever you want in it.

The initial premise of Kingdom Builder was, you played cards to put pieces on a board, and put pieces on a board to gain cards. It was a two-step process, whereas Dominion has a one-step process of playing cards to get cards. But it was directly intended to be a Dominion spin-off.

The idea had issues and I sat on it for a while, trying to think of a resolution I was happy with. In the end that resolution was taking out the deck, and just playing pieces to play pieces, again a one-step process like Dominion.

So they both started out as deckbuilding, and they ended up similar in that in both you have an engine that's just one thing, playing cards or placing pieces. Then of course both of them vary the set-up, including the set of abilities available, although it's the variable scoring that really does the work of providing variety in Kingdom Builder.
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SirPeebles

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #528 on: January 25, 2013, 10:25:16 pm »
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On the matter of a Treasure-Duration type, it may have an awkward interplay with Herbalist (or Mandarin).  Scheme topdecks an action when that action is cleaned-up; Herbalist topdecks a treasure when Herbalist is cleaned-up. 
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #529 on: January 25, 2013, 11:05:25 pm »
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On the matter of a Treasure-Duration type, it may have an awkward interplay with Herbalist (or Mandarin).  Scheme topdecks an action when that action is cleaned-up; Herbalist topdecks a treasure when Herbalist is cleaned-up.
Thanks, that would be a good reason not to do one. Scheme struggled to not be confusing with duration cards, and of course Herbalist did not put in that effort.
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soulnet

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #530 on: January 25, 2013, 11:15:25 pm »
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Thanks, that would be a good reason not to do one. Scheme struggled to not be confusing with duration cards, and of course Herbalist did not put in that effort.

Well, you already did Procession that takes a Duration card out of play before it finishes having its effect. Having Herbalist do the same is such a big issue to completely forbid Treasure - Duration?
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #531 on: January 26, 2013, 12:18:55 am »
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Well, you already did Procession that takes a Duration card out of play before it finishes having its effect. Having Herbalist do the same is such a big issue to completely forbid Treasure - Duration?
Well the only reason to do a treasure-duration is to do it. You know. For the sake of the novelty of it. It's not compelling in the face of this. Procession was a cool card that I couldn't otherwise make, but whatever the duration treasure is, odds are I can make a fine action version instead.

Again, I currently have zero expansions planned for after Guilds. And any spin-off that had something similar could plan for this.
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Dsell

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #532 on: January 26, 2013, 12:21:39 am »
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I gotta say, I am incredibly excited to see these Dominion spin-offs. Dominion is my favorite game, and I really doubt these games would be worse than the original! :D
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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #533 on: January 26, 2013, 06:00:28 am »
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I gotta say, I am incredibly excited to see these Dominion spin-offs. Dominion is my favorite game, and I really doubt these games would be worse than the original! :D

Kingdom Builder? Not that KB's bad, don't mind a game of it every now and then, it's just nowhere near as good as its predecessor.
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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #534 on: January 26, 2013, 12:02:00 pm »
+1

What do people call you IRL? Do you have a preference what we call you online? (e.g., you might hate being called DXV for whatever reason)

You don't have an avatar on here... so if you did, what Dominion card would you choose? Would you choose the Isotropic or Official artwork?
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Dsell

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #535 on: January 26, 2013, 02:13:14 pm »
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I gotta say, I am incredibly excited to see these Dominion spin-offs. Dominion is my favorite game, and I really doubt these games would be worse than the original! :D

Kingdom Builder? Not that KB's bad, don't mind a game of it every now and then, it's just nowhere near as good as its predecessor.

I really love Kingdom Builder. Not as much as Dominion, but it's great. But like DXV's said, it's a totally different style of game. It started as a spinoff but became its own thing.
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #536 on: January 26, 2013, 03:00:41 pm »
+2

What do people call you IRL? Do you have a preference what we call you online? (e.g., you might hate being called DXV for whatever reason)

You don't have an avatar on here... so if you did, what Dominion card would you choose? Would you choose the Isotropic or Official artwork?
IRL people call me Donald X. Online, if you're talking to me, I prefer Donald X. If you're just talking about me rather than to me, DXV is fine, we'll all know who you're talking about. "That guy."

I've considered using the Nefarious cover guy as a BGG avatar. There's no Dominion card art I feel that special connection to.
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #537 on: January 26, 2013, 03:08:32 pm »
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I really love Kingdom Builder. Not as much as Dominion, but it's great. But like DXV's said, it's a totally different style of game. It started as a spinoff but became its own thing.
Thanks, I am pretty pleased with it. I would have liked to have more scoring cards in the main set; I did not have the technology in time. And I would tweak the boards just slightly so that no arrangement can let you connect two buildings on turn one.
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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #538 on: January 26, 2013, 04:17:24 pm »
+3

IRL people call me Donald X. Online
Really?

Sorry, couldn't resist. :P
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Insomniac

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #539 on: January 28, 2013, 03:08:47 pm »
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Do you have any expansions planned for your other games that you can mention now (Kingdom Builder/Gauntlet of Fools/Nefarious/Monster Factory/Infiltration)?

Do you have any new games you are working on getting published or that are about to be published etc that you can mention now?
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #540 on: January 28, 2013, 03:28:51 pm »
+3

Do you have any expansions planned for your other games that you can mention now (Kingdom Builder/Gauntlet of Fools/Nefarious/Monster Factory/Infiltration)?

Do you have any new games you are working on getting published or that are about to be published etc that you can mention now?
I made four total Kingdom Builder expansions. There was one large one originally, I split it into two because they wanted them smaller, and then when Kingdom Builder either got nominated for the SdJ or won it, they said they wanted more, and I made two more. I would not expect more than four but probably they will all come out eventually. The second one is possibly coming out at Nuremberg, it is on W. Eric Martin's list at least.

I made an expansion for Nefarious but I wouldn't get your hopes up there. It could happen if Ascora Games springs back to life, or if I find another publisher after the contract expires, which is in 2016.

I have not made expansions for Gauntlet of Fools, Monster Factory, or Infiltration. For Gauntlet of Fools and Monster Factory, if they're successful enough, a sequel seems more likely than an expansion.

I have two games placed with publishers that have not been announced. I was told one would come out at Nuremberg and well it has not been announced. The other one, they have been working on it and I imagine that means it will come out promptly, but that could easily mean Essen. They haven't tossed around a date so I don't really know. I can't really tell you much about them. One is a gamer's game and the other is a lighter family game.

I am always working on new games, and have older games that I want published. I can't really tell you much about these games.
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Dsell

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #541 on: January 28, 2013, 03:48:39 pm »
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I can't really tell you much about them. One is a gamer's game and the other is a lighter family game.

Would you consider Dominion a "gamer's game" or more towards a family game? Obviously those definitions cannot be rigid, there's lot of crossover there. But can you say if this "gamer's game" is heavier or lighter than Dominion?
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soulnet

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #542 on: January 28, 2013, 03:52:28 pm »
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What Dominion card(s) we already know do you think have the most depth, i.e., it takes more games and thought to get the whole juice out?

Currently Dominion has a really low variety of materials. Is mostly cards and in a small part some tokens and mats. Did you ever find a limitation there for an idea of a card? Did you thought about cards that used other materials but were not good enough to bother making those new materials (like a board, or counters)?
An example could be a Duration card that makes a variable amount of coin (or draws a variable amount of cards) on the next turn, so that you need something to track that amount. Especially if it depends on what many players do or don't during their turns. Another example would be to add another source of randomness other than shuffling.

How important is to you that every card works with 2 and with 3+ players exactly as written, without referring explicitly to how many players there are? For instance, there are things, like changing the order, which don't make sense in 2 player games. Would you completely rule out a card for that? How likely would it be to have a card that cannot be used in 2 player games (or ruled out for any other number)? How about having different rules, or exceptions, to handle a specific amonut of players?
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #543 on: January 28, 2013, 04:02:53 pm »
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I can't really tell you much about them. One is a gamer's game and the other is a lighter family game.

Would you consider Dominion a "gamer's game" or more towards a family game? Obviously those definitions cannot be rigid, there's lot of crossover there. But can you say if this "gamer's game" is heavier or lighter than Dominion?
Dominion is a gamer's game, and it's gone over well with non-gamers, so there you go, what do these terms even mean.

The gamer's game is like at the level Race for the Galaxy would be at if it didn't have the icon issue.
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #544 on: January 28, 2013, 04:47:45 pm »
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What Dominion card(s) we already know do you think have the most depth, i.e., it takes more games and thought to get the whole juice out?
I'm not sure I can give this a satisfying answer. Workshop gains a card. Deciding what to gain is like deciding what to buy; it's pretty deep relative to say the mess of choices Count gives you. The various Workshops and Remodels probably beat everything else in terms of how long you can spend getting better at them.

Aside from that unsatisfactory answer I would have to stare at the visual spoilers, and I don't want to end up saying, here are the cards I think you guys are mis-evaluating.

Currently Dominion has a really low variety of materials. Is mostly cards and in a small part some tokens and mats. Did you ever find a limitation there for an idea of a card? Did you thought about cards that used other materials but were not good enough to bother making those new materials (like a board, or counters)?
Well if you add components, you can have cards that interact with those components; it directly opens up possibilities for you. However this is better for spin-offs, because of the Alchemy issue - not slow-to-resolve cards, the other one, that some people don't like potions. Doing individual cards like Native Village and Embargo has the issue of, we can only include so many extra components for individual cards.

For the most part I have not ruled out cards due to needing components - I just haven't tried to think of cards that required components I wasn't going to get to have. I can think of one exception. I playtested "+1 handsize for the rest of the game" as an Alchemy card. It would have required a playmat - yes even if you personally wouldn't have needed one - and that killed it.

How important is to you that every card works with 2 and with 3+ players exactly as written, without referring explicitly to how many players there are? For instance, there are things, like changing the order, which don't make sense in 2 player games. Would you completely rule out a card for that? How likely would it be to have a card that cannot be used in 2 player games (or ruled out for any other number)? How about having different rules, or exceptions, to handle a specific amonut of players?
If a card wouldn't work in two player games I would not make it. It's okay for the card to refer to the number of players though, if it has to, although generally it wouldn't. Like, Tribute originally looked at the top card of each adjacent player. To work in two player games it just goes left. But at the time it put the card back on top. It could have ended up looking at the top card of each adjacent player and discarding them, and in two player games that would just mean their top two cards, with no special rules.
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GigaKnight

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #545 on: January 28, 2013, 05:38:16 pm »
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If Dominion had been computerized from the start, are there mechanics you would have liked to have tried that would only work on a computer? (random numbers, etc)
Meh, not really. The big thing you get out of a computer is tracking; you can do more stuff like Pirate Ship and Monument without worrying about it. I did those cards anyway though. If I were really making a computer-only Dominion-like game though, it would probably end up nothing like Dominion. There's no real point in simulating cards on a computer, except you know, when there's a real-life card game you want on your computer.

This last sentence surprises me.  Do you truly see "no real point in simulating cards on a computer"?  Maybe I'm being too literal, but assuming I want to make a game that would, IRL, be a card game, I see a few benefits of doing that on a computer:
  • Mutability. In your case, you wouldn't have a "Dominion Time Machine" post, since you could just implement those changes.
  • There would be no physical limit to the number of cards you could create, since you're not constrained by physical publishing limitations.
Are these differences irrelevant or undesirable to you?  Or do you simply think the flexibility of the computer design space would inevitably lead to a different game?
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blueblimp

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #546 on: January 28, 2013, 05:41:02 pm »
+6

I think his point is: why restrict yourself to simulated cardboard if you're designing a video game?
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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #547 on: January 28, 2013, 05:41:28 pm »
+2

I feel that cards like Harvest already effectively have random number built into them.  But since the randomness comes from your deck, you can actually plan your strategy around increasing your expected value, which is neat.
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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #548 on: January 28, 2013, 06:00:55 pm »
0

I feel that cards like Harvest already effectively have random number built into them.  But since the randomness comes from your deck, you can actually plan your strategy around increasing your expected value, which is neat.

There is nothing random about Harvest, it just uses the randomness the shuffling provides. And it could be totally or partially non-random with some inspection or top-decking.

In any case, you can still think about expected value with a card that says "roll a dice, +$ equal to half of the rolled number, rounded up". This card in particular does not seem interesting, but I think some extra random may be nice. Especially for 2nd player :).
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Donald X.

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Re: Interview with Donald X.
« Reply #549 on: January 28, 2013, 06:05:01 pm »
+1

This last sentence surprises me.  Do you truly see "no real point in simulating cards on a computer"?  Maybe I'm being too literal, but assuming I want to make a game that would, IRL, be a card game, I see a few benefits of doing that on a computer:
Blueblimp has it right. There's no point to limiting yourself to what cards can do if you're making a computer game. You can do it to cash in on something - you make a CCG that's digital only and you make it cards so people know it's a CCG. Players know what to expect from cards, and cards are a familiar way to display certain information. But you don't have to do cards.

Instead of cards we can consider "rules components." These are things in a game that have rules associated with them. They are typically cards for physical games, but don't have to be. For a computer game you can think of them as cards, but they aren't cards at all. For example there's no uh Medusa card in Heroes of Might and Magic III. There's a creature with associated rules, but it's not card-like. When I get a particular perk in Fallout 3, that's like a card in a tableau, but it's not doing anything to imitate a card. For a physical game you couldn't deal with making sure all your perks happened when they were supposed to. For a computer game it's no trouble.
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