Eric Lang

Nothing wakes you up quite like blowing a spicy kernel of byriani rice out your nose

Oops accidentally clicked like on a Daily Show clip and instantly my youtube is nothing but USA ragebait

Finally, and hopefully obvious

Any claim of “(method) is the correct way to (result)”

Is instantly bullshit

It’s art. Experiment!

Most commonly effective way to tap broad intuition is to reference games (particularly folk games or sports) and primal play patterns

Which is why you see so many pitches like “scrabble but X / Taboo but Y, chess but Z”

Also why every playful TikTok trend ever is coming to Target shelves

This *can* be true for more complex games based on complex themes aimed squarely at hobby gamers

But even then, it’s *one* way among many to leverage player intuition

a man wearing glasses is making a funny face with the word false written below him Alt: Dwight Schrute making a funny face with the word false written below him

“Theme and modelling are the correct way to make games more intuitive”

Mafia de Cuba is *this* close to being my favourite social deduction game of all time.

Unfortunately I feel it’s overdesigned and the theme is too high fidelity at the expense of trope.

There aren’t any design “mistakes” - it’s just too fragile and needs perfect play or 💩💩

Soooo close, and yet

Shit I couldn’t distinguish which of four dudes you meant.

Which

Yeah

Fresh fruit juices, baby.

I like it way better than azul. The theme does a lot of work for me in this one

Big cumulonimbus towering over a building in Malaysia

Tropical thunderstorms are my favourite weather

Ack do I have to get a Switch 2 nooooooo 😭

First game I sourced and developed for exploding kittens!

The designers (Ken and Jeremy) are stupid good at this kind of game

I keep forgetting how YOUNG all you youngins are 💀💀💀

“As the reasons for the carnage cut their meat
And lick the gravy
We oil the jaws of the war machine
And feed it with our babies”
- Iron Maiden, “2 Minutes to Midnight”

Btw when Blood Rage Valhalla becomes available at retail, I highly recommend trying it

I know it’s kinda weird for a designer to brag on his own game

But I feel it got prejudged during crowdfunding

The game is good. Real good. And different enough from BR to stand alone

All IMHO of course

So much! And the unhelpful rally “just do stuff that brings you joy!” Sounds a lot like “just be a different person”

Gained some hot momentum on a game I’m working on.

Saw one news clip. One clip. Lost it all. Trainwreck.

News in its current form should be illegal

I’m not even kidding

Towering cumulonimbus over the shore of Penang, Malaysia

Will always be spellbound by the Malaysian sunset

Convention Organizers:

If you have invite a guest from a minority demographic

👏Invite👏them👏to👏participate👏in👏more👏than👏just👏the👏diversity👏panel👏

PLEASE

AND

THANK

YOU

About a month ago I purged my games in progress again - everything without a deadline attached went to the bin

Still have like 6 active games in the mix

Sorry all—I just don’t have any spoons for WW3 shit, so Ima just talk games for a bit and pray for all our souls

The only prescriptive advice I’ll give young designers:

Make games only you could make.

Don’t ask me what I mean by that, cos you either already know - or you’ll figure it out.

Three Penangites playing Wrath of Fire Mountain at local game studio

Playing Wrath of Fire Mountain first time in a few months.

I love this game so much.

Four gamers at a game store in Penang playing I Heart Manatees

Fellow Penangites also heart Manatees!

Dude?

Dude

Dude

Can I help you turn this into a kickass party game?

Last night I made yet another family-game-in-progress much “simpler” by adding rules

It flows more intuitively, models real life patterns better and mechanical patterns worse

Less ‘elegant’ and IMO much more broadly appealing

Looking forward to getting this to the table!

a close up of a cat with its eyes closed and the words yes indeed above it Alt: a close up of a cat with its eyes closed and the words yes indeed above it

um

“Everything is interesting, if you know enough about it”
- Trevor Noah

Drummers today are so fast, precise and technical. They can play anything and god those YouTube videos are impressive to watch.

But there’s only one Bill Ward.

This is a post about game design