Haste

© Hot Sauce Bread Studios

Hello!

This is just a quick little update on the game I’ve been working on. Last post I announced that I’ve been designing a game called Sigils of Kairos. Since then, we’ve changed the name of the game to Haste. I go over these changes in a three part post on the Hot Sauce Bread Studios devblog.

On top of this, Hot Sauce Bread Studios is officially incorporated! This has been in the works for quite a while, but it still feels strange. If you haven’t already, please check out the main site. If you like what you see, spreead the word! We haven’t really done the big marketing push yet, so any fresh eyes on the project would be much appreciated.

Sigils of Kairos

Hello Everyone,

For anyone who is reading this, it seems pretty fitting that my last post was announcing the birth of my daughter.  As you can all see, I am living the parental life to its fullest and have taken a step back from blogging.  Despite this, I have not been sitting too idle, in fact there is something really exciting that I want to share with you today!

I want to put a spotlight on a project that has been in the making for a few years now.  I want to introduce the indie game Sigils of Kairos.

Sigils of Kairos is a strategic card game that is played in real time.  This takes key decision making and combines it with an action based pacing.  Sigils strikes the perfect balance between depth of choice and simple gameplay.  Sigils does this by stripping away complicated mechanics and crowded card collections, opting instead on class based characters with set move lists.

SoK is mainly a product from my close friend Jacob with a bit of help from myself.  Together we have been developing this game for several years now.  We have set up the new company ‘Hot Sauce Bread Studios’ and would love if you dropped by the site.  We think that the game is ready to be showcased and are working hard to get a kickstarter set up.

If you are reading this, you can help with this project by spreading the word!  Please follow us on all your social medias and give us some <3s.  I will try to keep a semi-regular blog going on our site, and will keep you all updated on the progress of the project.  If you want to go a step further, send us a message and we’ll put you on a non-spammy email list with only the biggest updates to the project being sent out.

I hope you are all as excited as I am about this one.

Trump - Hearthstone Streamer

In honor of the completion of Diablo month, I am continuing with another Blizzardy post.  This is, admittedly, my most niche post to date.  It also serves as a not so secret hint as to one of my biggest obsessions as of late, Hearthstone.  Blizzard has done a stellar job making a game that is accessible and easy for new players to start.  The tutorial and solo quests are a great way to get new players used to the mechanics and get a great set of cards that are very much used in competitive play today.  The problem, as with all collectible card games, is that players are often intimidated and hit a wall when it comes to playing against other players.

I was in this stage when I found Trump's youtube channel.  I had gotten comfortable with Hearthstone, but needed a way to get better.  Trump one of the most popular streamers on Twitch, but has gone out of his way to archive the most educational Hearthstone videos on his youtube channel.  Aside from just watching his videos and listening to his in depth explanations of his plays, Trump also has videos dedicated to teaching new players general tactics and strategies that will make them better players.

With three adventures and two expansions, Hearthstone has added some new mechanics and a great deal of cards to their game.  Because of this, many people have criticized Blizzard for making entry into the game much harder, as new players won't have viable decks without dropping a bunch of money.  Trump has recently challenged this argument by beginning a Free to play (F2P) series of videos, where he started a brand new anonymous account and played for an entire month to show just how far a player can get with a lot of skill and no money.

There are quite a few big names in Hearthstone, and a lot of players like Trump that literally make a living playing games all day.  Trump remains my favourite, despite the fact that he is actually pretty boring and awkward guy.  The video editing on his channel is a big part of this, as he (someone he hired) has all the boring waiting between turns cut out.  On top of that, Trump is one of the most cool headed players, and goes out of his way to help new players.

Recently, Trump was knocked out of the world championships of Hearthstone.  He was one of 8 qualifiers to represent North America but lost when it narrowed down to 4.  I have never been much of a sports or esports guy, but I have fallen into the strange new experience of (e)sports fandom.

Extra Credits

A while back my cousin, an aspiring game developer, gave me a link to a youtube video about game design.  I was dabbling with the idea of game design, so I figured I'd check it out.  It was right then and there I fell in love with Extra Credits.  The channel provides weekly episodes that discusses a game design topic or concept for up and coming game designers.  I have since tried to find more information on game design through podcasts or other videos, but everything pales compared to what the Extra Credits crew does.

When it comes to video game development, passion and creativity are in no short supply.  What sets these guys apart is the amount of thought and effort that goes into each video.  Watching the videos you can tell that the topics chosen are very deliberate, and are explored deeply before being recorded.

I find that when I start talking about games from a design standpoint, there are so many moving parts that  it is easy to get side tracked.  The Extra Credits videos avoid this with a great deal of prep work and come out with clear and concise themes that are truly educational and fascinating.

I would say that even as a person that plays but has no interest in making a video game can get a lot out of this channel.  Topics based on general concepts like how women are portrayed give an insight on the gaming market in general.  More technical topics like the difficulty curve of a game shine light and help you appreciate the amount of factors a game has to consider when being designed.

Extra Credits is consistently good, and is one of the few youtube channels that I seriously debate rewatching from beginning to end.

Adam Phillips - Waterlollies

The emergence of the internet was a very strange time, especially for online media.  The birth of the internet opened a window for anyone and everyone to create anything they wanted, and a huge audience would appear.  Tastes were a lot less discerning back then because the tools to express yourself were relatively primitive.  Flash animation quickly became popular as it wasn't taxing on the old connection speeds, and was easily accessible by everyone.  This was of course great for creators, but led to a slew of sloppy amateur videos that were quite frankly, really bad.  These old videos hold a special place in my heart of course, but would hold no water in the new era of Youtube.  

I would browse these old Newgrounds videos for hours, entertained by immature sex jokes poorly animated with various pokemon cameos.  Then I stumbled onto the Brackenwood series by Adam Phillips.  Watching his videos were like night and day.  It was actually shocking to see someone use Flash to animate something with more movement and attention to detail than most of the cartoons on television.  In a few minutes of video, you can instantly tell that hundreds of hours were lovingly poured into it.

Not only was the animation significantly better than the other flash videos, the tone of the piece was markedly light.  Instead of immature violence and puberty-burgeoning sex gags, Phillips took the time to create a vast and interesting forest world filled with whimsy and wonder.  The traditional Celtic music only strengthened the forest theme, and gives all of the pieces a distinct flavour that I haven't seen anywhere else.

The video I've chosen for the post is 'Waterlollies', which is actually the last of a series of three videos about the character.  The main character of the series, Bitey, is an incredibly fast forest creature resembling the god Pan.  Bitey is shown to be a lovable rascal;  A mean-spirited trickster that will go out of his way to annoy or injure other creatures for his own wanton enjoyment.  Phillips later went on to give this character more backstory, but moved onto bigger things working with Disney, Wizards of the Coast, and Bioware.