Ben Brode was a fun personality to listen to! A game I've picked up recently and would recommend is Cobalt Core. It's also a roguelike deck builder very much inspired by Slay the Spire, but spaceship fighter themed, has an actual storyline that progresses, and more comedic and lighthearted. I like this game genre a lot, but I can't do Hearthstone and Slay the Spire anymore for the time suck. Thanks PJ!
I also mostly knew Ben Brode from his meta-commentaries for Snap, but this made me appreciate him so much more!
I played a lot of Hearthstone when he was the lead, but drifted away. Snap has very much grabbed me and stuck me in. I was actually playing Snap while listening to the podcast.
Yeah, your answer seems more likely than my guess of Irish step dancing. Stepping was mentioned in the last paragraph of the wikipedia page I linked to. And more info at this Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepping_(African-American). Although the "National Pan-Hellenic Council " is for African American fraternities, so I don't know if this type of stepping or step dance is popular where Ben Brode lived and went to school: Culver City CA high school, and Univ California Irvine CA.
You were making a joke but I wondered if you were thinking "what is step dancing?" or more about "which type of step dancing?". I know very very little (a true statement about many topics...) but I've seen Cape Breton step dancing and Irish step dancing. Both emphasize foot and leg movements, and foot tapping; while I think in Irish step dancing, the upper body does not move and the arms stay straight along the dancer's sides. 20+ years ago, Michael Flatley and Lord of the Dance, was a well-known touring show, and one style of step dancing.
The former. On the other side of the pond that is just known to us as "Irish Dancing", never heard of the term "step dancing". I'm old enough to remember Michael Flatley and the lesser known Stavros Flatley!
I really liked this episode, but I also wished it had gone deeper into the title question. Like, mobile games can be addictive in a way that analog versions of card games (absent gambling) aren’t; how does that play into design? I would have liked maybe three to five minutes more of episode length for a deeper dive. (But I also have a board game design podcast in my queue rotation too, so I’m probably an outlier.)
I dipped into my backlog of Search Engine episodes this week and I was super happy to hear you doing an episode on my particular hobby. Marvel Snap is the perfect dad (parent) game. You can play for a few minutes or you can spend a couple hours. It was strange and wonderful to have two of my niche obsessions interact.
I am really curious what kind of decks you like to play...
As for other games, you should play Balatro. I am confident it will suck you in. On the Vampire Survivors vein, try out Brotato. It is kind of like a mix between Vampire Survivors and a Rougelike. I have been playing with my son and now I am finding myself doing runs without him.
Listening to the episode just reminded me of a question I’ve had my entire adult life; was there some secret coordination between Texas Instruments and the Dept of Eduction that made graphing calculators mandatory for people of a certain generation? I have no idea why everyone my age had to buy them, you could just draw the graphs in math class on graph paper. They served no purpose outside of school, but everybody had to drop $120 or else they’d fail math class? What the hell was up with that?
Before I listened to the podcast I was wondering if you would cover Vampire Survivors. The creator of that game used to develop software for slot machines, you can definitely see the influence on the game.
I recently finished a book called Addiction by Design which describes how gambling machine companies design their games to be as addicting as possible. It also goes into the dark side and tells the stories of people losing their life savings, wearing dark pants or diapers so they can urinate themselves and not leave the machine, etc.
To add a recommendation, I'm currently addicted to Super Auto Pets. It's a "chill" auto battler that has synchronous ranked and an asynchronous PvP arena. I have a 1 year old, so asynchronous mode is perfect for me to set it down and continue later.
I've gotten so stuck on Vampire Survivors, fascinating that the guy was a slot machine designer. Should I pick up Addiction by Design? It sounds up my alley..
...really enjoyed Thumper for its repetitive brutal difficulty...Dan The Diver for its constant surprises...there used to be a great now extinct card game called Sword & Poker that ruled on iphone also...and retro bowl is a pretty great tecmo bowl ripoff to kill 3 minutes at a time with...
Ben Brode and PJ Vogt laughing it up on the same podcast? Your audio editor must have been sweating bullets.
Ben Brode was a fun personality to listen to! A game I've picked up recently and would recommend is Cobalt Core. It's also a roguelike deck builder very much inspired by Slay the Spire, but spaceship fighter themed, has an actual storyline that progresses, and more comedic and lighthearted. I like this game genre a lot, but I can't do Hearthstone and Slay the Spire anymore for the time suck. Thanks PJ!
Cobalt Core is great, and it also adds some movement and other choices in to a deck builder.
I also mostly knew Ben Brode from his meta-commentaries for Snap, but this made me appreciate him so much more!
I played a lot of Hearthstone when he was the lead, but drifted away. Snap has very much grabbed me and stuck me in. I was actually playing Snap while listening to the podcast.
I was hoping for a link for the type of dancing Ben did to get into college. I feel that was glossed over without any explanation 🤣
I thought for sure he meant he was on a step team https://youtu.be/v6gDJal5DTs?si=0icMEfjeFLw15F-a
Yeah, your answer seems more likely than my guess of Irish step dancing. Stepping was mentioned in the last paragraph of the wikipedia page I linked to. And more info at this Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepping_(African-American). Although the "National Pan-Hellenic Council " is for African American fraternities, so I don't know if this type of stepping or step dance is popular where Ben Brode lived and went to school: Culver City CA high school, and Univ California Irvine CA.
You were making a joke but I wondered if you were thinking "what is step dancing?" or more about "which type of step dancing?". I know very very little (a true statement about many topics...) but I've seen Cape Breton step dancing and Irish step dancing. Both emphasize foot and leg movements, and foot tapping; while I think in Irish step dancing, the upper body does not move and the arms stay straight along the dancer's sides. 20+ years ago, Michael Flatley and Lord of the Dance, was a well-known touring show, and one style of step dancing.
Plus there's wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Step_dance
The former. On the other side of the pond that is just known to us as "Irish Dancing", never heard of the term "step dancing". I'm old enough to remember Michael Flatley and the lesser known Stavros Flatley!
Can't we just have an episode of just Ben Brode en PJ Vogt laughing for an hour. That alone brightened my day!
I really liked this episode, but I also wished it had gone deeper into the title question. Like, mobile games can be addictive in a way that analog versions of card games (absent gambling) aren’t; how does that play into design? I would have liked maybe three to five minutes more of episode length for a deeper dive. (But I also have a board game design podcast in my queue rotation too, so I’m probably an outlier.)
Even if Ben wasn't a game design genius he'd be worth interviewing for his laugh alone. Great episode.
I really enjoyed the music in this episode! Are the songs listed anywhere?
I loved this episode
Try out the falling sand/wand builder game Noita
I dipped into my backlog of Search Engine episodes this week and I was super happy to hear you doing an episode on my particular hobby. Marvel Snap is the perfect dad (parent) game. You can play for a few minutes or you can spend a couple hours. It was strange and wonderful to have two of my niche obsessions interact.
I am really curious what kind of decks you like to play...
As for other games, you should play Balatro. I am confident it will suck you in. On the Vampire Survivors vein, try out Brotato. It is kind of like a mix between Vampire Survivors and a Rougelike. I have been playing with my son and now I am finding myself doing runs without him.
Can you be my snap friend? I'd love to play against you
Listening to the episode just reminded me of a question I’ve had my entire adult life; was there some secret coordination between Texas Instruments and the Dept of Eduction that made graphing calculators mandatory for people of a certain generation? I have no idea why everyone my age had to buy them, you could just draw the graphs in math class on graph paper. They served no purpose outside of school, but everybody had to drop $120 or else they’d fail math class? What the hell was up with that?
I did find this article about TIs monopoly on the graphing calculator market, which is still impacting students today.
https://thehustle.co/graphing-calculators-expensive
I guess they do have lobbyists working against allowing other devices in the classroom.
Before I listened to the podcast I was wondering if you would cover Vampire Survivors. The creator of that game used to develop software for slot machines, you can definitely see the influence on the game.
I recently finished a book called Addiction by Design which describes how gambling machine companies design their games to be as addicting as possible. It also goes into the dark side and tells the stories of people losing their life savings, wearing dark pants or diapers so they can urinate themselves and not leave the machine, etc.
To add a recommendation, I'm currently addicted to Super Auto Pets. It's a "chill" auto battler that has synchronous ranked and an asynchronous PvP arena. I have a 1 year old, so asynchronous mode is perfect for me to set it down and continue later.
I've gotten so stuck on Vampire Survivors, fascinating that the guy was a slot machine designer. Should I pick up Addiction by Design? It sounds up my alley..
I have to say, the audio mixing and music scoring were so good this episode. Absolutely enticing and immersive, just like a good video game.
If you’re into rougelikes, then Hades or Binding of Issac are some of the best.
Baldurs Gate 3 is a narrative masterpiece.
...really enjoyed Thumper for its repetitive brutal difficulty...Dan The Diver for its constant surprises...there used to be a great now extinct card game called Sword & Poker that ruled on iphone also...and retro bowl is a pretty great tecmo bowl ripoff to kill 3 minutes at a time with...