Technology Archives — Meeple Mountain

Board Game Soapbox: I Don’t Want a Physics Simulator, I Want a Dang Board Game

Kurt Refling — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 14:00:37 +0000

There’s this feature on Tabletop Simulator: if you feel like being a bit of a rascal — a scallywag — a miscreant, even — you can flip the table. Pieces fly everywhere, scattered into an infinite void. It’s only temporary, of course; wait a few seconds and everything will neatly reappear right where you left it. It’s a cute little trick to show off the physics engine.

Now, don’t get me wrong. You may have read the title of this article and thought I was going to straight dunk on a whole swath of digital games. And you’re damn right I am. But for the sake of argument, let’s take a look at some of the reasons why this style of digital play has become popular.

Why Are Physics-Driven Game Systems Popular? And Also, Uh, What Are They Again?

Depending on how much of a nerd you are, you may be familiar with the idea of a physics engine. If you aren’t, I’ll sum it up for you as quick as I can: video games need rules to tell them how objects interact. If this sword is dropped, what happens? If you crash into this wall, what happens? If you throw a wheel of cheese at this child, what happens? The physics engine is responsible for setting the rules…

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Witch Hunt Game Review

Mark Iradian — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 11:00:00 +0000

One of the funny things about the board game industry is other creators trying to sell their products as the next evolution to whatever popular game is out there. It’s cliche but sometimes it works. In Witch Hunt’s case, the claim here is an evolutionary step from ye old Werewolf. This is an understandable position to take; Werewolf is a social deduction game that has been around for decades and its success had a butterfly effect on modern tabletop gaming. The difference here is many modern social deduction games try to shy away from Werewolf’s roots while Witch Hunt embraces it. It still plays on the power fantasy of mob mentality that drives the game forward, but is that enough to save this village?

Werewolf. That word can cause several reactions from joy to disgust. For the uninitiated, Werewolf is a social deduction game where you have a team of Villagers and Werewolves. The catch is the Werewolves are the minority of players but know who is on their team, while the Villagers are the majority but know nothing. It is a continuous war between the informed few vs the uninformed many. Each “night” the Werewolves will eat one of the Villagers, thus removing them from the game. Each “day” the Villagers discuss and vote to execute one of the…

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