French Obsession

Bonjour!

As I mentioned earlier, I have been using Duolingo again. It has been eating all my time.
As I have ever changing interests, it has become my top one with my other interests taking a back seat.
So bear with me, I'm not in a writing mood. My apologies about this.

As for this week's World Building 101, it is on hiatus. I over estimated my ability to write blog posts on a normal schedule while using my mother's computer.
No worries, I'll do my best to get back on the horse in the future. But for now, I need a break.

But onto the meat of today's post. My current and ever fluxing obsession with French.

Like most young Ontarians I took French from a young age and continued until it was no longer required to do so. I never liked French, I called it the devil's tongue. I always got good grades and generally understood what was being taught, it just never quite clicked with me.

Fast forward to college where once again knowing French was mandatory. So another two semesters of French courses into my head, still to no avail. Good marks, general understanding, nothing more.

Then I met the girlfriend. Oh my. A native French speaker who (luckily for me) is also fluent in English. Perfectly bilingual and seemingly perfect in every other way. Talk about igniting passions.

My desire to learn French and talk to her in this language became great. I picked up my books, grabbed my pencils and went scribbling madly away trying to master this oft maligned language.

But it wasn't to be so easy. Life changes, depressions, changing interests have all gotten in my way. However, slowly, steadily I've been getting better. You won't be seeing any posts written entirely in French any time soon, but I am definitely improved from when I wouldn't give the language a second glance.

On again, off again, on again, goes my ferocity with learning. Days and weeks at a time I'll hit the books every day, learn new things and practice. Then the same amount of time will pass having done nothing. Total burn out. But I come back each time, stronger than before. Sort of a two steps forward one step back process. I'll get there, just slower than someone who walks the whole way.

Anyway, with that I bid you adieu.
À bientôt!

Computer Issues; Work

So I have some very bad news. Not for you necessarily, but for me.

My computer died. Two weeks ago by the time of this posting.

The hard drive is fried.

Luckily I had just recently reformatted the hard drive, so all of my files were backed up within one day of the crash.

However, this means I am currently in the position of having to use my mother's computer, when she is not. Or using my tablet (which is not fun to type on).

So I'm well set for internet browsing. But as far as typing up scores of blog posts my options are more limited.

But don't worry, I'm still trying my best to get my requisite number of words out there all the time, so things should stay near normal around here.

Beyond that I have been working at Wal-Mart again, and doing pretty well anxiety wise. This is great news for me as it means i have some income again!

This time next week I hope to be off in Ottawa visiting the girlfriend as she will be freshly back from Paris.

That's all I have as far as life updates, but I thought I should let you know.

Cheers!

Designing a Solitaire Game

In light of my ever changing passions your regularly scheduled Gimme Games is becoming another changable day.

So my passion of the moment is Solitaire Game Design. Games that can be played, or are meant to be played with only one player.

In a recent post I talked about my current working prototype, the (solo) Amusement Park Builder. This game is now on version 2.2 of the rules, so that post is outdated. In the new rules the game is quite fun, I believe, but lacks a real goal beyond "Beat your high score!". I feel this is a detriment.

As such I thought I would ramble a little bit about what I believe are the principles of solitaire game design.
(Discounting electronic games, of course)

1. Firm Goals
• Less a principle of solitaire design as a principle of game design in general, a solitaire game must have firm goals. Something towards which the player is striving. While it is possible to get away with "beat your high score" it is much more engaging to a player if there is a firm end condition where you can say you won, and another where you can say you lost. 
• Firm goals also refers to goals within the game. There need to be easily measurable and distinct stages of the game from which you can gauge your performance. 
2. Luck vs Strategy
• In a solitaire game luck has a much greater place than in a multiplayer. This is because without the unpredictability of other humans to take into account, the game can become too cut and dry. This is not to say that the whole thing should be based on luck. Far from it. There needs to be a great deal of strategy as well, as the player has as much time as they would like to devote in order to develop a plan of action. A careful balance of luck and strategy is what is needed in order to truly stimulate the player.
3. Play Time
• This is the most variable and personal quality, I believe. Both long and short games have their place in the solitaire world. A 15-30 minute game is a great filler while you wait for friends to arrive, or between classes, or any number of places. But a long 1-3 hour bonanza of play time is also great for those nights where you can't get anyone together. A game that has a variable and decidable play time with a large range would be ideal, as it could fit both niches.
4. Scalability 
• The ability for a game to scale beyond one player seems a bit anathema to the principles of solitaire design, but in reality it is a major factor in whether people will play. It is much more enjoyable to find a game you really like and are good at, and then be able to share it with friends than it is to ave it to yourself forever.
5. AI
• Solitaire games are much more enjoyable when you only have to play from one side. This ties back into luck and strategy. If you have to constantly shift gears between "Player 1" ad "player 2" you have less brain power to devote to coming up with ideal strategies. Luck therefore makes a great opponent and should be used to help mitigate the brain power needed to play two sides.

This is by no means a comprehensive list, just a smattering of ideas I had while thinking about solitaire design, but it is certainly a list I would stand behind. 

Duolingo

No Game a Week this week as I am in a creative rut.
Instead, let's take a look at a neat application I found a while back, and you might have noticed on my list of places to find me.

Duolingo is a free language learning application that spans platforms.
I have it on my computer through the web, my iPod and my Android phone.

There are currently five completed courses for English speakers, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese. There are also another seven "Hatching" courses- courses that are still being built and tested. There are many more in the incubation stage- ideas that are being thrown about. There are also courses available or in the Hatching stage for speakers of other languages.

But on to the actual learning aspect. Each course is divided into sections, and each section is divided into skills with each skill holding lessons. Confusing? Not really when you take a look at the headers. French for instance is divided into four sections, each containing a number of skills, such as "Plurals", "Science", or "Adjectives 1". Each of those skills has one or more lessons in it, which teach you the actual use of the language.

They teach you through several methods. They have you translate both to and from your target language, they have you write what is said aloud to you, they have you repeat aloud what they have said and there are multiple choice questions. But what is really unique isn't what they are teaching you, but how. You have three "lives" each time you try a lesson. Each time you make a major mistake they will reduce your lives, until you have none, at which point you must start that lesson over.

Not only that, but the site plays like a video game, giving you points and levels in all the courses you take (yes, you can attempt more than one language at a time!). It also hosts a leader board where you can compete with others from your friends lists from Facebook, Google+ or twitter, or just people you meet through the site itself. It also has a winnable currency that you can use to buy new lessons, new ways of practicing, or power-ups for when you practice. There is also a place where you can bet some of your earned "Lingots" (as the currency is called) that you will maintain a week long streak of using the site every day.

The main thing I found fascinating is that each skill you complete is given a strength rating that fades over time. You can strengthen your learned words at anytime through the practice section, which spits up words you have likely forgotten through an algorithm.

The site is eager to help you with all words directly translated on a mouse over, canned speech of each word used in the language, and a special "Immersion" section. This area has the site as a whole translating documents from one language to another, with users rating each other (and thus giving points) based on accuracy.

This Immersion section is also how the site stays afloat. Duolingo is an ad free site, and is completely free to use (not even freemium!). Instead they earn money by the collective work of their students translating documents for paying customers. Pretty sweet system for everyone involved.

Anyway, I'm done talking for today. I hope if you are looking to learn a language you'll give Duolingo a try, and feel free to try and best me (you probably will!)! You can find me there at ekobor as always!

World Building 101: Preliminary Creature Design

I'd like to take a moment to appologise for missing last week's post. I apparently forgot to hit publish on this post and left it in draft status.

Moving on, this week, as previously promised we are taking a look at more concrete world building. This can be considered the "fun" part. I'm going to walk you through how I build a creature. While it often starts from a sketch, today we're going to look at it from the other angle I take.

The first step is to remember a few key things about our planet. Namely that it is warmer than Earth and has roughly the same gravity. This means that we are limited to some degree in where our creatures can go. We are unlikely to find a woolly mammoth roaming about on our hotter than Earth planet, and we are also unlikely to see elephant sized creatures flying through the air. Keeping those things in mind lets develop a small desert creature

The next step I take is to research where nature has gone before. Nature is incredibly creative and will almost always think of things you don't. I looked up "small creatures of the desert" and got this website. From there I take a look at many of the creatures listed and figure out how they survive the desert heat. I'm especially looking at the mammals, birds and insects, as I am interested in making a creature with some kind of coat.

What I notice immediately from the mammals is that they all have big ears. I remember from previous research that this is a great cooling adaptation. I decide my creature will have big ears, probably to the extent of a fennec fox:

However between the birds, insects and mammals the largest creatures are still quite small and svelte. So I know that these ears will be the largest part of my creature.

The next creature that captures my attention is the lappet-face vulture. I mess with the idea of using its featherless face for my creature, but toss it aside. I've settled that this creature will be a mammal, and a forager, not a scavenger in need of protection from rot. 

I make a few rapid fire decisions here, I like the idea of protective horns, as seen on the horned lizard and the pronghorn. I also like the general size of the kangaroo rat, and the general shape of the black-tailed jackrabbit. I now have an idea in my head about what my creature would look like, so I set off to draw it.

It takes a few sketches to get all the angles and everything right, but soon enough I have a good idea of the creature I am making.

At this point I start filling in details. What is it called? How big is it? What does it eat? All the general encyclopedic questions. Some of these will be hard to answer, having only made one creature in our world, so I will either skip it, or fill it in with made up nonsense that is subject to change.

Here are the questions I used and how I filled them out:

Name: Horned Cavret
Size: 6-9" long
Eats: Omnivore; mainly feeds on plants and insects
Habitat: Desert
Home: Small caves and crevices, or dug burrows

As you can see there is very little information at this point. But it is a start.

Divine Dines: Chickpea and Black Bean Crackers

Welcome back to Divine Dines! This week we're going to look at a vegan cracker recipe that I've made twice now.

This time I found the recipe on Love Food Eat, I went with her Oil-Free Healthy Chickpea Crackers.

You can either follow that link or follow along with me here as I discuss the changes and mistakes I made.
But first:

INGREDIENTS:
1 540ml can of chickpeas
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp dried thyme

1. Preheat oven to 160C (320F)
2. Open and rinse your peas. Rinse them really well so that all of the gritty muck that they are packaged in is rinsed away.
3. Next, using a food processor (or a potato masher and lots of arm strength) mash the peas into a nice thick paste.
4. Add in the flour and seasonings, and combine fully.
5. On a sheet of waxed paper roll out your dough as thinly as you can. Seriously. I rolled mine to about 1/8th of an inch and it was way too thick.
6. Cut out your crackers (whatever shape you want) I suggest 1 1/2 inch squares. 
7. Place them as close as you like on an ungreased cookie sheet, just make sure they don't overlap
8. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until they are crispy. This may take a while!

So first, my modifications. I used canned chickpeas rather than rehydrated dried ones that were suggested. I found that easier and quicker (it is also what we had on hand). Next, I used seasoning salt instead of regular, which gave the crackers a little more kick.

Finally, on my second batch I used black beans instead of chickpeas, which turned out great! I think I'll try kidney beans next.

On to my mistakes. I only made two, but they seriously effected my outcome: 

1. I didn't roll mine thinly enough. I rolled and rolled and rolled, but they were still about 1/8th of an inch thick. This feels too thick.
2. I didn't cook them long enough. If I had left them in the oven longer, it probably would have mitigated the thicker cracker. As it is I left them in for the suggested 30 minutes, and instead of crispy crackly crackers, I got a strange kind of chickpea leather. 

So in the future I will roll even more (ow, my arms...) and bake longer. They really need to be crispy to be fully enjoy.

As it is, however, the flavour is wonderful, even if the texture is lacking.

Gimme Games: Samurai Sword

This week's Gimme Games is all about the game Samurai Sword.

Basically just a rethemed cover of BANG! Samurai Sword does a few things differently, I hear. 

Published only two years ago in 2012, this game is relatively new. 

I've played it twice now, both times at game night at the Kingston Gaming Nexus. Once we played with three players, and another with seven. So I've seen both ends of the player count scale. And I must say, the seven side is a lot more fun. 

But first, lets look at the game. Samurai Sword is a card game for (as mentioned) three to seven players. In it one player is the Shogun. Then there are Ninja, who are trying to kill the Shogun. There are Samurai who are trying to protect the Shogun and there is a Ronin, who is just trying to make it out alive. Only the Shogun's identity is known, all other players are hidden roles.

Each player gets a hidden role card. They also get a character card which gives them special abilities. Finally they are given three cards to form a hand. Each turn they draw a card and they may play as many cards from their hand as they can, however they may only play one weapon (unless they have a special effect in play). 

Weapons are the interesting part about Samurai Sword. They have a certain amount of reach, and each do a certain amount of damage. You determine reach by seeing how many living players there are between you and the one you are attacking. Players are not considered living if they have no health points or no hand, so may be skipped over when counting proximity.

Gameplay is usually fast paced, though it drags on a bit in a seven player game. I quite like this game for the speed in at which each turn goes, but the length of the game overall is a bit off putting. With three players the game goes much faster, however is less entertaining as there are two Ninja against one Shogun.

The art is stunning for this deceptively simple little game, and the cards are sturdy. I especially like the little heart and honour tokens included with the game. It all fits into a nice sized box, and is easily portable.

All in all I enjoy this game and wouldn't hesitate to add it to my collection, as it is a fast paced multiplayer game with a nice hidden role mechanic.