DGC Ep 403: Heroes of Might and Magic (part three)

Dev Game Club

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we conclude our series on Heroes of Might and Magic. We confess that we should have learned more about this game before we tried it, and then turn to takeaways and email. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary.

Sections played: Some... more?

Issues covered: games we've fallen down on, the commitment, why we don't play certain genres, falling short, the possibility of finding guest hosts, game selection moving forward, having a tech tree in the manual but things we missed, board games and picking up strategy, hot seat multiplayer, modernizing the series, the limits of the audience, adding narrative, the heroes off the battlefield, June alert, whether you should do something, thinking about the computer audience, clarity and taste, how you present the information to the player in the manual, ramping up the campaign, "board games can be fun," creating your own space, learning design from board games, enjoying the tactical map, coming up with the names for things, not overthinking it, deepening and alienating people, machinima, stories from The Sims, boxes from the past.

Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Waypoint, Austin Walker, Patrick Klepek, Danielle Riendeau, MegaMan, GTA III, Final Fantasy Tactics, Kaeon, Dwarf Fortress, Artimage, The Sims, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Smash Brothers, NES/SNES, Apple ][, Lode Runner, Wizardry, Final Fantasy VI, Ubisoft, Jurassic Park, Jeff Goldblum, Slay the Spire, Civilization, X-COM, Warhammer, Andrew Kirmse, mysterydip, Bethesda Game Studios/Zenimax, Notch, Halo, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Battlefront, Battlezone, Jeffool, Red vs Blue, Quake, Tacoma, PUBG, LucasArts, Father Beast, Margot Robbie, Barbie, Ashton Herrmann, Lords of Magic, Lords of the Realm, Stonekeep, Interplay, Day of the Tentacle, Burn: Cycle, Phantasmagoria, Tony Rowe, Trespasser, Bill Roper, Warcraft, Diablo, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.

Next time: TBA!

Note: I think the person Tim was thinking of is Natalie Watson. We regret our lack of memory. Also note: Philip Johnson is the architect Brett was thinking of, with his "Glass House" in New Canaan, Connecticut.

Twitch: timlongojr Discord [e-mail]