This was basically my GOTY. I'm kind of addicted to Zachtronics games, but I'm way more of a visual thinker and I struggle with programming. Spacechem/Infinifactory especially was my shit and I had a harder time with TIS-100/Shenzen. This game is more like Spacechem than any of their other games and I'm so happy about it. And also bashing my head against a wall about it. Forever.
If anyone's ever been interested in Zachtronics games but been too intimidated to jump in, Opus Magnum is an excellent starting point. One thing that this game and Spacechem have in common is that the campaign progression does a really good job of teaching you and introducing you to more and more complex concepts, while being a good level of challenging the entire time.
This is totally a ripoff of PUBG because it's the thing at the moment, sure, but. You guys know that battle royale/hunger games style games have been around for a long-ass time? I used to play those all the time on modded Minecraft servers for gods' sake. Reducing circle and all.
@jaqen_hghar: Decently accurate, but psst while I definitely understand the whole time/lack of group thing ( there are people who're always lookin online though and there is such a thing is short campaigns/brief oneshot games! ), theatrical chops are not a requirement for tabletop RPGs whatsoever. Sure people with a flair for storytelling probably have an easier time, but one of the reasons why people play tabletop RPGs instead of just sitting around and telling stories is because by nature playing the game and engaging with the rulesets of a well-written RPG just kind of automatically gets you roleplaying and telling a story whether you like it or not. There are games that are written to be more focused on dungeon crawling and combat than storytelling, and there are games that are written to be more narrative and character-focused, and on the very far end of that side of the spectrum there are even games that are really just secretly little improv story-generators in disguise.
So basically just try it and as long as you engage with the game you'll be surprised at how much of those "theatrical chops" you might actually have.
@danryckert: I ain't the guy you're replying to, but just my two cents: in the podcast itself you do clarify that this is how you feel and you want people to play whatever games that they want, but while you say that you understand that it's "just not for me" you kinda get really aggressive in trashing stuff you don't like sometimes and it comes across less as a civil discussion about differences in taste and more like you were actually really shitting on games like Pyre ( at least it's a game expressed cinematically instead of just a fucking cartoon, that kinda thing ). I get that's not how you meant to come across, but in this case it really sounded less like joking trash talk between friends and more actively aggressive, and I was a little put off by that too, not to mention the whole "play games to play games" thing comes across as really dismissive to everyone with different tastes, as if we aren't playing games somehow.
FTR I completely failed to click with Bastion but I fell in love with Transistor and Pyre basically immediately. Different strokes and all that. But how about Barkley Shut up and Jam: Gaiden! Fucking ART I tell you.
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