Yomi Card Game Playtest to be at Evolution Tournament

(Larger version)

After years of the development, the Yomi card game is approaching its final form...slowly. At this point, I'm just waiting for Udon to complete the rest of the art (and waiting...and waiting...), though there is still time for minor balance tweaking in the meantime. This is a strangely familiar situation for me.

The deck boxes for the two main characters are pictured above, along with some of the cards. Looking good?

If you're going to this year's Evolution fighting game tournament in Las Vegas (www.evo2k.com), you'll get to see the game in-person, and playtest all 10 decks (not an official event, I just mean while you're waiting around). I won't actually be selling decks there--again, not all the art is there even though the gameplay is--but if you're going to attend the event and you're really intent on buying some decks rather than printing them out yourself, check out this thread.

Incidentally, you can print out playtest versions of all 10 decks yourself (currently one version out of date, but update coming within a week!) and find more information about Yomi at www.sirlin.net/yomi or just download the rules here.

Yomi: Fighting Card game is a simple card game that simulates the mindgames that occur during a fighting game. It's a fixed-deck game, so all you need is one deck and an opponent with one deck to play. There's no rip-off scheme of selling you rare cards in random packs. There will be 10 decks in the initial release, then 6 boss decks in a (much) later release. Each deck represents one character and can also double as deck of regular playing cards. The characters are from my Fantasy-Strike world, and they seem ripe to be in a fighting game someday.

If you are publisher/distributor and are interested in Yomi, or if you are would like to make a connection for me with publisher or distributor, use the contact form.

Kongai Award

Kongai won both the Best of 2008 award and the audience award from Jayisgames.com. He had this to say about the game:

Why we picked it: The 2-player card combat of Kongai mashes so many ideas together, it's a miracle that it's a playable game at all, let alone one of the best free multiplayer games on the web. Superstar game-design analyst David Sirlin built Kongai on a simplified skeleton of the Pokemon battle system, incorporating several new layers of interlocking strengths and weaknesses, as well as a strong emphasis on mind games. It's a great game, but what makes it a revolution is the way you collect your warrior and item cards by completing challenges in the other games posted on Kongregate. By helping to bring attention to the efforts of amateur designers, Kongai sets a new standard for community-oriented gaming.

Thanks Jay!

You can play Kongai here.

More Street Fighter HD Remix Reviews and Response to the Press

More reviews are in, and it looks like everyone loves the game.

• A+ - 1up
• 100 - Games Radar
• 5/5 - Giant Bomb
• 9.3 - Gamer 2.0
• 9 - Official Xbox Magazine
• 9 - VideoGamer
• 9 - GameStyle
• 9 - GameDaily
• 9 - Team Xbox
• 4.5/5 - GamePro

So first of all thanks for those reviews. But second, it's kind of strange to even think about a score when the real test of the game is whether it falls apart or holds up for years. Also, fighting games are notoriously misunderstood by the press (just look at reviews for Guilty Gear, one of the greatest fighting games series ever). But hey, I won't look a gift-horse in the mouth, so thanks again to the world of game reviewers.

Next though, I read some press on other sites saying how much of a struggle it was for me to make SF HD Remix. Yeah it was. But it was also a struggle for a lot of other people. And when I saw a site go so far as to say "I didn't get much help" in making the game, I feel I should say something on behalf of everyone else who worked on the game. Yes, I did have to fight for a lot of things and a lot of struggles were harder than they should have been, but EVERYONE helped on this game, from Backbone to Capcom to Udon to the fans.

Backbone's lead programmer deserves a lot more praise then he's getting. Again and again he delivered what he said he could even though he set the bar very high for himself. Another programmer helped me with gameplay changes and there would be no fake fireball, no Akuma super, no easier Zangief SPD motion without him. We actually had three producers and I managed to outlast all three of them as they left the company at various points, but the last one hardly slept as she made sure the latest builds were always ready for Capcom and that Capcom's issues were all addressed. Our tech director wrote much of the low level networking code himself. The UI team made awesome menus. Udon's Herculean effort involved them flying around the world to personally oversee and train the art contractors. Capcom coordinated the whole OCRemix effort for new music, not to mention publishing the game.

So even though it was a struggle and even though I had to fight for a lot of things (that probably made me pretty unpopular...), please know that of course I had help. Everyone sacrificed and suffered.

And I shouldn't leave out the players, either. It's not possible to design a game like this in a vacuum, and players contributed many ideas for balance and many hours of playtesting. Keep in mind that lots of players flew across the country on their own dime to help with balancing. Their help is why T.Hawk's dive doesn't knock down anymore, why Vega's Fake Wall Dive doesn't lead to infinite running away anymore, and why Cammy vs. Dhalsim is not a 9-1 match, just to name a few.

Constant struggle or help from all sides, I guess it's just how you look at it.

--Sirlin

#1 on Street Fighter Ranked Matches

Right now I'm #1 on the Street Fighter HD Remix leaderboards in ranked matches (Xbox 360). Ranked matches in almost every game eventually degenerate to cheaters and people who are somehow gaming the system with win-trading, but for now the top ranks do consist of legit players.

Also, as general advice to everyone, I wouldn't obsess about rank. If you start caring about it, it's really limiting. It's better to try new things, try new characters, and not worry about losing. Try to increase your actual ability this way, not an external number. When a tournament comes around (the real test), your ability will matter and your number won't.

You might be wondering which characters I played to get there. Akuma, Sagat, Honda, Bison, Vega, Blanka. In other words, over 1/3rd of the cast, ha. Weighted more toward Akuma, Sagat, Honda though.

Thanks for all the great matches everyone.

--Sirlin

SF HD Remix is A+ and Sirlin.net is Top 5

1up.com gave Street Fighter HD Remix a score of A+. Wow!

Super SFII Turbo HD Remix Video Review

Meanwhile, Wired says my website is one of their 5 most favorite game-related blogs. In the coming months, I'll muck it up with a bunch of psychology stuff, then we'll see what they say!