Explore Simple Game Algorithms With Color Walk: Part 3

In this series we are taking a look at different game algorithms using the simple game <a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=https://jenniferdewalt.com/color_walk/game">Color Walk</a> as a sandbox for exploration and discovery. The <a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.com/2017/10/explore-simple-game-algorithms-with.html">last post</a> showed how to implement one of the simplest algorithms I could think of, round-robin, and how to develop some tooling around the game so that we can quickly run through multiple iterations in a batch mode and see statistics on the run. This post will start exploring some more algorithms, and we'll start needing to think about how to improve the algorithms so they aren't so naive.<br /><br /><a name="more"></a><h4>Adding the Second Algorithm</h4><br /><script>hljs.initHighlightingOnLoad();</script>The first thing we need to do to add a second algorithm into the mix is add an ability to change the algorithm type, both within the UI and in the code when running the solver. The UI addition is easy. All we need to do is replace the "Round Robin" text with a <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><select></span> tag that includes the <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><option></span> tags for each algorithm choice we'll support. Right now that will be "Round Robin" and "Random Choice," since a random algorithm will be another simple algorithm that will be quick to implement. I also gave the <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><select></span> tag an ID of <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">solver_type</span>, so it can easily be accessed from the code.<br /><br />The code changes are a little more extensive than the UI. We'll start with adding an event handler to update the solver state when the algorithm changes. For that addition we can add this code to the <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Solver.init()</span> function:<br /><pre><code class="js"> $('#solver_type').change(function () {<br /> switch (this.value) {<br /> case 'roundrobin':<br /> that.solverType = that.roundRobin;<br /> break;<br /> case 'random':<br /> that.solverType = that.randomChoice;<br /> break;<br /> default:<br /> that.solverType = that.roundRobin;<br /> break;<br /> }<br /><br /> game_moves = [];<br /> seed = 1;<br /> makeBlocks();<br /> });</code></pre>This code adds a change event handler to the <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">#solver_type</span> select box, and sets the <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Solver.solverType</span> property to the function we want to use for the algorithm chosen. This is one of the lovely features of JavaScript (as opposed to C++). Passing functions around is easy because they are first-class citizens in the language. No need for special syntax here, and when we want to call the algorithm we've chosen, it will be as simple as <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">that.solverType()</span>. To finish off the handler, we need to restart the game board by setting the <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">seed</span> back to its starting value and recreating the blocks on the board. We also need to clear out the <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">game_moves</span> so that the statistics get calculated for one algorithm at a time.<br /><br />We should also set an initial value for the <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">solverType</span> so that it's ready to go when the page loads, and we can stick that near the bottom of <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Solver</span>, after the definition of the algorithms:<br /><pre><code class="js"> function Solver() {<br /> // ...<br /><br /> this.roundRobin = function() {<br /> // ...<br /> }<br /><br /> this.solverType = this.roundRobin;</code></pre>Now we need to call this new <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">solverType()</span> function instead of the <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">roundRobin()</span> function in the click handler for the interactive mode control:<br /><pre><code class="js"> this.solver = $('<div>', {<br /> id: 'solver',<br /> class: 'control btn',<br /> style: 'background-color:' + colors[this.index]<br /> }).on('click', function (e) {<br /> that.solverType();<br /> }).appendTo('#solver_container');</code></pre>And we need to make sure to also call it in the <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">run()</span> function:<br /><pre><code class="js"> this.run = function _run() {<br /> that.solverType();<br /> <br /> // ...<br /> }</code></pre>At this point the round-robin algorithm should work again, if it is selected, but the random choice algorithm will not work because we haven't defined it, yet. That task is simple enough:<br /><pre><code class="js"> this.randomChoice = function() {<br /> controls[this.index].updateGameBoard();<br /> this.index = randomInt(0, controls.length - 1);<br /> this.solver.css('background-color', colors[this.index]);<br /> }</code></pre>We merely had to replace the index update code in <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">roundRobin()</span> with some new code that gets a random index. It should be obvious that future algorithms will follow this same structure, so we should be able to pull out the first and last lines of this function into its own function that can be shared between all of the algorithms. Let's make a new function called <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">runAlgorithm()</span> that updates the game board, calls the currently configured algorithm, and updates the color of the solver control button:<br /><pre><code class="js"> this.runAlgorithm = function() {<br /> controls[this.index].updateGameBoard();<br /> this.solverType();<br /> this.solver.css('background-color', colors[this.index]);<br /> }<br /><br /> this.roundRobin = function() {<br /> this.index = (this.index + 1) % controls.length;<br /> }<br /><br /> this.randomChoice = function() {<br /> this.index = randomInt(0, controls.length - 1);<br /> }</code></pre>This change simplifies each of the algorithm functions. We also need to remember to change the two <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">solverType()</span> calls to be <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">runAlgorithm()</span> calls. Now we have things nicely cleaned up and adding future algorithms should be easy, at least from the standpoint of adding in the scaffolding of each new algorithm. Some of the algorithm code itself could still be challenging.<br /><br />Notice how this architecture came about naturally. I didn't spend a lot of time trying to plan out the perfect set of functions ahead of time. I added things incrementally, and as optimization and organizational changes became obvious, I did them. Too much planning and design runs the risk of architecting the code into a dead end, making it difficult to add new features to a code base that has become too complicated with twists and turns that form a maze of objects and function calls. I much prefer taking a path of least resistance, paying attention to where the code is leading, and making incremental improvements that organize and support the code for the problem it is attempting to solve.<br /><br />Some programmers may balk at the use of a switch statement to decide which algorithm to use, but it's not as bad as it seems. Switch statements get cumbersome when there are multiple switch statements operating on similar objects with similar structure strewn throughout the code. These switch statements all have to be updated whenever another item is added to the list of possible cases. If you ever find yourself updating multiple switch statements when adding a new option or feature, that's the time to think about how to reorganize that code into a class hierarchy so that most of the switch statements can be eliminated. Most of the time, you'll still need one switch to create the objects from the correct classes, but one should be enough. I don't expect to need more than this one switch statement for the different types of algorithms, so I think it's fine.<br /><br />Getting back to this new random choice algorithm, let's see how it performs:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrxf944tgOxixoO1A2__Am_9quomDV3cJEBqUUB-8AGL-Hp5uIMZhyWTzBIemb2p9NRRldEH69eFx9lvU9x3zyjVBR4T_ityceiPG92OnM84sAt_Tp1RX40Ye2GAlnxH6bpPVBCkFee74/s1600/color_walk_random_100_iter.png" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Color walk 100 iterations of random choice" border="0" data-original-height="652" data-original-width="610" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrxf944tgOxixoO1A2__Am_9quomDV3cJEBqUUB-8AGL-Hp5uIMZhyWTzBIemb2p9NRRldEH69eFx9lvU9x3zyjVBR4T_ityceiPG92OnM84sAt_Tp1RX40Ye2GAlnxH6bpPVBCkFee74/s400/color_walk_random_100_iter.png" title="" width="373" /></a></div><br />Wow, that is much worse than round-robin was. The average number of moves is 30 moves higher than round-robin, and the standard deviation is twice as big. Here's a comparison of the two algorithms:<br /><br /><table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"> <tbody><tr> <th></th><th>Round Robin</th><th>Random Choice</th> </tr><tr> <td>Min</td><td> 37</td><td> 60</td> </tr><tr> <td>Mean</td><td> 48.3</td><td> 80.2</td> </tr><tr> <td>Max</td><td> 62</td><td> 115</td> </tr><tr> <td>Stdev</td><td> 4.5</td><td> 10.5</td> </tr></tbody></table><br />It's also apparent when watching the algorithm run that it behaves differently. It sometimes appears to get stuck, pausing for a moment before continuing to clear blocks. It also seems to leave some colors of blocks behind for a while while it clears others. Both of these behaviors are caused by the randomness of the algorithm. It appears to pause when it repeatedly picks the same color more than once, and certain colors will appear to get left behind if the algorithm happens to not pick them for an extended sequence of moves. Not picking one color for a long time may not be much of an issue, but picking the same color multiple times in a row is definitely contributing to this algorithm's poor performance. We should start looking at how to improve that behavior.<br /><br /><h4>Improving Random Choice with Skipping</h4><br />The immediate problem of picking the same color more than once in a row is fairly easy to solve. We can add a new algorithm type to the drop-down selector with the option value of "random-skip," and then add a case to the switch statement for it:<br /><pre><code class="js"> $('#solver_type').change(function () {<br /> switch (this.value) {<br /> case 'round-robin':<br /> that.solverType = that.roundRobin;<br /> break;<br /> case 'random':<br /> that.solverType = that.randomChoice;<br /> break;<br /> case 'random-skip':<br /> that.solverType = that.randomChoiceWithSkipping;<br /> break;<br /> default:<br /> that.solverType = that.roundRobin;<br /> break;<br /> }</code></pre>Then all we have to do to fill in the randomChoiceWithSkipping() function that implements the algorithm is check each random integer that's created for the index, and while the candidate index is the same as the current one, generate a new candidate, like so:<br /><pre><code class="js"> this.randomChoiceWithSkipping = function() {<br /> i = randomInt(0, controls.length - 1);<br /> while (this.index === i) {<br /> i = randomInt(0, controls.length - 1);<br /> }<br /> this.index = i;<br /> }</code></pre>This optimization makes a marked improvement in the algorithm's performance:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWPQgQ4V-HTA5liLTxs9esXF040ddzXheQI53DGS2KoLife_fQ3YUcpHKI6ElcU6V17FuGIiAjQFxxz4AmMQin_kUMhv-r6xrTBkQRzTMDLTJVJv17LrtxMZUAgkxULRbyQjrQmmq799c/s1600/color_walk_random_skip_a_100_iter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Color Walk run for 100 iterations with random choice with skipping, first attempt" border="0" data-original-height="654" data-original-width="610" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWPQgQ4V-HTA5liLTxs9esXF040ddzXheQI53DGS2KoLife_fQ3YUcpHKI6ElcU6V17FuGIiAjQFxxz4AmMQin_kUMhv-r6xrTBkQRzTMDLTJVJv17LrtxMZUAgkxULRbyQjrQmmq799c/s400/color_walk_random_skip_a_100_iter.png" title="" width="372" /></a></div><br />Everything has improved, with the average number of moves being reduced by 17 moves, and the standard deviation being reduced by nearly 3 moves. However, this is still substantially worse than the round-robin algorithm, and that's likely because of how the random choice algorithm picks colors differently than round-robin. Because it's possible that the next random color that's chosen was the same as one picked in the recent past, it's more likely that the chosen color doesn't remove any more blocks, or at least very few. The round-robin algorithm guarantees that at least the next color will be the least recently picked color, and it's likely that more blocks of that color will be exposed for removal by the time the color comes around again.<br /><br />We aren't going to consider optimizing the number of blocks removed on each color choice quite yet. That's getting into a different kind of algorithm, but we can look at not picking a color that will not remove any blocks on the current move. That would still be a random algorithm with skipping, and it seems like it would further improve the random choice algorithm. We're kind of going for the most non-wasteful random algorithm we can think of here, while still keeping it as random as possible.<br /><br />So how do we check that the candidate random color removes at least one block? The current code doesn't lend itself well to this check because the tasks of finding blocks to remove, removing those blocks, and incrementing the move count all happen together in the same base function call. There's no way to easily check for a color without also doing the rest of the work of updating the game board. Luckily, there's a fairly simple way to get what we want by adding a function and threading a conditional parameter through the function calls for updating the blocks. I can imagine that at some point we're going to want to separate out those search and update tasks because later algorithms are going to do a deeper, more complex search of the board, but by then we'll also want to change the data structure for the blocks. That's a bigger change to the code that isn't really necessary, yet, so let's stick with the simple workaround for now.<br /><br />To implement the simple workaround, we want to create a function that does most of what <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Control.updateGameBoard()</span> does, except for the updating the game board part. Instead of searching for blocks of a certain color adjacent to grey blocks and removing them, we want to search for blocks of a certain color adjacent to grey blocks and return whether a match was found. To do this check, we can start by updating the algorithm to do what we want it to do, and then fill in the details as we go:<br /><pre><code class="js"> this.randomChoiceWithSkipping = function() {<br /> do {<br /> this.index = randomInt(0, controls.length - 1);<br /> } while (controls[this.index].checkGameBoard(true) === false);<br /> }</code></pre>Now instead of checking if the new control index is the same as the last one, we want to check if the game board has a match on the color of the new control index. If it doesn't, we'll pick a new index. That change allows us to simplify the code a bit because we don't have to remember the old index anymore. So what does <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Control.checkGameBoard()</span> do? It basically does what the start of <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Control.updateGameBoard()</span> does, but with an extra conditional parameter so that it will know to stop on the first match:<br /><pre><code class="js"> function Control(color) {<br /> // ...<br /><br /> this.updateGameBoard = function() {<br /> this.checkGameBoard(false);<br /><br /> if (isFinished()) {<br /> game_moves.push(moves + 1);<br /> makeBlocks();<br /> } else {<br /> moves += 1;<br /> }<br /> $('.score').text(moves);<br /> }<br /><br /> this.checkGameBoard = function(only_check) {<br /> var match = false;<br /> var color = this.color;<br /> _.each(blocks, function (block) {<br /> if (block.isDead) {<br /> match = match || getNeighbors(block, color, only_check);<br /> }<br /> });<br /><br /> return match;<br /> }</code></pre>Because <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Control.checkGameBoard()</span> does nearly the same thing as the beginning of <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Control.updateGameBoard()</span>, we can call it from <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Control.updateGameBoard()</span> as well, but with <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">only_check = false</span> so that the search will run through every block and update the game board as it goes. Within <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Control.checkGameBoard()</span>, we've added a variable to keep track of if there was a match, and return that value at the end of the function. We also pass the <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">only_check</span> conditional along to <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">getNeighbors()</span> so that we can use it where we're going to need it.<br /><br />You've probably noticed that this code is a little wasteful in that it does not return on the first match found. It will continue searching through the rest of the grey blocks even after finding a match. While that's probably less efficient, there is a reason for it. I'm still working from the assumption that we're going to want to completely change the method of searching for colors later on because the current method will prove to be too slow. I don't want to do that change until I need to, though, so I'm doing the simplest thing that will work here without changing too much code. It's still fast enough for these simple algorithms, and I have a hunch that if we change things to return immediately on a match, we'll be changing it back in the near future for the greedy algorithm. Let's move on to the changes to <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">getNeighbors()</span>:<br /><pre><code class="js"> function getNeighbors(block, color, only_check) {<br /> // ...<br /><br /> return checkNeighbors(neighbor_positions, color, only_check);<br /> }<br /><br /> function checkNeighbors(positions, color, only_check) {<br /> var match = false;<br /> _.each(positions, function (position) {<br /> var block = blocks[position];<br /> if (block.color == color && !block.isDead) {<br /> if (only_check) {<br /> match = true;<br /> return;<br /> }<br /> block.isDead = true;<br /> $('#block' + position).css('background-color', '#d9d9d9');<br /> getNeighbors(block, color, only_check);<br /> }<br /> });<br /><br /> return match;<br /> }</code></pre>The only change in <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">getNeighbors()</span> is the call at the end to <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">checkNeighbors()</span> by adding the <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">only_check</span> argument. Most of the real changes are inside <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">checkNeighbors()</span>. We add a variable here to again keep track of whether a match was found or not, and inside the if block that finds a match, if we're returning on the first match, we set the match-tracking variable to true and return. Note that because of how the <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">_.each()</span> function works, this only returns from the current iteration of the loop, bypassing the code that updates the game board, but not returning from <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">checkNeighbors()</span>. The rest of the neighbors are still checked, and any other matches would also return from the loop iteration function before updating the game board. Since we also call <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">getNeighbors()</span> inside this loop, we need to pass along <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">only_check</span> for the other blocks that will be searched. The same argument as before for not changing the code too much applies here, so we just loop through all the neighbors and return whether or not a match was found at the end.<br /><br />The enhanced skipping should now be working, so let's give it a whirl:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq9c5Wi0g_leRL8m7cjX6QpzJTh2SeGHuduVkxEQM_lUcHxFfCOkdtDAcV8geiJ-E8TE-sF5qDoyxy__q8nOF7BomtUsUiAVsIOFthEHoFH4q0P3c8hxxcprKD7JOJsp5YMWdgEbbmQoE/s1600/color_walk_random_skip_b_100_iter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Color Walk with random choice and skipping 100 iterations" border="0" data-original-height="659" data-original-width="612" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq9c5Wi0g_leRL8m7cjX6QpzJTh2SeGHuduVkxEQM_lUcHxFfCOkdtDAcV8geiJ-E8TE-sF5qDoyxy__q8nOF7BomtUsUiAVsIOFthEHoFH4q0P3c8hxxcprKD7JOJsp5YMWdgEbbmQoE/s400/color_walk_random_skip_b_100_iter.png" title="" width="371" /></a></div><br />Things have improved yet again! Now we're getting pretty close to the performance of round-robin, as we can see in the following table:<br /><br /><table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"> <tbody><tr> <th></th><th>Round Robin</th><th>Random Choice</th><th>Random with Skipping</th> </tr><tr> <td>Min</td><td> 37</td><td> 60</td><td> 43</td> </tr><tr> <td>Mean</td><td> 48.3</td><td> 80.2</td><td> 53.1</td> </tr><tr> <td>Max</td><td> 62</td><td> 115</td><td> 64</td> </tr><tr> <td>Stdev</td><td> 4.5</td><td> 10.5</td><td> 4.5</td> </tr></tbody></table><br />The fact that random choice with skipping is still slightly worse than round-robin probably means that the least-recently-used behavior of round-robin is slightly more optimal than just picking a color at random. This is good. We now have two reasonable baselines for comparing against future algorithms. We do have one more improvement we can make, however.<br /><br /><h4>Improving Round-Robin</h4><br />Clearly, now that we can skip colors that aren't worth choosing in random choice because they won't remove any blocks, we can do the same thing with round-robin. This is an easy addition, and it should improve round-robin's performance somewhat. To add this algorithm, we can create another menu choice, add it to the switch statement, and add this algorithm code:<br /><pre><code class="js"> this.roundRobinWithSkipping = function() {<br /> do {<br /> this.index = (this.index + 1) % controls.length;<br /> } while (controls[this.index].checkGameBoard(true) === false);<br /> }</code></pre>The new algorithm simply checks if the new index has a color match, and if not, it moves on to the next index until it does find a match. How much of an improvement do we get?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLxU2Q0tP_UvAFuCk4Q-9HaBMvXRR-AWBOGbO2SbDHNi7RJ7BuAIzVc_i-s0kx48x2B98scMMHEpSI4GffRmDcgO9vcoQxNC-6VjZLIiPk-BNbznF-gJ08kgxZNnVaouu4iwNwsI7UUR4/s1600/color_walk_round_robin_skip_100_iter.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="651" data-original-width="610" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLxU2Q0tP_UvAFuCk4Q-9HaBMvXRR-AWBOGbO2SbDHNi7RJ7BuAIzVc_i-s0kx48x2B98scMMHEpSI4GffRmDcgO9vcoQxNC-6VjZLIiPk-BNbznF-gJ08kgxZNnVaouu4iwNwsI7UUR4/s400/color_walk_round_robin_skip_100_iter.png" width="373" /></a></div><br />Not as much as I was expecting, but it's still an improvement. Let's look at all of the results:<br /><br /><table style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"> <tbody><tr> <th></th><th>Round Robin</th><th>RR with Skipping</th><th>Random Choice</th><th>Random with Skipping</th> </tr><tr> <td>Min</td><td> 37</td><td> 37</td><td> 60</td><td> 43</td> </tr><tr> <td>Mean</td><td> 48.3</td><td> 46.9</td><td> 80.2</td><td> 53.1</td> </tr><tr> <td>Max</td><td> 62</td><td> 59</td><td> 115</td><td> 64</td> </tr><tr> <td>Stdev</td><td> 4.5</td><td> 4.1</td><td> 10.5</td><td> 4.5</td> </tr></tbody></table><br />We shaved 1.4 moves off of the average, 3 moves off of the max, and 0.4 moves off of the standard deviation, showing that the distribution tightened up somewhat. I'll bet most of the improvement by not picking dead colors in round-robin came from the beginning and the end of games, when there are most likely to be less useful colors to pick from.<br /><br />Now we should have a good idea of what to expect from future algorithms. A normal game with haphazard choices of colors will result in about 50 moves, if we at least take care to not pick a color that won't remove any blocks. Picking a color that was not picked recently is also generally better than picking a color totally at random. The goal for the rest of the algorithms is to do better than this, much better. We should also start to get an idea of what a reasonable lower bound is for the number of moves in a typical game, and thus, what a well-played game looks like. We'll start down that path next time with the greedy algorithm, and see where that takes us.<br /><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><br /><b>Article Index</b><br /><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.com/2017/09/exploring-simple-game-algorithms-with.html">Part 1: Introduction & Setup</a><br /><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.com/2017/10/explore-simple-game-algorithms-with.html">Part 2: Tooling & Round-Robin</a><br /><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.com/2017/11/explore-simple-game-algorithms-with.html">Part 3: Random & Skipping</a><br /><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.com/2017/11/explore-simple-game-algorithms-with_21.html">Part 4: The Greedy Algorithm</a><br /><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.com/2017/12/explore-simple-game-algorithms-with.html">Part 5: Greedy Look Ahead</a><br /><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.com/2018/01/explore-simple-game-algorithms-with.html">Part 6: Heuristics & Hybrids</a><br /><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.com/2018/01/explore-simple-game-algorithms-with_29.html">Part 7: Breadth-First Search</a><br /><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.com/2018/02/explore-simple-game-algorithms-with.html">Part 8: Depth-First Search</a><br /><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.com/2018/03/explore-simple-game-algorithms-with.html">Part 9: Dijkstra's Algorithm</a><br /><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.com/2018/03/explore-simple-game-algorithms-with_26.html">Part 10: Dijkstra's Hybrids</a><br /><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.com/2018/04/explore-simple-game-algorithms-with.html">Part 11: Priority Queues</a><br /><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.com/2018/05/exploring-simple-game-algorithms-with.html">Part 12: Summary</a>

Explore Simple Game Algorithms With Color Walk: Part 3

In this series we are taking a look at different game algorithms using the simple game  Color Walk  as a sandbox for exploration and discove...

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Apartment Renovation - Color Combo + DOWNLOAD + TOUR + CC CREATORS | The Sims 4 | EP1

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAzWqjWKphW-yjVHni2V1CHFLK6yC06gcXHya3TJ6XlK9iSpiu8ALWF4HIFm0jtsx1J_sF4xKWm0-LPKp9VgCsHkl7fdPOAE5GSQM0ME44v5GAVJP5FAjKX1JJfZi56qdWmER_QQVWcog/s1600/combo1+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAzWqjWKphW-yjVHni2V1CHFLK6yC06gcXHya3TJ6XlK9iSpiu8ALWF4HIFm0jtsx1J_sF4xKWm0-LPKp9VgCsHkl7fdPOAE5GSQM0ME44v5GAVJP5FAjKX1JJfZi56qdWmER_QQVWcog/s640/combo1+%25281%2529.jpg" width="640"></a></div><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLWB67MPnlcym3KDKlSMiAPjtFYBh_lzHQY8pny1xGWF1zAktIAgbR_8zPI6IY0Qx3Mn7Nm6nnb2jZJuO2f9Q5kGyn4_Sf8esudqk5feRsYUZxUN74AbXR1ndgcK2hm274BAIgf3aBKKU/s1600/combo2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLWB67MPnlcym3KDKlSMiAPjtFYBh_lzHQY8pny1xGWF1zAktIAgbR_8zPI6IY0Qx3Mn7Nm6nnb2jZJuO2f9Q5kGyn4_Sf8esudqk5feRsYUZxUN74AbXR1ndgcK2hm274BAIgf3aBKKU/s640/combo2.jpg" width="640"></a></div><br><a href="https://ouo.io/st/124jmaC5/?s=http://dinha-gamer.blogspot.com/2019/01/apartment-renovation-color-combo.html#more">Continue Reading »</a>

Apartment Renovation - Color Combo + DOWNLOAD + TOUR + CC CREATORS | The Sims 4 | EP1

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200MB Download GTA San Andreas For Android

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsv07wTEtAHrkrfUyt3-pAS6SyEHBqYauXjuad1muMCYZCnYPYE0JFBcBAZwzzZaO_VPDlH6ja7Mk4sDnevRRIrg6WGPK07UTpzdyJAj7OSYxGsB5S9xSjBLfyqpPCNXarjssl8-Pfo9xq/s1600/PicsArt_04-15-08.58.02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="730" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsv07wTEtAHrkrfUyt3-pAS6SyEHBqYauXjuad1muMCYZCnYPYE0JFBcBAZwzzZaO_VPDlH6ja7Mk4sDnevRRIrg6WGPK07UTpzdyJAj7OSYxGsB5S9xSjBLfyqpPCNXarjssl8-Pfo9xq/s320/PicsArt_04-15-08.58.02.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />For those who do not know this great classic game, GTA San Andreas is an open world action adventure game developed by the great Rockstar Games. San Andreas was released for PlayStation 2 consoles in October 2004, although later versions of the same would be published for both sixth, seventh and eighth generation consoles, also on computers and now on mobile devices.<br /><br />Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, who does not know this great classic game, is an open world action adventure game developed by the great Rockstar Games for those people. San Andreas was released for the PlayStation 2 console in October 2004, although later versions will be published for the sixth, seventh and eighth generation computers and still on mobile devices.<br />GTA: San Andreas is an activity enterprise computer game created by Rockstar North and distributed by Rockstar Games. It was discharged for the PlayStation 2 on October 26, 2004, and on June 7, 2005 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox. A top notch remastered presentation on 30 June 2015 and 1 December 2015, personally found a physical discovery for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It is the seventh title in the Grand Theft Auto System, and is the main primary part of the 2002 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. For Game Boy Advance, Grand Theft Auto Advance was discharged on a unpublished day with a turn.<br /><br />Amazing Theft Auto: San Andreas is played in the position of an open world from a third person's perspective, allowing the player to cooperate with the Diverson world for entertainment. Entertainment is set in the ridiculous American area of ​​Sin Andreas, which is intensely in light of California and Nevada. [B] Three metropolitan urban communities in the light of Los Angeles in San Andreas Province: Los Santos; San Francisco in the scene of San Firos; And in the light of Las Ventures, Las Vegas, the single-player story is taken after Carl "CJ" Johnson, who returns to Los Santos's home from Liberty City after the murder of his mother. Karl discovered his old loved ones in confusion, and during the turn, he tried to restore his old group, struggles with the police, and gradually opens the reality behind his mother's murder. This plot relies on various real opportunities in Los Angeles, including the competition between blood, cripps, and the Hispanic road group, the crisis of partition of 1980, the LAPD Rampal Smirmini, and the 1992 Los Angeles riots.<br /><br />Download Game ⬇⬇<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://goo.gl/a1j6s3" target="_blank"><span id="goog_865202264"></span><img border="0" data-original-height="76" data-original-width="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOf_EYpnYS8Y96dYmpi2l659RuECIN6fUP0XJycp4_9RBItFGr2pifetlJ3HXNkjUDTCPBzknUR-jXn-o1sh3VF_JE0tE6eSKYImYFlp6PQfFGq5Fr9TCq27cfwgesrfIW5Lhf6a6WKoM1/s1600/1517649502250.png" /></a><span id="goog_865202265"></span></div><br /></div>

200MB Download GTA San Andreas For Android

For those who do not know this great classic game, GTA San Andreas is an open world action adventure game developed by the great Rockstar Ga...

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Download IGI 2 Covert Strike Highly Compressed For Pc

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><h1 class="title" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Segoe UI", Calibri, "Myriad Pro", Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 39px; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 39px; margin: 0.25em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 1px;">Download IGI 2 Covert Strike Highly Compressed For Pc</h1><div><h2 style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Segoe UI", Calibri, "Myriad Pro", Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -0.03em; margin: 0.75em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">IGI 2 Covert Strike Full Review</h2></div><div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Segoe UI", Calibri, "Myriad Pro", Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Welcome to IGI 2 Covert Strike is one of the best Shooting game especially for shooting lovers that has been developed by<a href="http://www.hb-studios.com/" rel="noopener" style="color: #206ba4; outline: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"> </a>Innerloop published by Codemasters.This game was released on March 3,2003.</div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2IslisBgMT3ojnbJ0OUSb3WdFdSS-RIeAKm2sachOA3ZSCpw7_fIQLrwBFl0_tHWNUYituW76NkWFM1TMO_39XJIueFLPqovBaw0x8Tas6w81mDFboTkGEftFz-Yz4ZEtfnH1WctD4rua/s1600/I.G.I-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2IslisBgMT3ojnbJ0OUSb3WdFdSS-RIeAKm2sachOA3ZSCpw7_fIQLrwBFl0_tHWNUYituW76NkWFM1TMO_39XJIueFLPqovBaw0x8Tas6w81mDFboTkGEftFz-Yz4ZEtfnH1WctD4rua/s640/I.G.I-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #660000; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Screenshot</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzcZfg_BAimyh9i-5olvC14s-vhaFr6z_0zKSO4OvFXmj512qbY_3dNq5Kk82-uRfcUnbeuGGXZXHdTr2xwtQEHdm9oeFAuLMqOt6-kL-amdXUBtGA4I9TPrx6lNOInF3HRTDkwJnxGnyu/s1600/Snap57_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzcZfg_BAimyh9i-5olvC14s-vhaFr6z_0zKSO4OvFXmj512qbY_3dNq5Kk82-uRfcUnbeuGGXZXHdTr2xwtQEHdm9oeFAuLMqOt6-kL-amdXUBtGA4I9TPrx6lNOInF3HRTDkwJnxGnyu/s640/Snap57_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjftD6bfNfh3wVpnnVX2e6ytBqdzuSEU-HZIZt_dRsrnU4v6wPF0Pd3Of96YXLY5v8HcST72nGUs8LyFB4OSuXShf62rjGHuxk1xgEIgPYyaMwsfoqSggbem9QaZvzVkovMCGhxQUvWKGEP/s1600/s10_1_orig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjftD6bfNfh3wVpnnVX2e6ytBqdzuSEU-HZIZt_dRsrnU4v6wPF0Pd3Of96YXLY5v8HcST72nGUs8LyFB4OSuXShf62rjGHuxk1xgEIgPYyaMwsfoqSggbem9QaZvzVkovMCGhxQUvWKGEP/s640/s10_1_orig.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><h2 style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Segoe UI", Calibri, "Myriad Pro", Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -0.03em; margin: 0.75em 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">IGI 2 Covert Strike System Requirements</h2><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Segoe UI", Calibri, "Myriad Pro", Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-top: 0.25em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Following are the minimum system requirements of IGI 2.</div><ul style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Segoe UI", Calibri, "Myriad Pro", Myriad, "Trebuchet MS", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 10px 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Operating System: Windows XP/ Windows Vista/ Windows 7/ Windows 8 and 8.1</li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">CPU: Pentium 4 1.4GHz</li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">RAM: 512 MB</li><li style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hard Disk Space: 2 GB</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://destyy.com/wCubTv" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="1600" height="82" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHm7lxL0dUDK8WZ0OEovMbHlvzsczbmFtfv4PIQQAU8pyP2u_BCd5GTsGygJKOhpHKEFSaM3b-KCMGOWw3jRJS-AS8xdKNTqLM4nLZN82ERBjGMjJDiHSGOoI6L9AFSZAGJ0HoPwyrqAFl/s320/Download-Now-Button-Blue-PNG.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>

Download IGI 2 Covert Strike Highly Compressed For Pc

Download IGI 2 Covert Strike Highly Compressed For Pc IGI 2 Covert Strike Full Review Welcome to IGI 2 Covert Strike is one of the best Shoo...

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Cuphead, Cruelty, And Selling Unfairness To You.

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimWxpN2ijUqPa7YjJg-DPKx_mQISiwyD8kPnw6D1QyCTcuhF3BFMKRDeHZaj1LNIoCjZrXyyOoyMBMxuG_fKah_mXRCBYHlRxmiUY_z6jluBTSFMr-p6rIVHprv9GyOvNOGrc6c_Y6EX8/s1600/dragon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimWxpN2ijUqPa7YjJg-DPKx_mQISiwyD8kPnw6D1QyCTcuhF3BFMKRDeHZaj1LNIoCjZrXyyOoyMBMxuG_fKah_mXRCBYHlRxmiUY_z6jluBTSFMr-p6rIVHprv9GyOvNOGrc6c_Y6EX8/s400/dragon.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Teacher, mother, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DumCuR4mdpQ">secret lover</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />When charming indie megahit Cuphead came out, I watched a ton of it on Twitch. How could I not? It's so pretty!<br /><br />I wasn't planning to play it. I like to play one super-tough game a year, to show I can still game hard like the cool kidz. But I'd already played Bloodborne last year, and my aging heart won't take much more than that.<br /><br />Then my wife got me a Black Friday sale XBox One so that we could play Gears of War 4 together, so I figured I might as well try Cuphead for real.<br /><br />Because of what I do for a living, of course, all of the following analysis is being done to find ideas I can steal to make more money.<br /><br /><b>Yeah, Cuphead Is Really Good</b><br /><br />It was a huge amount of fun. I played a lot by myself. A lot co-op with my teenage daughter. A reasonable amount with my 11-year old daughter. Turns out my kids can be serious hardcore "Die 50 times and keep at it!" gamers when the bad guys are saucy mermaid ladies.<br /><br />What really struck me was how little watching the game on Twitch prepared me for actually playing it. This was because Cuphead constantly uses randomness (RNG, for short) better than just about any game I've ever played.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtdI4oMOQdgIuj_IfrcMl3Tcuw61rpG5lczKl2ZTgBoUdZUTSNKr7Xr-T59rdXsvK2J6vfxfrotxZu7-ZC5qHG0mR-FqjquZzwnv5O0Y5gvawcIp8_dc9tlAXPc879JvmLIyUTH3orTPU/s1600/calamaria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtdI4oMOQdgIuj_IfrcMl3Tcuw61rpG5lczKl2ZTgBoUdZUTSNKr7Xr-T59rdXsvK2J6vfxfrotxZu7-ZC5qHG0mR-FqjquZzwnv5O0Y5gvawcIp8_dc9tlAXPc879JvmLIyUTH3orTPU/s400/calamaria.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ever notice how sometimes a character comes along and every fan artist must come up with their <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cala-maria/photos/sort/favorites">own take on it</a> instantly? I think that's cool. (Link not entirely safe for work.)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>The Deadly RNG</b><br /><br />Just about every attempt against a boss in Cuphead plays out differently from every other try. It's not only the standard Dark Souls thing where each boss has a move set and it picks an attack at random and you have to react to it. (Though it has that, of course.)<br /><br />The fights are also random in every other way they can be:<br /><br /><i>Timing of the Attack -</i> A bull is about to lunge forward to attack. It rears back. Then the amount of time until it actually launches the attack varies. Sometimes it's instant. Sometimes it's a good long pause. And sometimes the wait is so long is throws off my timing entirely and I blunder right into the attack.<br /><br /><i>Timing of Attackers -</i> Little fireballs run across the screen. Sometimes one jumps up at you. Sometimes the pause between leapers is so long that you think the game is broke and you get complacent and BAM. And then three go all at once. (which can be evaded, but it's a rare enough occurrence that the player won't have a canned response for it.)<br /><br /><i>Random Attack Sets - </i>In a lavish display of developer effort, some bosses have entirely different skill sets every time you launch the fight.<br /><i><br /></i><i>Multiple Simultaneous Attack Sets - </i>The mermaid has two sets of three attacks, one set from the air and one from the water. It picks one from each set and uses them simultaneously, for nine different attacks to react to.<br /><br /><i>Random Terrain - </i>Two fights have you battle while leaping along moving, randomly arranged platforms. To avoid an attack, you need to very quickly evaluate the routes available to you and select the best one.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCnRehMX9qJ4wAYetJoXtJmd5roPNXy2PLp2WIdnA2T1PpLIAUaXK6ObcIvncgmaK6PetkyvUa-qY9zxitfoa-HifTUGLZsjghSRx8BsBKlmZyNKsSbHHaNoSr36GHilj5X5iwH0_nwo0/s1600/cuprat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCnRehMX9qJ4wAYetJoXtJmd5roPNXy2PLp2WIdnA2T1PpLIAUaXK6ObcIvncgmaK6PetkyvUa-qY9zxitfoa-HifTUGLZsjghSRx8BsBKlmZyNKsSbHHaNoSr36GHilj5X5iwH0_nwo0/s400/cuprat.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This boss made my daughter cry. I hugged her. Then I beat it quickly and she was mad at me. At least we're having family time.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>The End Result</b><br /><br />This is why watching the game doesn't convey the experience of playing it. You can't get through Cuphead with patterns. Well, some fights you can. But most of the time, you have to learn how the system works, practice with it, and perform within it, adapting fluidly to surprises as you go.<br /><br />Sometimes the RNG hands you a really nasty situation, but the vast majority of the time the situation you get is fair and survivable. You just have to take in the situation, come up with a plan very fast, and execute it.<br /><br />The brilliance of the design is in making a system with RNG that keeps the game unpredictable and tough but still fair. I think this sort of probability manipulation is underrated as a skill in game design.<br /><br /><b>Obvious Disclaimer For People Who Are Already Yelling At Me In the Comments Anyway</b><br /><br />Obviously, a lot of gamers don't like high challenge games. A lot of gamers don't like missions they can fail. Nothing wrong with this.<br /><br />Cuphead isn't aiming for the casual market. Most of the time, I don't either. I'm looking for ways to better sell to this market.<br /><br />If you're trying to write a game that will appeal to every single person everywhere, you're probably already doomed.<br /><br /><b>Unfairness Is a Selling Point</b><br /><br />In a game like this, the occasional unfair, unescapable death is a selling point. There are some gamers for whom such a situation doesn't induce a Ragequit. It inspires a determination to excel.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho62gJs5Mm8gC-tvC69nuCSqRVod5vjqnMNe0pyud_yBNK0d2JggV3UN-E5CgtWve0ppU-NlPUQV982w5aY_DiVaTE4xmhwEGr3mc_jreMvT0n8EvPyslQSpuWX4En4z0CZRv18nXYT3U/s1600/avernumfight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="603" data-original-width="486" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho62gJs5Mm8gC-tvC69nuCSqRVod5vjqnMNe0pyud_yBNK0d2JggV3UN-E5CgtWve0ppU-NlPUQV982w5aY_DiVaTE4xmhwEGr3mc_jreMvT0n8EvPyslQSpuWX4En4z0CZRv18nXYT3U/s400/avernumfight.jpg" width="321" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If I don't kill you occasionally, how will your accomplishments have meaning?</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>Playing the RNG In an RPG</b><br /><br />Darkest Dungeon is another game with great use of randomness. When you take your party into a dungeon, you can get a run of savage bad luck. If things get bad, you can pull the ripcord at almost any moment, abandon your run, and save your group (with a penalty). The skill comes in constantly evaluating your situation and deciding when it's time to give up. If you can't do that, you will have a hard time.<br /><br />I've always tried to have a lot of this in my indie RPGs. I write long games, and I want to make sure it's always interesting and unpredictable and there's a chance that things can go south quickly if you're not careful.<br /><br />I give enemies large move sets and make sure that they can approach a fight differently each time. I use a critical hit system to make sure you can never get too complacent. Sometimes, enemies run for help, and it's random how long they'll hang around before they do.<br /><br />(If you want to see this system in action, our new game, <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/691830/Avernum_3_Ruined_World/">Avernum 3: Ruined World,</a> is out at the end of January.)<br /><br />Heck, the whole genre of Roguelikes depends on randomness of your adventure. You gamble your time and hope you get a situation you can survive.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVl6L6fLM5oPGti7TMUnFJ5hcodi7uoULnFmSYwUyHXz8zBzZgQz8YkMWFGTQNS8rp_DE29_rsC4J5Se-6ERVLQdKXDPRLttWAGAJbdvrMjjFdRoJcphxzqVs0tahEqkU82Pm_Rn61Iik/s1600/rogue_005.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVl6L6fLM5oPGti7TMUnFJ5hcodi7uoULnFmSYwUyHXz8zBzZgQz8YkMWFGTQNS8rp_DE29_rsC4J5Se-6ERVLQdKXDPRLttWAGAJbdvrMjjFdRoJcphxzqVs0tahEqkU82Pm_Rn61Iik/s400/rogue_005.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Of course, video game accomplishments don't have meaning. My job is to create the illusion that they do.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>What Is the Gain From this Randomness</b><br /><br />Humans like to gamble, and we have loved gambling for all of our recorded history. Gambling doesn't have to be for money, and it doesn't need lootboxes.<br /><br />The joy of gambling comes from the unpredictability, the increasingly rare life pleasure of being unsure what is about to happen. RNG in your game means bad luck might cause you to fail. Some people mistakenly think that this is a flaw, when it is in fact a great strength.<br /><br />The ideal for my games is that, for battles of an appropriate level, there is always a tiny chance to fail. Similarly, for Cuphead, unless you're a completely superior player, there is a chance that an unexpected chain of events will outwit and defeat you.<br /><br />When you lack a human opponent to provide unpredictability, randomness must serve this role and provide the surprises. This provides suspense and unpredictability. For a large portion of gamers, being surprised is a highly valued product that can be sold at a premium.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY3HQPo0F0S-ZI97yJztmXQnrEQbYhO5QPDhI8RyXrcioePDeAmEUgaLJBi9tnQA_Dqg47i2TZBvB3Aha_oWfOInqENcSDWu94f1DtfwTVGuOpMDpV4K_5WrxaMnq-F7_MumTX6LLeNms/s1600/leapy+boi.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="204" data-original-width="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY3HQPo0F0S-ZI97yJztmXQnrEQbYhO5QPDhI8RyXrcioePDeAmEUgaLJBi9tnQA_Dqg47i2TZBvB3Aha_oWfOInqENcSDWu94f1DtfwTVGuOpMDpV4K_5WrxaMnq-F7_MumTX6LLeNms/s1600/leapy+boi.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's a leapy boi! Look at him go!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: xx-small;">### </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: x-small;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: xx-small;">If you're intrigued by giant indie RPGs with epic stories and tough, unpredictable fights, you can wishlist Avernum 3 <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/691830/Avernum_3_Ruined_World/" style="color: #999999; text-decoration-line: none;">on Steam</a>. It's out January 31. News about our work and random musings can be found on our <a href="https://twitter.com/spiderwebsoft" style="color: #999999; text-decoration-line: none;">Twitter</a>.</span><script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.freevisitorcounters.com/auth.php?id=dfc0a5d3ff9af9518dd0028393e00e4ac801199e"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.freevisitorcounters.com/en/home/counter/509184/t/3"></script>

Cuphead, Cruelty, And Selling Unfairness To You.

Teacher, mother, secret lover . When charming indie megahit Cuphead came out, I watched a ton of it on Twitch. How could I not? It's so ...

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Mind Sports South Africa Produces Rankings For Paladins.

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIavtrE586haHYsxdOsrvKlqtperelPS-6dpeuiAgrnedy8BE1WVSNUH7WchlejShCQ8ArKCZCagmmiiKPE1algxkCCvNIz8pCKEJYXZmTMvawaeXFWbWnu3bxVf4TcWMWOS1tMzMPjj4/s1600/Untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIavtrE586haHYsxdOsrvKlqtperelPS-6dpeuiAgrnedy8BE1WVSNUH7WchlejShCQ8ArKCZCagmmiiKPE1algxkCCvNIz8pCKEJYXZmTMvawaeXFWbWnu3bxVf4TcWMWOS1tMzMPjj4/s640/Untitled.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;">With the esports title 'Paladins' having been introduced into Mind Sports South Africa's provincial and national championships in 2019, official rankings are now being produced for such  esports title.<br /><br />The rankings allow Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) to run championships to the Swiss System. MSSA prefers using the Swiss System, as such system is instrumental in the development of those who participating. Whereas other systems tend to favour the more experienced teams, the Swiss System benefits all equally, as teams of equal strength are paired against each other in order to determine the victor.<br /><br />Such system is also time efficient and less open to abuse and manipulation, which means that the results are fairer.<br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Rankings produced by MSSA are as follows:</span></span><br /><div style="background-color: white;"><ul style="line-height: 1.4; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="http://esportscommentator.blogspot.co.za/2016/12/mssa-releases-latest-rankings-for.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Ancients Wargames</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2018/06/checkers-rankings-to-bee-used-at-free.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Checkers</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/02/eclipsing-all-opposition.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">CounterStrike: GO</a><span id="goog_1708801226"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"></a><span id="goog_1708801227"></span></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/03/saheti-heads-dota-2-ranking.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">DotA 2</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2018/12/youngster-from-sasolburg-leads-rankings.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">FIFA '18</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/01/linda-swanepoel-takes-lead.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">HearthStone</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="http://esportscommentator.blogspot.co.za/2017/10/for-first-time-rankings-for-injustice-2.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Injustice 2</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2018/05/valhallas-team-valkyrie-leads-south.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">League of Legends (female)</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/02/white-rabbit-gaming-heads-official.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">League of Legends</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2018/12/cobus-van-der-wath-leads-rankings.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Morabaraba</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.co.za/2018/02/mortal-kombat-rankings-updated.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Mortal Kombat X</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/01/lesego-motlasi-fakkel-school-of-skills.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Pro Evolution Soccer (PES)</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.co.za/2017/10/revised-starcraft-ii-rankings.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">StarCraft II</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2018/12/street-fighter-v-rankings-show-mxolisi.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Street Fighter V</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/02/eagles-fly-high.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Tekken 7 (female)</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Senior <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2018/12/baber-tekken-guru-abbas-is-back-at-top.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Tekken 7</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">High Schools <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/02/terrance-broomberg-curro-aurora-heads.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Clash Royale</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">High Schools <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/02/paul-roos-gimnasium-maintains-its.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">CounterStrike: GO</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">High Schools <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/03/saheti-has-obtained-victory-by-exerting.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">DotA 2</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">High Schools <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/02/empangeni-heads-yet-another-ranking.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">FIFA</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">High Schools <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2018/09/latest-rankings-for-hearthstone-schools.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">HearthStone</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">High Schools <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/03/northcliff-high-snatches-lead-in-league.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">League of Legends</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">High Schools <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/03/high-school-rankings-for-paladins.html">Paladins</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">High Schools <a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/02/at-top.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Street Fighter V</a></span></li></ul></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">Also read:</span></span><br /><div style="background-color: white;"><ul style="line-height: 1.4; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-new-national-team-selection-criteria.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">The new national team selection criteria.</span></a></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2018/12/why-schools-and-universities-should.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">Why schools and universities should invest in esports.</span></a></li></ul></div><div align="left" style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.8px; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><ul style="line-height: 1.4; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px 2.5em;"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/01/mssa-revises-its-2019-calendar-of-events.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">2019 Calendar of Events</span></a></li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; padding: 0px;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><a href="https://esportscommentator.blogspot.com/2019/02/esports-mssas-23rd-western-cape.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Esports: MSSA's 23rd Western Cape Championships - 23 & 24 March 2019</span></a></span></li></ul></div><script id="_waux9a">var _wau = _wau || []; _wau.push(["dynamic", "3ywr1n4l9v", "x9a", "c4302bffffff", "small"]);</script><script async src="//waust.at/d.js"></script>

Mind Sports South Africa Produces Rankings For Paladins.

With the esports title 'Paladins' having been introduced into Mind Sports South Africa's provincial and national championships i...

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