What is this virtual card game that I've been working on forever? Now you can find out for yourself here. It's deceptively simple in that you only make about two clicks per turn: first choose your fighting range, then choose amongst attack / inercept / rest / switch characters. And yet I think you'll find it tests the interesting skills of yomi (reading the mind of the opponent) and valuation (judging the relative value of moves in a game).

I take full responsibility for how good or bad the game balance is. ;) Oh, and I already know you think that Tafari is too good and that the random number generator is broken. Neither is true and everyone says both of those things when they start.

You can discuss the game on my forums, if you like.
Good luck!
--Sirlin

Here's a video that Cigarbob recorded of some casual play in the Street Fighter HD Remix beta. You can see me play starting at 3:15. I play Ryu here and demonstrate the use of the fake fireball several times (it has other uses too, but this is just a sample).

I forgo several crossup oppertunities in this vid, partly because we were distracted with talking partly because CigarBob has crazy reversal abilities. In later matches I went for the crossups more, but whatever. At some point I did a crazy dragon punch vs his sweep and declared the maneuver "old-school only."
Enjoy.
--Sirlin

In a surprise, hardest-working-man-in-game-design move, I have three betas of three different games that I'm lead designer of happening on three consecutive days:

Monday: Kongai, 1.8 balance patch, closed beta
Tuesday: Yomi: Fighting Card Game, semi-closed beta for shoryuken.com members
Wednesday: Street Fighter HD Remix, open beta

Yomi: Fighting Card game is a fixed-deck card game using modified poker cards that simulates the mind-games that go on during fighting games. I started this as a side project three years ago. Kongai virtual card game is the main site-wide game at Kongregate.com and is also an exploration of "reading the mind of the opponent." I started the design of this game about 2 years ago. Street Fighter HD Remix is an update to the 14-year-old classic, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. It has all sorts of features, but most importantly, I completely rebalanced the game and I hope it will hold up under the intense pressure of tournament play. I started the balancing process about a year ago.

Kongai: 20 characters
Yomi: 18 decks (18 characters)
Street Fighter HD Remix: 17 characters

That's 55 characters total, and tens of thousands of variables that have to be set a certain way to make sure things are balanced for competitive play--and fun!. (Maybe hundreds of thousands if you really count everything in Street Fighter.) It's a lot to balance! Especially all at once.

If you're not in the closed beta for Kongai, you'll get your chance to play it soon anyway. The ...

Here's an amusing post on gameriot by Vir that mentions me. The comments are entertaining too. It's about the balance in World of Warcraft arenas, and making the game into an e-sport.

For the record, I'm available but I don't think Blizzard will call. ;) For one, they might say that fighting game balance doesn't apply to their game, and that I don't know their game. Shrug. The same concepts seem to apply to Puzzle Fighter, Street Fighter, Kongai, Yomi card game, and the other projects I can't tell you about. Balance is balance and the same issues show over and over.

And second, I don't think my article two years ago won me any points there. Even though much of what I complained about has indeed been acknowledged and addressed, I don't think my tone went over well.

Anyway, thanks Vir.

--Sirlin

One of the only visual arts sessions I ever went to at the Game Developer's Conference was one years ago given by Larry Ahern, the art lead on the Curse of Monkey Island (Monkey Island 3). He was great and explained that he chose 2D on purpose of 3D, that he undertook the herculean task of doing the line art for ALL the backgrounds in the entire game himself for consistency's sake, and that following the rules of classical composition guaranteed he would at least end up with things that "didn't totally suck."

And now, gamasutra interviewed Larry about his company. It sure sounds a lot like what Grassroots Gamemaster talks about. The people in Larry's circle are all contractors who come together for projects but don't all work in the same "factory." I'm getting used to the idea.

Meanwhile Jenova Chen is doing his own thing in this other interview. I will officially state that Jenova Chen has beaten me. He really is making things of his choosing, things that the rest of the industry isn't so good at making. Most of all, he really seems to lead a band of programmers and developers to implement his vision. Bravo, Jenova Chen.

--Sirlin

The fine folks at GameCyte did cut a second part of my interview after all. This one touches on the more abstract concepts of balancing games. Topics include symmetric vs. asymmetric games, hardcore vs casual balance, and depth vs. fairness.

Maybe I should have a weekly show or something?

--Sirlin