Am I going to be automated out of my own hobby?

Of course, these days everyone is talking about ChatGPT and other AI programs that generate verbiage or art scraped and remixed from all over the Internet and presented according to some nebulous algorithms.

Not long ago someone asked ChatGPT to come up with some rules for a Napoleonic era wargame and it made a creditable stab at it. It makes me wonder where it’s all headed, so I set up an account on openAI and asked it, “who is Brian Train?”

Answer:

Brian Train is a board game designer and author from Canada. He has designed and published over 100 board games, focusing primarily on conflict simulations, historical games, and games based on current events.

Train’s designs often deal with unconventional topics, such as the Algerian War, the Iran-Iraq War, and the global war on terror. He is known for his innovative approach to game mechanics, his attention to historical detail, and his ability to make complex topics accessible to players.

Train has also written extensively on game design, contributing to a number of publications and speaking at conferences and events around the world. He is particularly interested in the role of games in education, and has developed a number of games specifically for classroom use.

Some of Train’s most well-known designs include “A Distant Plain”, a game about the war in Afghanistan, “Colonial Twilight”, a game about the Algerian War, and “Binh Dinh ’69”, a game about the Vietnam War. His work has been recognized with a number of awards and nominations, including multiple Charles S. Roberts Awards for excellence in wargame design.

HA!

I think it’s just trying to butter me up….

Winter Thunder: now available on Steam!

The computer version of Winter Thunder is now available on Steam for C$16.99.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2167010/WinterThunder

Now features both German and Allied AIs, and you can play hotseat as well.

District Commander Kandahar: VASSAL module now available!

Thanks to Emma Carter, there is now a VASSAL module available for play of District Commander: Kandahar!

https://vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:District_Commander_Kandahar

La jeu de la guerre: now available for iOS and MacOS

A digital version of Guy Debord’s Meisterwerk (at least, the one he spent the most time and wine on) is now available on the App Store.

http://r-s-g.org/kriegspiel/index.php

From the site FAQ:

Is the game free?
Yes, the game is free. There are no in-app purchases. No advertisements. No Patreon. No GoFundMe. No monetization of player data. There is literally no possible way to take your money.

What are the system requirements?
iOS system requirements: Version 15.0
macOS requirements: Version 12.0 (“Monterey”)

Will the game be released for Android, Windows, or another OS?
The game is supported on two platforms (macOS and iOS). There are no plans to port the game to other operating systems.

Do I need a log in to play?
The game uses Apple’s Game Center for networked play. You may log in to Game Center using an Apple ID. If you are not logged in to Game Center you may still play in Practice or Tabletop mode.

How can I learn more about Guy Debord and the history of the game?
The “About” page contains a brief overview. For a deeper reflection on the history of the game, see section five on “Crystalline War” in Alexander R. Galloway’s book Uncomputable: Play and Politics in the Long Digital Age.

[Edited to add:]

If you don’t have a Mac or an iDevice, there is now a Web version of the game available on Freeboardgames.org, that you can play via your browser.

https://www.freeboardgames.org/en/play/kriegspiel

[/edit]

Some more about Debord and the game here, in this Youtube video of an interview with the app designer Alexander Galloway:

Two Interviews: The British Way, La Jeu de la Guerre

Winter Thunder: computer version now available!

(screenshot from the beginning of Turn 1… German LXVII Corps prepares to jump off)

https://bruinbeargames.itch.io/winterthunder

From the mind of Casey Bruyn, of Bruinbear Games, comes a computerized version of Winter Thunder, my game on the Battle of the Bulge!

Windows only.

Hot-seat mode where you play both sides, or there is an AI for the German side… next release will feature an AI for the Allied side.

Available on itch.io for a minimum price of $10.00.

Apparently it will be available on Steam in the near future too, and will have that Allied A.I.

Check it out!

[ETA: here is a 27 minute video where Karl Muller of SmartWargames takes it for a spin…

A Playful Learning Exercise: Kashmir Crisis

The International Conference on Games and Learning Alliance (GALA) is underway, and one of the papers being presented is on a digital port of my free game Kashmir Crisis.

It was written by Hans-Wolfgang Loidl, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, and his student Charlie Murray who created the digital version of the game. I contributed a couple of paragraphs (and the original game design, of course).

Abstract
This paper summarises the development and evaluation of a digital board game on the “Kashmir Crisis” in 2019. It is based on a card-driven board-game design of one of the authors, with the concept of “games as journalism” as one underlying design principle. As such, this is a serious game with the aim of providing information on the context of recent political events in Kashmir. In this paper we focus on the design, implementation, and evaluation of a multi-platform, digital instance of this game. The evaluation results of using the game show significantly increased engagement and slightly better learning effectiveness, compared to a control group using standard learning techniques.

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-92182-8_1

Because it’s Springer, you have to buy it I guess, in PDF for $29.95 or eBook for $54.99. Unless you are associated with an institution that has a subscription, in which case it’s free. In either case, the original game is free and I can answer any questions you have about the physical game, also for free.

Analog Print and Play version of the game is available here: Free Games!

Cite this paper as:
Murray C., Loidl HW., Train B. (2021) A Playful Learning Exercise: Kashmir Crisis. In: de Rosa F., Marfisi Schottman I., Baalsrud Hauge J., Bellotti F., Dondio P., Romero M. (eds) Games and Learning Alliance. GALA 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13134. Springer, Cham.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92182-8_1

Guerrilla Checkers and Kashmir Crisis: new TTS modules!

Over the last couple of months I made sporadic efforts to  learn to make modules of my games for Tabletop Simulator (TTS)  and Vassal. (I got TTS some time ago when it was on sale for $10 and had some ideas of playing some games to pass the lockdown time, except that it turned out I had no spare time!) I had no real success learning Vassal, but I seemed to get on better with TTS as it’s closer to making a physical copy of a game, or it had more useful gizmos, or whatever. Also, development and playtesting for China’s War will start soon and the developer will be doing it over TTS, not Vassal as was the case with Colonial Twilight, so it was time I learned how to use it. Even at that it took me weeks to learn how to build and upload a deck of special cards, and I experienced the full-on tedium of having to make individual .jpg images of absolutely every piece in the game, including separate front and back images for many things. (I understand Vassal is not much different in the tedium department.)

But after all that, I got things to work with a couple of small and simple games (plus a larger game project that I’m not going to talk about just yet, except that I just did!). So how do I share the modules with the world? I was held up again for weeks because when you go to upload a TTS module to their “workshop” to make it available, you need to include the URL of a small thumbnail image for the game. Time and again the upload failed, this problem has been noted with TTS for some time but all the fixes I had read did not work. Finally last night, with the aid of a friend of a friend, I got the darn things uploaded and went public!

So, if you are on Steam and own Tabletop Simulator, you can now go and have a look at the modules I made for Guerrilla Checkers and Kashmir Crisis. These are two of my smallest and simplest games, and they use pre-made game items (checkerboard, deck of ordinary cards etc.) so they were not that hard to make. No fancy fog of war or other mechanisms, though I would like to learn next how to do that in TTS. If you do have a look, please let me know if these worked for you. 

Guerrilla Checkers: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2421938802

Kashmir Crisis: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2421971111

Winter Thunder: computer implementation ready for playtesting

Casey Bruyn has been working on a computer version of Winter Thunder for some time. It will feature an AI, and the possibility of synchronous (hotseat) and asynchronous (via email) play.

Have a look at the development page: http://www.bruinbeargames.com/#winterthunder

He says, “The basic game and email version are at beta test. We are looking for playtesters that know the rules for the game. If interested please contact info@bruinbeargames.com.”

Give him a hand!

Civil Power: rules, scenarios, VASSAL module available online

Now that the game is officially out, CSL has made the rules and scenario booklet and VASSAL module available online here (if necessary, change the file extension from .zip to .vmod):

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1i19QZV5qBeZVHv1U5iucoW1tb8w2StEk

But we’re sure that you would like to have the physical product too, so the order page is here:

https://www.consimsltd.com/products/civil-power

Fight the Power!
(or be the Power, you can do both)

District Commander Maracas: VASSAL module available!

Trevor Lieberman has braved the demons of Vassal and created a module for District Commander Maracas!

Download it here: http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:District_Commander_Maracas:_Virtualia_2019

It needs a few people to work it and check it over for errors or bugs, so this may not be the final version, but there is the page to find it when it is.

Thanks so much for your work Trevor!

(Honestly, I have tried off and on for the past few weeks to finally get it together to understand Vassal and Tabletop Simulator, and both have thoroughly defeated me except for the simplest things. I did make a functioning version of Guerrilla Checkers on TTS, but have no idea how to distribute it now.)

[ETA: Trevor also made an Excel spreadsheet to automate scoring for Population and LOC Control victory points for the module: https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/213982/automated-scoring ]