mutantpizza.bsky.social
Board games, webcomics, storytelling, pizza
Go here: mutantpizza.net
218 posts
28 followers
46 following
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I’m so tired of this pizza prejudice. Margarita, deep dish, or mutant — we are all pizza! Fight the anti-pizza occupation!
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When you’re done with your campaign fulfillment, take a break. Go on a short trip. Get your mind off it for a few days. I like to go on a short camping trip. Let your mind relax for a moment and soon enough, the spark will return.
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I’m so used to the generic way headlines use the word ‘slammed’ that I was confused for a moment about who in the board game industry chastised the year 2025.
Anyway, it’s amazing to see the industry still growing despite the tariffs.
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Is a semantic argument through a mobile app an ad homophone?
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At this point, you’re now gatekeeping and invalidating the very reason I play board games and video games, so I’m going to exit this conversation.
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It’s also adding cognitive overload on a new gamer. If I explain that bikes rely on forward momentum and gyroscopic effects for, you still don’t know how to ride. If I explain that first you peddle, you’ve got a simple actionable starting point, THEN we can talk about those details.
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Do you have any records or blogs where you’ve taught new hobbiests how entire gameplay systems work and they haven’t been completely lost with the cognitive load? Teaching a new chess player about all the openings and why you’d use them, for example, would likely make them not want to play.
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Specifically, the worst way to teach a game is by explaining every single interaction point of a system and then explaining « you’d want to do x when you encounter y because your win condition is z » because that’s overriding their discovery with your personal experience with a game.
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Ah, I see. You’re talking about teaching ‘the why’ instead of explaining how systems work in a game. Good rulebooks teach the steps and give tips while avoiding linear suggestions, allowing players to figure out a system as they play, which is the whole point of games: to discover through action.
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Aside from being a huge cognitive load when you could’ve just given them the steps to take and decisions to make, figuring out how the engine runs is just a fun thing for players to figure out as they play.
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Put your theory to the test. Teach someone how a game’s systems work and see how the cognitive load makes them lost, unable to play. Again, you don’t teach someone how to ride a bike by explaining the physics that make it possible, that’s something they can learn once they’ve ridden a few times.
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The metaphor fits perfectly, actually, because as you said yourself: teaching the system is an entirely different goal. That’s absolutely right! Teaching the systems won’t teach someone how to play the game, just as teaching the physics won’t teach someone how to ride a bike.
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And to relate this metaphor back to games: My goal as a designer is to teach people how to ride ‘the bike’ so they can enjoy the wind in their hair, not to teach people how all the physics work that make riding a bike possible. People who ride often enough end up discovering this magic on their own.
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Teaching a system is far more complex than teaching people what they need to do on a given turn. Explaining the concepts of forward momentum, the gyroscopic effect, and center of gravity doesn’t teach someone to ride a bike; explaining how the peddles, gears, handlebars, and balancing works does.
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Looking good, my friend.
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My god, look at that soul eating grin on Madden. I hope whoever scanned these isn’t cursed or something.
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What were they dutifully binding other than tetanus?
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I love these! Have you gotten into any of the expansions for Root? They're a hoot!