Sirlin Games anyone?

UberPrinny_Baal

David Sirlin's the guy who balanced HD Remix, and I quite like reading his blog (listening to him talk, I'm fairly certain Orim does too).

He's currently having a go at producing some board and card games.

Based on the fact I like a lot of his design decisions, I picked up the cheapest of the three: Flash Duel to give it a go

http://www.sirlingames.com/collections/flash-duel

It's basically a quick card game that emulates fencing, and is pretty fun to play vanilla; but you can optionally add in ten 'playable' characters that makes it feel like a fighting game (only reason I'm posting it here). There's a grappler, a ranged fighter, a rushdown character and one who likes to win by running down the clock (*looks at Doom*).

I dunno if anyone else here is into board or card games, but Flash Duel is only as big as a regular pack of playing cards, so I could pretty easily bring it along next time I'm at XGC and teach anyone to play who was into that sort of thing.

His other two games simulate a one-on-one fighting video game, and a one-to-four player puzzle video game (puzzle fighter).

I'm interested in all three, but I just have the most basic one for now.

Scavenger XIII

I've been waiting on Yomi but its taking forever to come out.

UberPrinny_Baal

Scavenger XIII wrote: »

I've been waiting on Yomi but its taking forever to come out.

I believe it's finished.

Sirlin is charging $15 for the downloads of the card scans to "print and play" your own version, $17 a deck, $150 for all ten decks and $200 for the deluxe complete box set.

I managed to nab the "print and play" cards just before they became a paid download (although I can't be certain they're the most up to date versions of the cards). :pac:

Haven't actually tried it yet though. Would like to use some high quality paper for it.

Scavenger XIII

Really? Will have to check it out.

After a while I stopped checking.

UberPrinny_Baal

Here be a link.

http://www.sirlingames.com/collections/yomi

I was actually wrong on the prices, edited my previous post

GorySnake

UberPrinny_Baal wrote: »

I believe it's finished.

Sirlin is charging $15 for the downloads of the card scans to "print and play" your own version, $13 a deck and $99 for all ten decks.

I managed to nab the "print and play" cards just before they became a paid download though. :pac:

Haven't actually tried it yet though. Would like to use some high quality paper for it though.

That is an insanely high price for a card game you have to print out yourself imo.

I used to play Kongai, a flash based game which is basically like a mix of Chess and Rock Paper Scissors. Great fun but it took them 2/3 years to release new cards. Waiting for new cards got really boring, even if I never got all the available cards myself the game never changed much since there were no major changes

You can play it on Kongregate and it used to be a featured game of sorts. Before you could play other games on that site, earn achievements, and earn cards to play on Kongai. Doesnt seem to have that anymore. Shame really, it was a guaranteed way to get a card.

Ok those prices are retarded.

Scavenger XIII

The $15 is the price for 10 decks but you have to print them yourself OR the $17 individual and $150 for 10 are the actual proper packs of cards.

That's marginally more expensive than a starter deck of MTG or YGO, without the rip-off factor of needing boosters and paying through the ass for rare cards.

I'll probably try and get a couple friends interested in it.

Ramza

I used to love Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh, so this seems like really good fun. Yeah sure, I'll definitely be up for a go next time in XGC

Thanks Dave

K.O.Kiki

I'm a German boardgame geek, and I like reading Sirlin (even if he's a bit of a knob).

So yes, I'll play this.

Sisko

I guess that's why they call it Yomi


































I'll get my coat...

UberPrinny_Baal

Gorysnake wrote:

I used to play Kongai, a flash based game which is basically like a mix of Chess and Rock Paper Scissors.

I gave that a try after I read the design articles on it. Seemed alright. Sirlin himself described it as "Pokemon for adults" with the follow on statement being "In order to make a game of pokemon adults can play, the pokemon concept and mechanics themselves had to be MASSIVELY simplified."

That made me chuckle, because it's so true.

Ramza wrote: »

I used to love Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh, so this seems like really good fun. Yeah sure, I'll definitely be up for a go next time in XGC

Thanks Dave

No probs Ramza, I'll bring it along next time I'm there.

If you play Magic then you should have the rules of it down in like 30 seconds. My girlfriend taught me how to play Magic, and if we were spending a day in the city we'd often bring a couple of decks with us to play over lunch.
Flash Duel has sort of taken Magic's place as a "during lunch" card game for us, probably because of the new game smell, but it does pack a nice bit of variety into something so small.

K.O.Kiki wrote:

I'm a German boardgame geek, and I like reading Sirlin (even if he's a bit of a knob).

Haha, it's so true. He has embedded chat on his website. It's handy to check on rules after you've played a few games and unusual circumstances crop up, so you can ask one of his sites regular members.

If HE'S in the chat though, I only ever get grief from him for not being able to interpret his divinely crafted rules properly. He makes some nice stuff though, so it's easy to laugh off.

Also: Into german boardgames or a german into boardgames?

Scavenger XIII

Since you got your hands on FD I assume they do shipping to over here?

A distinct lack of shipping info on the site. Sure there's a shipping tab but that leads to a blank page. :pac:

UberPrinny_Baal

Scavenger XIII wrote: »

Since you got your hands on FD I assume they do shipping to over here?

Actually no, I ordered it months ago because it was US-only but sent it to an address in America and had them send it onto me. Took a while to get it from them though so I only got it recently.

http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2010/6/10/uk-shipping-a-reality.html

This post on his site discusses the UK shipping thing, I believe you can only get FD Deluxe at the moment, as there's some problem with the regular version.

I have an order placed for regular puzzle strike though, so I can let you know how long that takes to arrive.

K.O.Kiki

Grew up in Germany with their superior boardgames, can't stand the sight of the dreck that gets printed to cardboard over here

UberPrinny_Baal

Sirlin was in his chat last time I checked the site so I asked him about UK shipping:

Sirlin: flash duel deluxe is in UK right this minute
Sirlin: flash duel regular, I don't know what the problem is, I ordered it 2 months ago and it's still not there in UK yet
Sirlin: puzzle strike...ugh, even more delays. Will be longer, I'm sorry.
Dave: Delays on Regular and Deluxe for puzzle strike?
Sirlin: yeah the game is wearing out their laser, and they had to order a new laser
Sirlin: sounds like a joke, but that is real

So there you have it folks, game delayed due the absence of lasers.

Scavenger XIII

If video games have taught me anything, its that lasers are essential to the continued survival of the human race.

UberPrinny_Baal

Not to bump a dead horse, but this Saturday my girlfriend and I basically had what amounts to an "arts and crafts" night where we printed, cut out, and laminated 4 full decks of Yomi (232 cards!!!) to try the thing out before it's November release.



It's a fun game, and she whooped me at it and enjoyed it enough to decide we're going to buy the full set, because Jesus Christ I don't want to print out anymore. Halfway through laminating the second deck I probably would have paid full price to have someone else finish the task for me.

(Also worth noting here that Sirlin has dropped his store prices to $25 for a pack of 2 decks, and $99 for all ten)

Then today my copy of Puzzle Strike arrived.



That's pretty awesome too. Maybe my favourite of the three.

So with these and Flash Duel, I have all three Sirlin games if anyone wants to try them.

Unfortunately I'm not in Dublin the next two weeks so none of you Dublin lads are going to see them until the second week of September, but I will be in Cork/Limerick next week, if anyone wants to meet up for any of these or video games.

Sabre0001

Can you pinpoint a Limerick time? Look intriguing!

K.O.Kiki

Think I'll buy myself a Yomi deck or 2, yeah.

*edit*
Actually I'll probably splash for the whole set. $99 is good for 10 decks of cards.

UberPrinny_Baal

Sabre0001 wrote:

Can you pinpoint a Limerick time? Look intriguing!

I'll send you a PM

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Think I'll buy myself a Yomi deck or 2, yeah.

*edit*
Actually I'll probably splash for the whole set. $99 is good for 10 decks of cards.

We could go in together in our order to save on shipping costs if you like.

The "10 Poker quality decks of playing cards" thing is definitely very attractive. Aside from Yomi itself, one "playing card" game I play semi-regularly is Shanghai Rummy, which requires one deck per two people playing, and I would play this 6 player when visiting my family and it would be sweet to use 3 Yomi decks for this (and easy to put back in their individual decks afterwards).

K.O.Kiki

Yeah, gimme a PM or post up here whenever you feel like a group order.

Orim

I might jump in on that as well if that's cool.

Monkeyto

Just played with Prinny's girlfriend in work. Yomi is pretty sweet game! SOLD!

UberPrinny_Baal

I have no problems with getting as many people in on the shipping on my credit card as makes sense. I suppose the fair way to do it is to give preference by order of people replying here.

I ran a few Puzzle Strike Deluxe test orders (since it's the biggest and heaviest of Sirlin's games), and this is the way the dollar prices worked out



As you can see, the sweet spot here is between 2 and 4 orders, which is the cheapest. After that the combined order is too heavy/big for conventional shipping, and you can only go with the Expedited or hilariously named "Saver" postage, which goes back to being MORE expensive than a single order.

I have no idea how comparable Yomi will be since it's not available for test purchase but I think it would be lighter. I just wanted to throw this up as an approximate example.

Game doesn't ship till end of November, so I don't think any of us is going to get it till Christmas. So there's no rush.

Monkeyto wrote: »

Just played with Prinny's girlfriend in work. Yomi is pretty sweet game! SOLD!

Cool, glad to hear you enjoyed it.

Also call me Dave guys, while it might have seemed like a good idea at the time, I have a REALLY stupid forum name.

K.O.Kiki

No way, I'm calling you Dood!

UberPrinny_Baal

I will allow that

GorySnake

DeadEyeDave was a much cooler name, I had no idea who Prinny was.

Im intrigued looking at this Yomi game but $99 is alot, kinda want to save up for a new stick which I nearly have the money for.

chueytoo

I might just buy 2 decks, looks pretty intriguing. I assume most people that are buying are getting yomi ?

Sabre0001

Anyone else in Limerick on Thursday week to test out this game? And perhaps a bit of Street Fighter too...

Generic_name01

I'm up for it if not working. Always up for new hobbies to splurge cash on

UberPrinny_Baal

Sabre0001 wrote: »

Anyone else in Limerick on Thursday week to test out this game? And perhaps a bit of Street Fighter too...

Sorry I had to cancel on you Sabre, but I was right about my schedule going out the window, I didn't end up getting to Limerick until nearly 9pm, so I really just had time to check-in, wolf down some bar food as a late dinner and head to bed, since I was working the following day too

Hopefully things go better next time I'm in the area.

Back on the topic of Sirlin games, I've played them a bit more.

I still like Flash Duel as something quick and easy.

Yomi honestly I could take or leave, because whether I win or lose I don't find it very satisfying. Maybe it could be just because I don't find Rock Paper Scissors terribly engrossing either, and this is the core of it's gameplay. Despite the complex amount of information on the cards, this is probably the easier to teach to someone.

I goddamn love Puzzle Strike though. Had a bunch of 2, 3, 4 and even 5 (which bends the rules) player matches since I bought the game, and I enjoyed all of them (okay the 5 player one got kind of bloated).
At it's core though it is what I wanted when I bought the game, which is a good 2 player, which can be scaled up to a 3 or 4 player without a massive increase in gametime. Obviously game time does increase, but not on the same scale I find when you go from 2 to 3 player Magic The Gathering (in which game time seems to at least quadruple).

I was planning on coming to either the Wednesday casuals tomorrow after work (5-6ish), or the Blazblue tournament on Saturday (noonish), I was just wondering if anyone else was going to come to these, and if it would be worth adding my Sirlin games box to my trusty ugly fightstick bag.