Time for another board game mini-review, this time for: Small World.

Small World is a very popular board game that's been around for a few years, but yesterday was the first time I've played it.

A quick video review from our friends at Starlit Citadel:


I played a 2-player game with a friend and we had a great time with it even our first time learning the rules and playing.

Perhaps what surprised me the most about the game is that I tend to shy away from games where there is direct, repated player conflict/confrontation, especially when it comes to "area control" mechanics (like battling over spaces on the board).  Games like this (risk, etc.) feel much too confrontational to me, and they completely stress me out and make it so i don't have fun.  If i am losing i feel nervous and if i'm winning i feel guilty.  But Small World, which is based on such a mechanic -- was somehow free of any real confrontational "feel" -- which was wondeful.  If you have a friend (or friends) who might tend to shy away from competitive type games, I recommend you give it a try.

One of the hallmarks of the game is that players take control of special creatures whose unique special abilities are mixed and matched, so every game is a bit different.. It's an incredible achievement in terms of game balance and entertainment.  I think part of why it doesn't feel so confrontational is that over the course of the game, your chosen creatures (tribe) will suffer and you basically "retire" them when you want, and pick up a new set of creatures to control -- so in a way you're kind of happy to see them go into decline so you can play with a new set of creatures with new abilities.  It's incredibly fun.

One caveat to this game is that, while the rules are fairly simple, you'll constantly have to be reading a large sheet that explains powers and abilities, which can sometimes be a little tricky, so you might very well have a problem with smaller kids, especially if you don't know the powers by heart when you try to teach them.

Highly recommended: 5 out of 5.

Recently came across and have started reading "Think Stats: Probability and Statistics for Programmers" by Allen B. Downey.

There are some other "Think X" books that look interesting too, where X might be "Python", "Bayes", "Complexity" or something else.

Oh, and:

...books are available under free license that allow readers to copy and distribute the text; they are also free to modify it, which allows them to adapt the book to different needs, and to help develop new material.

These books are available in a variety of electronic formats; some are also for sale in hard copy.

---

Found the Textbook Manifesto by the same author:

Students should read and understand textbooks.

More details at: http://greenteapress.com/manifesto.html

Sounded pretty reasonable.

DC member Deozaan writes:

Ludum Dare is a game programming contest that runs regularly, with a short window of time between announcement of a theme and due date.

The theme for LD32 is:



See you all in ~72 hours. I'm going to give it a shot.

Came across this this of "rogue" security software, software that deceives or misleads users into paying money for fake or simulated removal of malware (so is a form of ransomware) — or it claims to get rid of, but instead introduces malware to the computer.

  https://en.wikipedia...ue_security_software

Not sure how up-to-date it is.

Found some other lists that seemed clearly out-of-date by a year or more.

---

Apart from asking around, I guess if one is considering something for installation and it's small enough jotti, virustotal, and the like are likely to give useful feedback about the candidate in question.

Those of you who have read my posts on Google know that I view the company quite suspiciously.. They are masters of publicity and self-promotion and always find ways to get their hands into everything..  Often in roundabout ways like a spider that weaves a trap you don't realize you are in until it's too late.  Which is not to say that the stuff they create isn't often quite excellent and useful.

So here's a predictable, and yet still intriguing, new way of extending google tentacles, the ability to run Android apps on windows using the Chrome Web Browser.

Google’s convergence of Chrome and Android is taking a big step forward this week. After launching a limited App Runtime for Chrome (ARC) back in September, Google is expanding its beta project to allow Android apps to run on Windows, OS X, and Linux. It’s an early experiment designed primarily for developers, but anyone can now download an APK of an existing Android app and launch it on a Windows / Linux PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

http://www.theverge....-mac-linux-chrome-os

Ludum Dare 32 is fast approaching. Only 14 days until it begins.

This thread can be used for any and all discussion of LD32 and the games that result from it. I've entered the past three LD Jams, but felt severely burned out after the last one, so I don't know if I'm going to enter this time or not. We'll see what happens.

But in the meantime, the Theme Slaughter is going on right now! Go vote on themes you like. Slaughter themes you hate.


See previous DC posts about Ludum Dare:
Ludum Dare 31 - (I made Worm Wars during LD31)
Ludum Dare 30 - (I made Planetary Devourers during LD30)
Ludum Dare 29 - (I made It Came From... Beneath!! during LD29)
Ludum Dare [29] topic for other games - A thread about LD29 games.
Ludum Dare 23 - (I made Be Tiny, World! during LD23, and continued to work on it and improve it for years afterward!)
Ludum Dare - Game Programming Challenges