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Vying Games : Blog

Footsteps Released

August 02, 2007 at 09:33PM
In Vying Games, Announce 		By eki
12 Comments

Please don't expect two new games every week from now on. This week is a little bit of an aberration. Here's why:

Yesterday, I read about today's new game, Footsteps, in this thread on Little Golem's forums. I thought the rules were intriguing, but, I won't lie, I also liked the idea of being able to post a release announcement on that thread. It'd be nice to be able to promote Vying Games over at Little Golem, but I don't want to be obnoxious about it. Little Golem is a very nice site, and I certainly don't want to bring down their signal to noise ratio. So an on-topic reply to a thread about a game on Vying Games but not on Little Golem seemed acceptable.

But promotion wasn't the only reason I found Footsteps appealing. While a very simple game, it exercises technical parts of the library behind Vying Games that other games haven't yet. Namely, the ability for players to make "simultaneous" moves rather than taking turns. Footsteps also has hidden state (sealed bids), which is new to Vying Games, though the library has supported it for some time.

So there were technical, and, I guess, marketing reasons to implement Footsteps. But the third reason is that it's not a board game. Up until this point I've released a lot of board games. While I greatly enjoy board games, I don't see Vying Games as a board game site. I see it as a turn-based strategy site, so it's good to expand the lineup in new directions.

The History of Footsteps

I haven't been able to find out much about Footsteps. There's a page for it on Everything2 that was posted by someone named Chris. That's all I know about the game. I'd love if someone could contact me if they know anything else about Footsteps or how to get in touch with Chris.

Wrapping Up

So, anyway, the rules for Footsteps are here and you can play Footsteps here. As usual I'll have some open invites on Play-By-Mail. I'll be out of the "office" for a few hours tomorrow (Friday), so please be patient if I'm a little slower to make moves than usual.

Bug Fixes

A few bugs were fixed either in this release or between this blog post and the one before it. They included a jumping bug in Phutball that was caught shortly after release (and doesn't appear to have effected the outcome of any games), and a few review bugs exposed when reviewing games of Phutball.
Comments

Eric says,

Just a update, I'm not able to post on Little Golem's forums because I am "not enough trustworthy for sending messages" (!). So the promotion angle is out, but I'm still very happy with the way Footsteps has turned out.

Eric says,

Another quick follow-up, thanks to z for posting the link for me. Now if I can just get him to do handle support questions on the thread, too! : )

piszczyk says,

Draww should be only when coin stay at the end on center. Thats my opinion :) hen one of players have even a 1 step advatage he should have win :)

William says,

I think there's a slight problem with the way games are listed on the PBM site, in that it should have "Both" as an option for this game--when you start as right, it says it's left's move but you can still make yours.

Eric says,

Hi, piszczyk, you have a good point about draws. I kind of like how it is now, in that it's easier to play for a draw at the end of close games... I think it makes it adds something for your opponent to think about ("is he trying to save a win, or has he given up and is now going for the draw?").

(I would change the rules though, if I misunderstood them, or if I found out that more people play with your suggested rule)

Thanks for playing, by the way!

Eric says,

Hi, William, yes there is that problem. The database stores another copy of turn separate from the game (so I don't have to look up the entire game contents just to build the pbm inbox). The db table's turn column only has space for one user, but the game object itself knows that both can move.

It's the one part of the website that did not really adapt well to the simultaneous moves. It'll require a little thought about how to fix it.

Anyway, thanks for pointing it out. I'm looking forward to getting in a few games against you. :)

William says,

For Everything2, if you sign up for the website, you can send messages to other users--although this is no guarantee that you'll be able to contact them.

William says,

(Although, since "Chris" has apparently been away for 2.7 years, I don't think you'll be able to get in touch with him. :)

Eric says,

Thanks William, I didn't know about that feature of Everything2, I'll try it tomorrow (even if it is probably as hopeless, as you point out).

piszczyk says,

About my previous opinion I have a sugestion :) Like it works on LG with streetsoccer rating changes after match. When you win with getting to your side then rating change normal if you didn't catch the end but have advantage it changes less. Draw only in center ;)

And one more thing there should be something to confirm moves :) End for now ;)

Eric says,

Hi again, piszczyk, that's a good idea about draws and ratings changes for Footsteps... I'm not sure how to implement it, but I'll add it to my list of things to look into. If it's easy it may happen soon, but no promises. (I do think there will be other games in the future that could also benefit from that scheme, too, so it's definitely worth exploring)

Optional move confirmation is very high up on the todo list right now. (You have no idea how many people have suggested it now) :)

Eric says,

Gregorio (the OP on the LG thread about Footsteps) emailed me with some more info about the game. Apparently, there was a commercial version called Quo Vadis. It looks pretty old, here's BoardGameGeek's Quo Vadis listing

I've updated the Footsteps page with this new info. Thanks again, Gregorio!


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