2nd August 2021
NOMAD MONTHLY MAILBAG - AUGUST 2021
Hello everyone!
Welcome to the very first Nomad Games Monthly Mailbag! Every single month we’re going to be dedicating time to answering questions from you! Our lovely community have sent in some questions for us to answer, and it looks like it’s a bumper month due to it being the first ever mailbag. We’d like to think you all had these questions burning away for so long, and you’re finally letting them out. So let’s get to it!
If you’d like to be included in next month’s Monthly Mailbag, don’t forget to send an email over to questions@nomadgames.co.uk.
From Christian Hinse
“Hi Nomad!
Two questions for you:
- Were there situations during development (for Talisman or other tabletop adaptations), where you came to the conclusion that "no, a computer just cannot do that as well as a human player"?
- Will the Xbox version of Talisman ever get expansion-specific achievements?
Cheers!”
Our resident Talisman: Digital Edition expert Jethro Park chimed in with the following:
(For Talisman) Not that I can remember... There were times when we thought that, but were then proved wrong. An example of this is the AI's use of Random. When playing IRL, I think a lot of players (myself included) see Random as an opportunity to try toad another player, and if your target doesn't roll badly, they get a reward and taunt your attempts to thwart them. But because it hasn't got much to lose early on (and nor do the prospective enemy targets) the AI would frequently end up using Random on itself. Naturally, we and a lot of our players noticed this odd behaviour and assumed we knew better thinking there was a bug in there so we had a look into it. The AI's weighting for stats uses a sliding scale and for Strength (one of the rewards), that ends up at quite a high score when you don't have very much (which is why it particularly affected AI that started the game with Random, as 'spell-casters' typically have low strength). With the 1/3 chance of rolling one of the desired results, the AI was felt the negatives were outweighed by the positives and was satisfied with this level of risk to use it on itself. Turns out... it just knew better? (though I'm still a sceptic)
When it comes to expansion-specific achievements, it’s on our radar to do them - we just need to find the time!
From Julio Teh
“First of all, I want to thank everyone at Nomad Games for bringing great digital board games to us. I started off with Talisman: Digital Edition and I can wholeheartedly say that I am a fan of Nomad Games and everything they have released. I hope everyone at Nomad Games is safe, well, and awesome over there!
My question is as follows:
1. Are there any juicy updates for expansions in regards to Talisman: Digital Edition and Talisman: Origins?
2, Any future IP that Nomad Games is working on?
Thanks and all the best - from Malaysia!”
Thank you for the kind words! When it comes to your questions, the short answer to both is nothing we can share right now. Which isn’t a very fun answer! So for a longer answer, we can currently confirm that we’d be very happy to bring more content to Talisman: Digital Edition. We need to figure out exactly how and what that would look like first before we can share anything though. For Talisman: Origins, sadly we saw very little uptake on the expansions we released for the game, so making more expansions is a tougher ask for us from a financial point of view. We’d love to do it, but we need to balance that with making smart decisions!
And for question 2, there is an IP we’re currently working on and are in the design phase of. We’re still hashing out a lot of stuff so we can’t share anything right now, but don’t worry - we’re definitely working on something.
From Wilf
“Have you considered making some changes to gameplay that wouldn't work in the physical version? Or perhaps I should say some *other* changes, since, e.g., the Clockwork expansion's invention system would be horribly cumbersome in physical form. As one example, players currently get no trophies when defeating an enemy that's produced as the result of rolling on the Crags or Forest, etc. - in the digital version of the game, it would be fairly easy to make these 'constructed' enemies behave more like those on Adventure cards and appear as trophies when defeated. (Of course, changes like this ought to be hidden behind a checkbox in the game's options, for those folk who want to have things be identical to the physical game.)
Oh, another question while I'm here: when can we have some more Talisman: Origins DLC - it's a great game, and I want more.”
This is things we’ve absolutely considered! We’ve implemented house rules and expansions like you’ve mentioned that wouldn’t work physically. Seeing what other games are doing in the space of digital-only board games (like Magic: Arena and Hearthstone) shows us there’s definitely an appetite for that stuff. And our digital-exclusive expansions being so popular definitely helps too!
And we’ll stick to the same answer we gave above regarding Talisman: Origins DLC - sadly it’s a hard sell for us to invest in making any more right now. But one of the best things about us doing these community questions is that we get to hear directly from people what they want! You can’t just look at the data alone, right?
From Ash
“What's the order you go in when it comes to making the games? I've always wondered once you start tackling them.”
It’s probably easiest to break down the process into a number of different steps!
We spend some time looking at and playing the physical board game
We talk about how the design of the game will work, and come up with some concepts
We let the art team go wild on designing how the game will actually look digitally
We let the programmers and engineers start working on the actual game itself.
We keep doing the coding until the game is ready to go!
Hope that answers your question Ash!
From Memox
If you still have the time and passion for it, what are you guys playing these days? (Board games, gamebooks and/or videogames).
Would you consider yourself more of a player or a film buff? Or maybe you have other interesting hobbies? Give me some examples of what should I watch/play today, please.
Are you content regarding the current videogame industry? Or do you miss the times when it wasn't an industry, just some guys in a garage developing what they wanted? Personally, I feel that, for a lot of complex and rather mundane reasons I won't discuss for the sake of not boring you, the creativity and passion has subsided a little to give more space to safe bets circa the gameplay structure and whatnot, which in turn is heavily influenced by publishers and investors. Not just the customers, but even the developers are those who suffer the most about this, I think. I'm glad that's not exactly the case for Nomad Games, but I was wondering how you felt about it (of course without naming the software houses themselves) and if you had some anecdotal evidence about this matter or I'm just being overly nostalgic.
Would you rather play a board game with House Rules which speeds up and improves the flow, or would you "endure" it for better or worse just for the sake to play it as intended, with the official ruleset?
What are your favorite reads? What about your favorite gamebooks, if any? (i.e. Fighting Fantasy series).
Are there some franchises that you wish you could adapt into a videogame but you didn't have the chance to do so (either for costs or other reasons)? Of course, feel free to ignore this question if it goes against your contract or anything like that.
What's your favorite class in Talisman? (If you do play your own games )
And most important of all, what's your favorite dish?
Thank you very much for everything you did with some of my favorite pastimes ever. My Board Game Nights during the epidemic have been saved because of your faithful, atmospheric and great adaptation of Talisman. It has really helped our group during this year.
Greetings from Italy.”
A bumper crop of questions! We’ve answered them below:
Personally, I’ve been playing lots of Magic: Arena and Apex Legends - it’s much easier to boot up a game when I have some free time and play for a little while instead of sitting down in front of a 200-hour long RPG!
Films bad, games good. Go play Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice if you haven’t aleady!
A number of staff chimed in on this one…
Jethro: I think they're mostly right re: safe bets.. When that moves from being a safe bet on game (e.g. football manager 2014/15/16/17/etc.) to a safe bet on a developer then good things could still come of it I guess .. can't think of any though.
Sam: The larger a company gets, the safer they (feel they) have to bet - but people are still out there in their garages making whatever they want.
Ethan: I feel like big companies that take safe bets by making more games in an established franchise don't take away from indie developers' space in the industry. Maybe I'm thinking about it wrong, but isn't the reason those games are "safe bets" because a lot of people enjoy them?
House rules imposed for the sake of speeding up a game aren't usually my thing because it seems like you want to spend less time playing it and maybe... actually just don't like the game and should play something different?
I’ve recently finished The Terror and I know we have a lot of comic book fans here in the office - too many to name!
Star Wars, Doctor Who, Marvel… all the classics!
2nd edition- Warrior of Chaos, Digital Edition - The Genie's always seemed pretty chill on his cloud, nice abilities too.
One with high sides so your cereal doesn't spill
From Dana R
“What is your key of success for making mad at nomad customer/gamer/fan become happy angel again? (I mean when we complain about glitches and things we don't like)”
From our QA manager, Michael: “I find that providing plenty of detail in a reply helps calms people down. As it shows that you're taking them seriously, even if their email was a bit ranty. Also it shows that you care about making sure their experience with a title is a good one. I've had a few (not many luckily) people email just to say "your game is filled with bugs fix it or I stop playing" along with some other things that I won't say here. But they calmed down once I replied with a list of questions regarding their bugs, which likely showed them that we're willing to fix said bugs if they help us in our search for it. I've also had people rant at us about things they think are bugs but are actually mechanics in the game or they've simply not switched on the right thing when creating a game. So I explain as best I can how those mechanics work and they've responded positively. Even if the person wasn't "angry" in their original reply, I find that people in general response positively to detailed replies because it shows we've taken the time to address their bug report/feedback/questions etc”
From Kinkku Kankku
“What do you guys consider to be the hardest single challenge currently added in the Challenge update? (No need to account completionist challenges)”
A tricky one, because most of them are designed with the intent that you would complete them through 'normal gameplay'. So the difficulty would probably come from the amount of times it's required, or scarcity of the particular target. There's one due in Sept that could be the hardest.. but currently my vote probably goes to getting the title Emissary of the Nether… which is a hidden challenge, so if you haven’t found it yet then keep looking!
From DaKaT
“Have you ever thought about reworking any DLC character? Maybe they didn't work as you anticipated? Or maybe the community didn't like them as much?”
This is actually something we’ve already done! Following feedback on the Witch Hunter character being too strong in PvP, we adjusted their stats to make them a bit more balanced.
From primalandrew on Steam
“My question is as follows: Would you ever consider adding a, "Talisman Timescape" esque, science-fiction heavy expansion?”
Considered it? Yes. Would we actually ever do it? Very doubtful!
From Oliver
“My name is Oliver and I've been looking into the old editions of Talisman recently. I am fascinated by the Timescape expansion of the 2nd edition, the idea of having the heroes of Talisman face the grim dark future and other dark timelines and their inhabitants sounds like a lot of fun to me.
So I've been wondering if there was any chance we could see the Timescape as a potential expansion for the Talisman Digital Edition in the future? I am looking forward to see new Talisman content and other board game conversions either way.”
Sadly not - we don’t have plans to bring back any older expansions, and Timescape is such an oddball that it doesn’t fit in with modern Talisman! We’re going to bring more things to you all we’re sure, but Timescape is going to be staying in the past.
From Denizu
“Hello, hope everyone at the Nomad team is doing well!
I was wondering how it is to work in a smaller studio like yours. Does it feel like it comes with more freedom and a less orderly way of doing work? Or does it come with more strings attached to make ends meet and work on the tables? Do you constantly seek new projects, or are you happy with fleshing out the ones you are currently working on?
Thanks for all your hard work and may you all have a pleasant day.”
Oddly enough, it’s a mixture of both! We definitely have more freedom to make decisions and do what we like, but we always need to keep the bottom line in mind. We’re always on the look out for new projects, because it’s better to have too many and have to choose, than have too few and work on a project we don’t want to be working on!
From Stephen Mullaney-Westwood
“So... first question... Do you have your eyes on any other board game IPs to digitise?... or are you more focussed on adding to the current ones and improving those? Thanks for all your work Nomad... Talisman is very important to me :) & I own and enjoy other games of yours too.”
We sure do! We’re starting work on another board game IP digitisation as we speak. Only we can’t speak about it just yet. But we will at some point! We promise.
From CHRUPPEK
“After years of experience with different types of board games are you planning on creating your own board game?”
Not at the moment! It’s an idea that’s been tossed around jokingly a few times, but it’s a whole different world making physical board games over digital ones.
From Kotołak
“I have one pretty simple question.
Will there be new DLC such a pack with cards or characters for Talisman Digital Edition? This is type of game with unlimited potential and this is what I love about your game. Even now Talisman seems to have a huge amount of content and thats why I will not send wild angry Orc to your company. Thanks for what you have done so far.”
We’re very confident that we’ll keep releasing content for Talisman: Digital Edition as long as people still want more content and are willing to pay for it! And we appreciate you not sending wild angry orcs at us, we don’t think that’s covered in the office insurance.
From AP
“So I have some friends that I'm trying to get into the board game. However, they keep saying it has a deep learning curve and that the length bores them. Are there any quick start guides or a way to show the game off without having them sit down for a full session? I really enjoy the game but often can't find fellow players.”
Sudden death mode helps a lot with that! Try setting a number of rounds for the game, then everyone scores based on what they achieved/collected. It's a good introduction to the game and helps speed it up a lot. It also helps to have new players start with as few expansions as possible or just no expansions, as they tend to add more complexity which can be overwhelming to newcomers. Hope that helps!
From JT Holderman
“Any more Mystic Vale expansions coming out for the digital game?!”
Right now we don’t have any plans for more Mystic Vale expansions sadly - if there is enough community demand for more then we’d be happy to take a look.
From ⸸ KHORNE-FLAKES! ⸸
“I’ve been wondering for a while if Talisman Horus Heresy would ever return to Steam or get a re-release. I would have loved to obtain a legal copy of the game and the DLCs. Have there been any talks or negotiations to get the licensing sorted with Games Workshop? This brings me to another question: Have you ever considered/would you consider giving a shot at creating a digital edition of the Relic boardgame? If yes, have there been any talks with Games Workshop about it?
I’ve been enjoying Carcassonne and Talisman Digital Edition a lot, especially since I can’t afford a real Talisman boardgame with all the expansions and your digital exclusive expansions are great, I really like the content they deliver.”
Sadly the licence expired on Talisman: Horus Heresy which meant that we didn’t have the rights to sell it. It’s a game we poured a lot of love into, so we were sad to see it go - but that’s the reality of working on licensed properties! We’ve talked to the folk at Games Workshop about it, and it’ll be brought back up and talked about in the future I’m sure.
And Relic is something we’ve also considered and discussed, but due to it being so similar to Talisman already, we’d rather focus on more unique projects that are different to what we’ve already done.
And thank you for your kind words!
From Sebastian Pospiech
“Have you ever run a simulation to find what is the lowest turn number needed for a game to end? Do you run this kind of test with every new DLC?”
At one point when we were testing loads, we did check that sort of data, might even still be knocking around somewhere… But we do soak-test the game quite a lot, to help check for problems!
From Jeff Persson
“What is the next Smash Up expansion you are working on and when will it be released to Steam, Google Play and the Apple App Store?”
Smash Up is a tough one - we’re happy with the adaptation we made but the uptake for players on expansions has been low compared to our other games. We’ve had some people asking for more content, but we need to still make smart decisions of where we put our resources and time development-wise.
So right now the answer is: We’re not working on another Smash Up expansion at the moment!
From Alessandro Salani
“I read to send questions to you from this on steam... so I took some time to... write to you. First of all let's say that I really love the game of Talisman 4th Edition. I've the board game at home with many physical "DLCs". The online game was a life-saver during previous year and current one, so it's great. I'm full of questions (and feedback) about it! Let's start in order of importance.
This game is lacking a consistent PVE side, are you planning to add more Custom Endings to focus on that? Or allow players to create their own custom ones?
"Remove Drawing Limit Mode". To improve fast-play games I'd LOVE if there will be a mode to remove the drawing card limit from each box.
The Private Online Game Creation allows players to create only one room at once and to continue it even if some day has passed... but what if a player would create more online rooms?
What about adding also Weekly / Monthly challenges?
"Frog Rush Mode is possible"? This is a mad idea that I'd personally. Add 'Frogs' as Playable characters (removing the restriction to not be able to gain strength or craft or followers and/or other restrictions) and try to reach the crown or an ending... 'that way' ahahah. Maybe that's a little insane but surely funny.
Some cards / spells are different from their Board Game description and effect. I'd like it... for each card that has these 'changes' toggle 'on-off' for changes from Board Game edition.”
That’s a lot of questions to get through Alessandro! Let’s go through each of them in order:
Our head of QA Michael chimed in on this one: “For more PVE style endings, we did look into doing a ending pack like two years ago, even had a button for it. I think one or two of those endings had a PVE style rules and even a team based PVP one. We’ll have to try and dig out the design document that was made as I recall one of the team based endings being adapted for Talisman: Origins.”
According to Jethro, our resident Talisman man: “that would get very out of hand very quickly!”
Right now this is a limit because of coding reasons, and having to keep track of multiple online saves put a lot of strain on parts of the game that easily break if too much strain is put on them. We do know this is something people want though, so it’s always in the back of our minds!
Another thing we’d like to do! Offering scenarios that players can try to complete that rotate would be cool - we know a lot of other games do ‘daily/weekly runs’ to much success.
This would definitely be possible… but if we should do it is a completely different question!
This would be something else we can look into, as we know there are a lot of die-hard Talisman fans out there who want the game to be exactly 1:1 with the physical game.
And that’s the end of our very first monthly mailbag! Thanks to everyone who sent in questions, and don’t forget to send your questions to questions@nomadgames.co.uk if you want us to answer your burning queries next month!