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I'm still looking for that Super Robot genre mini based game!!!

Super robot genre? Wouldn't that be Giga-Robo?

Yeah, but that's not quite the wargame I'm looking for.

I was hoping for something more along the lines of what the guys are doing with Mobile Suit Skirmish.

Plus, it annoyingly isn't out yet!

This game:

http://mobilesuitskirmish.proboards.com

?

Yes, that one.

Not sure if there's an existing line of affordable Super Robot stuff though, compared to Gundam.

Though to be fair, nothing will compare to the availability, price and quality if the various Gundam lines!

There are kaiju games like Monster Island, Giant Monster Rampage or Mighty Monsters that are light and seem like fun.

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but this is for pure robot/mecha games, so it just struck me: What're the salient differences between giant robots and giant monsters?

Well, aside from the mechanical/organic thing?

Super Robots and Kaiju kinda sorta exist in the same SF space.

Pacific Rim being the most recent example?

Nurglitch wrote:
I don't mean to hijack the thread, but this is for pure robot/mecha games, so it just struck me: What're the salient differences between giant robots and giant monsters?

In 40k, which has rapidly evolved to a robot / mecha / kaiju game, I'd say there is none.

I'm thinking in terms of genre. In Pacific Rim they mix it up, with the kaiju having specialized organs specifically to defeat their estwhile opponents, but in more classic kaiji like Millennium-era Godzilla films Kiryu isn't just Godzilla with different guns.

OK, where do Evangelion fit in he monster/robot spectrum?

It's kind of neat that it starts with classic giant robot tropes, but ends essentially with giant monsters. Aside from that, that's what I'm trying to put into words.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
OK, where do Evangelion fit in he monster/robot spectrum?

It was mainly a deconstruction of the super robot genre (Mazinger Z and its ilk), so...

Yes, but it's also battling giant monsters.

Okay, so I've given it some thought and the main difference seems to be that monsters are metaphors for things outside of our control, whereas the robots are metaphors for being able to take on those things that were once outside of our control.

Nurglitch wrote:
Okay, so I've given it some thought and the main difference seems to be that monsters are metaphors for things outside of our control, whereas the robots are metaphors for being able to take on those things that were once outside of our control.

Wow, that's a much deeper answer than I was expecting to see on this thread. Nicely done!

Just found out that Riverhorse has a Pacific Rim game coming to KS on March 12...

Movie is due for release on March 23. Interesting choice of KS timing. The more the merrier though.

Same timing as the Teminator Genesys game v movie also by River Horse

That one didn’t do well, did it?

Any thoughts on how this one will do?

Any previews out there that any have seen?

IMO, it's going to be less a game than a souvenir. Very much like the Harry Potter Wizards Chess set that I own. Except that chess is chess.

Better comparison point might be Imperial Knights Renegade?

 Alpharius wrote:
Just found out that Riverhorse has a Pacific Rim game coming to KS on March 12...

I just sold off all of my old demo figures and pre-ordered a bunch of the Tamashii Nations Pacific Rim robots and the vinyl kaiju in preparation for when I finish the current edition of Giant Monster Rampage and start running demos this fall.


I'm definitely interested in the game, but the miniatures would have to be better than the Bandai figures for me to want to invest in it.

I think it's really hard to make a game for a given property. So much easier to start from scratch. In terms of selling what you've made though, I can see it working out well enough to keep doing it.

 Nurglitch wrote:
I think it's really hard to make a game for a given property. So much easier to start from scratch. In terms of selling what you've made though, I can see it working out well enough to keep doing it.

I think it really depends on the property. It would have been much easier for me to design a Godzilla game, since there is a set group of monsters as well as set "series" within the films that would have made setting limits and designing effects easier than what I have done with Giant Monster Rampage, which is design a game meant to simulate many different kaiju and mecha series with combatants that vary greatly in abilities and power levels.

 Visceral_Mass wrote:

 Nurglitch wrote:
I think it's really hard to make a game for a given property. So much easier to start from scratch. In terms of selling what you've made though, I can see it working out well enough to keep doing it.

I think it really depends on the property. It would have been much easier for me to design a Godzilla game, since there is a set group of monsters as well as set "series" within the films that would have made setting limits and designing effects easier than what I have done with Giant Monster Rampage, which is design a game meant to simulate many different kaiju and mecha series with combatants that vary greatly in abilities and power levels.

Where are you with it?

Can we get a "State of the Giant Monster Rampage" address?

 Alpharius wrote:

 Visceral_Mass wrote:

 Nurglitch wrote:
I think it's really hard to make a game for a given property. So much easier to start from scratch. In terms of selling what you've made though, I can see it working out well enough to keep doing it.

I think it really depends on the property. It would have been much easier for me to design a Godzilla game, since there is a set group of monsters as well as set "series" within the films that would have made setting limits and designing effects easier than what I have done with Giant Monster Rampage, which is design a game meant to simulate many different kaiju and mecha series with combatants that vary greatly in abilities and power levels.

Where are you with it?

Can we get a "State of the Giant Monster Rampage" address?

Sure!

The rules are pretty much done. I am just "cleaning" them up. Specifically, I am going through them and editing everything so that there is consistent language. I am also making sure that all of the major kaiju and mecha effects are represented (by creating as many different kaiju and mecha as I can) as well as consolidating or tweaking existing effects in the hopes that the system will seem more intuitive. Once that is done, I am going to find a couple of rules editors to make sure everything reads the way I intended it to, and to make sure the rules address any special situations that may arise when effects are combined. Then one final round of playtesting before art and layout.

This is a process that I plan on finishing by the end of the year at the latest (mostly due to the costs involved with the art and layout). So, hopefully, if all goes as planned, Giant Monster Rampage 4th edition will be available at the end of 2018 or early 2019, but I am planning on starting demos in the summer if time permits.

 Visceral_Mass wrote:

 Alpharius wrote:
Can we get a "State of the Giant Monster Rampage" address?

The rules are pretty much done. I am just "cleaning" them up. Specifically, I am going through them and editing everything so that there is consistent language. I am also making sure that all of the major kaiju and mecha effects are represented (by creating as many different kaiju and mecha as I can) as well as consolidating or tweaking existing effects in the hopes that the system will seem more intuitive. Once that is done, I am going to find a couple of rules editors to make sure everything reads the way I intended it to, and to make sure the rules address any special situations that may arise when effects are combined. Then one final round of playtesting before art and layout.

This is a process that I plan on finishing by the end of the year at the latest (mostly due to the costs involved with the art and layout). So, hopefully, if all goes as planned, Giant Monster Rampage 4th edition will be available at the end of 2018 or early 2019, but I am planning on starting demos in the summer if time permits.

Consider to post it under Game Design if it's still WIP.

I'm thinking moreso that, taking the Godzilla series as our example, that people have an idea of how it's supposed to 'feel' and so even if the game works it's going to irk a lot of players if it doesn't play the way it's 'supposed' to work. I noticed that in previous versions of 40k, and presumably it's still a thing in the current edition, that players would complain about how their Space Marines weren't the invincible protagonists they were portrayed as in novels, etc.

The more generic you go, though, the less people feel like it's weird when a monster/robot not-from Property A can't do what a monster/robot not-from Property B can do.

When I started on Titanomachia ~6 years ago I made a list of all the GW Titan background, and then made another list of everything that the Titans did so that players could do them in the game. Since then the game's moved on a bit from its genesis as homebrew Adeptus Titanicus, but I like to think it hits the genre notes that I like.

 Nurglitch wrote:
I'm thinking moreso that, taking the Godzilla series as our example, that people have an idea of how it's supposed to 'feel' and so even if the game works it's going to irk a lot of players if it doesn't play the way it's 'supposed' to work. I noticed that in previous versions of 40k, and presumably it's still a thing in the current edition, that players would complain about how their Space Marines weren't the invincible protagonists they were portrayed as in novels, etc.

The more generic you go, though, the less people feel like it's weird when a monster/robot not-from Property A can't do what a monster/robot not-from Property B can do.

When I started on Titanomachia ~6 years ago I made a list of all the GW Titan background, and then made another list of everything that the Titans did so that players could do them in the game. Since then the game's moved on a bit from its genesis as homebrew Adeptus Titanicus, but I like to think it hits the genre notes that I like.

If you gave Voltron the ability to cleave Robeasts in two, you likely wouldn't have a very fun or balanced game, at least in the eyes of the Robeast player. A lot of the things that happen in the books, comics, movies, shows, etc... happens because it progresses the story. We are talking games here so power levels and abilities need to be designed in a way that creates a balanced system while trying to stay as true to the source material as possible (for licensed games). That is why you will never see a Superman figure in Heroclix that is as invulnerable as he is in the comics.

What people like and want from a game varies from player to player, and you will never be able to please all of them. Sure, some players will not like the way character x is represented, but the same can be true for any game system regardless of whether or not it is based on a licensed property. Even generic games will have the same types of criticisms leveled against them. Some players may not like your rules for lasers, or they think the laser rules for a similar system is better.

It's the same issue with 40k, where plot armor is a big deal.